Blue bag to the road
One more spoonful. With that I have emptied the current container of yogurt. Ready to be washed sorted into a waiting blue bag and brought out to the roadside for the pick up tomorrow. We do this about once a month which means that over the past 10 years I have done this over 100 times. And still the mystery is maintained. What happens to my empty container once that truck takes it away. There is a belief that we recycle in order to let things be reused. Somehow, in looking at my blue bag, I fail to find the connection. I do not believe that the containers in that bag which for the main part were used for dairy products are actually being recycled into something that I would recognize. I know that the local dairy does not use those containers. Instead they’re being bundled and shipped off to somewhere else in the world. Probably to be made into fine powder for return to the industrial process. Recycling at a molecular level. What does this mean for the world? In the old days we did reuse containers. Over and over again. Those jars of preserves would be carefully washed and stored for the next harvest. But then our food became part of the industrial process and somehow I think we’ve lost sight of the goal. I will continue to put my bags out to the curb once a month. Generally because I sometimes miss and hang on to the bag for another month. I am always glad to empty the garage of my harvest. Am I doing something to help the world? I remain sceptical. In a better world we would not have containers that needed to be sent away. In a system closer to home we would keep all of our materials for reuse. At the home level. Can you imagine throwing away a dairy can on a dairy farm? It would never happen. The food stores never mentioned recycling. Not their worry. And the government sends me out a calendar to follow so I will not miss that pick up once a month. But they also are avoiding the issue. Too much waste in a place where we cannot possibly reuse the materials.
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