Recycling isn’t just for cans anymore.

More contemporary shows, like “Entourage” and “The Office” seem to be reaching their shelf lives. With “The Office,” it was a mere problem of not having enough episodes due to the WGA strike last season. Renting disc after disc of episodes just doesn’t fill up the amount of time it used to.

With “Entourage,” however, things are just going south. With Vince’s plight of the “Medellin” fallout, the show’s getting cringe worthy, and I don’t like spending my free time feeling sorry for TV characters. I like Vince, and I’ll always love watching Jeremy Piven, but I don’t know how much longer the show, itself, can keep my interest.

Instead, I’ve started recycling.

Courtesy of eBay, I’ve acquired past seasons of shows like “Felicity,” “Project Runway” and others that have more than 16 episodes from which to choose. I understood that the writers just wanted fair compensation, and I encouraged their protest. What I did not encourage, however, was the empty hour-long time slots I had to fill night in and night out. The strike is long in the past by now, but I still feel myself gravitating more toward shows that gave me the plentiful 24-episode seasons.

Perhaps this is just the misfortune of a TV junkie. Perhaps, however, similar pleas such as these will call for the creation of newer, fresher seasons or even series.

Until then, Ben and Felicity have my vote.