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D. H. Clair - Editor-in-chief

Opinion:  A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof; A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing—

Here’s my two cents’ worth on the seemingly controversial subject of recycling.

WHY NOT RECYCLE?

The editorial in the October 13 issue of THE SUNCOAST NEWS, the twice-weekly freebie from the Tampa Tribune, cited the issue of mandatory recycling.

At present, Pasco County “blue bags” the recycling material. Since it is a voluntary courtesy, the blue bags must be purchased by the homeowner at one of the local stores. (Sam’s offers the most for your money). Efforts to make recycling mandatory have been expended by R.E.S.O.U.R.C.E. Recycling club Inc. with no success. The Pasco County Commissioners voted to approve an expenditure of $2million to transport the excess trash from Pasco County to a private landfill in another county because the Pasco county incinerator cannot handle the exorbitant amount of trash that is collected.

Does this register with the residents and homeowners of this county? Their tax dollars are literally going up in smoke.

Other counties in Florida, e.g., Broward County, have implemented mandatory recycling with great success. The money derived from the recycling is put to good use for other services. The county furnishes a red plastic container (at a one-time cost of $5.00 to the resident) and a special truck is dispatched once weekly to collect the recycling materials.

Various counties negotiate with several recycling companies to accept all glass jars and bottles, (clear, green or brown); plastics with number one or two in the triangle at the bottom, newspaper. (Cub Scouts have dumpsters devoted to newspaper collection. The money they derive is used by the Cub Scouts for the Cub Scouts.) Plastic bags can be taken back to the stores. Amazing things are made from recycled plastic bags.

Why would anyone not want to do something that is helpful to our environment? It takes only a little more effort than just tossing it indiscriminately into the trash.  Is it the cost of the blue bags? All the more reason for going the mandatory route and supplying every household with a red or blue bin. The number of blue bags at the curb on any collection day is painfully sparse. Saving the planet seems not to be uppermost in the minds of our oh so busy society.

On any given day, one reads, sees or hears about the looming menace of global warming; the threat to the Arctic animals as the glaciers shrink, their habitat is melting, their means of sustenance, disappearing. Evidence of global warming surrounds our planet. Dire predictions fall on deaf ears. We are almost at a point where it’s irreversible. The instant gratification society pays it no heed. Perhaps it won’t affect them, but it will surely affect their progeny. We didn’t need Kruschev to “bury us,” we are literally intent on burying ourselves in trash.

The following is excerpted from a website labeled Chris vs. Chris

http://www.chrisvschris.com/the-case-against-recycling/ Chris is clearly not a proponent of recycling.

"Generally, the cheapest and best way to dispose of garbage is to bury it. Modern landfills have little in common with the smelly town dump we remember from childhood. They are regulated by strict federal safety standards, and courts have routinely found them to be acceptable alternatives to expensive incinerators. In fact, the article notes, that “mountain of garbage” we fear is highly unlikely to materialize. According to one calculation, if Americans generate garbage at current rates for 1,000 years, and put it all in a landfill 100 yards deep, by the year 3000 the whole lot will fill a piece of land 35 miles square."

The above-referenced generated numerous responses, but this one begged to be included here:

"Trouble the Pirate up'n wrote this

Oh how I do love ’spin’… Let’s look at one aspect… “if Americans generate garbage at current rates for 1,000 years, and put it all in a landfill 100 yards deep, by the year 3000 the whole lot will fill a piece of land 35 miles square.”

     By this statement we can calculate, that this particular hypothetical landfill will contain: 292,723,200,000 cubic feet of ‘garbage’… That’s two hundred & ninty-two billion, seven hundred twenty-three million, two hundred thousand cubic feet of ‘garbage’… Sounds bigger now huh?

     This is equivalent to producing 5,671,831 cubic feet per week over the allotted 993 years.

     This equates to every American only throwing away 0.019 cubic feet of garbage a week… Or, 5.2 tablespoons of garbage a day… Now go and look in the kitchen drawer and find a tablespoon… I’ll wait… … …

     Okay that took you long enough… Now imagine 5 of them and that’s how much garbage these ‘calculations’ indicate that YOU throw away each day… Hell, last time I changed my baby’s disposable diaper there was more than 5 tablespoons of s--- [no pun intended] in it… And he goes through five or six a day…

     So, if Americans are only dumping 5,671,831 cubic feet per week, and Mexicans are producing “one-third more garbage”… And to be fair let’s say the rest of the world is only producing “one-quarter” more garbage than Americans, then it follows that there is 15,416,465,262 cubic feet of garbage being produced worldwide for our little hole…

     Don’t worry though, by the year 3000 this will only be 799,251,225,017,206 cubic feet… let’s say it out loud… Seven hundred ninety-nine trillion, two hundred fifty-one billion… Aw "bleep" it!

     That’s still only “Ninety-five thousand, five hundred and sixty-four square miles” for the same 100 yard deep hole… Provided we can limit ourselves to the aforementioned, 5.2 tablespoons of garbage a day… Only 2/3 the size of California… Should be able to squeeze it…

          Oh, and there is that matter of digging the 300 foot deep hole… I nominate Chris!"

April 26th, 2007

I rest my case.