Sure, I recycle a little bit, but certainly I could do more to preserve the environment.
And I think I'm probably about average when it comes to how much I do to preserve the environment.
This means the average American probably isn't doing much either.Seems to me, though, in terms of the environment, the problem is consumption.
Honestly, we are all about convenience in this country. There are lots of examples of how things have become more convenient over the years.
And in just about every case, the convenience leads to the consumption of more resources.
Think of all the single-serving foods and beverages available to us. Convenient, to be sure. But how wasteful of resources is it to double or triple the amount of packaging needed?
And all that packaging ultimately does is wind up in a landfill somewhere.
The other day I was thinking about disposable razors. Do you know how many of those things Americans buy each year?
Two billion.
No, I am not making that up. Two billion.
Convenient? You bet. But all 2 billion of them, every year, by design, wind up in a landfill.
It's crazy.
In the old days, a straight razor and a leather strap would would last half a lifetime.
I'm not advocating a return to the days of the straight razor, but honestly, 2 billion disposables seems a bit wasteful, doesn't it?
Think of the resources expended to injection mold the handle, forge the blade, assemble it, package it and ship it. All so it can be used a few times and then sent to a landfill.
Remember the old double-edged razors? Did you have a medicine cabinet with a slot in the back with a little "used blades" decal. You put old blades in there and they fell down between the studs in the wall. You could put blades in there for two lifetimes and it would never fill up.
But at least the razors in the landfills don't pose significant health risks.
Batteries are another story.
We here in the U.S. purchase more than 2 billion of those each year.
That's right. Two billion.
Think of all the convenient little toys and devices that are operated by batteries. Not the least of which, of course, is the remote control for the television.
Problem is that, by design, batteries wear out and many of they wind up in the landfill.
Most batteries contain metals like mercury, cadmium and nickel.
When they wind up in the landfill, lots of time they get crushed or broken and the metals wind up leaching into the ground and ground water.
And even if they aren't damaged, over time they decay with the same result.
It's not really good to incinerate them either because vaporized mercury gets into the air and the other metals concentrate in the ashes produced.
The number one source of mercury in landfills is household batteries.
You really don't want to ingest much mercury. It can damage your brain or your kidneys.
Have you ever noticed all the consumption alerts for fish these days? Even fish caught right here in Kosciusko County are part of the alert. You're supposed to limit your fish consumption because of the level of mercury in the fish.
Sad, isn't it?
We've only touched on batteries and disposable razors here.
There are lots of other things we buy by the billions and then throw away.
Seems to me that this behavior can't be sustainable.
Can we just keep expending resources to make stuff and then throw it away forever? I don't think so.
I don't know what the answer is, but I think at least part of it has to rest with us consumers.
We probably need to stop consuming so much.
But you know what? We are, after all, the world's biggest consumers and I don't see us turning that around anytime soon.
