What if we reuse the recycled stuff?
Another confusing message: our recycled stuff is unwanted. In China… where we believed that all our plastic garbage would eventually go to find a new life. However, they’ve caught on to our subterfuge. The ships filled with bales of stuff that can’t even be burned are now asked to “move along”. What to do, says everyone else.
Even in a house with two people and a dog, we create several bagfuls of bottles, cans and other assorted byproducts of our consumer based existence. Every month. And when I miss the pickup morning, I have to store my treasures for another thirty days, which emphasizes the volume. Miss twice (it happens), and I start to count down to the next time the truck will pass by. Could I reduce? Probably not. Everything comes in a package of some sort. I mean, I could turn my milk bottles into some sort of third-world raft, but then the coast guard would be after me (with a rope and a net). Or I could try to crush things into tiny cubes.
After reading the newspaper story, I realize that it doesn’t matter. What we need to do is create a new paradigm. What if we (as a nation) decided to turn our plastics back into oils? It’s possible, and it can’t be any worse that tar sands. Time for me to send a tweet to the minister who knows about such things. Forget the carbon tax… buy my garbage. Just as effective in reducing that famous “carbon footprint”. I wonder.
