A tale of apartment living.

I moved into a two bedroom apartment back in May 2009 when my roommate and I moved out of a university dorm.  We have adjusted easily enough to apartment life and non-dorm living.  We picked our apartment complex because it is clean, close to campus, and the apartment complex pays the water bill.

My roommate and I are dedicated to sustainable living, especially recycling. During the summer we had to bag up our recycling and take the bags to the city landfill.  This was definitely not convenient, but we had no choice.  We didnt' want to throw away all of those recyclable materials. 

In the fall I noticed a few blue recycling bins next to the dumpsters near the manager's office.  This was great because we could just take our recycling to the bin when we took our trash out.  We were even more environmentally friendly because we were not driving and wasting fuel to drive to the dump.  

For a few months now we have been enjoying taking the recycling out regularly and avoiding the cluttered kitchen corner.  Unfortunately things changed a few weeks ago.  I noticed the blue bins remained unemptied for several days. I did not take out our bags because I did not want our recycling to end up in the trash if we placed it next to the bin, not in it. 

Then one day I was driving home and saw something unfortunate - the blue bins were gone. When they didn't return after a few days I called the manager. She told me we would no longer have reycling pick up here in the complex and we should just put our recycling in the trash. This was devastating to hear. And the only thing worse was that she told me the bins were emptied into the trash, not picked up. 

I could not believe that someone would not care enough to recycle or, at least, respect the wishes of other people.  For now we are back to saving our recycling and taking it to the dump.  I just went a few days ago, but I plan on posting some pictures from my next visit.

I am not done yet. I have made it my duty to get recycling service back at my apartment complex. My roommate and I are likely exceptions to the rule.  Probably not everyone will go to the dump to be eco-friendly.  But if people can take recyclables to a bin next to the dumpster they take their trash, then more people would recycle.