Reduce, reuse, re-psych-le

I got really spoiled in one conservation-minded respect during the seven years we lived in Pineloch: we were part of the City of Houston's recycling pilot program.

From http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/automatedrecycling.html

Pineloch became the third-best neighborhood in th'big bad city for participation.

We got a 70% participation rate EFFORTLESSLY, for one simple reason: they supplied us with functional receptacles.

Here you see former Mayor Bill White, who by rights SHOULD have won the Texas Governorship a few days ago, pitching the program beside one of the City's signature green roller-carts.

In sharp contrast, THIS is the piece of crap that I now have to deal with in League City:

We can never use these when it rains.

We can never use them when it's windy.

They don't hold very much.

They don't hold larger objects at all.

They can't be stored outdoors.

They are difficult to carry when they get heavy.  The elderly, children and the disabled can't really move them around at all.

Furthermore, the, um, contract personnel who operate League City's trash collection service have not accepted other forms of presentation.  You apparently can't place your recyclables in clearly-marked bags (the plastic bags themselves are recyclable) because they won't pick them up.  And they won't pick it up from cardboard boxes, despite the fact that the boxes themselves are recyclable.  They will only collect the small amount that people manage to cram into these sucky red plastic containers.

I'm tired of seeing poorly-managed recycling shit strewn all over this neighborhood and the last one (Lawrence's, before we moved here - it was also in League City). 

I'm also tired of seeing it spilling out all over the inside of my house every time it rains and I can't put it out (like this week - we had between six and eight inches of rain mid-week).

For these reasons, I decided to try an experiment in containerization.  It's actually not possible to PURCHASE a proper recycling roller-cart unless you spend well over a hundred dollars because they are distributed almost exclusively via municipal contract, and not sold individually.  Therefore, I had to MAKE one:

So, OK, my six bucks worth of spray paint smeared and oversprayed a bit and I need to touch it up so that this, formerly our spare trash cart, now looks official-recycling-cart red rather than Alison-is-trying to-skull-f*ck-the-trash-men red. 

But the point is, it's RED, which is the official color of recycling in this city.  They SHOULD pick up our recyclables from this, should they not?  Right??  Should this not be sufficient to psych them into it??

And by the way, it's not that I have too much time on my hands, because I seriously don't.  But I've always had far too much energy, especially for the doing of goofy stuff.
;-)