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Bingo? Cardboard? everybody needs a hobby
When I wrote recently about cardboard recycling, I must have touched a
nerve. I've heard from quite a few readers. Almost all agree Coastside
Scavengers shouldn't demand we spend our personal time and resources to
enrich the scavengers.
Yet Pierre Messerli also put it very well. He was succinct. He was direct.
"You flatten your cardboard, you tie it, you put it at the curb. What's the
big deal?"
I have no argument with anyone who wishes to go to the hardware store and
spend five or six bucks buying tape or twine. If flattening and tieing
waste cardboard, and hauling it to the curb is your hobby, enjoy it, by all
means. Some people play bingo. Some bundle cardboard. Some do both.
I value my time at $21 an hour. Perhaps your time is worth $1 an hour. Only
you can make that judgment. At 10 minutes a week preparing recyclables,
that amounts to about 8.50 a year, plus whatever you spend on twine or
tape. 10,000 Coastside Scavenger customers times 8.50 is 85,000 bucks a
year in donations of labor. 10,000 rolls of fiber tape, times $5, is
another $50,000. If instead, you value your time at the minimum wage, say
five bucks an hour, we're talking $425,000 donated to Coastside Scavenger.
While I've every reason to think a solid majority agrees with me, Jack
Moylett cogently summarized some arguments from the opposite side.
I'd like to clarify a few points in Jack's letter. I certainly did not
attack Louis Picardo, and I absolutely did not criticize him for being a
businessman. He's an entrepreneur. He deserves a profit for his hard work
and investment. My point is that his wealth comes in large part from the
free labor and materials donated to him by his customers. They present
recyclables to him free of charge. He sells them for a substantial profit.
Mr. Moylett pointed out Louis Picardo was a millionaire even before I
arrived in 1963. I had no idea he was so rich as a young man. Perhaps I
should have gone into the recycling and trash hauling business.
Contrary to Mr. Moylett, the notice from Coastside Scavenger contained
nothing about recycling being voluntary. Mr. Picardo's notice read "All
cardboard MUST be bundled, secured by either tape or string, and left next
to your recycling bins." (my emphasis.)
When Coastside Scavengers sends out another flyer about recycling, I'd like
to see more use of the words "please", "thank you", "we appreciate your
efforts, your time, your supplies, your help, etc.". There should be less
use of words like "must."
I sympathize with Mr. Moylett's efforts to find his newspaper in the
bushes, etc. I spent a good part of my newspaper career doing my best to
persuade carriers, who are independent contractors, to put newspapers on
porches. I once quit my Examiner subscription because the carrier flat-out
refused to porch my paper. I've given up trying to persuade my Chronicle
carrier to put it on the porch. I am REQUIRED by the city to use the
services of Coastside Scavengers. If I generate no trash of any kind, I
will still get a bill. It must be paid, or, if I remember right, they'll
put a lien against my house.
Paul Azevedo has been involved in this city since he discovered Pacifica existed and Śrealized he could almost afford a Linda Mar Rancher. He moved to Pacifica Sept. 30, 1963. His e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net.
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