Kickstart: Who's the guy from Dunder Mifflin?

One of my work-from-home routines is to listen to podcasts. A favorite is Office Ladies, hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who played Pam and Angela on NBC's The Office.

In their podcast about "The Convention," Fischer shared a delightful plastics-related story. On the program, several Dunder Mifflin employees meet in Philadelphia at the North Eastern Mid-Market Office Supply Convention. Like real people do at trade shows, they wear matching shirts with company logos.

Fischer said after filming this episode, the show's costume designer gave her one of the shirts, which she sent to her dad.

"Now, this was before you could buy them. This was before Dunder Mifflin merchandise was out there," Fischer said. "He was an engineer, a plastics engineer, and he went on the road a lot and he would have to visit factories to help them with troubleshooting issues with their production line."

When he visited plastics factories, people would ask, "Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. What is that?" And he would just smile and say, "Oh, that's the company where my daughter works. … She's the receptionist there."

I think we know where Jenna Fischer gets her sense of humor.

Another work-from-home routine is to take our dog Piper for quick walks. It's nice to get away from my desk for a few minutes. But I was getting stressed out by the litter on our regular route.

On Sept. 19, I noticed a social media post from the Society of Plastics Engineers encouraging participation in World Cleanup Day. The event brings together an estimated 21 million volunteers in 180 countries. I decided to join up.

In the photo, I'm holding a bag with about 20 pounds of trash that I collected. The most volume: PET water and sports drink bottles, plastic Fireball liquor bottles, and polystyrene foam foodservice containers.

There was also (just) one plastic straw, one diaper and one condom. Gross.

Two days later, for the first time in months, someone mowed the grass on my route. All that plastic trash would have been shredded and ended up in the Huron River, and eventually Lake Erie.

Thanks to SPE for encouraging me to take action. Now I will keep up the cleanup all year.

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