Back Talk regular Matt Wood offers this take on how his blue receptacle has changed his life:
I cannot lie. I am not green. Both my wife and I drive 4-wheel drive vehicles (which we justify because we’ve a house in the mountains that can be unreachable in winter months without 4-wheel drive). I don’t turn off lights when I should, etc. However, when Dallas started setting out the blue recycling bins, I decided I’d make the effort.
And have I been SHOCKED! Probably 80 percent of the trash generated by my family of four is recyclable. While this is likely an indication that we eat too many things out of various packages (at least until the new Whole Foods opens), it also means that my blue bin fills up much faster than my old gray bin. This has been a struggle since Dallas only picks up the blue bin every two weeks while picking up the gray bin twice a week. Usually, it takes about one week for my blue bin to be reasonably full, which leaves me with another 7 days of cramming more stuff into it. We eventually give up and end up putting some recyclable items in the gray bin, which is now rarely more than 1/3 full.
When Dallas began this program, I was worried that they might reduce gray bin pick up to once a week and recycling pickup to the other weekday. Now, at least for my family, I WISH they would do that. I am just curious if others are finding a similar need.
