I am a HYPOCRITE!

Hypocrite.
Two-faced,
talk-out-of-both-sides-of-my-mouth,
hypocrite.

April was Occupational Therapy Month, and our OT Department at St. Mary's put up giant pieces of colored paper on the wall. We were all to write down what our legacy would be. That's fun, so I wrote "I made my coworkers eat brown rice & recycle." Now, I hope that's not my only legacy, but everyone else was writing mooshy wooshy stuff, and it was getting boring. But, it's true. We are now rabid recyclers in my department. Or, maybe it's that I am the rabid recycler, and they just play along to shut me up.

When I see cans,

http://37stories.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/aluminum-cans.jpg

bottles,

http://sustainbydesign.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/plastic-bottles-close-up.jpg

paper,

http://www.brodeur.com/openblog/wp-content/uploads/paper-pile-lg.jpg

or boxes in the trash,

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/original/cardboard-boxes-in-a-pile-web.jpg

I have to be restrained.
Held back.
*breathe in a paper bag*
I need a tranquilizer.

If it has a recycle code on the bottom, it goes in my big blue bin.
I know you're supposed to pay attention to the number inside the triangle . . .

(hee. 'PETE' is #1 - inside joke)

. . . since not all areas take everything, but I'm getting old,
and I can't see the number without my WallyWorld reading glasses on.
Besides, if it wasn't supposed to be recycled,
they wouldn't have put that little symbol on it to begin with, right?

So why does this make me a hypocrite?
Because while I am wildly recycling my cardboard, glass & plastic,
I wantonly waste other things.

Waste, as in
throw away,
fill the landfill,
it'll still be there in 100 years
waste.

With these:


I use a lot of this stuff.
I buy it from the Price Club.
In bulk.
I use it, then I throw it in the trash.
It can't be recycled,
and I won't give it up!
(Actually, I can live nicely without kleenex & napkins
as long as I have t.p & paper towels.)

So, I'm a hypocrite, right?
Or does it all balance out in the end?

I remember when BS & I went to Italy. He was 10, and we went to visit friends who were stationed in Gaeta, a beautiful little seaside city just north of Naples. A day trip to Rome was part of the plan, and I went to use one of the public restrooms at the train station in Rome. There was a lady sitting at the entrance SELLING TOILET PAPER! There wasn't any in the stalls, thank you very much. For your handful of lira, you got 4 squares of paper. 4 SQUARES! I don't know about any of you others out there, but there ain't no way 4 squares of toilet paper is getting the job done. Neither job, if you get my meaning.

Did I care? NO!!!

Having been forewarned of this, I went on in with my WHOLE ROLL safely hiding in my big ol' handbag. Ahhhhh! Enough t.p. and a moist towelette, and I was feeling fresh & clean. Probably more than you wanted to know, huh? But feeling fresh & clean is a big thing with me, hence my selfish, evil, wasteful use of paper products.
The earth weeps.
The landfills grow.
Tough.

Does this make me a bad person?

ps - I think the lady selling the t.p. thought I was dirty and smelly, on account of I didn't buy any of her scratchy paper. Mwaahaha!