Recycling poser

Recycling all the glass bottles in our house is easy enough and much to my better judgement there seems to be an endless supply of them.

That’s the one thing that bothers me about my weekly trip to the local recycling centre — the number of bottles which once contained wine that I have to feed those all consuming containers at the centre. Each one represents at least six glasses of wine which we, usually just the two of us, have shared, during an evening. Doesn’t sound much, and if my elementary arithmetic is right that should be no more than seven empties a week I am taking to be recycle.

Today that tally had multiplied to 14, along with a few empty pots which once contained marmalade, pickle or mustard. True, some afternoons or early evenings a friend calls by with a bottle which naturally we dutifully share. Well, we must be social-able and good neighbourly, I tell myself, especially if we haven’t seen the friends for a few days, or longer. But then some evenings we do not have wine at all.

So how come my principle of a bottle a day seems to be thrown out of the window? Regularly. Yet, I wouldn’t class myself as imbibing more than what I consider is good for me. It is a losing battle of course when you are actively trying to get plenty of exercise to shed some inches from the waistline.

Then I had another thought — I don’t buy expensive wine, but each one of those empties for the tip also represents a few pounds in money. Multiply by 14 empties today and I shudder. How will I ever save up for a new iPhone or iPad!