Talking Trash

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• Reader Comments (11)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  I have always thought that garbage is going to become one of our many critical environmental issues in the next 20 or so years.  Just looking at how much trash that I produce alone can be disgusting.  Obviously like the author says Industrial waste is the huge problem but I also think we need to think on a smaller scale.  For instance, when you buy groceries and absolutley everything is individually wrapped, such as cheese and innumerable other items.  If we could eliminate this kind of waste multiplied by even one million it would make a difference.

  Posted by ebby on Feb 7, 2006 at 11:52 AM

  Planned obsolescence and the shrink-wrapped world turning our planet into disposable (sic) plastic.

  In a word---stupid evil. 

  I agree that industry needs to change and that class is an issue. You won’t find industrial waste buried near the manor, but getting Americans to talk about class or to question the basic tenets of capitalism is a monumental chore.

  Posted by wileywitch on Feb 7, 2006 at 12:27 PM

  I hate plastic and avoid buying things wrapped in plastic or things made of plastic.

  Posted by David in Canada on Feb 8, 2006 at 9:11 PM

  I’m not hopeful.

  From what I see, the extreme majority of people just can’t be bothered to worry about where their cheese wrappers or beer cans end up, much less concern themselves with the mess being made for the grandchildren to inherit. In a way, for whatever real environmental benefits are associated with it, curbside recycling contributes to a psychological blank-out. It encourages people to believe that they can preserve their luxurious lifestyle while still “doing something” for the environment, i.e. it encourages us to believe in easy, no-thinking-required solutions to highly complex problems.

  Yes, I do think that a life pervaded by plentiful food, mass produced appliances and gadgets, reading matter sold by the gigaton, swift and safe transportation to anywhere, and a million forms of entertainment, can be fairly called “luxurious” when compared to the broad pattern of human life across the centuries. The fact that our brief lifespan does not facilitate that sense of perspective does not change the relative luxury that so many Americans consider to be ordinary or even humdrum today.

  Just as I think that some sort of carbon tax might contribute to greater efficiency in the realm of petroleum use, perhaps a garbage tax might be levied, beyond the monthly service charge that cities expect in return for curbside garbage pick up. Trim the amount you discard, avoid the tax. This would not, of course, do anything about the waste that Rogers refers to as the real source of difficulties in the interview above: waste at the level of production. However, charging people for the increased burden their waste contributes to the degradation of the land seems fair and reasonable to me.

  The municipal governments would clean up at Christmas time!

  Get it? Clean up? Garbage collection...?

  Never mind…

  One specific garbage-related issue comes to mind: what to do with obsolete computers? I have 2 in my house, one of which has less computing power than one of the fancier cel phones, and which has less total hard disc capacity than a decent flash. Not even fit for donation; its CPU couldn’t handle most modern application programs. All that plastic, glass, circuit boards, etc. Just a big-ass, expensive, hard-to-recycle paperweight. Multiply that picture by hundreds of thousands of computing households. Not a pretty picture.

  Here’s another not-pretty picture. You and I live out the extended lifespan that modern hygiene and health awareness make possible, only to find that our great-grandchildren hate our guts for using up every good thing on the planet and leaving nothing them but a toxic shitheap behind.

  There we are, in a forced-labor gulag for the old, 50 or 75 years from now. The cult of reverence for age has been replaced by contempt for ancient babyboomers and their spoiled, aged spawn. All of us greybeards spend our days mining old landfills for anything useful that can be found. Young ones who grew up sick with toxicity are standing around us with zap guns, saying “You greedy old fucks, you used up a whole planet in only three generations! Take that!” <zap>

  If you share your clean water with me, I’ll share my soylent green with you. Don’t step on that shard of plastic…

  Posted by Kuya on Feb 9, 2006 at 2:58 AM

  All of this starts with the individual taking responsibility for their actions. I am poor and living as close to an “organic lifestyle” as possible. It is hard to do in the city. But it starts with food and being close to its growth.  Gardening is the best way to begin to tackle this problem; a pack of seeds takes a different kind of energy than a plastic wrapped bag of celery.

  Posted by mariaaaa on Feb 9, 2006 at 11:08 PM

  Do you guys---Kuya and mariaaaa have children and full time jobs? Rhetorical question, no need to answer. I won’t be around to respond to an answer.

  Nothing personal, but there are reasons why some people don’t make recycling a priority. For someone making minimum wage and working two jobs, with children to care for, the warm fuzzy feeling doesn’t cut it.

  I don’t have children and have a light work schedule, but my landlord doesn’t want to bother with recycling.  Since I don’t drive, I have to throw stuff away. I have to stop myself from trying to save every jar, and I have to admit that it’s a waste of time and space---precious resources in their own right.  I do buy bulk and take my own bags shopping. Those plastic bags are a pet peeve of mine.

  I agree with the author that something needs to be done on the manufacturing level.  I just got a package from Fed Ex this morning, the box with the product in it was inside a mailing box. Inside the product box was a plastic bag that enclosed the product, a laminated brochure with instructions in three languages, for a process that was self-evident, and a laminated warning that the plastic bag could cause choking and/or suffocation.

  And here’s an example that any woman can relate to --- do we need instructions with every box of tampons? Don’t most women and girls get that after the first successful attempt?

