gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

Bin, laden

The corporation's new recycling regime has been in place for a week now, and things are starting to settle down. There are still a few wrinkles - some organic waste bins haven't yet arrived, leaving people with a five minute walk to divest themselves of a banana peel - but overall it's a positive change. People are even starting to talk about lugging a mug instead of collecting oodles of evil Ooh La La styrofoam coffee cups!

Having a better recycling system was something employees in this building repeatedly requested, so it's up to us to make it work. I'm down with that. Still, there's a certain amount of culture shock when you have to do something in a new way. And some of the employee reactions and workarounds have been pretty funny.

The Hour did a very funny parody of the new recycling system last week. And this week, I noticed a few foibles in my corner of the second floor. To wit:

When a good old fashioned garbage bin was found lurking in terror inside our kitchenette, it was quickly assaulted with waste of all kinds (including, inexplicably, some recyclables.) As you can see, some people don't have a clear idea of "capacity" - perhaps they think it's a sort of Garbage TARDIS and will turn out to be bigger on the inside than the outside.

That prompted a miffed nearby cubicle dweller to post a two-page scolding, concluding thusly:

Some, with a better idea of capacity, decided to ignore the cute little official micro-garbage that attaches to your blue bin, and create a big bin of their own:

Another colleague was eager to get with the program, but didn't have one of the normal under-desk blue bins we all have. So he called up to request one, and this comical arrangement was waiting for him the next day:

Talk about overkill! He's a big guy, but how many pop cans do they think he goes through? He can almost bathe in that thing. Notice how it's almost the same size as the filing cabinet behind it... and it makes the wee garbage sidecar pocket look really funny by comparison. Reminds me a bit of Master Blaster from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.