[GreenYes] Future Recycling Professional

["susankinsella.com" <seek@susankinsella.com>]

I saw the most wonderful Associated Press article in the San Francisco
Chronicle tonight. Okay, it keeps referring to "trash" and doesn't seem to
have clarity on recycling, but the concept seems to be in there
nevertheless.

What A Dump - Party Spot For Boy With Trash Passion

Los Angeles - When 7-year-old Michael Wong-Sasso grows up, he wants to be a
trash collector. So naturally, his ideal spot for a birthday party is not a
pizza parlor, but the local dump. About 40 kids and their parents gathered
Saturday at the Sunshine Canyon Landfill to celebrate Michael's seventh
birthday. "I like the big trucks," he said. "I like putting trash where it
belongs. I like making the world cleaner."

For safety and sanitary reasons, the party was held in a small valley on the
landfill's outskirts, away from bulldozers and strange smells. The
partygoers were surrounded by scores of potted trees, which are used to
landscape the landfill. The children fashioned flour-dough animals with the
help of recycled materials such as cardboard and colored paper and frolicked
on a big pile of "clean" dirt, playing with toy backhoes and earthmovers.

"We don't know where this interest in trash came from," said Michael's
mother, Sophia Wong. "He's been this way since he was 2." Michael, whose
birthday is Friday, described the different types of trash trucks -
side-loaders and front-loaders - and talked enthusiastically on how
recycling "is good for all the people in the world." His favorite pastimes
include following trucks on their collection routes and peering into trash
cans. He says he wants to go to college so he can learn to drive a trash
truck.

"Some people have said, 'Why don't you steer him in a different direction?'"
Wong said. "My answer is this is his passion. Whatever his interest is, I
support it." 

Having a party at a dump is "definitely different," said Scot Krause, who
brought his 6-year-old son Trevor. "It's not like you're saying, 'Oh no, not
another birthday at the landfill,'" Krause said. "I mean, how many times can
you go to Chuck E. Cheese's?"

-- 
Susan Kinsella
Executive Director
Conservatree
seek@susankinsella.com, paper@conservatree.com
http://www.conservatree.com





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