The other day I saw an elderly man rifling through recycling bins outside an apartment complex on Calder Alley.

Wondering what he could be doing - and whether or not he was crazy - I watched until I finally figured it out: He was sorting it.

He was removing aluminum cans from the bins labeled "plastic" and plastic containers from bins labeled "glass" and all kinds of other clearly wrong combinations.

Students seem not to care about recycling - or, if they do, they don't seem to care if they are putting their recyclables into the correct bins.

Maybe they assume every apartment complex has hired elderly retired men to sort it for them.

Something about the way this man was dressed suggested he wasn't getting paid - he was doing it voluntarily.

I'm writing to urge everyone to put a little more effort into recycling.

It's nice to see that some of you are at least trying; your trash at least makes it to the bins and dumpsters.

State College and Penn State make it easy for us by providing separate bins for different materials.

Take some extra time to sort your trash and return the favor by making it easy for them to turn our waste back into useable material.