I'm sitting at my kitchen table trying to "quickly" understand the framework of President Obama's budget plan. It’s not happening; I’m going to need more time. I'm not writing to support or tear down President Obama’s budget; I'm selfishly trying to figure out how to determine the role packaging and the packaging industry plays, if any, in his plans.
We all know that President Obama wants to increase spending to promote clean sources of energy, such as wind and solar power. What about recycling? To this day, it isn't a mandatory practice. Should it be mandatory for residents? What about businesses? What about governments? In every major city I’ve seen in the US, there are garbage cans on every street, but no containers dedicated to plastics or paper. With a high volume of recycled material, wouldn't it help bring costs of materials that use a percentage of post consumer material down? Wouldn’t that reduce the need for virgin materials, thus saving natural resources? I don't see recycling as a "sacrifice"; I see it as a positive contribution to society.
Well, with that, I will get up from my table, place my recycled materials into the proper bins, turn off the energy efficient lights in my kitchen, relax on my couch in my "fairly" warm home, and try again to read through some of the highlights of the budget plan.
Mr. Oris:
I love to hear "instruct" us on recycling, sustainability and the like and then create thousands of printed pages of documents that none of them read. First step? Practice what you preach!! It would be amazing if all governments went paperless.
Try it for yourself. I don't generate printed materials. I ask all communications and documents be submitted to me in digital form (no hard copy). It is simply amazing how simple filing, sorting, storing paperwork becomes when there isn't any. If I could eliminate junk mail, catalogues, notices (that could be submitted digitally), I would have little to recycle or throw away.
I see our society trying to find the "big" solutions to sustainability when the best opportunities are the thousands of little steps that cost nothing to implement but yield huge reductions in energy consumption and massive elimination of land fill needs.
Individuals can solve our problems....if we pay attention, think, and take small steps.
Thanks for the post and the opportunity to respond.
Good example. I'm trying that, but am still struggling with contracts, etc. that need personalization and signatures. And as a graphic artist (or digital artist)... there are just many times that a printout helps find mistakes and sizing challenges. But... getting there!!!
Carolyn CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com [32]
I think energy is such a huge problem that it has to be digested by taking one bite at a time, don't you? Recycling is working -- but we don't have the market for all the materials that are collected. So burning it appears to be the next step in the recycling trendline -- much as I hate that concept. When we burn anything -- it creates heat and heat creates climate change. We have to change the entire system and that takes a zigzag process of demand and supply, supply and demand. We can help it along by BUYING items with recycled content as well as reducing our own waste. And reusing as many containers as possible for secondary uses. We're getting there...slowly, but more and more people are making changes in their work and personal choices. Carolyn