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Disposable printers? Stop being so trashy
Published Sunday, July 20, 2008
Our world is disposable, or at least most of us think so.
A dangerous combination of extremely low overseas manufacturing costs and our own quest for more comfort and ease has caused us to become a throw away nation.
An old friend said that she and her husband don’t actually buy new ink cartridges for their home computer printer. They just buy a new printer.
That logic shocked me.
Why would you throw away a perfectly good printer?
Easy, she said.
It’s almost cheaper to do so and for a few dollars more you get a brand, spanking new printer.
A new printer, she said, cost her $70. A full set of ink cartridges was nearly $60.
So once every 10 to 12 months, she tossed out the old printer and picked up a new one.
The problem with that logic is that in a few years time, this woman has created a great big pile of old printers that must be disposed of somewhere.
And she’s not alone. Americans have tons of “stuff” — as the late comedian George Carlin referred to in a routine.
Cruising the garage sales early on a Saturday morning reveals great wisdom is in the saying: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Think about it, some amazingly “unique” items are available on any given Saturday morning in driveways and front yard all across the country:
4Velvises (that’s my name for the amazing artwork depicting the late Elvis Presley on velvet) are always popular.
4Trucker crooner Red Sovine’s 1980 “Teddy Bear” compilation album on 8-track tape cartridge.
4A partially chewed up G.I. Joe doll from the late 1970s. (G.I. Joe was tough, but he was never intended to have to fend off the family pooch).
4A vintage Pac Man lunch box, with only a few dents.
While some of you may read those and think, “What a bunch of junk,” others are thinking to yourselves, “Dang, I haven’t heard a Red Sovine song since 1983.”
And while a good bit of that “garbage” is saved by transferring its ownership from one lucky soul to another for a few quarters here and a dollar bill there, much of our “stuff” winds up in landfills.
Our newsroom sought to illustrate just how much garbage an average Natchez family produces each year.
After a quick trip to the store, the newsroom staff rolled up its sleeves and began “filling” — and I use that term loosely because most of the bags were bits of paper or cardboard we’d saved up and a lot of air — some 250 garbage bags.
The amount amazed everyone in our building as the newsroom prepared for the photo shoot. Bags of faux trash filled up our conference room and then the hallway. In fact it took two trips with our cargo van just to get them to the location of the photo illustration shoot.
Statistically, those 250-plus bags represent the volume of trash an average Natchez household produces in a year.
Doing the math, that’s approximately 170 pounds per month or a little over one ton — 2,000 pounds — a year.
When you consider the impact for the whole community, the numbers get staggering — millions of pounds of garbage each year.
And it’s not just items that wouldn’t sell at the garage sale, either.
With no city or county wide recycling program, massive amounts of “stuff” is being buried that doesn’t have to be.
Yes, we live in a disposable world, but unfortunately, we can’t just ball up the earth and start over from scratch.
We’ve got to start protecting it, one can, one bottle and one Velvis at a time.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.
Comments
Posted by Idefinitelymight (Tom Scarborough) on July 20, 2008 at 5:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So true, Kevin.
And the sad part is, we Americans justify this wasteful and reckless consumption by telling ourselves that "it is good for the economy," and "it provides jobs." Only in our nation could being simultaneously gluttonous and wasteful be construed as an altruistic act of patriotism.
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I wonder how many cubic meters of trash the country's newspapers have contributed to the nation's landfields. It must be a lot.
It's okay though, it's just a matter of re-education. Programs such as Laura Bush's Junior Rangers and First Bloom are blazing the trail for our nation's youth to be properly educated in environmentalism and now that we are a Preserve America Community, along with hundreds of others across the US, we will soon be undergoing re-education as well. Why, already we've seen the movement begin in our local press.
Really, the responsibility for a lot of this trash should fall squarely on the heads of those who profit from the generation of it. Newspaper companies, for example, should collect and deliver to recycling centers used newspapers at their expense. If they have the capacity to deliver papers they have the capacity to collect them.
I rather suspect that what the Democrat has in mind though is a recycling center funded by taxpayers. And that is as it should be, as all the earth's resources are a common heritage and it is only fitting that the masses assume the debt portion of protecting the earth while enlightened corporate interests assume the profit portion.
Posted by dangyankee (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 11:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Anybody have any solutions to offer?
Other communities and states actually have been addressing the issue for at least 20 years now. Columbia, Missouri, for instance, following the lead of states like Iowa and (I think) Maine and others, instituted a 5-cent deposit on cans and bottles sometime in the 1980s. Kansas City, Missouri, in the early 1990s set a 1-bag-per-household-per-week limit on trash, thereby encouraging recycling, or at least the "compression" of trash like boxes, etc., by the simple expedient of tearing them up so that you don't have trashbags full of air going to landfills.
Those are just off-the-top-of-my-head examples.
Problem is, and I don't know how you tackle this, is that we are a consumption-driven economy (66% of our GNP, last I heard).
