Me, Myself and I, are the most important people I know….oops, did I say that out loud?! That’s supposed to be ‘inner dialogue’ information that only the most important VIPs (that would be Me, Myself and I) are privy too. Anyway, what is such a big deal about living green anyway? Once I am done with something, that’s just it, ‘I’ (Me and Myself too), am done! I don’t want to see it, store it, transport it, or even know about it; just get it the heck out of here! If its small, throw it in the trash, if its big then being more creative is required. Maybe just push it in the alley or vacant lot, then its not my problem. Look at these few items time to biodegrade, as listed on Wikipedia.
| Nylon fabric | 30–40 years |
| Tin cans | 50–100 years |
| Aluminum cans | 80–100 years |
| Glass bottles | 1 million years |
| Styrofoam cups | 5000 years- forever |
| Plastic bags | 5000 years- forever |
Whoa! Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what is in that thing you once ‘had to have’, but you now want gone and out of the house today? Do you have any clue on how long that thing will be sitting around before it biodegrades, IF, it biodegrades at all ?? Look at the list again!
It is obvious in our society of speed and ease, that we (Me, Myself and I), do not want to slowed down or impaired in our, super fast, get-it-done now, daily schedules. Look at any fast food or take out eating place (I will not call these restaurants). Have you ever seen a recycling container in any of them? Where do you think all that plastic and Styrofoam will go and how long do you think it will sit there before it becomes, non-toxic, degraded matter (look at the list again)? Oh, right, forgot the ‘recycling fairy’ (related to the tooth fairy – same union), will come at night and magically swoop up all this stuff that should have been recycled, and ‘swooosh’, its gone and the landfill is again pristine with only trash that will break down in a week! Wow, that is totally awesome, dude!
Its all about quick and efficient when it comes to packaging. Make it look good, make it stack efficiently, cheap to buy by the gazillions (is that even a word?) from wherever, and then just chuck it in the trash when done with it, which is usually within about 3-4 minutes from the time I got it from the cashier! Because we don’t care, they don’t have to care. Because we can ‘relate’ to their ‘time is money’ mentality, and colorful presentation, they can justify their ridiculous contributions to our waste problems. Remember the heavier paper-cardboardy like (now I know ‘cardboardy’ is not a real word, jeesh), containers the fast food guys used to use? Weren’t those overcome by plastic so that we could ‘save the trees’? Well, how many natural resources go into to the making of these plastic containers; any idea….? I wonder if there are any trees used in the process? We haven’t even touched on the green house gases and other pollutants that are emitted during the degradation process of the items in the little list shown above… Don’t worry, not even going there in this blog, that’s way too much conviction for one day!!! Look for part 2 coming soon…