Still holds the promise of another sip
Carolyn tied off the blue recycling bag after rinsing out the bottles and placed it in the bin the city had provided. Its “Environmental Conscience Day” had been advertised in the local papers for months and was meant to encourage conscientious consumer attitudes going forward. On “garbage night,” Carolyn wheeled out the recycling bin and put it next to the standard garbage bin for morning pickup. She happened to be awake the next morning when the truck rolled around; much to her dismay, she saw the automatic pick-up arm empty both the blue and black bins into the same truck. There must be some mistake, she thought, and she called the Refuse Department. A man explained that soon the department would be getting the “means to sort and separate,” but for now the agency was merely getting the public “into the habit” of separating trash. Time passed and Carolyn lost interest, but she continued to separate the trash; if it ever did get sorted and properly recycled, she really wouldn’t know. “No big deal,” she concluded. From that point, she never heard about environmental efforts without rolling her eyes and saying, “Yeah. Sure.”
