An intrepid, possibly soon-to-be-axed reporter for Condé Nast Portfolio magazine let it slip that his employer empties their corporate recycling bins into a dumpster.
But that hasn’t stopped them from signing on to the Magazine Publishers of America’s campaign to get subscribers to recycle their old issues.
Jeff Bercovici on the Mixed Media blog writes:
At a certain major magazine publisher — because I work there, I won’t reveal its name other than to say it makes up the first two words in the name of my magazine — it’s an open secret that the ubiquitous blue recycling bins actually get emptied into the trash. I’m still waiting to hear back from a spokeswoman about just why it is this company, which is known for lavishing money on its top editors and executives in the form of clothing allowances and no-interest loans, and which always has a line of Town Cars idling outside its 43rd Street entrance, can’t seem to find a way to recycle the tons upon tons of paper it discards every year, as its two main competitors, Hearst and Time Inc., already do. And seeing as this company is a member of MPA, and thus a de facto sponsor of its “Please Recycle This Magazine” campaign, it would seem just a tad hypocritical not to address this matter in short order.
Truly, no snark here. It is really pathetic that in this day and age, they can’t figure out how to recycle paper.
Where is this strange universe where people still read magazines?
My theory is that the folks there can write, but can’t read. They can put out a magazine and talk about how you should recycle it, but can’t read into municipal recycling programs…or read their own rhetoric. That coupled with chronic lack of common sense and an epidemic of what-I-just-preached amnesia could explain all the green hypocrisy.
Its like this at my corporation as well. I think its actually kind of universal, at this point- for some reason Facilities is required to provide recycle bins, but the office cleaners aren’t required to separate out the recycling and regular trash. No one in the office even bothers anymore.
I think that this is a quirk of Corporate America at this point.
I notice this about a lot of places. Same treatment with glass and plastic and cans, all in the same trash usually. It just makes me wonder about what happens to sensitive information. Maybe we should start calling them Conde Nasty, huh, huh? How about that one? You like that wordplay Holly? I think you might have an appreciation for puns.
“Conde Nasty”
I think that one has been around since the Algonquin Round Table, when the people there actually wrote for Conde Nast in person …