I’m tired of being punished because of other people's actions and choices.

The environmentalist would like us all to recycle. I don’t have a problem with the idea, the purpose or the need to do this for a cleaner, safer environment. I do have a problem with the government obstacles and hoops that I have to jump through in order to recycle.

Thanks to some unknown people, I am now harassed and penalized if I want to recycle. It first started with the people who litter, to ‘encourage’ recycling; the State of California implemented a mandatory fee on all aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass beverage containers. I have to pay for others’ laziness and lack of consideration.

Then, when the price of copper and other recyclable metals went up, some people decided to make a profit from this - illegally, by stealing copper piping from homes and wire from city lights. Now, the State of California has implemented another “punishment” for those of us who want to recycle. You now must provide your driver’s license (or Picture ID), a fingerprint and the name of your business and address (if it is construction type materials). Even for aluminum cans, if the payment is over a certain amount, you have to provide this personal information. For soda addicts, it’s not difficult to meet this limit. So, once again, the people who want to help in cleaning up the environment are punished, in some cases, twice. You have already paid a recycling fee on the cans or have spent your time in cleaning up the neighborhood.

In performing home repairs and maintenance work, part of our service is to haul away “jobsite debris” if the customer wants us to. We do not charge the customer for this; it is a courtesy service and considered part of the job. When we remove old copper pipe, faucets, electrical wire and even toilets and toilet parts, we break them down into recyclable and non-recyclable bins. It has been our practice that we save this up throughout the year and in December we take it all to the recycle center. The money we get back is the money we use for Christmas. However, this past December we were hit with obstacles of having to provide all this information before we could receive payment. Not only is this now a harassing chore, but also if we return over a certain amount of recycling, we get hit with a 1099-misc reporting ‘earnings’ to the government and then we are taxed for recycling. UGH!

Come on “some people” stop being so greedy! I’m tired of being punished because of other people’s actions and choices.

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