Posted by
The INFORMER (Cokie907@yahoo.com) on Saturday, November 17, 2007 6:05:40 PM
If there's one thing that embarrasses us usually proud East Tennesseans, it is the mendacious diatribe of that "Inconvenient Windbag" from Carthage, Tennessee. Yes, I'm talking about Al Gore folks. This guy gives all of us a bad name but wait a minute.... Didn't he REALLY grow up in Washington, D.C. in some boarding school while his pappy was serving in the U.S. Senate and busy voting AGAINST Civil Rights legislation? hahaha
In any event, you might not know it but your lead Grassroots Trooper actually has a soft-spot in his heart for the environment. No, no....not a nut who goes overboard but someone who thinks deeply about ways we can all do our part to preserve the sanctity of our planet for future generations after we are all long gone. A few years ago when I wrote my monthly column called "A View Through These Two Eyes", I espoused thoughts for an "environmentally friendly" future. Read on from almost 11 years ago and see if they make sense to you!
A View Through These Two Eyes (originally appeared in Southwoods magazine, January 1997)
by Sean Plankey
Not too long ago, "mountains" began to pop up all over Westfield. Did you catch a glimpse of them? Mountains constructed not of stone but of junk! Old tires, batteries, broken lawn chairs, abandoned toys and the like. It was "bulk trash disposal" time in Westfield. A festival, celebrated once every 10 years or so, where it's not uncommon to have people from neighboring towns either removing your former treasures or adding to the pile!
At its peak, the piles were so high on some street corners that you couldn't see oncoming traffic. One would have to either play "Russian Roulette" or get out of their car, run to the street corner and check if the coast was clear. I personally found this humorous while at the same time gratifying because it validates my belief that we live in a disposable society. A society filled with many low-quality items that are purchased for the short-term and then thrown away. How about the disposable camera: point, shoot and throw away, or the silly styrofoam cooler that makes a one-way trip to the beach. In our quest to save time and money, we've allowed conservation to take a back seat to convenience on a regular basis.
Now don't get me wrong here! When you mention conservation, people automatically think: "Look out! Tree hugger on the approach..." Not quite! You won't find this proud conservative chaining himself to a logging truck anytime soon. Rather, I prefer to take a practical or more common sense approach to environmental issues such as recycling and conservation. This method views EVERYTHING exclusively from a standpoint of efficiency. For example, it makes absolutely no sense to throw things in a landfill that can be reused or recycled, just as it makes no sense to leave lights on in a room that nobody occupies or roar up to a red light at 60 mph only to slam on the brakes!
Remember that annoying little piece of legislation called the "Bottle Bill"? Sure, everyone moaned and groaned about it back in 1983 but this was a great common sense approach to reducing litter on the streets. Of course, it should have been applied to ALL beverages, not just carbonated ones. Years ago, there must have been a sign on my stretch of road that read: "Please deposit cans and bottles at the base of the next hill." That would explain why so many found their way in front of my house. Perhaps the passing folks knew it was my chore to go out and pick them all up! Thirteen years later, you'd be hard-pressed to find more than a can or two and even those don't last long.
The success of the Bottle Bill gave way to bigger recycling programs of the 1990's and these programs are doing great! Again, we moan and groan about washing out the containers and placing them in a separate location but deep down we can feel good about doing our part. We're all banding together to keep "Mount Trashmore" down the street from growing too quickly! The recycling effort is continually changing with new methods and better technologies being put to good use. One idea would be to RE-USE rather than recycle certain containers by bringing them back to the store when you go shopping. Items such as dishsoap, laundry detergent and motor oil could be refilled from 55 gallon drums and then brought through the check out lines. That way, they don't even end up in the recycling bin.
One item that isn't recycled and seems to be taking over the world is plastic wrap! It's everywhere, on everything, takes hundreds of years to disintegrate and it bothers me! Next time you go shopping, take a look at how much plastic wrap is on the things you purchase. Then, you might just carry it out of the store in plastic bags. The store will automatically bag in plastic because it is cheaper and quicker (i.e. convenient). I've gotten a few dirty looks when I request "Paper, please". The paper bags may be a little harder to carry but they make great trash can liners! Now you might be thinking to yourself, "the stores will take back the plastic bags and recycle them". True, but how many people will take the time to collect them and bring them back? Isn't it more convenient to just throw them in the trash?
Well, I mentioned conservation earlier and up to now, haven't written much about it. In my view, conservation is not just turning off light switches or tuning up the family truckster. It has to do with your "Junk Production Factor" (JPF). Everyone has the capacity to produce junk but some people have a much higher output level than others! A high "JPF" means you have to send more stuff to the dump and replace things more often. This consumes both raw materials and landfill space, plus it gives China more ability to make more profit on stuff it imports to the USA. When I was younger, my ability to produce junk was way off the scale! I've been able to get it under control in recent times by learning to buy items for the long-term and look for HIGH QUALITY when I do so. If something breaks, I always try fixing it before giving it the "heave-ho". Perhaps you can think of a time where you bought a low quality item to save a few bucks and it fell apart. Next time that happens you can think to yourself, "Aw geez, I'm producing junk again, this is really gonna bump up my JPF!"
Sadly, the "mountains" around Westfield are gone now. They've all been hauled away by truck somewhere to a place that is no doubt, quite crowded! Something tells me that in a few years, they'll be back again, bigger than ever. Full of the usual: old tires, batteries, lawn chairs and perhaps an old Snake-Light, Tickle-Me-Elmo or Nintendo 64, whose time has come and gone.