I read the most thought provoking thing in the Nat-Geo today. I only read four magazines religiously and the National Geographic is one of them. I read it cover to cover every month and this months magazine has some articles on recycling. I am not a recycler. I am not an environmentalist in any sense of the word. But it has been on my mind lately. We live in a city that does not have recycling bins that go with the garbage bins, we just moved from on post housing where they gave you a trash can sized recycling bin. All you had to do was rinse or break down and put it in the can. No separating, no hassle. I like no hassle recycling. Now if I want to recycle I have to sort on my own and take it to a recycling place on my own. I think there is one on post I can use, I am not sure.
Anyway, my bad habits are not the point. This article was about e-waste. All the computers, printers, cell phones that the rich nations are constantly upgrading. We are talking over a million and a half tons of it in 2005. It will probably start growing much larger as the new HD becomes standard next year and all our analog TVs won't get signals anymore. We have to buy new TVs next year? That's crazy. Not that I don't want one, I don't want to be forced to get one. Out of all this e-waste way less than 25% is getting recycled. Bad things happen to this stuff when it gets thrown away. A lot gets just stored by us pack rat Americans.
Here's the worst part. Some that gets recycled or donated to charities for resell are ending up in the third world where they are mined for parts. Just the copper wiring in a computer is valuable. Here's the catch, it is surrounded by plastic tubing. How are these "miners" getting at it? By burning off the plastic. Releasing extremely harmful gases into the air while they are inhaling it themselves. A lot of carcinogens. A lot of children doing this. There was a picture of one man in India melting down circuit boards to get off the lead and other metals in his own homemade smelter. What was his smelter? His kitchen pots that the family will later cook dinner on.
Here's where it comes back to bite us besides the pollution factor. A Chemist from Ohio bought a bunch of that cheapo kiddie Chinese jewelry and ran some tests on it. Not only did it have high traces of lead in it that we have been hearing so much about in the news lately but there was an abnormal amount of copper and tin in there. Not normal for jewelry. Can anyone guess what kind of metal they are using to make this jewelry? Metal burned off circuit boards from our computers that we have thrown away. This lead issue is not just Chinese negligence that we can just pass off, we started this cycle. If we don't recycle our stuff the responsible way where there is oversight and regulations someone else is going to recycle it. Back to our lungs, our children, and our foreign aid packages as all these third world countries start getting even more sick.
Soap box put away now. By the way, Dan was always the one who had to listen to my rants on the evils of the world. He is now safe from me on the other side of the world. Now its your turn, because I am not keeping it in or ranting at Dan when I only get to talk to him for ten minutes at a time. Sorry.
6 comments:
LOL I like your little rants :)
But on a serious note...That article is very thought provoking. I'll have to watch what i throw away! It ridiculous that some cities don't have recycling bins.
I do understand your frustration with the recycling. Here in Colorado Springs you have to pay to have your recycling picked up. I do keep all the cans and pop off the tops for McDonalds and I used to keep bags full of newspapers after Fred signed us up for a year subscription of 7 day delivery. I didn't even have time to read the paper everyday and it became such a chore to pick them up out of the driveway or street where they sometimes landed.
Anyways, at one of the Wal-Marts out here they have the recycling trailers set up where you dump in the appropriate bin. I need to get better about taking stuff in.
Also, one of my friends at the Y takes her own tupperwareish containers to restaurants to put their leftovers in. She said it really embarrasses her teenagers, but I think it is really cool.
And I noticed when I went to the commissary a few days ago that they had the mesh sacks that you could purchase to put your groceries in over and over instead of using paper or plastic. I do want to pick up some of those and put them back in the car after I unload stuff.
It is our children's world to inherit and we should all try to be ALOT better about it.
And you don't have to buy a new TV next year, but you will have to buy a converter if you want to get a signal. Here's the link Fred gave me:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9838556-7.html?tag=nefd.top
It is for a coupon that the government is willing to pick up a small price of the cost to convert.
Take care girl. Let me know when you get the card I sent. I want to know what you think.
Wow, I read this one yesterday and didn't have time to comment...but I'll tell you, I've been thinking about it. Particularly when Bitty baby was putting something in her mouth that I can only assume was "Made in China". So did the article say what to do with all that junk I'm hoarding?
I'm glad you write upon these things...it gets me thinking "outside" of my own little box which is my kids, my husband and my house. I'm embarassed to say I don't read much of current events. So...keep on ranting. I'll listen.
Charlotte, but I want a new HDTV huge TV that I can't afford. If I tell Dan that our TV won't get the signal anymore maybe I will actually get one. The TV we have now is the first TV we ever bought, 25", eight years ago. I want to be a horrible consumer driven American and upgrade. But I do want to do the right stuff too. I am torn, and obviously, a hypocrite.
I understand you want a new tv, so do I. Fred's tv is over 10 years old and has a beautiful pea green overall color to the screen. I told him if he was a good boy then maybe we could get a tv that people our age deserve. lol
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