Garbage

I came home early tonight because we were having friends over for dinner. I don't think we've had anyone over since Chanukah so this was quite a treat. Our old friends from kibbutz days who are now farmers in Pennsylvania were on their way back to Israel for a visit and to try out kibbutz life again. With 2 children in tow I can appreciate how difficult and exciting a prospect this is.

Dinner was lovely and we got them to the airport with time to spare. We'll play host to their car while they are overseas.

What I wanted to talk about today was trash. Since my days in high school I've always been an advocate of recycling. Sometimes I've been more successful than others. I'm never really sure that my stuff doesn't just end up in the same place as the rest of the rubbish but I go on as if I am saving the earth singlehandedly. Recently, we may have realized some very positive results.

The turning point seems to have been when we started composting. We began to notice that when garbage day rolled around there didn't seem to be anything worth putting out. We called out disposal company to see if they could reduce our pickup to once a week and lower our charges. Until I moved to the suburbs I didn't realize that you had to pay someone to take your trash away. I didn't realize that you had to pay for water either. Anyway, the trash company said that the town ordinances said that they had to pick up twice weekly but they could charge us a lower rate seeing that we had so much less to haul.

So, sometimes not every good deed is punished.