Article: Recycling makes us feel better about our buying; Sorting garbage is Americans' absolution for the `sins' of waste, excess consumption.(VARIETY)

1/3 My parents grew up without television. I think this is weird. I grew up without recycling. My kids think this is weird.

So they felt yanked into a time warp during a recent vacation on North Carolina's Outer Banks, where there's no recycling. It was almost funny to watch their perplexed expressions as they hesitated with a pop can or milk jug, trying to divine the penalty for chucking it in with the wet paper towels and banana peels. Their eyes narrowed as they let go, then widened when no booby trap tripped. Yet they still felt guilty. (There's a parallel to sin here somewhere.)

I'd realized that kids today sort their trash without a second ...

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