Today I’ve decided I should post a Waste of the Week that’s a bit more positive than the usual idiotic, so here’s a flick from a Target in Sacramento, CA.  I’m a fan of minimal and clean design, so this obviously scores immediate points with me:

The trash can gets the “red” designation, which I’m guessing is to mean “NO” to all things not trash, which is most things.  What do you really need to throw in the trash while you’re at Target anyway?  It’s pretty nice of them to offer a collection station for that area as it is.

Plastic bags have been getting more attention lately, and I still question their recyclability although it has to vary from place to place like all programs do.  Here in Philly, “keep it simple stupid” seems to prevail, which encourages all plastics 1-7 to be put in the curbside bin for recycling… although when you call the recycling facilities, the answer you get for plastic bags (and plastic film) is “it clogs the machines”.

In a recent tour to the brand new state-of-the-art recycling center here, that appeared to be the case…I think.  I didn’t get a straight answer for the fate of plastic bags, which to me just means that it depends on the economy of recycling them, which isn’t that good.  They need to be clean, and any color but black for any effort to be made to recycle them…otherwise they’re landfill bound.

I’m surprised the hole in the top of the plastic bag can isn’t smaller, maybe in the shape of a tilde or something goofy.  I had this dark thought of an unsupervised kid jumping in the container, tying ten bags over his head, suffocating and dying.  That could be a fun lawsuit for profiting off an unwanted kid…I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened already in some capacity.  Sadly, that is a thought in my mind, and possibly in yours.

Moving on, we have commingled recycling and finally a container to recycle your “MP3”.  MP3 player, maybe?  That one’s a little funny.  MP3s don’t really have any value, do they?  CDs?  Another day.  Notice that the hole on this one is really small… they don’t want people digging through there to take them out and get cash for themselves.  Target makes money by sending in cell phones, ink cartridges and MP3 players…so this is most likely how they pay off the expense of the other containers…way to go Target!  I’m a fan.  I feel like this is where business and ethics come together to make a happy medium.

Once businesses start viewing recycling as a commodity instead of an expense, they’ll see that there’s no need to trash everything, and that they’re actually throwing away money while being ignoranuses to the public (need help with this?  Hit me up).  Here’s to hoping other businesses start copying what Target’s doing…get your heads out of your asses, execs of the world.

Next week, I’ll show yet another method that one ups this process in both effectiveness and public relations, while missing out on the book balancing effect of collecting profitable items (electronics).  Guess what company it is before I post it and I’ll send you something.