As I mentioned previously, I love that the city now has giant blue single-stream recycling containers, so that people who live in apartments, condos, townhomes and lofts, and anyone else without blue bin pick-up at their homes, can drop off their recyclables in one spot.

But what good is a blue bin container if it is locked? I have found that to be the case more than once at the city’s libraries, which gained big blue containers when the new recycling initiative launched. But unlike other big blue containers, these don’t have square cut-outs on the sides into which someone can toss paper, cardboard, plastic, etc. They simply have lids on top that can be lifted up to toss things into the container — and a long bar that swings up and locks to keep the lids from being lifted.

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I’m not quite sure the purpose of locking these library containers, when all of the other containers remain open 24/7. And it’s frustrating that they are locked during library operating hours (I found this to be the case around 3 p.m. today at the North Oak Cliff Library), when people easily could kill two birds with one stone — check out a few books, drop off some recyclables. I was able to lift the corner of one of the lids enough to peer inside, wondering if the container was locked because it was full. But it was filled only about halfway. It just seems counterproductive when the point of these containers is to make recycling easier for people.