I don't know if this happens in other offices, but at mine, we are inundated with rubber bands. They're mostly used to bind stacks of mail. Occasionally there will even be one random rubber band left on my desk by someone else. Because I process most of the mail at work, I end up with most of the rubber bands. Other than one coworker who started a rubber band ball, I have no idea what anyone else does with them all. Maybe they throw them away? Maybe they melt them down and make tires? There're probably tire molds at someone's house, right? Everyone's got that friend who has the kiln, the industrial copier, and the tire mold that they got for a steal at business liquidation auctions. No? Well, I was getting off subject anyway.
The rubber bands are out of control. I have no idea what to do with them. I don't have any way to reuse them. They just sit in my desk drawer next to the paper clips, waiting to not be used. So I decided to put the rubber bands in a cup and wrote "Free Rubber Bands" on it, so anyone needing a rubber band could take one or five hundred. I assembled a photo essay detailing the result of my generosity, which I now present:
That's my chair that I had planned to sit down in when I got to work. Guess not. And guess where the rubber bands ended up once I got them off of my buttstand? Right back to the cup. Professional office supply distributors charge for their supplies, and people steal them from work all the time. I think I'm going to move the rubber bands to an upscale ceramic cup, charge $.25 a piece for them, and watch them disappear.
