"Throwing" out recycleables

Are there others out there like myself that cringe when they see someone throwing a recyclable in the garbage?

We are recyclers. Luckily, our county even has mandatory business recycling. (I'm curious as the consequences because I there sure are a lot of businesses that still don't)

I have been known to pick up bottles and cans that I have found in parking lots, put them in my car, only to have them roll around the floor until I take them home and throw them in the recycle bin.

My grandparents don't have ANY recycle pick up at their home in rural Tennessee. I had to be talked out of my filling my suitcase with recyclables this summer and bringing them home with me.

But when I see people deliberately throw things away because of laziness it really irks me. I have a friend who refuses to separate her garbage because she thinks it is so much extra trouble. I get so bent out of shape. "The bins are right next to your garbage shoot, you don't even have to walk outside," I tell her.

My husband has a bad habit of assuming everything goes into the garbage. I take things out and put them in our recycle bin. We have an understanding at this point. If he throws away something that should have gone in the blue bin, I will pull it out of the garbage and give him the stink eye. He knows what that means. It means start running, because our understanding is that if he threw away a recyclable then I get to throw it at him. Plastic is not so bad, even diet coke cans, but if he throws a glass bottle in the garbage I will look up at him and he smiles the -uh-oh-I-did-something-bad smile and says"Oh Crap!" and he takes off running.