Oh well . . . If the price of gas keeps going up, few of us will have money to spend on stuff in disposable containers, anyway.
Sort of related note: Does anyone but me remember the story from sometime in the 1980s about the fact that a significant percentage of trash filling landfills was phone books?
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The solution is simple dangyankee. Rate increases now on trash collection could serve as collateral for bonds to fund a recycling program. The sky is the limit on this thing, Nathez-Adams County can have as good a recycling program as the city and county desire. The problem of declining participation seen in other cities after initial enthusiams could be warded off by making participation mandatory through new city and county ordinances making it a misdemeanor not to participate.
Waste collection rate increases combined with stiff fines for non-participation and Community Waste Policing could give this initiative a sound start.
Posted by lookingout (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 11:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
well i hope they dont make us go to 1 bag of trash a week cause i have 2 kids and we have more than 1 bag a week
Posted by Bobaloo (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If folks would recycle, the weekly general garbage will go down by at least 50%. Twice a week gen garb p/u could go down to once a week. Recycling p/u could be every other week and that right there is less garbage/recycling truck p/u times on the road and fuel in the tank. This is a sytem that me and my family of 4 worked of off for several years. It did not impact our lifestyle one bit. it felt good to not fill the earth up with unecessary landfill that won't degrade properly or quickly enough.
Posted by natchez1 (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 4:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Kevin - This lady seems a little silly -
Why throw it out when she could donate it to a school, goodwill or even give it to a friend.
Most new printers are sold will "starter inks" they are not full cartridges, and if she is getting a year out of the original ink she is not printing much!
Natchez does need to recycle - we used to have some places but no more.
The only way I can recycle is to save my drink cans and leave them in the trash cans in the park. People who need a little extra cash always pull out the "coke cans" from the trash and sell them. Its not much but it saves a little and helps out someone in need.
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on July 20, 2008 at 6:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree natchez1...Why doesn't she go to wal greens have them filled?
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on July 21, 2008 at 7:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
natchez1, the animal shelter will take your cans to sell. Just drop them off at the shelter on Liberty Road. They also use newspapers to line the kennels with. I get rid of the slick sales papers becaue they can't use those (no absorbtion), and stack the rest in large trash bags until I can drop them off.
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on July 21, 2008 at 10:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
EnK...you should be ashamed of yourself trolling for innocent, unknowing commentators with sarcasm like that as bait...LOL.
Is anyone but me here old enough to remember deposits on pop bottles?...rhetorical question...I know no one is gonna admit it. Man...we had every kid in town actively searching for bottles for the 1 cent refund and the roads were totally devoid of glass...of course, that was when 5 cents could buy another Coke or a candy bar.
It kinda fits nicely with Darwinism and my idea that the way to get rid of mosquitos, kudzu and poison ivy is to find commercial uses for them...they'd be endangered species soon enough.
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 12:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
heh..I thought you would appreciate that Sam.
Yeah, I remember the days when coke bottles were big business for kids. I remember one day on the bluff when a Natchez city cop stopped me on my bike and confiscated my coke bottles. Collecting bottles was so lucrative back then it attracted thieves.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 10:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We used to pull a wagon around the neighborhood and collect bottles, then go to the mom and pop store on the corner to turn them into new cokes and candy bars. Of course, we could go anywhere in those days and speak to anyone. Such a sad world now with the UN trying to take over everything! LOL
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 12:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hey freedom, take a look at this map. It is a map from the UN's Agenda 21 website showing countries with a National Sustainable Development Strategy being implemented. Blow it up to 200% so you can get a good look at it. Notice that countries in purple are said to have no NSDS- and that there are only four countries in the world said not to have one. The US is the largest, but this is misleading because the US provides 25% of the UN operating funds and it is from these funds Agenda 21 is implemented. Notice that the countries shown in green are all socialist or communist countries: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/natlinfo/n...
The US does in fact have an NSDS being implemented. The mayor of Meridian is mayor of one of more than 350 towns and cities across the US implementing Agenda 21 and he will be attending the upcoming Preserve America conference in Natchez.
Meridian's Membership in Agenda 21: http://www.iclei-usa.org/about-iclei/mem...
List showing National Association of Counties and US Conference of Mayors as Agenda 21 Members: http://www.iclei-usa.org/about-iclei/par...
Page showing Philip West as Member of US Conference of Mayors, Middleton is probably a member since the city pays the dues: http://www.usmayors.org/meetmayors/mayor...
So, how do you feel about having a mayor who belongs to an organization that is implementing an international treaty against the wishes of Congress? Happy or not?
List showing Adams County as a member of Natonal Association of Counties: http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section...
Same as above, how do you feel about having county supervisors belonging to an organization doing an end run around the Constitution? Happy or not?
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Enki - I have studied a lot of the sites you have posted. Believe me I am past getting concerned. I am extremely worried. But for all the info, I still lack knowledge of what, if anything, can be done to stop this Agenda 21. It seems to have been snuck in on us all, including our supervisors because I know some of them are not smart enough to realize what it is. So what can we do at this point? I feel more strongly that my family just needs to disappear.
