In line recently at my local pharmacy, I saw a bag that read, "I used to be a plastic bottle."
Maybe it had been one of mine, but if so, it was of no thanks to my landlord.
In the more than three decades that I’ve lived in Venice, my multi-unit apartment building has never had recycling bins. I leave the few plastic bottles on which I’ve paid a deposit out of the dumpster for homeless scavengers to collect. Since my longtime girlfriend and mother both diligently recycle, I've felt like the odd man out for years.
As a journalist, I still read newspapers, but although I think of myself as an ardent environmentalist, I have to admit that the trade-off of driving my polluting car to a recycling center to dump the pulp didn’t really make sense to me, especially since there are only so many hours in the day.
So, it's with great enthusiasm that I welcome the passage this month of the Renters Right to Recycle Act, which mandates that landlords of apartment buildings in California with five or more units provide plastic, paper and aluminum can recycling bins for their tenants. The law will go into effect Jan. 1.
Since 7 out of 10 Venice residents rent, it means that more of us, including me, will finally have a convenient way to be able to do the right thing when it comes to our trash.
