“They’re saying I haven’t delivered, but it’s not my fault!”
I heard Recycling’s sobbing wail, and pulled out a porch chair to sit. “Sheesh, Recycling, what’s this all about?”
Recycling sniffled loudly. “I’m not what they think I am. I can only do so much.”
PVC pellets started to rain from Recycling’s triangular eyes, scattering across the deck. I spread a tarp to gather them before the chickens did.
“Have you seen the articles?”
我耸了耸肩。“那是因为我一直在找它们。You mean, articles sayingthat you failed,you don’t work, andwere a lie to begin with?”
回收盯着。“当我只能处理玻璃、纸和金属的时候,至少一切都是有意义的。这些材料可以熔化或混合。即使它们被扔掉,它们也会生锈或变成沙子,或在土壤中分解。The real issue is that dang –”
回收者停顿了一分钟,咳嗽了一下。“嗯哼。太可怕了——”又一阵颤抖的恶心声。然后回收部弯下腰,拿出一堆湿透的塑料购物袋。门廊上的猫怒视着闯入的人,溜出去找个更好的地方睡午觉。
“THAT!” Recycling gagged. “Plastic.It was an innovation when it came on the scene,but since we started making single-use items, it’s become the biggest pain in my system.”
My neighbor heard the commotion while weeding her tomatoes and jumped the fence to join our conversation. She slipped off her gloves and settled into a chair with a furrowed brow. “But plastic is recyclable too!” she offered.
Recycling started laughing, an exhausted, resigned laugh that quickly developed into another hacking fit. I moved my perch to the porch railing before the congealed mass of food wrappers and chip bags could land at my feet.
“Just throw it in the recycling bin and it’s taken care of, right?” Recycling rasped, trying to catch a breath. “That’s merely out of sight, out of mind. The story doesn’t end there.”
废品回收瞟了我一眼。“你是一位环境教育者。你告诉她。”
“Some plastic is recyclable some of the time,” I admitted.“But just because it ends up in a recycle bin doesn’t mean it actually gets recycled.”I pointed at the triangle on a discarded baby’s teething ring that was sticking out of Recycling’s coughed-up pile. “It may have a recycling symbol on it, but it’s No. 3 plastic. That’s PVC, and it’s so hard to recycle that most places don’t.”
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Recycling burped, and a polystyrene takeout container fell to the porch deck — another recycling triangle still visible on its surface. “No. 6 plastic usually isn’t recyclable either.” Another belch, and an assortment of plastic car parts and sippy cups tumbled down, all labeled with a No. 7 inside the familiar triangle of arrows. “And neither is No. 7. It’s a catch-all category for miscellaneous plastics like BPA and Polycarbonate.”
我审视着越来越乱的东西。“I’ll find an article for what all the numbers mean.请不要再举例子了。”
“You sure? I’ve got lots … and lots –”
My neighbor huffed angrily. “Well, at least I’m doing something! We all know there’s no recycling program in this rural area. I go to all the effort to drive my recycling to town and pay for a garbage service when the folks down the road don’t even try. They just throw their trash in the ravine.”
Recycling shook its head, leaking disposable floss-picks onto the floor. “Listen, I appreciate you doing something. But it’s not enough now. I know it give folks a feeling of moral superiority, but the truth is, your trash gets thrown in someone else’s landfill where you don’t have to see it. And half the stuff in your recycling bin ends up there too. Including that car battery that youwishcycled.”
She gasped like a landed fish, her face flushing red.
I knew how she felt. “Try not to feel attacked,” I said. “When I was living in the city, I honestly thought I was making a difference. I faithfully recycled my own waste products and made an effort to buy products made of recycled materials. I visited schools and gave demonstrations and helped with park clean-up efforts. I even made and sold crafts made from waste materials. Though I admit, my line of hideous baskets made from coiled plastic bags never really took off.”
Recycling swallowed hard. “We both know the ones you didn’t sell ended up in the trash anyway.”
我温顺地点点头承认。“我做了很多听起来不错的事情。但我仍然是一个完全的消费者,过着我从美国中产阶级家庭继承来的消费生活方式。I’ve heard recycling compared to the idea of hammering a nail to stop a collapsing skyscraper.你可以站在后面欣赏你的作品,但一旦建筑变成废墟,这就不重要了。”2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率
我的邻居仍然抱着胳膊。“这有点宿命论的意味。”她审视着门廊上散落的塑料碎片。她脸上的防御表情变成了困惑。“那为什么所有的大公司都在谈论你?”我的孩子们在他们的学校做了大量的回收项目。”
我挠了挠脖子后面。“是的,我在城里教过很多回收课程和项目。这是学校想要的,也是我们的自然中心得到资助的原因。但我承认,我不认为我曾被要求教授减少或重用项目。”
回收者发出一声沮丧的嘶嘶声,伸出一只手,把鸟儿从喂食器上吓了一跳。“减少、再利用、再循环。我是故意排在最后的。在处理废物方面,我应该是最后考虑的。”在穿过枫树的斑驳阳光下,回收者慢慢闭上了眼睛。“我容易。我的乐趣。我让你感觉很好,你不需要改变你的生活方式。只要在入口处放一个蓝色的垃圾桶,你就对地球友好了。我经常得到石油公司的资助。There’s a rabbit hole to research.”
我的邻居额头上的皱纹还很深,但她松开了双臂。“你在说什么?”
Recycling straightened up, looking intensely at us both. “I’ve become a token effort. And all I can produce is token results if I’m all people do. For all the recycling efforts of the past three decades, we’ve still ended up with theGreat Pacific Garbage Patchand microplastics in fish.And in 2018, China stopped buying America’s plastic trash.There’s no place for this stuff to go. But you all keep making it.”
