AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2006 > January > 23 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWe are what we throw away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I will never be confused of hanging with the tree- hugging crowd, but I heard a factoid once that still stops me in my tracks.
One life form, if suddenly removed from planet Earth, would actually improve the place. That being man. As Pogo said: “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.”
Get rid of rats and it sets off far-reaching environmental aftershocks. The same with roaches, marigolds, slugs, jellyfish, wombats, crab grass, etc.
The reason we’re so disposable is because we’re the only species that routinely takes/uses more than we need. Our capacity to create waste is enormous.
I’m reminded of this whenever I drive by Morgan Falls, which is now home to a church, youth sports fields and a dandy little golf course. When I was growing up, however, it was a landfill. The old-fashioned kind of landfill where you could bring dang near anything and drop it off.
Old paint (probably some with lead), chemicals, used motor oil, appliances, car batteries, kitchen waste, used kitty litter, car radiators and the like all found their eternal dirt nap at Morgan Falls way back in the day.
And this isn’t to point fingers. Way back when, we weren’t as aware of the long-term hazards of such materials. Back then it seemed a dandy idea — dump a ton of trash, bury it and build something groovy on top of it.
Now we know better. At our house we recycle, taking our plastics, glass and newspaper to the curb weekly. We also compost (thanks to the influence of the lovely and Earth-loving Mrs. Osterman) virtually all leftover food, which breaks down into good black dirt that gets used in her annual vegetable garden.
But we still, like most people, take more than we need. Several times per month food ends up composting because we didn’t eat it all. In a given week I never read the whole newspaper once, much less every day, but we get it daily. And I don’t think we’re the blight of Sandy Springs.
Walk around town and you’ll see half-finished sodas discarded. Used tires are tossed to the side of the road. Homeless people survive — some quite nicely — by eating perfectly good food from dumpsters.
So I wonder:
Why do we think we need so much?
Why do we so easily waste so much?
What will it take to change us?
And will we change in time, before we disappear from the planet, making life better for everything else living on this rock?
Comments
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By Mild Bill
January 23, 2006 08:33 AM | Link to this
I think the issue should be we are what we consume. Our refuse is just one of the unpleasant by-products of “affluenza” or the unbridled consumerism our society is based upon. A reliable source reports that when we succeed in converting the Chinese and the Indian populations into our level of consumption there will need to be 4 planets to supply the raw materials. We are already seeing this happen; Chinese consumption is one of the factors driving up the proce of oil.
By Taxpayer
January 23, 2006 08:34 AM | Link to this
How sadly ironic that this column appears on a day when the AJC is running a story about a newborn who was “thrown away” — left to fend for itself in a garbage bag underneath a stairwell. Does our “disposable society” lead some to believe that anything we don’t want, even a child, can be put out of sight and thus out of mind? Americans may be the richest people on earth, but some of our citizens appear to be morally bankrupt.
By LHK
January 24, 2006 10:58 AM | Link to this
Thanks for this column, Jim. I live off of Morgan Falls Road, and I often go running in the park and past the golf course. I never saw the area when it was a landfill, but every time I run by, I imagine what sorts of things from the former dump have seeped into the land over time. Probably best not to think too hard about that….
The first thing our society needs to do to exact environmental change is change our perception about environmental change. Whether or not you believe that global warming is happening or that Peak Oil Theory could become a reality, I think everyone can agree that we have too much JUNK. It’s in our houses, in our stores, in our trash cans. And, further, my saying that I’m an advocate of the environment doesn’t mean that I want everyone to get rid of their cars and live in a commune. It’s so easy to be “environmental” without being extreme. There are so many small, non-life-altering, non-inconveniencing changes we can make. I bring my lunch to work in plastic containers instead of going to the Lenox Mall food court and eating out of a styrofoam box. I recycle everything I can — the recycling center’s within walking distance of me, so why not? Beyond paper towels, I don’t buy disposable cleaning products (like those one-use dusters. Who needs ‘em when you’ve got perfectly useful rags?). I try not to buy products with a lot of packaging. None of these things are strange or difficult or heroic, but they do make a small amount of change.
The trash can or the dumpster isn’t a magical bin that gets rid of things people don’t want. It gets the junk out of your house, but that junk has gotta go somewhere.
By gttim
January 24, 2006 11:57 AM | Link to this
I will never be confused of hanging with the tree- hugging crowd, but I heard a factoid once that still stops me in my tracks.
Nice of you to offer up that right wing radio talking point to demonize the left and environmentalists, when actually you seem to share many values with them. I wonder if you even understand the irony?
I remember the old commercials with the Indian crying over pollution, all the pictures of which were of the type tossed by people. It was quite an impressionable campaign. It was not until 30+ years later that I found out the campaign was put together by corporations and conservative groups to get the American public to believe that they were responsible for pollution and corporations were not.
By ld
January 24, 2006 01:45 PM | Link to this
…an interesting and thoughtful article. Thank you for your insights. We are an affluent culture with way too much “stuff” and a mindset to throw away. I have also lived in a developing country for several years and I have to say I was appalled at the way their trash, garbage and pollution are NOT being dealt with at all; basically just thrown on the streets or in the river, which stinks to high heaven. This same river is used for bathing, drinking, washing clothes, urinating and deficating. So as much as we have and throw out, I am at least glad that our mindset (thank you, treehuggers) is to recycle and take some responsibility for our trash. One thing that comes to mind when I think of our consumer mindset is: where does all of this stuff come from? I can walk into any large store and it is overwhelming. Why is our world in general producing so much? Do we really ever use it all?