A Disposable Society

Wow, great post Andy. My mind is swarming with things to touch on. It's late and it's been a rough week so I apologize in advance if I start to ramble on. These things happen. First of all let me say that I am very happy to hear of your decrease in paper plate usage. My wanna-be-hippie-tree-hugging-self hopes that those were at least truly paper plates and not the plastic or styrofoam plates that will still be sitting in the land fill when your children's children start having children. You have definitely touched on something there. We live in a society where many people "want it and want it now". We want to grab take out and then throw away the containers instead of cooking things ourselves and washing dishes. I think this came from the fast pace of our society, not laziness, but perhaps is turning to the later. It has become, for some reason unkown to me, a disposable society that we live in. I know there are other poeple out there like me (thankfully) that see all the waste we produce without blinking an eye and do their part to reduce it. However, way too many people use disposable everything and seem to think that once it's in the garbage it is gone. This really gets my goat (whatever that means). This is our planet, our dear Mother Earth, and we are trashing it. I really wish people would be more mindful about what they use and throw away. It is mind-numbing to me the things you can buy that are "disposable". Plates, cups, utensils, baking pans, cutting boards, tupperware, baby bottles, diapers, bibs, wash cloths, litter boxes, razors, cameras, .... Anything can be disposable really ... all you have to do is put it in the trash and it has been disposed of right? Wrong! It's still here, it's just not in your house anymore. And what about all of the packaging that our non-disposable items come in? It's ridiculous!

Okay, off that soap box for now, I like what you said about altering your thoughts as well as your methods. Ever since I posted the link to the compact article on my blog i've had people asking me how i'm doing with it. I find it interesting to note how many readers have mentioned how their own thought process has been affected by reading that article. Even though most people did not set out to follow the compact, reading that article has made them more aware of everything they put in their buggy when they go to the store. What a great way to have an impact on the world. It may be small but if ten people become more mindful consumers because of something I have shared then i've done a little bit to make the world a better place.

I think the song lyrics you posted really say a lot about our society. We want it all and we want it now. We live in the time of instant gratification. We don't want to work hard and save our money to buy something we want. We want something so we buy it on credit and assume yet another monthly payment that we will be strapped to for years to come. I'm reminded here of something Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com) says in one of his videos. He says we want what our parents have but don't take into consideration the fact that it took them 30 years to get it. We want it and we want it now so we borrow, and borrow, and borrow some more. We, as a society, are drowning in debt. We don't care that we will be paying for something long after that something is gone, or that we will end up paying twice as much for it ... we want it now. You asked why and I wish I had a good answer for you. I think a lot of it has to do with the materialistic society we live in. We are judged by many on how big our house is, what kind of car we drive, what brand of shoes we wear, etc. It really is a sad thing. I could go on and on here but it's late and I need some sleep. I'll leave you with some statistics to ponder ...

-Over 20 billion disposable diapers are sent to landfills each year. This is enough diapers to cover a football field 3 miles deep.
-Single-use diapers represent the 3rd largest consumer item (after newspapers and beverage and food containers) in the municipal solid waste stream. These diapers will require over 500 years to decompose.
-A good eye-opening article on diapers: http://www.dy-dee.com/html/Disposable_Myth/disposable_myth.html
-Americans represent only 5 percent of the world's population, but produce over 50 percent of the world's trash.
-Packaging accounts for 10-15 percent (sometimes more than 50 percent) of the cost of a product and 50 percent of all consumer waste.
-The energy saved by recycling one aluminum can is enough to keep a 100-watt light bulb burning about 3 1/2 hours.
-For every ton of crushed glass recycled, 1.2 tons of raw materials are saved.
-Each ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees.
-A baby may use 10,000 diapers in the first three years of life. Disposable diapers take up as much as 2 percent of our landfills.

Decomposition Times:
-Aluminum cans - 100 to 500 years
-Banana peel - up to 6 months
-Cigarette filters - 15 years
-Diapers - 100 years to never
-Glass - never
-Plastic - 50 to 70 years
-Rubber - never
-Styrofoam cup - 10 to 20 years
-Tin or steel cans - 100 years
-Wax paper cup - 5 years
-Wooden stakes - 4 years

~Celena