Driven down 71 Highway lately? How about I-70? 7 Highway? Notice anything? I do. Lots of trash. Plastic bags and bottles and cans and fast food paper bags and take-out Styrofoam bundles waiting to disintegrate in the next 500 years. It's gross. It's been thrown "away." Fouling one's own nest is only done by humans.
What would happen if we all - people and businesses - were responsible for our own trash? We had to find places for it by composting, reusing or recycling. We had to keep the stuff on our own property? What would happen? How would that change our outlook, our buying habits, and our using habits?
What about manufacturers? What if we refused to buy something if it were over-packaged? I am watching my husband right now try to break into a package that is holding a computer power cord. It's not pretty. Scissors barely dented it. He just left and is headed for the garage, mumbling "I'm getting the *@# power saw!"
Last week, it took me three minutes to open a package holding 2 tiny screws and a backplane. It cost $2.47. It was wrapped in a plastic bag with directions like "Do not place this plastic bag over your head and go to sleep." Right. Like I could even get the thing over my head in the first place!
Then the back plate was covered by another piece of plastic - to protect it, you know, from the air that might get it to when you open it! Then behind it, another piece of plastic enclosed the two screws, which were then taped to the back of the plate. I'm sure the packaging cost more than the actual product. And what did I do with the packaging? Yep. Trash.
What would happen if packaging were by law minimalized and required to be returned to the manufacturer? Then they had to reuse the packaging in their next product? What would happen if manufacturers had to take back all their old products and reuse or recycle them? Do you think we would have all this trash along the roadside? Nope. Make trash expensive and it will go away.
Posit: For one week - be responsible for your own trash. Do not use any trash cans outside your own home. Take a cloth bag to hold all the things you would normally "throw away" if it were a normal day. If you eat out and don't finish - you must take your excess food home and feed it to the dog, save it or put it in your garden. If you use paper - you may not throw it "away" but must take it home and recycle it. You can still use the city's recycling opportunity, but if your company does not normally recycle you may not leave anything that you would "normally throw away" at the office. You must take it home and recycle, reuse or compost.
"Away" is our own backyard.
It's time we become aware.
Vicki Walker is the host of "KC Media Watchdogs," which airs at 9:30 a.m. Mondays in KKFI, 90.1 FM.
