Recycling at a Preschool Concert

My younger son Punky recently sang at his preschool's Thanksgiving concert--the theme was "diversity", of course--and afterwards, I was recruited as a food server at the fund-raising luncheon. Hardly anyone showed up during the latter part of my shift, so I went into the back and began recycling the used aluminum serving trays that were left over from the previous shifts.

From my experience last year, I knew that many of the trays would not get recycled and those that did would still be very dirty and not ready for the recycle bin.

Sure enough, the serving staff staff had stuffed about 25 used aluminum trays into a so-called recycle bag, and just as many into garbage cans in the serving area. Most of them were covered with various sauces, grease or crumbs. I took them out of the bag and garbage cans and began hand-washing them in the school's kitchen. It took about 30 minutes to clean them all. Afterwards, I piled them neatly into a 2-foot stack and took them home to be recycled. For cash, of course.

It's all about the money! Ten dollars and fifty-five cents, to be exact.