Legislating A Greener Society

John Kerry has said that, if elected, he would stop the flow of Ontario garbage to Michigan. 

We should be panicking.  If we can’t send it to Michigan, where will we send it?

Fifteen years ago, being green was trendy.  If you bought a plastic cup at the cafeteria, you got a discount every time you used it, as there was no Styrofoam cup being wasted.  Everywhere, people were looking to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and in that order.  There were incentives to do so.

It didn’t last.  Look at the market today.  Everywhere, we are encouraged to use things and throw them away.  The disposable items are pitched to make us feel inferior for using reusable items. 

God forbid that you buy a broom for $10 and use it for years.  No, buy a stupid plastic tool, attach a disposable cloth, wipe your floor, then throw the cloth away.  Calculate how much you’d spend in five years using that system, compared to the broom.  Think of the garbage you’d create.  Vileda makes a great washable sweeper that uses no cloths, but it costs more. 

Contact lenses are another example.  Geez, why clean your lenses when you can throw them out every day?  You know the best part: in some cases, the one-day lenses, one-week lenses and one-year lenses were identical. 

Don’t use a facecloth in the bathroom anymore: use disposable “cleansing” wipes.  Sure, the wipes might cleanse your face, but they are killing our environment. 

I use a ballpoint pen, for which I can buy refills.  However, the refills cost twice as much as a new pen.  Huh?

I see people, even in my own office, using paper cups every time they make a coffee.  Haven’t you got 50 mugs at home?  I use a mug that I bought in 1980.  That’s over 6000 paper cups that did not go to landfill.

We have to discourage the use of disposable items.  Attempts at education cannot compete with the barrage of advertisements from companies trying to make us use more and more.  I think we need to start legislating compliance. 

I suggest this: put a tax on the disposable items and a corresponding subsidy on items that do not use disposable parts.  Tax the disposable sweeper and give a rebate on the Vileda so the Vileda is cheaper. 

I don’t like paying more taxes, but something has to be done to reduce the unnecessary waste being generated.  Maybe if we reduce the waste, we’ll see a reduction in our property taxes, as the garbage disposal costs go down.

While we are attacking waste, let’s slap a ban (or at least a tax) on unnecessary packaging.  Really, how many layers of plastic do we need on consumer goods?  I see a three inch tall bottle of fragrance at Costco in a 8x10 hard plastic packaging and I lose it!  How can that be justified?

Advocate for legislative reform to reduce our waste.  It’s the only tool that will work.