Tuesday, April 10, 2007

People who dump liquids into the paper recycle bin

Saw a "disaster" from afar today. A man was poking his head into the paper recycle bin at the BART station; flipping through for a copy of today's paper. I'm not sure why he was flipping through copies after copies, digging deeper and deeper, but as he finally pulled out a copy of the paper, I saw dripping coffee all across the paper, and he, unknowingly, clutched the copy of newspaper under his arm, and stained up his shirt. He was very pissed off when he noticed the stain and wetness. He threw the paper out of his sight from the escalator. Luckily, the coffee stained paper didn't hit anyone else.

As I approached the paper recycle bin, I took a quick peak. Yep, there was a large 7-11 coffee cup right on top, and apparently, the coffee has drenched and stained up a thick stack of paper on the very top. I guess that's why he kept on digging deeper for a clean copy but he didn't dig deep enough.

The sad thing is, I am not at all surprised that this happened. I see people throw trash in there all the time, anything from food, bottles, to wrappers. I see people spit in it all the time...and I have even seen puke in it before!

Personally, I'd never pick up a copy of paper from the bin. It's just too risky, especially seeing what this man had to deal with, I would rather stare into space with no reading material than to stain my clothes with someone else's old coffee.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

people don't know the difference between the recycling bin and the trash can. if it looks like a trash can, then it is to most people.

Anonymous said...

I've seen this sort of thing too, and I just never understand it. Digging through what is essentially garbage, risking your business suit, dress, work clothes, to save quarter or 50 cents? Sure reuse is better than recycle, but come on. Ask someone about to chuck one in the bin before digging through it....

Anonymous said...

at least they threw their trash out?

Anonymous said...

El cheapo!! That'll teach him to pinch a quarter!