  Going to forbid myself to post here for two weeks. Catch you guys later.

  Posted by wileywitch on Feb 10, 2006 at 11:48 AM

  Read the article folks! It says that industry generates 70 times more waste than households. This means that whatever we do as citizens in terms of recycling is merely a token effort.  I am a trucker and I take three or four trips to the dump every week for my company. The volume of waste in the landfill is more like 7000 times as much as my one bag of garbage every second week.  Every manufacturing facility is about the same.  The great engines of production have gained a sort of inertia that cannot be halted except by some great calamity such as resource depletion or war. I cannot stop. If I refuse, someone else will step into my place without a moments hesitation. For every pound of garbage any of you might avoid discarding , I will throw out a ton. I’m stoking the doomsday machine.

  xyptol

  Posted by xyptol on Feb 12, 2006 at 10:11 PM

  Wiley and xyptol are being realistic about this problem.  Individuals cannot make a dent — it must be tackled on a monumental scale.

  When faced with a design problem (and there are many in this issue) begin by reducing it to the most basic level.

  • Compliance can be forced or rewarded.

  • Most companies are in business solely to make money.
  --------------------------

  Forced —

  • We can require all packaging to be biodegradable.

  • We can stop packaging small numbers of products. (nails were once sold by the pound)

  • We can make producers responsible for collecting and disposing of their own obsolete items.

  (I’m sure we could think of many more.)

  Each of the above presents its own new set of problems: R&D;expense, ease of theft, a new bureaucracy for inspection and enforcement just to name a few.

  Rewarded —

  • Establish grants and cash awards for ways to dispose of or reuse garbage.

  • Develop alternative methods of displaying and delivering items (unpackaged) to the stores’ customers.
  
  If we force our manufacturers we will only be encouraging more operations to migrate to countries which won’t comply.  We are already hampered with such worthwhile regulations as the EPA, OSHA, etc.)

  The best way would be the inventing of a money saving product or process for use by manufacturers and municipalities allowing them to convert trash into a clean energy producer. Cutting their energy cost and environmental liability.
  
  A close second might be a home heating/power generator which would eliminate the need for pickup and hauling.

  Anyone who can come up with this product will have a real money maker.

  That’s as far as I can go — I’m a graphic designer, not a chemist or engineer. I can tell you from personal experience that adding a quarter of a cent to the cost of a package will lose you a client regardless of how appealing the plastic covered card may be.

  Global competition has brought this on and trash is a growing global problem most of which we can NOT control.

  Some of the Nobel prize winners have, IMO, been unimpressive recently. What if a prize were given for solving something like this?

  Posted by whattheheck on Feb 19, 2006 at 11:17 AM

  Thomas Friedman recently that touched upon the issue of disposable chopsticks:

  “… China itself uses 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks a year, or 1.66 million cubic meters of timber, or 25 million full-grown trees.”

  Not corporate waste in this case, but people throwing little things away every day.  It starts and ends with the individual.  The real enemy of progress here is the guy who was brought up to embrace the disposable world.

  I like WTH’s idea about making producers responsible for their products after they break down.  Perhaps we should also be able to send back empty cartons and packaging.  That sounds pretty good to me.

  I wonder if the behavior or corporations diverges all that much from the behavior of the individuals that make up that corporation.  I’ll grant that there is a certain compartmentalization that exists in corporate culture where what is used, wasted and abused seems to have no fingerprints.  Still, the trick is to alter the broader culture; change the thinking of the individual.

  We should be conditioned to ask “Where does this come from - and where does it go when I am finished with it?” If we do it at home, we ought to be able to do it at work too.

  Posted by GrayArea on Feb 19, 2006 at 8:50 PM

  GrayArea,

  It would be best if we could convince both individuals and corporations to stop the flood of trash.  Usually there is more than a single answer.

  I am not a patient person, however, nor am I very optimistic.

  If each individual would just “play nice together,” the world would be a better place. Accomplishing it one person at a time (45 billion chopsticks from one billion Chinese!) is too slow — I will be dreaming of a chopstick avalanche tonight!

  Some of us wore seat belts before it became law, some still aren’t doing it when “forced.” I believe more would do it if they were paid a dollar each time they did. So it is with companies.

  Whichever solution — All people need to be made more aware of this. This book is a start.

  Posted by whattheheck on Feb 20, 2006 at 7:56 AM

  I listened to Heather Rogers on Seattle’s Community Access channel last night, Feb 25th, 2006.  I am a veteran of the 60’s and 70’s struggle for industrial social responsibility.  Through the years I have processed and discovered solutions to the oppression of greed. 

  I recognize Heather Rogers and her work on Gone Tomorrow, The Secret Life of Garbage.  She is a fine spokesperson in the movement to awaken.  She has the intellect, the charm, and the spirit to properly represent the facts and truth about our culture.  She is a leader that should be emulated by other’s hoping to have a powerful effect on the young, the old, and those who are ready to awaken to the truth about who we are, what we are, and how we must be to enjoy our true nature.

  Joseph McCluskey
  Seattle, WA
  206 417-2111
  Residential and Commercial Mortgage Loan Consultant

  Posted by Bizguide on Feb 26, 2006 at 3:00 PM

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