Mark Trahant: Creating a world with less garbage
Monday, June 11, 2007
Filed Under:
Opinion
"I once lived about as far off the highway as is possible in rural Arizona, surrounded by pinion and juniper. One of the things that shocked me when I first moved into the woods was the amount of garbage tossed without regard. There were diapers on the road, makeshift landfills in dry creek beds and messes everywhere.
I wanted pristine, but instead it was human waste that made the landscape less than it should have been.
Some three decades later, we humans are a lot smarter about our garbage. None of us are perfect, but I know that even in some rural areas -- where folks hardly think about such city things -- there are now bins for recycling.
The separation of waste -- recycling, reusing and tossing as little as possible -- is now a part of my routine. I remember it was only a few years ago that my family seemed limited by the weekly pickup of our garbage can. I'm optimistic because my trashcans these days are half-full.
I know we can do better."
Get the Story:
Consumer society has garbage on the mind
(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 6/9)
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