Mark Trahant: Creating a world with less garbage

Monday, June 11, 2007  

"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)

More Mark Trahant:
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Mark Trahant: Economics of immigration reform (5/28)
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Mark Trahant: Agree to disagree about warming (5/7)
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Mark Trahant: Tribal colleges effective and essential (4/23)
Mark Trahant: The global warming debate (4/16)
Mark Trahant: America's cycles of boom and bust (4/9)
Mark Trahant: Spring cleaning for the government (3/26)
Mark Trahant: The state of the changing news media (3/19)
Mark Trahant: Mismanagement of the Indian trust (3/12)
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Mark Trahant: An important vote for Seattle (2/26)
Mark Trahant: America headed toward credit meltdown (2/19)
Mark Trahant: Doom and gloom on global warming (2/12)
Mark Trahant: Americans unsettled over economy (2/5)
Mark Trahant: Too hard to ignore global warming (1/22)
Mark Trahant: Women finally take their place (1/15)
Mark Trahant: Raise taxes to pay for war in Iraq (1/8)
Mark Trahant: President Gerald Ford and Indian health (1/2)