I'm kind of interested in how a city that's this ... I don't want to say "self-centered" but maybe "self-interested" ... will handle a day designed to bring attention to environmental degradation.
I'm thinking it probably won't go over well.
It's actually quite a pain to recycle here, I know that. Here's a little Earth Day story for you. Fresh out of college I moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles, California. So back in Maine and Massachusetts all bottles and cans had a five cent deposit that was returned to you when you recycled it. And every corner store had a redemption center attached to it. Recycling was easy.
Sadly not so much in Los Angeles. I lived there for six years and I still don't understand the California Refund Value (CRV) that they attached to cans and bottles. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
See, there are very few recycling centers in Los Angeles, well, comparatively to the population density of Maine, let's say.
So for the first two or two-and-a-half years out there, I didn't recycle.
My dad is totally Mr. Science, and this didn't really go over to well with him. But he's also the nicest guy in the universe, so he didn't say anything about it. He just chuckled, shook his head and made some mention to the fact that there are three times as many people in Los Angeles as there are in the state of Maine, but nobody recycles in Los Angeles and everyone recycles in Maine.
Obviously I felt horrible, and ran right out to recycle.
It was easiest to recycle in Burbank, around the corner from my house on Saturday mornings this dude used to park his sketchy van behind the sketchy takeout joint known as "Beef Bowl" - which incidentally is just a hair bigger than this gentleman's van and far less sanitary.
But one thing that I never understood about California recycling was the California Refund Value (CRV). I swear that in the stores at initial purchase I used to pay five cents per bottle or can. But then you get over to the sketchy dude behind Beef Bowl and he seemed to be giving about two cents each. I never quite understood it, but this dude was just off enough so you really didn't want to haggle with him, and I was still quite ashamed by my father's words, so I took the three cent loss.
I just googled this, and in January Governor Ahhnold (no, I didn't vote for him in 2004, I voted for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante) raised the CRV to a nickel for containers under than 24 ounces and a dime for containers 24 ounces and larger.
So hey, that's something.
Anyway, recycling in Los Angeles is a walk in the park compared to recycling in Dubai. I know two recycling centers in our neighborhood, but with the amount that the roads change here I honestly have no idea the easiest way to get to either. Seriously, it'd be easier to hike cross-country to the recycling bins than to get in the car and drive for and hour around the ever-changing streets of Media City.
But, and my dad will be pleased at this, we do recycle here. Granted, I think we're the only people I know who do, but we recycle. Because, hey, we only have one Earth. (Plus at some point my parents are going to visit, and I don't want to be embarrassed again.)
