... and proud of it. Here's what triggered the post title... something Kris left in comments to a previous post, to wit:
Wine in bottles. Bottles are glass. Glass is recyclable. We do recycling in our town.Ummm... we don't do recycling here in P-Ville. We are, apparently, unreconstructed Neanderthals in that all our waste... bottles, cans, kitchen garbage, cardboard boxes (large and small), what-have-you... goes into the dumpsters here at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park and from there off to the landfill. I contrast this to previous lives, wherein we saved all our bottles and cans and hauled them off to the local grocery store on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for to redeem the nickel or dime deposits (depending on whether we were in Michigan or New York) we paid when purchasing our beer and soft drinks. There are no such deposits here in unreconstructed New Mexico, and I'm glad for it. I frickin' HATED saving all those damned cans and bottles and hauling them off every so often. But I hated the thought of losing that money even more... so I played the game. No more. I cheerfully toss all my bottles and cans into the garbage with nary a thought and most certainly without regret.
Consumption of good quality wine = being environmentally conscious.
Al Gore will finally return my calls! ;-)
It wasn't always so and it most definitely used to be worse: I could still be living in Berkeley, where I had to sort my trash into (a) kitchen waste, (b) paper... bundled and tied according to specific instructions issued by the Powers That Be, (c) green glass, (d) brown glass and (e) clear glass... there being separate and discrete receptacles for all the aforementioned categories of refuse located in the trash area of my apartment complex (actually a four-plex of apartments) in said City of Berkeley. Failure to comply with the city's recycling requirements guaranteed you a visit from the Berkeley Trash Police... I shit thee NOT. And this was nearly ten years ago... in the Year of Our Lord 2000.
Things got better when I left Berkeley and moved out to San Ramon, where the City Fathers were less environmentally conscious... or had access to bigger landfills. Recycling in those parts of the Bay Area remained a matter of personal choice... and it might please those of you Gentle Readers who take this sort of thing seriously that I did separate my glass from the rest of the trash and put it in the conveniently-provided recycle bins.
But no more. I never even give this sort of thing a passing thought, except for when the subject rears its less-than-comely head... such as it did when Kris broached the subject. I cheerfully throw my cans and bottles away with a nary a guilt-twinge and am supremely glad for the opportunity to do so. Thank you, P-Ville and New Mexico. I love you.
Yep. Al Gore would hate me if he knew. So be it. We're known both by the company we keep and the quality of our enemies, right? If that's truly the case then I have the best of all possible enemies.
Gee ... I make a tongue-firmly-implanted-in-cheek comment and it sparks a rant. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't say I like recycling - my town requires it. That and it gave me an excuse to spotlight the additional side benefits of drinking bottles of wine.
Good wine.
Really good wine.
Exceptionally good wine.
And I'm still waiting for ManBearPig Gore to call me. Cuz I'm doing my part. Unlike his sorry a$$.
I've adjusted to not having curbside recycling -- Katrina blew it away and our Trash Czarina deems it not cost-effective to bring it back, hence . . . .
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't mind recycling. I raised my kids to recycle. Now, we can either pay a private service to come pick up the recyclables at curbside, or "store" them so WE can deliver them to a drop-off site once a frickin' quarter. What?!?!
Anyway, I'm on board with you now, and quite content to chunk them into the big green monster trash can.
Also -- I just read on another blog that ASCAP may start coming after bloggers who embed music. Thought I'd give you a heads up, just in case. Here's the post: http://rustmeister.blogspot.com/2009/07/end-of-music.html
Kris -- there are plenty of really good empty wine bottles chunked into the big green monster trash can in my non-mandatory recycling city! Unless I decide to use them as candlesticks. But that's recycling, too, isn't it? Ahh, Big Al can be my friend after all!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't take recycling quite so cavalier as you guys.
ReplyDeleteBack in the late '80's PA was facing a landfill shortfall and tipping fee's were getting out of control. You know,supply and demand.
Seems though that the laws of unintended consequences overruled environmental laws passed by the legislature. It seems the NIMBY crowd forced the closure of many landfills prematurely and stopped the development of many more. On top of that, where NIMBY was not an issue they created all these onerous rules regarding the siting of a landfill (proximity to population centers, highway access, etc.) as well as to their design, they had to be bermed just so, have a rubber outer layer with an inner clay lining, drain fields which collected rain water INSIDE the pile had to be installed and tied to a Sewage Treatment plant. You can only imagine what with do-gooder Liberals calling the shots. They also mandated a myriad of operational rules; hours of operation, cleanliness of the road in and out of the site as well as a thing called "top cover" which is a 2" layer of dirt that has to be placed on the mound every night (which is where all the topsoil is going here in PA).
All this and it still was not enough, so they mandated curbside recycling. And it is very aggressive here in PA. We do paper, cardboard, glass (all colors) and plastics (the ones marked 1 to 7). And 4-times a year they do household hazard waste items (batteries, motor oil, tires, etc) and 4-times a year they do Electronics collections. So aggressive that they say we have capacity for 100 years.
No Trash Police - yet.
There has been one bright note, lots of out of state trash coming in now that we have all this capacity!! Those landfill operators have to make a buck somehow!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Kris sez: I didn't say I like recycling - my town requires it.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand, and I didn't mean to infer you did.
Moogie: Thanks for that music link... but don't you think ASCAP would go after YouTube first?
And... I had me some Mateus candlesticks back in the day, LOL!
Jimmy: I'm not quite as cavalier about recycling as I make myself out to be. I will not commit poisonous substances to a landfill and I have a big-ass pile of spent batteries and one CFL to prove it. But bottles and cans? To the dump... posthaste!
Some people have an abundance of land and little water - so they bury their trash. Some people have an abundance of water and little land - so they wash their trash and separate it neatly. NM has lots of land, but little water. I would think that the smaller populated communities in NM would have a difficult time with the cost of recycling. And if there ain't no profit...
ReplyDeleteGood points, Lou. Especially on the profit thing. :D
ReplyDeleteHere in Vegas, I'd have to take the stuff to the recycling center myself. Uh, no thanks! I toss everything into the dumpster. But I DO freecycle stuff I don't need or want. That means somebody who DOES need or want it comes and gets it.
ReplyDeleteChristina: I'd do the exact same thing, were I you.
ReplyDeleteToss it all. Relax and have a drink. Be glad the city leaders of Pville haven't drunk the EcoKool-aid.
ReplyDeleteI think my lucky stars daily, Gordon.
ReplyDelete