Last month I wrote about trash and how it doesn’t belong in the landfill. Of course I received some emails afterward, suggesting that I write about recycling because it’s important that we recycle. After all, American’s slogan is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.
I certainly agree with the first two R’s, but my personal 3rd R is Refuse which becomes my first R in the list.
Recycling is certainly an option and I do it every day. I recycle everything. Whatever is not recyclable I put in the compost or the trash. My weekly trash has been reduced to one small bag, but my recycling bin I have to empty every day.
This means that I really didn’t reduce anything, it’s just going into a separate bin, but I’m still wasting a lot of resources and I’m still creating waste that will be around for thousands of years.
Why? Recycling paper and glass is easier on the environment. Glass can be recycled over and over without losing any of its quality or purity. Plastic, on the other hand, can be recycled many times, but then becomes brittle. And once the recycled materials’ life-cycle is over, it will end up in the landfill.
Also, some products that have been made of recycled materials, like fencing, furniture, or floor mats, can’t be reused and when we dump them, our environment can’t “reuse” them. The animals and bugs can’t eat through them to compost the material. No water nor heat can penetrate the hard material that has been recycled.
And as much as recycling is great for the economy, the environment, and often times our city’s budget (it is nowadays cheaper to recycle than to put in the landfill), I still don’t find the process fool proof and really environmentally friendly.
Problem #1:
Plastic in the US has a recycling symbol on it that will tell us, the consumer, if it’s recyclable or not. When we purchase anything that is stored in plastic, we don’t look at the symbol to decide if we want to buy the product or not. We buy the product because of what’s inside, seldom because of packaging. When the container is empty, we just throw it into the recycling bin regardless of whether it’s recyclable or not.
Problem #2:
When we recycle the recyclable plastic, there is no guarantee that the item will be accepted by the residential recycling program. The number on the plastic merely indicates its resin content.
Problem #3:
Recycled plastic that has been reused for floor covering, mats, clothes, egg cartons, plates, etc. could leak chemicals. There are no long term studies that show us that it’s safe to store food in, have your child crawl on, or wear these clothes on your body without any side effects.
There are a lot of new studies that say that plastic is harmful who manufacture it on many levels not just to the adult user, but also to the fetus and the infant who is exposed to certain chemicals if the mother is exposed to plastic.
Problem #4:
Plastic is made out of petroleum. While we are complaining that the oil prices go up, we are more wasteful with our resources than any other country in the world. Petroleum is better used for fuel, our roads, heating, and medical equipment.
Problem #5:
We are in a constant creation of new products, but the old ones don’t disappear. Think about it, how much stuff we throw away (recycled or not) and how much we really need. We manufacture way more than one person would need and we are only “feeding” the factories, but not ourselves.
How many bottles of water do we need to still our thirst? One, that is reusable for many years. But how many do we use if we drink out of plastic? 2-3 per day? More? That’s about 20 plastic bottles a week, over 1000 bottles a year, 75,000 over a lifetime!
How many coffee cups do we need in a lifetime? One. Unless it breaks of course. Let’s say we need 10 made out of glass or ceramic. How many do we use? If we drink at a coffee shop from “trashable” cups every day and then make some coffee at work in the styro cup, we use on an average of 10 cups a week. That’s 39,000 cups in a lifetime!
How many plastic forks and knifes do we use? Let’s say we use 6 per week. That’s 312 per year and 23,400 over a lifetime. (I’m averaging 75 years.)
These numbers are just wild guesses, but they are staggering! We live in a world where everything is used once. Once! Paper and plastic plates, plastic-ware, packaging, bags (paper and plastic), paper towels, straw and stir sticks, dust wipes, bottles, and containers, just to name a few things.
America consumes more oil than any other country in the world! More than twice as much as China, even though China’s population is more than 4 times higher.
It saddens me that we forget to treasure things as our grandparents did. They took care of everything! Their shoes, clothes, furniture, china, carpet, etc. They didn’t need to throw things away constantly, but in today’s world, even though I recycle, I constantly find myself throwing something away, in the recycling bin or otherwise.
I’d love to challenge myself and all of us to really look at everything in December that we purchase. What is the packaging made out of? How much packaging is used vs. how much is needed? What does the label say? Is the product we buy made of raw material (wood, metal, glass)? Is it made of recycled material? Where will I put the “by product” which is the packaging? How do I transport things? How effective are my trips? Where is the product made? America or overseas?
Let’s buy with as little packaging as possible. Let’s be proud of America and buy American Made. Let’s leave the packaging behind for the manufacturers to clean up at the store. Let’s buy food at the bulk store and bring our own containers. Let’s make family dinners from fresh Farmer’s Market produce instead of packaged produce. Let us carpool together or take the bus together to the parties.
