I at first thought the person was picking through the trash. But, I noticed their mannerisms, very deliberate, and the clothes, high quality. Not that with the economic crisis being faced by Spain, official unemployment is over 20% and climbing, that a deliberate well-dressed person could not be searching for food in the trash.
But, then I noticed that it was not a “receptáculo de basura” which was being searched through, it was a small green “reciclaje de papel”. And the person emerged from the receptacle with a newspaper that someone else had thrown away. My 10-year-old daughter seeing this was totally grossed out. And summed up her feelings with one of the most versatile of words in English and needed no translation into Spanish: “EEEEEWWWWW!” This was clearly recycling at a whole different level then normally observed in the US.
The paper recycling receptacles are throughout the metro system, both at the train platforms and entrance/exit of every station. And with Madrilenas (people who live in Madrid) being avid readers of newspapers (there are four newspapers I know of available for free and handed out to people walking by) and most reading the newspapers while riding the metro, it makes sense to have somewhere to deposit the papers when done. And, if you missed being handed a paper, well there was a receptacle to retrieve one from.
And much to my daughter’s dismay and her sense of sanitation I have become one of the well dressed people searching through bins to catch up on the news of the day.
Dr. D.'s Spain Adventure 