Somehow the words ‘garbage’ and ‘gestapo’ don’t sound like they belong together, but if you live in my city they fit together just fine.
A number of years ago the City Fathers decided they wanted to make the city more attractive and at the same time start recycling seriously. Both of these ideas are good. However, the plan needs work!
They finally contracted with Waste Management to pick up the garbage and recycle stuff and the fun began. It took awhile for the citizens to get used to the idea of hauling those big containers to the curb on their designated day for trash pickup. A number of them still haven’t gotten used to only one day a week for trash pickup.
The idea of using those bins is a good one. The bins come with a bar so the trucks can use an automated bin lifter and dump the contents into the truck, thus saving time and eliminating the need for extra workers to lift and dump the containers. The idea was to make the streets look much neater since the containers are all alike, except for color to differentiate between the trash and recycle containers. However, while in theory it is a good idea, it doesn’t always work in real life.
When the bins are placed on the curb by the citizens, they are generally lined up fairly neat. However, once the trucks come by, the bins are strewn all over the street. Sometimes cars have to dodge them to avoid hitting them. For some reason the trash sometimes ’spills’ out onto the street so the citizens have to pick it up when they come home from work. Occasionally the bar lifter misses the bin bar and knocks the bin over resulting in trash all over the place.Does the truck stop and the driver pick it up? Not likely in this lifetime! So does this should make the city more attractive? In practice it leaves much to be desired.
Because the trash is picked up only once a week, sometimes the citizens dump the overflow into the recycle bins. This contaminates the contents to be recycled and the whole load may have to be dumped into the landfill. There are larger carts to be had, but since they cost more every month, consumers on a short budget don’t want to get one. Some folks with large families just can’t afford the extra cost, a fact the City Fathers fail to realize. (Maybe they just don’t care!)
Enter the ‘Garbage Gestapo’. This is a special crew that goes around inspecting people’s recycle carts. If anything is found that doesn’t meet the criteria for recycling the poor beleaguered culprits get a fine of up to $250!
Personally I have a real problem with other folks rummaging through the recycle bin. So I shred everything and dump it in the trash. I would like to recycle all that paper, but I don’t want my identity stolen so it goes in the trash where the ‘Gestapo’ doesn’t search.
I rather suspect residents of nearby cities laugh about our ‘Garbage Gestapo’. I wish I could!
Martha
Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon about ‘going green’. Generally speaking, I think that is a good thing. We need to conserve our resources, water, energy etc.
However, this idea of ‘paying a carbon offset’ is a bunch of hooey! All it amounts to is someone has figured out a way to make money from ‘going green’. You send them money to assuage your guilty conscience about using so much energy. They put the money to use and then sell what they do to people with more money than sense. There may be some of these folks who are really trying, but if you put ‘carbon offset’ into a Google search field, you will get almost two million hits. Figure it out.
Supposedly if you drive your car to work every day, go on a road trip or fly to your favorite vacation spot; you can ‘pay’ a carbon offset to make up for the pollution your car or airplane ride puts into the air. Nuts! I don’t care how much you pay, the pollution is still there. You can pay all you want, no one has yet figured out a way to get paying money will remove the carbon that modern life has filled our atmosphere. True, there are projects that are trying to find ways to clean up the junk, but you can do your part by using some common sense.
Go green by turning off appliances when they are not being used. This includes lights and TVs. Replace your light bulbs with energy saving florescent bulbs. They do cost more, but last a lot longer and don’t burn nearly as much energy. The old incandescent bulbs give off heat. If you live in any area that is hot and you have air conditioning, that heat just makes your cooling unit work that much harder.
There are so many ways to conserve energy. I won’t list them here, but nearly every utility company has a website with tons of ways to save energy listed.
Some of the projects that are supported by the ‘carbon offset’ sites include planting trees and shrubs. This is a good thing; planting trees and shrubs is always good. I think there is a society that has been practicing this for a very long time, The National Arbor Day Foundation.
They will send you free trees to plant. Just read this article The Carbon Neutral Myth! It is pretty large pdf file, but worth reading.
Martha
I think I want my money back! The TV is not showing anything good anymore! An article in the paper described some of the new fall lineup for TV and now I know what is meant by a ‘vast wasteland’.
What happened to the good shows? I guess those little jerks in TV writer-land think all of the mature people in the world don’t watch TV anymore and guess what? We don’t!
Is it really entertaining to watch a so-called comedy show that consists of no plot, sexual innuendos and put-downs? Not for me; and my family and friends all agree.
And what about all those Reality shows? Tell me, do you really like to watch people eat worms or try to get the other people thrown off the island or where ever they happen to be? Is this what people really find entertaining?
I recall reading sometime ago that once a writer hits the 30 year old mark; they are considered ‘too old’ in Hollywood. Well if that’s the case maybe that explains all of the drivel being displayed on TV these days.
If it weren’t for the Science, Learning, Discovery and National Geographic channels, I wouldn’t have anything to watch! Except of course, my favorite sport, FOOTBALL! (Guess I’ll keep my TV for now)
Martha