When Things Are No Longer Useful

Let's all have our teeth pulled and gum our food. This way we won't need toothbrushes.

But really... I think we do need to recycle and corporations do need to be more mindful of what happens to their products when they are no longer useful, but I also think perhaps believing huge corporations will change is a distant dream. The more immediate remedy is to have more people recycle using the existing channels. For Florida and all states that do not to begin to require deposits on bottles, both plastic and glass, if we did, it would motivate people to return them for the money and therefore return more packaging into the recycling chain equaling less waste and much less garbage in landfills.

We don’t need a lot of new ideas; instead we just need to do the things we already know to do. To Just Do Them! And if the states because of business pressures, politics, don’t do them, then we need to find another way. We need to take control. Stop being so lazy and become on a small-scale, more active (activists) in our daily lives.

Here’s a personal example, one that motivates me to do more. I'm ashamed of my lazy ass.

In the early 70’s I was a real green hippie. I worked at food coops, ate only veggies, recycled and was very vocal about saving the earth and it’s inhabitants. I would walk by diners at outdoor restaurants and yell at them “Stop Eating Dead Bodies!!!” I would also go to the grocery with my own cloth bags, containers for milk and boxes for cereals. At the register I would empty all these things into my own containers leaving the manufactures packing behind right there in the store, right at the checkout. I caught hell sometimes, but I made my point every time I shopped. The average american generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day. This is 1.6 pounds more than 1960. You would think we'd get wiser not dirtier.

We need to be more radical. The sixties was a good training ground for radicals. I learned a lot then, and forgot a lot later. The selfish eighties stole much of that from many of us.


                   We need to re-awaken...gi