Landfill…
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- January
- 27
Garbage is a funny thing. Allow me an anecdotal indulgence for a moment.
About twenty years ago, my girfriend (now wife) and I were visiting my family in the spectacularly beautiful and unspoiled island of Corsica. One evening, we were lucky enough to enjoy freshly caught seafood in a tiny restaurant on the beach in Saint Marie in the Northern cap of the island. With the maquis covered mountains behind us and the warm, peaceful Mediterranean lapping the sand in front of us, we watched the proprieter – a quaint little old lady, clad in the region’s ubiquitous lumpy black dress and ill-fitting, flesh colored stockings – storm purposefully down the beach’s small jetty. She transferred a cigarette from her hand to her mouth, then heaved an impressively large, and very full black garbage bag clear into the sea. Then she turned and marched back into the kitchen. It was a show stopper. I mean, who could be so uncivilized as to not think about sullying such beauty and having not a care in the world about where their waste goes?
On February 1st, Westchester County government will not pick up garbage that has recyclable items mixed in with it. They are also proposing a requirement wherin all stores that give out plastic bags place conspicuously marked bins so people can recyle them, instead of throwing them en mass in landfills. There is predictably a lot of whining and griping from some, who feel it is an impingement on liberty and freedom to require consideration of the greater environmental ramifications of garbage. My only complaint is that it took the county this long to get its act together.
Do you think recycling stuff, instead of jamming it in landfills, (or throwing it in the sea…) is the right thing to do? Do you wear ill-fitting stockings?
This entry was posted
on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 9:22 am by Matt Davies.
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What about Resco? You are right about recycling, especially in areas that send their trash to landfills, sometimes over a 100 miles away and burning gas to get there too. Westchester might be an exception in a certain way. There is a waste-to-energy plant for all of the county’s municiple trash and then some. I can’t comment on the amount of energy it takes to transport and recycle those plastic bags versus using them as fuel to make power. Those that are going to decide about the new requirement should look into it, but you wouldn’t want to have stores switch to paper as a result. Besides, as far as the county’s waste stream that ends up at Resco, plastic is a better fuel than paper.
Agree on the negative aspect of switching to paper. My wife and I always bring canvas tote bags to the grocery store. Apart from being infinitely reusable, there are benefits way beyond the do-gooder aspect. They hold five times as much as the crappy normal paper/plastic selection, but they also don’t break. Can’t find a downside. In fact for all you entrepreneurs out there, there’s probably a huge untapped market for these as statement bags/fashion items…
I have traveled quite a bit on business to south-west Germany, and have always been impressed with what I observe of their approach to trash. They use very little packaging in the first place, so there is less trash to worry about. Then, they recycle seemingly everything: paper, cardboard, clear glass, green glass, brown glass, “other” glass, etc., etc., etc. I was told that, at least in some municipalities, garbage cans are rationed for each household, with steep fees for extra cans. And, the garbage cans that I saw were very small by US standards. Seems like a much better approach than what we have here.
-jp
I visited Berlin in December, and I have to say the German’s attitude towards waste is spot on – every placxe where you would expect to find a trash-can on the street, there are only 4 recycling bins – it was noticeable the moment we stepped off the plane, (oops, sorry eco-obsessives, but I only fly once every few years!) and everywhere sinces. Many bars take a deposit on every bottle to ensure they get them back and get recycled (we took advantage of this and made a profit whilst clubbing!) and the same is true of supermarkets. One had a really cool gadget that had a little conveyor and a scanner, which recognised each bottle type, how much the deposit was on it, and printed you a little credit receipt.
Which we then spent on more bottles of fantastic beer!
Don’t start me on the quality of the transport system compared to the UK!
I actually WISH my local council would introduce the no-recycling in the trash rule to FORCE my housemates to do their fair share of the recycling.
But then, I would probably just end up paying the fines…
Happy New Year btw Matt!
My, my…. aren’t we the ozone-wrecking little international travelers, quibbling over a plastic bag, after we’ve killed a few babies in Gabon via our jet plane contrails?
I determined years ago that I must live near my job, to avoid trashing the world just to get to work, and that has worked out just fine.
The Croton point park, visible from my bedroom, is a 15,000 year old shell and garbage midden, deposited there by native Americans when the pyramids were as yet unbuilt.Various sites like Tell Amarna, Chichen Itza, and many others are simply garbage piles from old civilizations.
Garbage isnt bad. Just don’t make a lot, and all will be fine. Garbage is to mankind, as a coral reef is to the coral anemonae. Trash is our monument, and gift to the planet.
By the way, Resco is now Wheelabrator.
Just catching up and looking back over the comments when I noticed something that past me by the first time – Matt, you said “In fact for all you entrepreneurs out there, there’s probably a huge untapped market for these as statement bags/fashion items…”
In the UK there has been, for at least a year, a trend for reusable bags bearing the legend “I’m not a plastic bag”, from cheap canvas, to gold lettered designer offerings.
I personally think they look tacky, but the point is still there…
P.S Artisan33 – I thought my personal activities in Gabon were our little secret. Rats – foiled again! Those darn pesky kids…
I realize this reply comes pretty late after the cartoon was posted, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Personally I think recycling is awesome. However, I would rather that all the crap (plastic bags, plastic bottles etc.) just not be made in the first place. I realize that this is incredibly unrealistic, but we can all do our part to simply use less. I, like Matt, only use reusable grocery bags and completely agree that they are SO much better than paper or plastic bags – they hold 4 times as much and the handles are long so you can carry it on your shoulder, which is great if you are walking to and from the store. Both Trader Joes and Whole Foods have some pretty fun and cheap (.99 cents!) bags. Another thing that I think is a complete waste is plastic water bottles (i.e. Poland Spring). It is so much easier to just use a reusable bottle, like a Nalgene or a Kleen Kantene, which are usually bigger anyway and hold much more water (or whatever it is you choose to drink).
I recently read in the NY Times that the CEO of Whole Foods is looking to end the use of plastic bags in their stores entirely by Earth Day of this year. I think that is really great! I also think that stores in the U.S. should start charging a small fee for plastic bags. This is done in several places in Europe and has been highly effective.
One last thing, I just have to say that it frustrates me to no end how people who work at the grocery store will put only one or two items in a plastic bag and they will double-bag it. Why?? I really don’t understand. I would rather just carry it without the bag than have to deal with having two extra plastic bags lying around my apartment that I can’t just throw away because I know its a complete waste. Another reason why I use reusable bags…