Recycling By the Numbers

My granddaughter Toots and I took our newspapers and water bottles to the local recycling center on Friday. That is all we recycle because those are the only items accepted by the center (according to their info by phone.) When we carried in the sacks, a young man helped us by directing which went where, although each bin was clearly marked. I was surprised to see a bin for cans, cardboard, paperboard, as well as the newspapers and water bottles. So I asked. The young man, a worker there, assured me that the center now recycles #1 - #7. I was so pleased. He asked me to hand him the plastic bag I had carried newspapers in, but I didn't watch where he placed it. After all our trips I had more plastic bags, #4, to be recycled. I asked which bin. He told me to throw it in the one in the middle of the floor, the trash. I argued (politely) that it was a #4 and could be recycled. He confirmed that it goes in the trash bin. Needing further reassurance that I had placed all the other materials in the correct bin, I asked him about the slick advertisement pages that are inserted in the newspapers. He said to place them with the newspapers, and in fact, all the cardboard, paperboard, and magazines would eventually be put with the "paper". In a large city near here, they DO recycle #1 - #7 correctly. Each item must be separated and not combined as he said. I'm sure as we drove out the long driveway, he placed some of our items in the middle bin, smiling the whole while.