I believe we all can pitch in to reduce our waste, not just by recycling. This is a challenge, even for me. I do the minimum by bringing my own bag and my own cup and utensils. I don’t drive and I compost. I reduced my impact quite a lot, but I’m not even close to what I could do to really reduce my footprint to actually make a difference.
But with your help, I can do it and you can do it with me. This is the best present we can give during the holidays. That we are sustainable and purposeful in our spending and our wastefulness.
I wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season, a fantastic New Year and I thank you for reading my newsletters and doing your best to be sustainable!
Enci
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Recycling, ha.
And I would add that on the occasions one does make a purchase with packaging, that packaging should be left at or brought back to the store for them (and/or the manufacturer, distributors) to recycle/reuse–and incur that cost. Those that generate (manufacturers) and those that perpertuate (distributors/retailers) this crazy cycle of wastefulness should be held accountable for their disposable products and packaging from cradle to grave–instead of passing that (what should be a non-
delagable) duty on to our city/county/state governments to bear the costs of transporting, disposing, recycling, or whatever (which is really you and me as taxpayers, of course). They’ve gotten a free ride to package/produce at will for far too long–and at my expense.
Sure, I suppose retailers/manufacturers will cry “But then we’ll have to raise prices–and you don’t want that, do you?” Well, without seeming insensitive to the more economically challenged folks out there, I am compelled to respond: “So what?” Perhaps higher prices may cause us all to consume less from the get go, which in my opinion ain’t such a bad thing–in fact, it’s quite essential for our continued well being on this planet, no?
“But what about the economy; what about jobs?! . . . These higher prices and your reduced consumption will only sink our economy! Alas!” our trusted media and product manufacturers will exclaim. And to that there may be no “good” response–for some. Seems that a downsized economy just might have to be in our future. Unless, however, we can find a way to mobilize a 21st Century green job work force out of the outdated one we’ve currently got. Just sayin.
Hey Enci,
One thing I’ve started doing is declining a bag for everything. I go to the grocery store and have my backpack on me, the store clerk looks at me like I’m crazy when I just want to put the food in my own bag.
Question though, when I go on long rides, sometimes I have to purchase additional water or gatorade from a gas station even though I have a refillable bottle. What’s the solution here? I’ve asked if they have faucets or fountains that I can fill at, but the solution is always I have to purchase bottled water.
dudeonabike: I totally agree. In Germany they went through that “revolution” of leaving packaging behind in the 80s and 90s. It’s time that we do it here as well!
danceralamode: In my opinion, there is no excuse to buy plastic bottles if we prepare. Keeping your GU powder or syrup for rides to mix with water that you fill up at the bathroom faucet is one way to go. You can have a small glass bottle filled with the powder or syrup so you use less space in your bag. And the water in bathrooms are clean for drinking. If they weren’t or aren’t, there will be a sign. Also, a lot of the soda fountains have a water faucet as well.
I know that a lot of the roadies like to strip down and carry as little as possible. But for what purpose? We are compromising sustainability to be a few seconds faster. When Stephen and I rode to Santa Barbara, we had our saddle bags filled with food. Never had to buy anything at a store. We rode in jeans and shirt on our heavy mountain bikes. It’s doable to ride and to be sustainable.
You are already used to people looking at you when you bring your own bag, so why not get used to other roadies looking at you strange. You have nothing to loose, you can only win some others over to be more sustainable.
We can never be too lazy, too fancy, too comfortable to compromise the health of our planet or ourselves.
Hmm, guess I had overlooked the powder mixes…but I had asked to use the faucet or bathroom sink and actually had a gas station attendant tell me I couldn’t! So I guess I should’ve taken my business elsewhere. Okay, will plan this better for ride on Friday and let you know how it goes!
Good luck! I hope it goes well. Yeah, the attendants at gas stations are not always the ones to ask. They (in my experience) always had a not so great attitude towards me showing up on my bike vs. driving up in my car.
A few things:
1. In regards to “America consumes more oil than any other country in the world! More than twice as much as China, even though China’s population is more than 4 times higher.”, while there may be some truth in this statement the vast majority of China still lives in small rural communities, many of which are below the poverty line. China is also among the world’s largest polluters and not just air, but also water…there are many regions where people have had to move the water is so polluted.
2. On another note, what about junk car recycling, we consume a large amount of steel and it costs a small fortune to produce the required amount for a car…most of which we now import from China. Recycling larger product like cars, fridges, and other large household appliances can have a big impact on landfills.