My Plan to Reduce Waste in the United States
Monday, 1 October 2007 by Elizabeth
Yes, another one of those totally out-of-the blue and seemingly random blog posts from moi. :D (I really am trying to get a theme going here… but, guys, get a grip… I have ADD, even my real life is this disoriented. Really!)
Even laws aren’t going to smack most Americans upside the head and make them WANT to reduce their waste, reuse plastic bags, or recycle their junk. BUT… I have the solution!
NEIGHBORHOOD GARBAGE DUMPS!
What better way to get folks to stop piling it in the landfills with every manner of disposable product than to bring that landfill right to their very own backyard? Yes, my original plan was for everyone to have their very own dump right on the premises, but given the crowded conditions of city-living I decided to be generous and allow for neighborhood dumps. Somehow I get the feeling that Mrs. Jones would rethink the necessity of that disposable toilet bowl brush… (I mean, let’s face it, it’s for the TOILET BOWL and I don’t see the need for a sterilized brush to clean the bowl, do you?)
What do you think? Have I really gone off my rocker this time or am I onto something?
And yes, this original plan did come to me while driving the highways and byways of rural Kentucky. We have lots of personal dumps around here. Other folks call them sinkholes… (Ugh!)
We also need to allow garbage-burning in more communities. My dad and his buddy took down the neighborhood dump in our neighborhood with mayonnaise jars full of kerosene. Worked like a charm, although the smell was pretty bad! Only needed to be done about once a year, though.
Here in (northern) Flyover Country we’re allowed to have burn barrels in the backyard. Just think how much trash stays out of the landfills because we burn our paper and cardboard!
We also burn nearly all the crate wood and scrap lumber from my husband’s shop - all wood that used to go into landfills.
Just tryin’ to do my part to save the world. (And keep myself warm for free on winter weekends!)
I would like to see the dumps in our area charging for dumping recyclable material. Our dumps are paid for through property taxes so we don’t pay fees everytime we take our household trash to the dump. Everytime we go I see people dumping glass bottles and aluminum cans. You pay a deposit when you buy them so why would you throw them away! We aren’t allowed to scavenge so we can’t pick them up but there are dumpsters sitting in the dumping area in case you don’t want money for them, but people still throw them away. In some communities south of us they have a method for going through everyone’s garbage for anything that can be recycled or composted.