So i was staying at a nice hotel for a conference recently, and as I stepped through the revolving door I started scanning for waste cans. Hotels always seem to take the next step with their waste handling, but never quite get it right.

The lobby was laid out quite well, with a commingled container placed next to each trash can, with the exception of the elevator lobby, on both the ground floor and the second floor. I’m not sure why this is. The cans looked like this:

Not too excited about these. They’re crisp, and easy to clean I’m sure. What would I change about them? Well, they’re both the same color and size, and have the same opening on the top! Fail fail fail! If you don’t take the time to read the sign on the can or if you don’t speak English, there’s no distinguishing between either can. The sign is well-detailed for those that care, and for the average person too wordy and may easily defeat the purpose. On top of that, both containers have the same color bag. Depending on the person, this may raise an eyebrow. Some like to see a blue (or green, or sometimes clear) bag for recycling. General waste seems best in a clear bag, as you can see the contents and distinguish it from your colorful recycling bag. Most importantly: whatever you do, avoid using a black bag. What are you hiding in there?

Anyway, I took the elevator to my floor, and noticed there was no recycling container anywhere to be found. Opening the door to my room, the first thing I looked at was how many cans were in the room… as you can guess, there were two: one for the bathroom, and one placed seemingly at random near the window. Before I closed the door, I heard one of my favorite sounds: the crinkling of a heavy trash bag hitting the ground. I looked down the hall and saw a cleaning lady placing a bag outside what looked to be a waste closet, then walking away. So I creeped down the hall and took it, of course. What did I find?

The bag had 8 clear small trash bags in it, most with just one piece of waste in them…I think this bag was comprised of the waste from the entire wing on the left side of the elevator. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything too exciting to play with. The load was two thirds paper, followed by food scraps (including two yummy bananas) plus a few bottles (all water bottles, ugh) and a handful of coffee cups and styrofoam plates with plastic forks. This bag was as average as waste distributions get. Gotta quit trashing that paper. And basically everything in the bag, for that matter.

The only fun part was that I found a particular person’s prescription drug packaging, who I later saw that night at the conference. I pondered for so long about whether or not I should introduce myself and creep them out by asking how their shopping spree was at Brooks Brothers and Ann Taylor earlier that day. I surprised myself by not going that route. I can hear the booing already. Sorry, people!

E-waste, what a pain in the ass. I would say that I get asked questions about proper disposal of old electronics more frequently than anything else. It seems like everyone always wants to give me their old junk (I love getting floppy disks though). Philly’s collection program is sparse and involves having to wake up early on a Saturday…not many will want to do that, or want to take their junk anywhere. The only way to make it work here would be to have a curbside pickup for old electronics paired up with one of the more reputable recyclers here, such as E-Force Compliance or Elemental. I can see the mess left behind on the street from that one. But it would still work better than having households slowly sneak their stuff out through the trash and into the landfills.

I was reading about Moore’s Law recently, which states that the newest stuff is destined to be obsolete right away…especially with computers. The ugly reality. It goes hand in hand with the ugly reality that the majority of our electronics are being shipped overseas to be smashed apart by little kids dancing with carcinogens. How much money can you get for burning the insulation off of a mountain of wires for strands of copper? A dollar? How much are those tiny lead solder blobs worth? It must be fun to torch huge piles of circuit boards, though. Can you really blame them for hustling? Of course not, It’s not their fault.

I am the last person that wants to point blame, as I think it goes nowhere. However, a rather apparent solution seems to exist here. Hey manufacturers, take on the disposal/recycling costs. Create a no-brainer program to ensure that your electronics can be recycled properly at any of the thousands of legit e-waste recyclers. If you complain it’s not cost effective, greenwash your new product as being made from all recycled components and mark it up a bunch more.