Recycling ABQ 1

I have decided to undertake a new project. This project takes very little extra time out of my schedule, but I hope it will be eye-opening. The premise is this: when I walk around town (which I do much of the time), I am going to begin collecting recyclables that I find on the street. I am going to document how much, what, and when I collect.

I started this yesterday with an eye toward glass. I was walking Alison down to the ATC in the morning, and I noticed two beer bottles, one of them on top of a newspaper box. I decided that I needed to collect these bottles because otherwise they would end up as broken glass all over the sidewalk, as tends to happen; I left them there for the return trip. On my way back home from the ATC, I found seven (SEVEN!) beer bottles in a parking lot, obviously left there by jackass revelers from the weekend. Carrying these all in my hands was a little difficult, but then I found a cardboard box lying next to the curb, as if sent there specifically to help me collect recyclables! I ended up getting home (keeping in mind this is a ~2/3 mile trip) with 21 total pieces collected:

13 glass bottles
1 aluminum can
6 plastic bottles
1 cardboard box.


Perhaps after the weekend it won't be as bad?

My other motivation for doing this is that these recyclables on the street will most likely never get recycled (this is based on intuition, not facts). So I do not collect trash, just recyclables. I also have been coming up with some ground rules for this project:

1. I won't pick up anything disgusting.
2. I won't put myself in danger.
3. I won't pick up glass shards, although large pieces of bottles are ok.

I hope this little project of mine will make downtown Albuquerque a slightly nicer place, and maybe inspire some other people to clean up their own towns.