How Hard Can It Really Be?
How hard can it really be? Yes I’m talking to you. I want to know how hard it can really be to just open your eyes and look at what is in front of you. . I spent one hour today sitting in a local Bridgehead coffee shop and witnessed a microcosm of what I expect is a global outbreak. I am absolutely astonished at the number of recyclable items that are thrown into the trash in one hour.
Bridgehead should be one of the better scenarios out there. It is a company that puts a great deal of effort into environmental and social responsibility and is a business that has taken care to have recycling and composting options available in addition to traditional waste. Every village, town and city has a cross section of options, some cities are worse than others, but in this case we are talking about a business that is taking extra care to provide solutions.
I sat and sipped on my Organic Fair Trade Ethiopian blend coffee, out of my mug and watched as customer after customer, with a few exceptions, scraped the entire contents of their lunch waste into the garbage bin. Six inches away from the garbage can is a big hole labeled “compost”, and six inches to the right of that was another opening labeled “glass and plastic.”
What is the problem here? The problem is consumer apathy; there is just no other excuse. It’s bad enough that when someone has had their food and beverage “for here” they still choose to get it in a paper cup or bag, but then to just pitch it all in the garbage can is a complete disrespect for the planet and its inhabitants.
According to all-recycling-facts.com "nearly 60 to 70 percent of waste found in dust bins can be recycled and reused and close to 50 percent of the same waste can be composted." The same site reports that "almost every hour, nearly 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped. It is not surprising that plastic bottles constitute close to 50 percent of recyclable waste in the dumps." These statistics are alarming, but not surprising based on what I saw in person.
We need to wake up, give our heads a shake, and make an effort. Those of us who are already doing our part have to try and have an impact on a few people that don’t seem to care. Those of us who are blindly contributing to the problem need to snap out of our lethargy.
What are you going to about it?
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