A Mundan Topic that Should be on the Front Burner
Being up to my neck in City government and community affairs for two or three decades left me unable to leave them behind. There is a topic no one seems interested in but affects the health of every human being on earth. It is plastic. (Does anyone else remember the one-word line from Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate, "Plastics.")
Today the Attorney General of California tossed the first bombshell of attack against the petroleum and plastics industries. He said they have been lying to the public for decades about recycling. While most every piece of plastic has a number on it that implies it is recycled in some manner, historically only about 9% of this plastic has been recycled. Numbers on bottles are a facade leading the public to think the bottle they tossed will be reused in some way. Mostly, it will not.
For some decades plastic from recycling bins has been loaded into empty ocean containers which are loaded onto ships headed to the poorest ports in the world. China no longer accepts them. The trash is off loaded into piles in these poor countries and either dumped into the ocean or goes into oceans after going into rivers. The fish eat the plastic. We eat the fish.
You and I are part of this problem when we put plastic into "recycling" bins rather than garbage. Landfills are not a solution but they contain the harm better than containers going to Asia. We also pay the fright to Asia through the recycling fees charged by municipalities and garbage companies like Waste Management. We, the gullible, like to pay these recycling fees because we believe we are being good and conscientious citizens. It is popular for local and state officials to promote themselves as advocates of recycling. They are being conned like the rest of us.
Some 30 years ago honest people in the waste business said recycling would not come close to keeping up with the coming flow of plastic. It is clear that has happened. On top of that, the plastic that is recycled into some other use can only be used once more or twice. Then is trash.
The solution for now is to not cooperate with the ruse. Put plastics into the garbage and demand use of other material.
Jon; Interesting, As I speak, there is a documentary on NrTV PG AHC entitled "The Nazi Jesus". Completely destroying your insinuations of Hitler, including the Nazi movement as being even remotely related to Christianity of any stripe. This has been well known for decades, but not so clearly presented.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, when as a young soldier, he wrote poems in the trenches related to being saved by Thor as related to Germanic,/ Nordic Paganism,, mysticism and esoterica, which is also indicated in his Mein Kamph. The TV show was also not too kind to the pope in his reluctance to confront Hitler. It did show the results could have been worse for "the church" if he had, so it's a toss up. The show also did reveal documentation where if the war had continued, the next step would have been to treat Christians as the Jews had been treated, as they were a threat to the "new" German emperor worship of the German National religion. Interesting stuff.
DeleteThat is interesting. Without Hitler's mistakes in wars he surely would have stayed in power for a while. As you ask, where would he have taken the country? I keep coming back to a couple of personal observations about what ordinary people thought Hitler was all about. One was "Gilsa" who worked at the NDUS Book Store for years. She had met Hitler at a wedding when he was on his way up. And, she experienced the war, walking back and forth across the lines to visit family. She was convinced he started out as a decent person and was taken astray by staff. Another was a biography by a leading German pilot. When he was downed somewhere in Europe some peasants asked him if he minded the cross in their living room. He said no, Hitler had a cross too. They were grateful. I'm guessing Hitler's religious view will be discussed for hundreds of years to come.
DeleteYes, the bent cross.
Deletere. "as you ask, where would he have taken the country" Didn't ask that . We already know where he took it.
DeleteI think there is more to this.
ReplyDeletePlastic straws and shopping bags are a red herring in this debate. The majority of single-use plastic comes from packing material, and it's not even close.
I agree, most of the trash comes from industry. I'm just saying it is not truthful for the oil/plastic industry to claim they are recycling our consumer goods when mostly they are not.
DeleteHere in Phoenix, they flat out told us that about four years ago.
DeleteWe had a public vote so that the City of Phoenix could decide what to do with the recycling program given the fact that the majority of their plastic was going to the landfill anyway. They told us this, and still the faux greenies were insistent that we needed to continue to recycle plastic.
I've been opposed to recycling plastic for some time now. We've had peer reviewed documentation that explains where the ocean plastic is coming from for over a decade. It primarily came from our recycling programs.
Yet, no one seems to care about the fact that I purchased a tuner for my guitar the other day. It came in a plastic package that was wrapped in cellophane. Inside was a plastic insert to hold it in place along with more cellophane. The charging cable also came in a plastic zip lock bag.