There was a long pause made more awkward by the trickle of tampon applicators slowly spilling from Recycling’s side.
我的邻居试图解决这个尴尬的局面。“那么……以前和你在一起的那两个人呢?”你们三个为什么不在一起了?”
Recycling slumped and shrugged. “Reducing and Reusing? Yeah, they’re around somewhere. They’re just not nearly as popular.”
我指着身后。“自从我们搬到宅基地后,他们一直和我一起工作。They’re up by the barn at the moment.”
Recycling’s eyes brightened as I shouted toward the barn for them to join us on the trash-covered porch.
As they approached, I explained to my neighbor that it wasn’t until I left the city and became a homesteader that I really came face-to-face with my own waste and lifestyle. Like she had said, these rural areas don’t have a waste collection service. When I moved here every bit of trash I produced was my direct problem. Up until then, I had outsourced personal responsibility for my consumptive habits. But now, there is no sending it to oblivion.
“No offense to you, Recycling, but I now know that recycling has the least positive impact for our land. Reducing the amount of waste purchased or created, and reusing materials to keep them from becoming waste in the first place, have become absolutely, critically important. I have a whole new perspective on what it means to live responsibly.”
Reusing stood quietly at the edge of the porch and Reducing nodded hello. They were used to awkward receptions.
“它们看起来不一样了,”我的邻居小声说。
“It’s because they’re total lifestyle changes,” I explained. “Not just putting items in a different bin. Recycling honestly doesn’t affect our daily life much.”
Recycling grinned innocently. “What are you saying? Big businesses and celebrities love me, and I make people money. Reducing and Reusing are the ones that are hard to promote. They’re socially awkward — and require people to give things up.”
Reusing agreed. “Everyone can praise a school program that has kids tugging loaded recycle bins to the curb. But few would question how the recycle bins had gotten so full in the first place. And even fewer extoll kids wearing patched clothing, even if it is perfectly serviceable.”
Then Reducing added. “These concepts are difficult to implement and define. And they’re hard to incentivize for profit. Rather than a relocation of items, these lifestyle changes demand a system overhaul. When you reduce how much you purchase, it doesn’t support the economy. Reducing won’t contribute to anyone’s bottom line.”
“But at least it would stop some of my plastic assault.” Recycling heaved a sigh and staggered to stand. “Well, thanks for listening. I can’t sit here all day. Give me that glass you’ve saved — I’ll take it to town.”
I lugged out the galvanized trash can and handed it over.
“Thanks, Recycling. That’s one less trip.”
I glanced around the plastic-strewn porch with dismay.
Recycling stumbled away with my glass bottles, already past the cattle gate.
“Hey!” my neighbor shouted, pointing at my porch. “Aren’t you going to at least clean up this mess before you go?”
Recycling bent over with one last, gut-wrenching cough, and then straightened up from the newly deposited pile of plastic takeout forks. “Have you heard nothing?” Recycling asked. “I’m not the answer to dealing with that mess.”
My neighbor looked at me and pulled out her gardening gloves. “Looks like we’ve got some work to do. Where do we get started?”
“Well,” I began. “Let’s start with getting this single-use plastic gone.”
我不知道如何解决大范围的塑料污染问题。我不知道是否有人知道答案。我能分享的是从日常生活中开始消除一次性塑料的方法。Here’s an incomplete list … please comment below and we’ll add to the suggestions.
- Don’t use those flimsy produce bags at the grocery store. Just put the whole broccoli or trio of oranges directly on the counter, and they’ll ring them up the same.
- Buy secondhand. Buying new items is overrated. Someone else is trying to sell what you are looking for, guaranteed. It’ll be a fraction of the new price, it won’t be extravagantly packaged, and you may even make a friend.
- 购买翻新的电子产品。你将继续使用这些完美实用的技术而不用在我们无尽的设备中增加新设备的包装。
- 用其他方式获取商品。如果你有勇气去问,交易和物物交换其实并没有死。
- 把那句古老的、关于萧条的格言贴在家里的某个地方。“Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.”Challenge yourself to implement it at least once a day.
- 戒掉包装食品。不要只是学习如何烹饪,要学习如何用完整的食材烹饪。这对你有好处,你会有更少的垃圾。
- Use reusable menstrual pads orcupsor make your own.
- Use cloth diapers.
- 制作你自己的自我护理产品(如洗发水、护发素和乳液),并将它们储存在可重复使用的玻璃瓶中。
- Stop using plastic wrap and start storing food in cloth or reusable containers.
- Use cloth shopping bags.
- Use wooden teethers and toys for babies.
- 学会使用直剃刀,或者充电的电动剃须刀。
- Make homemade snacks for your kids and with reusable containers. The amount of packaging on kids’ snacks is unbelievable.
- Wash zip-close bags and reuse them. They last a surprisingly long time.
- Pop your own popcorn the old-fashioned way.
- 保存包装,并为未来的运输重复使用。如果你经常在网上购物和销售,那么你可以很方便地用一个进箱的包装来填充下一批货物。
Chrissays
I have reused an enormous amount of stuff over the years. But this article states both the problem and solution. I could have done without all of the retching and burping and hacking because it is kinda gross, but then, so is the horrible issue at hand. Point taken.
I find it nearly impossible to FIND items to purchase that do not involve clamshell packaging and/or other plastic packaging that is superfluous. Reckon it’s time to contact the various store Corporates and raise some heck.
Thanks for poking me Kane.
Eckhartsays
Most plastic is made from crude oil. If it can not be recycled it should be burned, and specialized power stations do just that to produce electricity. Europe has developed this technology successfully. There remains the issue of toxic exhaust gasses from such plants, but at super-high temperatures and specialized shrubbers the emissions from these power plants are well within EU-standards.