For example, one housecleaner we interviewed tells of “an experience with a lady that I work for many years ago. She saw me cleaning large windows with paper, and next time I went to her house, she had rags for me, and asked me if I could switch from paper to rags. She explained to me that we had to think about the trees, and she is one of those people that really loves nature. She has a huge lawn. So she made me think, and now I try to recycle.” This story is similarly summed up in the words of another person, who told us that, “The rich people tell us to recycle to help the environment.”

Another told us of his personal experiences working for one of the wealthiest people in the community, who was “a nice enough guy.… I think his place is valued at like $35,000,000 … [they] fly in on his jet and stay there for two weeks.” It wasn’t the amount of money that was the issue for this working-class respondent, but the fact that this ultra-wealthy oil baron was intent on saving the environment by making his employees print on double-sided paper. “He made all of his money running oil … or initially made his first batch of money running oil past the South African oil embargo in the ’80s … [yet] he’d come back down to the office sometimes and he would say, ‘Here let’s use this again. Turn this page over, use the back side; we’re going to recycle all of our paper.’ ” The hypocrisy was almost too much for him to take, he says, continuing, “I’m like, ‘You just flew in here in a Gulf Stream. Why do you care?’ [Recycling] just doesn’t matter, you know, you’re keeping this 15,000-square-foot mansion heated year round, and empty, and you’re worried about that? But you know, I guess it made him feel better.”