With recycling in State College finally getting underway, residents will need some time to practice and those who remain skeptical of its necessity may still need some convincing. Lucky for us, many businesses, both nationally and locally, have taken this task to hand, and I believe they deserve some thanks.

First of all, I'd like to thank those who have persistently supplied us with a needless overabundancy of paper products. Without them, there would be a great danger in one forgetting just how much waste we go through each day.

Those responsible include the Penn State Bookstore in its persistency in ensuring that everyone gets yet another Visa card application with each and every purchase; J. Crew catalogues for their endless ability to self-replicate; and second-class mail for letting the junk-mail exchange to go unhindered.

Yet some businesses went further, and have decided to provide us with practice in the actual separation of our garbage. Therefore, thanks must also go out to those newspapers that add glossy inserts, just to keep us on our toes.

And lastly I'd like to thank the producers and consumers of bottled water. After all, someone might wonder what good a plastics recycling can is with nothing to put in it.