Day 85 ❦ Sometimes a problem can be another’s gift.

Day 85 ❦ Sometimes a problem can be another’s gift.

The Gift: Ink Cartridges

There are times when I am a contradiction in terms; sometimes simple and hippie-like and sometimes methodical and techie. Sometimes veggie and others, prime rib. One thing I can say though, is that whatever I am, I am passionate and usually just do it. It is rare when I second guess myself in my no-regrets living, and today’s giving opportunity is helping to take me off of the hook as I am caught between the two extremes that consume my life. The quandary is about the by-products of technology...what to do with all of these darn empty printer cartridges???

Despite my rather simple life-style and beliefs, like not owning a car for years, nursing my washing machine to last 25 years, and having only one ancient television in our entire house, I also find myself liking technology - some technology - the kind that really makes my life simpler, that is after the learning curve has been mastered.. I realize that I struggle more than most when it comes to learning curves. You see, I really dislike reading the instructions - I like things to be intuitive...perhaps that is why I wasn't so great at physics, I still think physics is intuitive, but...oh well, my struggles with physics are for another time.

One new technology that I am absolutely loving are the new ink jet printers. Gone is the carbon paper! Present in print to anything my brain thinks about and I love it. I am such a tactile person anyway, that increasing opportunities to hold ideas and thoughts in my hand on paper is really exciting. And the really great thing about the new printers is that they really are plug and play, once the drivers are loaded and initialized...but basically fool-proof in my book. However, as with anything good, there is a darker side and I am sitting here looking at 25 printer cartridges that I just can’t force myself to just throw away. I have had to move my collection from a lunch bag sized baggie to a gallon sized and now am collecting them  in a grocery bag, and they make a mess, don’t stack well and take up room. I have got to get rid of these somewhere or I might break down and toss them.

So with that problem in the forefront of my mind, I head out to meetings today, and of course, immediately find the solution. At a meeting today of the social agencies that meet in town, one of the representatives for Spruce Up Austin, which helps to plant trees in our community, announced that they would be collecting ink cartridges to recycle them. After they had some of their own research about how to recycle their collection of cartridges, they learned that some businesses will give $2.00 credits back on all recycled cartridge, and they jumped all over it. The group that they were going to be recycling with was willing to actually pay them $2 cash for each cartridge they collected and so they put the word out. Within hours I was at Spruce Up’s Director’s office with my bag and he already had several filled boxes. What a great win-win. Yippee. Recycling, giving and cleaning out my office! Yippee.

❦ Sometimes a problem can be another’s gift.