recycling has its perks - eventually

many months ago naza bought three big laundry baskets and labeled
(laminated) them:
plastic
paper
metal

from time to time, the household fill the baskets with wastes from our
everyday consumption.
papers - mostly newspapers and supermarket promotional booklets.
plastics - empty bottles and packaging/wrappers.

my job: to empty those baskets periodically.
destination: recycle bins at jusco permas jaya.

i know that what we are doing are relatively small scale towards greener
earth.
in any way, we know that we are saving quite a lot of energy than it would
take to produce our everyday things.
we are not that enterprising when it comes to dealing with recyclable
materials.
we did a few times at giant plentong - they issue coupons redeemable at
their supermarket. not that much, though.
well, i'd like to think of recycling as a charity. plus, doing it without
much hassle: unload, dump, and go off.

i went to jusco permas jaya friday afternoon before friday prayers, a day
before hari raya eidil fitri.
that's the only place i know where big recycle bins are provided. plus it
is on my way to run other errands.

the 'papers' bin is quite full, but not yet to its brim.
to my surprise, there are valuable papers in the bin.
no, not those banknotes (although it would be a nice treat especially on
the eve of eidil fitri).
they are in the form of books. and magazines.
lots of them. self-help books, national geographic magazines, and men's
health magazines.
without hesitation, i took those books. many of them. i ran through the
NGs, and many of them are already in my collection.
i took only 2 of them - one of them with a special report where Steve
McCurry found his subject after many years of searching - the Afghan Girl.
the books, among others:
kiyosaki: retire young, retire rich
don't sweat the small stuff for men
rowling: harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban
carnegie: how to stop worrying and start living
fish! tales
there's another by carnegie, one by dickens, and a few others.
i'd say total retail value worth easily more than RM250.
much, much better than measly coupons at giant (no, not saying that
recycling at giant is not good).
and the value of knowledge: who can put the price on it?

i didn't have the luxury of time (plus don't want to be a dumpster diver)
that afternoon.
so, i just grabbed only a few. there's a lot more in there.
sitting here typing this away, my mind went back to that bin thinking of
the other mags and books left in there.
i hope somebody else who appreciates good reading materials got his hands
on them.
and to the person who left (dump) the valuable papers in the bin: i don't
know what to say.
i have mixed feelings. happy, for i've found books that i wanted/wished to
buy.
regret, for those books and mags can be donated to institutions who needs
them.
they can always be left in a big box in front of a library entrance, or a
school.
slap on the box a label that says 'please take good care of them'.
much like harry potter was left in front of the door in a basket by his
parents.
perhaps he was in a hurry, or didn't know where to dump them, or tired from
packing things for moving away to some other place.
from the genre of those reading materials, and the fact that those are in a
recycled bin (not in just any dumpster bin), i know he's a learned person.
and must have a good reason why those books and mags end up there.
anyway, whoever it was, i would like to say 'thank you very much'.