Phil Gutis's Blog
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September 16, 2007
Posted by Phil Gutis in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment
I'll admit it. I'm an addict. I'm completely addicted to Diet Coke in all of its many varieties. Regular, with Lime and now even Diet Coke plus with minerals and vitamins added. (I do giggle when I buy those; the absurdity of thinking that I'm getting healthy while getting my daily fix is almost too silly to comprehend.)
Thankfully, I'm also addicted to recycling so I can justify all of those empty soldiers lined up on my desk awaiting the trip to the recycling bin. (My husband never knows what he'll find when he opens my suitcase after a long business trip. Often there are more empty bottles than I'd like to admit stuffed into every nook and cranny.)
All of this is why I was delighted to hear the other morning that the Coca-Cola Co. is building a new recycling facility in Spartanburg, SC. The company's long-term goal is to see each and every one of its bottles shredded -- yes 100 percent -- and returned to the PET supply stream. An admirable goal even if the timeline for achieving the 100 percent nirvana was somewhat squishy. You can read more about it here in an appropriately skeptical story from Cox News Service.
One great factoid from the Cox story: "Currently, all of the PET that can be recovered through bottle reclamation efforts is gobbled up by an avid recycling industry that uses the material for a variety of products, including apparel and carpeting."
One not so great fact that nearly sent me off the side of the road (warning: listening to NPR while driving to work can be dangerous!) was the kicker to the story. Only about less than 20 percent of PET containers are currently being recycled around the country. Twenty percent? I thought recycling by now was an American as American pie.
But later that day, while on the phone with some folks in Knoxville, Tennessee, I learned that their communities do not yet offer curbside recycling. Not of bottles, not of newspapers, not of anything. Those who care enough about the environment to want to recycle have to lug stuff to a neighborhood recycling center. And we can just imagine how often that happens.
I often hear the question about what people who care about global warming can do once they've changed their light bulbs to compact fluorescents.The answer is typically a somewhat less-than-satisfying "urge Congress to get serious about global warming legislation."
Hearing that NPR report and from those folks in Knoxville has planted another thought in my mind. If we are serious about protecting the environment, maybe we need to return to our roots and adopt an aggressive campaign to force 100 percent of American communities to adopt curbside recycling. Anybody want to sign up for that campaign with me?
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Comments
Chris — Sep 20 2007 09:31 AM
Very interesting post. As a long-time volunteer youth sports coach who takes pride in instilling the fundamentals, I often think it's going to be impossible for the environmental community to make more progress on difficult issues like global warming until everyone is on board with the environmental basics -- like recycling.
I applaud any effort aimed at helping us execute the fundamentals. A 100 percent recycling rate should be the goal. So who's going to lead the campaign?
Phil Gutis — Sep 22 2007 10:38 AM
Chris,
Thanks for the comment. Wondering if you instill recycling as a fundamental value when coaching? My nephew is involved with soccer and when I go to the games I see kids tossing bottles without a thought into trash cans. Disheartening.
JNewton — Sep 23 2007 10:55 AM
Honestly, I think the magnitude of the problem we're facing is way beyond what a 100% recycling rate could do much for. It would be a step in the right direction, of course, but such a tiny step in the scheme of things.
If, however, we can REDUCE our consumption drastically and reorient ourselves as quickly as possible to living in a more equitable world, bringing our choices to a much more local level, that would be much bigger, I think.
How about providing a big water cooler with reusable cups for the sports games? If we could get 100% of sports teams behind that kind of idea, the impact would be much greater. (BTW, as I see it, sports, especially in their current form, and especially at the major league level, are a very egregiously non-sustainable enterprise.)
Note that I'm not saying there are bad people behind these damaging activities, just that the net effect is harmful.