YETMO

"What Was That Number Again?"

As "Resident," I recently received a Fairfax County, Virginia, flyer on recycling. It was drab gray, printed on previously-used paper (of course), with a note: "please recycle this brochure with your newspaper."

The County is concerned with residents' "curbside" recycling efforts. The brochure said that the "participation in the County's collection areas has fallen slightly from 80 to 73 percent." The rest of the flyer told of the importance of recycling and some its A-B-C's.

For example, only "#1 or #2 plastic bottles and jugs" are recyclable. I'm glad they told me that because for years I have been throwing away #3, #17, and #48 containers. While the County doesn't exhaustively define all #1 and #2 bottles or jugs, I think I solved this latest bureaucratic puzzle presented courtesy of my local government. I mean, if my County can't amuse me for my tax dollar, what good is it anyway?

By using deductive reasoning, I've concluded that #1 and #2 plastic bottles are those that people buy first and second when shopping. The County gave some examples -- milk, soda, water, juice, dish soap, laundry detergent and bleach. Now that's seven examples, so I was confused momentarily, until I realized that they were referring to bottles that MOST people (not all) bought first or second. You see, some days shoppers buy only bleach and juice, other days detergent and water, and so on. You get the picture.

So far, so good. Now what's a #3 bottle, #4, etc? This gets a bit tricky. These are the items that don't sell as well. Prune juice, for example, while a juice, is a #3 bottle or jug, because it's not nearly as popular as your basic orange or apple juice. Beets in a bottle. Heck, nobody likes them. They probably come in at about #80 or #90 on the bottle-jug scale.

Bottle-Jug Scale -- or BJS! That's it! The County should create a BJS index. Wherever a product is sold, it should have a BJS number. That would be the recycling aficionado’s equivalent to truth-in-advertising and unit pricing rolled into one. Gee, this is fun. I can see now why government folks can get into these subtle naming and numbering nuances.

At first I thought they were merely giving me more information than I needed to know. Why should I care what a #1 of #2 bottle or jug is? All they had to say was that these were the most common plastic containers used for everyday foods and beverage.

But there's more, so much more. My intellectual horizons have been broadened by understanding better the difficulties faced in recycling, not just for county residents, but for government staffers who have to write us and explain their programs. Theirs is not an easy task, for we are among the unwashed when it comes to the technicalities of environmental conservative technology. (I hope that's the correct phrase?)

If you can't follow this, call the County. I'm sure they can explain it better.