For over 13 years I worked in a hospital as a laboratory supervisor. It was part of my employees’ “training” to learn how to rinse out the reagent bottles we were done with and collect them in a bag, along with any aluminum foil and paper we ended up discarding. I then brought this bag home with me, adding it to my home material at the curb weekly. Now, at my current job which is a laboratory manufacturing company, I’m taking home a full box or bagful DAILY.

I’ve tried in earnest, at both locations, to bring in a more professional service…to have EVERYTHING recyclable actually recycled. And at both, I have been responded to with plain anger for even making such a suggestion. How ludicrous could I be to suggest given the COST?

I’ve been reading on how so much of our recyclable material actually goes right to the landfill with the rest of our garbage, or how toxic the chemicals are that are used or which are bi-products of the recycling process are. So yes, while I work hard urging my fellow people to care about our earth, I’m still searching out the best ways to do it! Well, so onward I will continue…taking home my loot to put out weekly.

-Natalie Lynn Lichtenbert