Fed Up With Recycling Machines

Well, I am just about ready to throw in the towel--on recycling glass and paper, that is.

Have you tried using the recycling centers, bins, booths, machines placed in front of supermarkets (i.e., Lucky stores or Vons)? Good luck! I’ve tried, once by stopping at Lucky on Central in Glendale at 7 a.m. The machines don’t function before late morning weekdays. Then I tried Lucky on Hillhurst: machines in non-accepting mode. By then, I was tired of hearing my glass jars banging and breaking in the car trunk. I drove down Hillhurst to Vons at the corner of Sunset and Hillhurst, where the machines were likewise non-functioning.

By then, irritation had reached its apex. I left my trash bags filled with glass containers right in front of the recycling machines. I hope someone found a way to recycle my refuse.

Now I sometimes drive glass jars to a private recycler for the measly refund of 4 cents a pound. Is it worth the trouble, the mess of extra trash bins crowding the minuscule kitchen?

Paper recycling is a joke. Paper products are “accepted” as donations but without incentives to the concerned citizen. How about phone books? Delivery persons do not take past editions in trade of the latest books. What a monstrous waste.

Oh, there is more, but for now, those selective or non-functional recycling centers/machines have turned my enthusiasm into a sneer.

MICHELE MOONEY

Los Angeles