Delicious Trash

there were a couple things that lead to my plans for next wednesday, but the first was a theater hot dog while watching toy story 3 in 3d with techboy (rad, by the way.)

we were leaving the theater and i went to throw away the little plastic hot dog carrier but sort of panicked when i saw the line of trash bins.

there were three and they each had different symbols and rules written above them. the blue one was for recycling, but only a certain type of recycling. the green one was for anything compost, and the brown one was for "garbage" which was defined as anything that wasn't recyclable or compostable.

i was stuck because doritos bags were "garbage" but coffee cups were "compost" and plastic bags were sometimes "recycling" and sometimes "garbage" but never "compost"-- worse yet, hot dog carriers and 3d glasses wrappers were nowhere on the lists of rules.

i didn't want to pick the wrong one, but the longer i looked the more insecure of my decision i became.

it reminded me of my days in high school trying to solve those "sue has a circle but tom does not. jim has the same thing as tom but sue does not have a triangle." logic puzzles. and i just stared at the trash cans, carrying my garbage, with a worried look.

in fact, such a worried look that a pink-haired woman approached me to explain which bins were for what trash. my hot dog carrier went in the blue bin, but my plastic 3d glasses wrapper went into the black bin. she explained that only certain plastics were recyclable.

"i just toured the san francisco recycling plant," she said, "so it's not like i just know all of this."

i've been thirsty for some new knowledge-- something unusual but something strictly useful-- and the recycling plant seemed right up my alley. not only is it free, but i was in the process of putting together a piece of trash-art already and the plant might come with some wonderful souvenirs.

then, when i got home, i found a facebook message from alli. she'd posted the following video as potential material for my blog. thank you, by the way.

that video sealed the deal: i knew i had to go to the recycling plant. the problem is that half the world doesn't care about what goes on after they dispose of their "garbage" and the half that does care has absolutely no idea. we take our camera batteries to radio shack to have them properly recycled and the radio shack employee just throws the battery in with the regular trash before calling it a day.

there were hints of this in toy story 3, even.

so i emailed the people of the san francisco recycling plant requesting a tour and any information that may be necessary before arriving.

i received a quick response which said, basically, three things:

1. the tours are only held on wednesdays (my saturday!)
2. the tours are free, but i may want to buy boots (good call)
3. next wednesday will be the 20th anniversary of their "artists in residence" program.

and the artists in residence (a.i.r.) program is none other than a gigantic 80-artist exhibit of trash-art. my fucking favorite.

i know what i'm doing wednesday the 21st.