Garbage Murder

There are a lot of rules about disposing of things in New York City.

These procedures promote recycling and help reduce the amount of waste in landfills.

The rules are confusing. Plastic, glass, metal, and paper are recyclable but only under certain conditions. For example, only plastic jugs or bottles are recyclable and cartons for milk are sorted with plastics and metal rather than paper. It takes some time to figure out what to do with each item.

Regardless, I support the effort to separate and dispose of recyclables properly.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I called the Sanitation Department or visited its website to verify the right way to dispose of something. Does a broken thermometer go in glass recycling or trash? Are compact florescent bulbs to go in trash or to the hazardous waste drop off center? The correct way to deal with yogurt containers, old paint cans, expired batteries, a spent can of Lysol, televisions, or a used bottle of insect repellent can be elusive.

It isn't my love of mother Earth that motivates me to sort my garbage perfectly, but a deep-seated fear of inadvertently killing a sanitation worker.

Years ago, I read about the death of a sanitation worker who perished because some moron threw toxic materials into the trash.

I've developed a relationship with the Sanitation Department partly because I'm terrified that I'll extinguish one of its employees by thoughtlessly tossing the wrong item in the garbage bin.

Sanitation workers pay the ultimate price for those who ignored the memo about not mixing bleach and ammonia. Workers feeding trash to their garbage trucks tend to look tough and burly but I regard them as extremely vulnerable despite their strong physiques.

Perhaps I am overly concerned, but I have the impression that many people do not give much regard to the safety of sanitation workers. Attention to trash issues seems to wane between the moment a garbage bag is placed on the curb and the moment it lands at some facility or landfill.

Is one who causes the death of a sanitation worker through ignorance a murderer? So far, I haven't heard anyone else express concern about the ramifications of inadvertent trash death karma. Regardless, I don't want that taint on me.