I remember the days when we could literally throw things away. Recently, I’ve become aware that there is no “away” and probably never has been. Scientists tell us that matter is never truly destroyed; that it is simply changed into another form. Trees die and fall to the ground, to be consumed by fungi, insects, other plants or become soil that is blown and washed away by wind and water to new locations and other purposes. Mother Nature had it all figured out until we homo sapiens (who are a greedy part of nature) began using more than our share of the resources and dramatically upset the balance.
We commandeer the soil to raise crops in excess of our needs. In doing so, we eliminate plants and creatures in the form of weeds and insects that threaten our over-abundant harvest. Consequently, we deprive other plants of the pollinators they require, and other animals of the habitat and foods they depend on. Our sins against nature, however, don’t end there.
We have an apparently insatiable appetite for what we think of as “progress.” This results in the invention and manufacture of gadgets and toys that we soon replace with more advanced versions; the original, more primitive ones are discarded; dumped into landfills along with all the other short-term “necessities” we discard such as the extravagant and unnecessary packaging that once contained those treasures that have now become trash.
Think about this; If you are at all conscientious about recycling paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass containers, you probably realize that the contents of those containers and packages often comprise less bulk than the containers themselves. All the excess packaging and containers represent, not only way too much stuff going into landfills, but a totally thoughtless misuse and waste of some of our natural resources.
This excess represents more than just the waste of resources and increasing landfills. For instance: a small plastic toy may weigh four ounces. Encased in a plastic bubble attached to a colorful piece of cardboard, it probably weighs twice as much. It takes up more room when packed for shipping. The shipper must pay for either the extra weight, the extra bulk or both and therefore must charge more for the product. The truck that carries the product to market could carry far more of the toys if they weren’t so over-packaged, this would mean fewer trips and less fuel to get the product to you. Again, lower transportation cost, lower wholesale and retail prices.
I am not so young that I can’t remember the days when containers were reused as a matter of course. Mayonnaise and pickles came in jars with screw tops to fit Mason jar lids for home canning. Milk bottles were sent back to the dairy, sterilized, refilled and used many times over. Pop bottles were glass and returned to the bottling plant to be similarly reused. My dad managed a bottling plant for a short time during WWII and I was aware that the cost of glass pop bottles exceeded the profit from the pop until they had been reused a fairly large number of times.
Our modern throw-away attitude has resulted in a growing problem of contaminated waterways, polluted air, endangered wildlife and mounting roadside trash, The “Adopt-A-Highway” program isn’t helping much. Any sense of community pride has dwindled tragically. Global warming and its effects are our own doing. Some people think it’s a natural cycle of our planet’s evolution; that the repetition of previous alternating ice ages and hot-dry cycles is inevitable. Forest fires and aberrant weather patterns are some of the results of our disregard for the delicate balance nature strives to maintain. We are finally beginning to realize that those forest fires, tornadoes, more frequent and more violent tropical storms are the result of some of the thoughtless things we persist in doing. They might be inevitable, but we have vastly accelerated the process. It just might be that Mother Nature has had it and is getting even with us.