Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics & Society

This made me laugh:

I often work odd hours and so have become familiar with the custodians everywhere I’ve been (more familiar, sad to say, than with many of my colleagues). But I haven’t (yet!) been employed by enough schools that I would have any standing for sweeping generalisations. Somewhere, right, there must be college custodians who don’t just put the recycling in with all the rest of the rubbish? Even when you are not watching them?

(I’ve never complained to the custodians, their superiors, or anyone else about this. I’ve a strict rule against doing anything to anger alienated labor when it has unrestricted access to my things.)

Several years ago, I sent an email to the faculty listserv at Wisconsin asking whether others separated their trash when the custodians just combined it. (We talked about such things on the listserv at Wisconsin. We don't have those conversation via email at BYU.)

The first response to my email was from a clinical professor, who accused me on the list of being a racist. Without replaying the whole event, suffice it to say that he was reading a lot into my email that no one else on the faculty seemed to see ... at least judging by the flood of sympathetic messages and office visits throughout the day.

Though my accuser never apologized directly, he subsequently engaged me in a friendly conversation that seemed intended to convey remorse. Unfortunately, I am not a big enough person to have forgotten the initial accusation. But I can laugh about it. Maybe that's worth something.

Anyway, what I am curious to know is whether office paper recycling is effective. One of my sympathetic colleagues claimed that the paper would be re-sorted at some later stage in the process, but that seemed unlikely to me. I found lots of articles on the internet extolling the benefits of office paper recycling, but what happens to all of that combined paper?

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1. Posted by NonVoxPop on July 15, 2008 @ 10:15 | Permalink

Were you accused of racism because the custodial staff were racial minorities and you were citing their wrongdoing, or because you suggested that paper should be separated from trash-- a sort of rubbish apartheid?

2. Posted by Gordon Smith on July 15, 2008 @ 10:25 | Permalink

Haha! That was excellent, NVP.

3. Posted by Jake on July 15, 2008 @ 19:53 | Permalink

I've never found it very challenging to throw paper in the recycling bin. Many a draft brief has thus met its destiny. Pulling off the paper clips or binder clips beforehand isn't too hard either, since I can't seem to escape the frugal, hoarding ways of my ancestors.

Recycling office paper is a good idea. And chat with the custodian when he/she visits daily. It doesn't hurt at all. They often are more pleasant company than the sort of people who throw out "racist" allegations.

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