From the vault, May 23, 1997 (revised):
Spring has sprung! The trees are budding, the grass is growing, the birds are chirping, the squirrels are scampering, and the days are getting longer, and warmer.
Re-birth is with us at last.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to all of it. Now that the snow has melted, it has left in its wake an unsightly mess in the form of litter: Cans, bottles, food wrappers, odd pieces of metal and plastic, and other assorted trash. Even in communities such as Aurora which have curbside recycling programs, the programs are not comprehensive, nor are all citizens as diligent as they ought to be. Litter abounds.
Ever since we hairless apes swung down from the trees and began walking upright, we have tossed our garbage aside in a haphazard fashion. The only positive aspect was that the prehistoric garbage, bones, animal skins and organs, inedible parts of plants, was 100% biodegradable; it decayed and put nutrients back into the soil to facilitate new growth.
Today’s garbage, however, is a horse of a different color. It is manufactured garbage, made from steel, aluminum, plastic and other artificial materials and requires a different sort of disposal. Here’s a disturbing statistic: Only 27% of Americans recycle. The other 73% opt for the easy method of disposal, either into a garbage can to be hauled to the nearest landfill or out a car window on to the street to create the unsightly mess to which I alluded at the beginning. Out of sight, out of mind, don’t you know?
There are two ways to deal with non-biodegradable trash. To wit:
The Great State of Illinois needs a beverage-container deposit system. Our neighbors, Iowa and Michigan, have had such systems for years, and apparently they are comfortable with them. These systems will assure that the containers will be returned for the refund of the deposit or for credit against a future purchase. Containers which are carelessly tossed aside will be targeted by a horde of scavengers eager to cash in on the deposits and supplement their meager incomes. However the containers are returned, they will end up in a recycling facility for processing or re-use and thereby decrease the need to consume scarce natural resources.
The deposit should be universal. Currently, in those states which have deposits in place, only beer, soda, and a few other selected beverages are covered. They are but a fraction of what can be found on any street in America. The majority of them are the single-use water bottles, but there are others, milk, wine, fruit juice; and the containers aren’t necessarily made from glass, steel, or aluminum, but from paperboard as in milk and fruit juice.
The second method of proper disposal applies principally to non-deposit containers which litter our streets. The Friends of the Fox River conducts annual trash clean-ups along the banks of the river; brigades of local citizens, from Fox Lake to Morris, gather together and collect heaps of trash. Even whole families participate and, by all accounts, have an enormously good time, all the while performing a good deed, by bonding with like-minded individuals in defense of Mother Earth.
So, I’m thinking: Why not organize community trash patrols? Why not target a park, a vacant lot, or several blocks of a city street, and pick up the litter? Most of the debris can be recycled; the remainder probably will go to a landfill, but at least the landfill will not be filled up as quickly as it now does.
Barring a community trash patrol, dear reader, be your own trash patrol. The next time you observe a piece of litter, make your acquaintance with it, take it home with you, and dispose of it in an environmentally-friendly fashion. Pick a piece per day. That doesn’t sound like a big deal. But, if 100, or 1,000, persons pick a piece per day, it will make a huge difference.
The Chas will thank you. Your community will thank you. Generations yet unborn will thank you. And maybe, just maybe you’ll be able to thank yourself.
Just a thought.