Recycling Irony

Cambridge is fairly advanced in the science of recycling. Our DPW is "linked in", and I get regular recycling updates by email. We have arranged for a recycle paper toter for our little dead-end street that all residents share - great for taking care of the piles of newspaper and junk mail that build up. We have little blue bins in which to put our containers. We have little green compost pails to save our compost, which we can deliver to the Whole Paycheck or DPW Yard. The DPW Yard has places to recycle plastic bags, books, scrap metal, and almost everything you can think of - with a couple of "hazardous" waste days a year.

I myself have a strange attraction to those reusable grocery bags. We probably have about 20 now, waiting in the back of the car for a trip to Shaws or Whole Paycheck or Trader Joe's. I had to control myself and declare a moratorium. Then CVS sent me a FREE one in the mail. The hardware store has them in the checkout aisle. Temptation is everywhere!

I ended up succumbing recently to an offer by the Boston Globe for team-themed reusable bags. Not being a basketball or football fan, I chose some Sox and Bruins bags. The irony? They arrived carefully packaged in PLASTIC BAGS!