The other day The Wife and I were over at the in-laws for one reason or another when it was brought up that they “received a little card” from the people at Eureka Recycling. At first, I didn’t think much about this because The Wife and I frequently get cards telling us that something isn’t recyclable (even though it very much is).  I have written articles about how picky they seem to be in the past such as accepting pizza boxes but any/all plastic must be a bottle. To my surprise the note was congratulating them they do a good job recycling and “We like the way you recycle!” This is bothersome to me for a few reasons:

• The in-laws admitted to not recycling nearly as much as they could… where as The Wife tries to recycle EVERYTHING!
• I have a choice to participate in this program or not, but am forced to pay for it with my taxes and hardly think any money should be spent to congratulate people based on someone who picks up recyclables opinion of what is good or not.
• Most of all, I think I deserve a nice note for getting my recycling to the curb.

Do you think that public/nearly public entities should be sending out thank you notes/cards for simply participating in a program? Would that motivate you to recycle more or keep up what you are doing? Or are these cute cards a waste of money?