Skip to main content

Hugging Trees and Bottles

.
Enviro-humbug. My grandson Devon is a tree hugger. A born again enviromentalist. He and I have had a few interesting discussions about the number of people who TRY to be enviro-friendly - - and fail because much of their effort is a waste of time. This afternoon I took about 150 empty pint sized, clear, plastic water bottles to a machine in front of our local food market. I fed the machine bottles, bottoms first, until it had eaten the the last one. Then I pressed a button and received a slip of paper I could exchange for $7.50 cash if I redeemed it with the market cashier. What's wrong with this story?

The 150  bottles cost less than $7.50 to produce BRAND NEW.

From China of course. 




Comments

Rain Trueax said…
Oregon did this to stop people from throwing them out the window not so much that it's cheaper to recycle but it's the only way some will. Living in the country, I see the evidence daily of what slobs some are. I also see the evidence regularly of those who walk along the roads picking up the garbage others threw out. Two kinds of people and no way the one remotely understands the other as those who throw it out keep seeing someone picking it up but never change their ways. :(
January 15, 2010 at 12:46 PM
Bumps Stump said…
Rain . . . One of my pet peeves are people that don't think or care about others.

(1) The worst are the smoking fools that flick their burning stub out the car window as they drive through areas with dry brush near the road edge.

(2) Next are the 17 year old young ladies with a baby in a car seat who run the boulevard stop sign driving with one hand and talking on their cell phone at the same time.

(3) Then the impatient slugs with out-of-state license plates who follows 4 feet behind your bumper while driving at over 70 mph on the freeway.

(4) And the crown goes to a very short (they barely could see over the dashboard) Asian couple I saw this morning, who missed their freeway exit, so they stopped in the slow lane and backed up about 100 yards in order to make the desired exit.

One of the benefits of rural living is not seeing so many examples of this stuff each day.

Dixon
January 15, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Rain Trueax said…
yeah, there's a lot to irritate a person. One of my pet peeves (and that's too minor a term for it) are those who pulled onto a shoulder or on a wrong road, realize their mistake and come right back on as though they had been there and it's still their right even though someone else is there now. It's a wonder there aren't more accidents than there are the way some drive. I did notice the last time through California and now Oregon with the new laws about cell phones that at least less people are driving while talking on one
January 15, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Ingineer66 said…
Dixon those things all bug me too. As much time as I spend on or near the roadway, I get to see a lot of that. And you are correct Rain, it is a wonder that there are not triple the number of crashes that do occur.

I have no problem with having a bottle deposit to reduce litter, but most of these recycle programs cost more than they produce. Aluminum cans are the one thing that are actually economically feasible to recycle.
January 16, 2010 at 9:25 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Blackwater Mercenaries

Over some years the name Blackwater shows  up in the news. It is, by their own estimation, the largest mercenary group in the world. I think I first noticed it when reports from Iraq mentioned they were employed (by whom?) to escort and protect members of the Iraqi government from place to place. Then I became aware that they had joined several of the firefights between our marines and Iraqi enemies. I wondered just how these mercenaries (that supposedly came from the United States) were  hired by someone (who?) to fight? That led to the question of just who would be responsible if a situation involved the accidental killing of an innocent bystander? It  might be a little sticky for an unauthorised mercenary contracted by the United States but not a member of our military forces.  Or suppose a Blackwater type killed a military Iraqi combatant and was then captured by the enemy. Would he be treated as a spy, or as a American combatant, or whatelse...
18 comments
Read more

Gloves Off

. OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS BETRAYED OUR TRUST AGAIN. Whether we are Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, makes no difference at all. Our legislators voted according to "what's best for them". It was clear that the people want to reduce the costs and improve access to our overall health care system. It was also VERY CLEAR that they did not want the 2000 page legislative monstrosity that was produced by a small number of far left liberal Democrats, who worked behind closed doors to fashion a pork filled blunderbuss that virtually no one has been able to read, or discuss, or debate, or offer alternatives to specific unreasoned clauses. It is (now) a BAD BILL , passed by BAD POLITICIANS, that compose a BAD MINORITY segment of America's out-of-control government. AND WE HAVE NO LOGICAL WAY TO PAY FOR IT EITHER. The far left liberals like to point at  SOCIAL SECURITY   as a text book success. They are wrong and will not admit it despi...
20 comments
Read more

Peter Arnett Visits The Geezers

PETER ARNETT 7-22-2010 Yesterday our guest at the  Geezer's Book Club meeting was the intrepid journalist, Peter Arnett.  Ray Herndon, one of our regular members, has known Peter Arnett for over  40 years. They were friendly competitive reporters during the war in Viet Nam, and the friendship has survived several wars since.  Peter began speaking with an overview of his time in  Viet Nam, and then briefly related a few highlights of the first 1st and 2nd war in Iraq.  After taking a deep breath, Peter focused on the intended subject of the day, China and the Chinese people.   CHINA Peter is now teaching journalism at a college about 400 miles north of Hong Kong, near the Chinese coast. Peter is 76 years old, in good health, full of energy and enjoys his job as an educator. In that capacity he is able to travel unhindered (not everyone can) throughout China. He has personally observ...
14 comments
Read more