As someone who has been recycling my entire life (we used to take family trips to the recycling depot on Saturday mornings), I find it hard to understand when people don’t recycle at all. Or when they have no concept of what should and shouldn’t be put in the blue bins.

I work in a pretty traditional office setting where we’ve got printers, and photocopiers, and mail delivery coming in everyday. Just by the nature of these things, paper waste is created all the time. My office is open concept so, not quite cubicles but certainly not private offices, which means we share a lot of things. Instead of everyone having their own garbage can and recycling bin in their offices, we have a few garbage cans scattered around the (large) room but only one recycling bin.

I’m sure many people reading this have worked in an office before, but if you haven’t let me fill you in a little secret; laziness runs rampant in an office setting. People get very used to the idea of sitting in their desk chairs. This is only made worse by comfort-advancements in the field. Leather upholstery, adjustable armrests, lumbar support…if La-Z-Boy ever made a desk chair, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people never went home. The point is, the likelihood of any action being completed decreases as the distance from the desk chair increases. For example, if one needs to file a folder and can reach the filing cabinet without getting out of the chair (say, a simple spin-around) that folder will be filed immediately. If the filing cabinet is, oh, 6 feet away but within chair-rolling distance, that folder will be filed in the next 15 to 30 minutes. If the cabinet is on the other side of the office, still visible but behind several other desks and obstacles, that folder will be filed the next time you are getting up anyway (perhaps when you’re refilling your drink, or sneaking a jelly bean from the jar in the boardroom).

This level of laziness applies, if not more so, to the disposal of garbage and recyclable material. As I mentioned previously, our office suite only has one blue between us all. This bin sits under my boss’ desk and behind me (and half and office away from everyone else). Basically, this means that everyone else in the office only has garbage cans within reaching (and rolling) distance.

Of the eight people who are most frequently in my office, the median age here is (roughly) 24; I would have thought this meant a background in recycling knowledge. And, possibly naively, some level of habitual concern for the Earth. I was either wrong in this assumption or the office laziness dilemma has really blown up in here. Only one other person recycles regularly. Everyone else throws plastic bottles and food containers in the garbage cans. This is annoying enough, but my boss takes it one step further. Not only does she throw recyclables in the trash, she puts trash in the blue bin!

I have summarized for her on numerous occasions what can and can’t go in the blue bin but she doesn’t (or won’t) learn. Recyclables are generally dry, clean items (in an office setting), like paper and envelopes. For this I am grateful because I often find myself picking things out of her trash and replacing them into the blue bin. Unfortunately, the other way around isn’t as pleasant. The blue bin sits on the left side of her desk and the trash can on the right, there is no rhyme or reason to which side she chooses but throughout the day she will discard things on whatever side she feels the whim. These non-recyclable things often include, used tea bags, candy wrappers, greasy pizza napkins, dead markers, etc. I usually notice these things when I am recycling something into the bin, at which point I’ll jovially (she is my boss, after all) point out that such things are not recyclable and switch them to the trash.

Yesterday took the cake. I was putting my coat on to go home when I noticed a small white ball-shape on top of some paper in the blue bin. It was gum. I said, “OK now, you can’t seriously think gum is recyclable?” She claimed she hadn’t even chewed gum that day, and I had to remind her that she in fact did chew gum and even offered me a stick.

This story does not have a happy ending (yet). I’m not sure if she, or any of our other colleagues, will ever get over their office laziness and adopt proper (or any) recycling habits. The crazy part is that my boss had me include a “Green Tips” article in the latest issue of our magazine…it just…does not compute.

I just needed to share my frustration. If anyone reading this has any tips on how to ingrain recycling etiquette into the minds of the unwilling, let me know! I already tried moving the garbage can and blue bin to a central location, forcing people to get up and choose one of them (“I can either recycle or trash this manila envelope, both options being equally convenient, what should I do?”), but it didn’t work. My boss just brought the trash can back to her desk and ignored the recycling bin all together. At least before, half the time she was using the blue bin, half the stuff she was putting in there would, in fact, be recyclable. Thoughts and suggestions welcome in the comments!