Remember the movie Red Dawn? WOLVERINES!
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 10:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wolverines! Yes, that is the rallying cry...lol.
I don't think the situation is that bad freedom. At least I hope not. It does have me wondering too, just exactly what all this means. I mainly find it interesting that all this has been done, and that it has been so successful.
What can we do? Stop it? I don't think so, but there is a good chance it will collapse of its own weight, there is just no way to support such a massive beauracacy. I feel bad that I have made you worry, but remember that true freedom exists only inside of us and that is what we should seek above all. Man has outlived many oppressive governments and perhaps this is just a stage in man's political evolution.
The only other thing we can do is spread the word and hope opposition grows with expanding knowledge.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't feel bad - I worry all the time anyway! LOL
I once read that 90% of the things we worry about never happen, so I figured if I keep on worrying I'll have nothing bad happening! But you of all people see the opposition to seeing the truth even in our little group here. One reason I home-schooled, even above knowing my kids would receive more attention and knowledge, was because I felt the governmental control was getting out of hand. Keep the research going - we can only face the enemy if we know the enemy.
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 10:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
EnK...ALL of the green countries aren't socialist or communist unless you have an extraordinarily low threshold for the definition of those governmental forms...they are of various governmental types from monarchies to islamic "republics"...granted the large landmasses of Russia, China and Brazil make things look overwhelming...maybe you just looked at the colors.
So Meridian decided to join the left coast in radical environmental enthusiasm...it hardly is the norm for Mississippi or for the US.
If you look at the counties in Mississippi that AREN'T a part of ICLEI they are poor, mostly delta counties with hardly any population, except for livestock, and very low tax bases...thus they obviously decided not to opt to pay the dues...otherwise, almost every county in the country is a member...it's a practical networking thing.
Same goes for the NACO membership...it's a networking business and prestige thing...not some socialist conspiracy...hell, most of these good ole boys were half asleep and only vaguely heard something about voting for the environment so they raised their hand. If someone tried to inflict communism or socialism on them they'd be the first to sling their rifles.
I equate the lethargy to all the people who unknowingly literally buy into the AARP scam...AARP was created by an insurance guy to help him sell insurance...guess what?...it worked, and they're still doing it. Most people don't realize how liberal and socialist that organization is, and that their money is paying for it...they are a REAL threat.
My point is that we don't have and don't need another "Red Scare", which it seems to be your aim to incite...freedom's comments about hiding ala Red Dawn is telling...it plays right into the hands of the rightist radical survivalists, neo-fascists and fundamental religious isolationists own agendas.
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sam, if you go to GlobalEconomicGovernance.org you will see that number one on their mission statement is establishing new governance regimes of public/private partnerships. That is, as you know, the very definition of fascism, a blend of social democracy and corporate rule. If you look around on the US Conference of Mayors site you will see they give awards for excellence in establishing these publiic/private programs in US cities.
NACO and USCM as ICLEI partners are dedicated to furthering Agenda 21.
The EU, the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth are either implementing or developing implementation programs for Agenda 21. The EU, described in the EU Constitution just voted on in Lisbon (failed, but the EU vows to pretend it passed) describes the EU as the United States of Europe.
If you read about social conditions in the EU, UK and the Commonwealth those societies display very strong elements of anarchy, as does ours, typical of pure democracy. Those countries are all strongly socialist.
If you understand the aim of Agenda 21 and its counterpart, Program on Man and the Biosphere (almost got through Congress in 1996), the idea is to create compact cities with large unihabited zones around them. Mississippi is perfect for this program, hence the 17 Preservation America Communities. The idea is to move the population into those towns, the same thing that is being done worldwide in the green colored countries.
You can call socialism anything you want, but it will still be socialism. And I agree, if most of the people of the member counties in ICLEI realized what it is, they would be first to resist. I'm going to do all I can to make sure they find out.
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 11:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A point of view from someone who lived through a large part of the socialist movement:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0...
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on July 22, 2008 at 11:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition-Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Nothing socialist about fasicism or nazism, except in the case of the Nazi's it was a part of their name, but not their philosophy or actions...in actuality, communism and fascism are amazing similar...it's like what is the most distant point on the perimeter of a circle from it's starting point?...the answer, the starting point itself.
One of the key differences between the democratic anarchy of some of the EU countries is that they have a parliamentarian government as opposed to our two party system, clearly a philosophical triumph on their part, but also a pragmatic nightmare. The EU doesn't impress me much...it's basically as efficient a union as the old Articles of Confederation.
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 1:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Fascism: corporatism- Benito Mussolini. It pretty well describes what is going on in the UK and the EU right now.
Communism is socialism. So if fascism and communism are the same, fascism and socialism must be the same.
Go to the sites for the Fourth International and you can read all about it. They have the complete history in the words of real socialists.
The only thing that keeps the EU from being more efficient in terms of federalization is lack of an army, but they are working on that.
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