There are at least two things that one can surmise from casual observation of human activity which I am presently doing at this very moment in the airport in Atlanta as I dictate this next column.  One can think that either people don’t know or they just don’t give a damn. 

People are sitting at the bar, drinking their drinks in a plastic cup which will  be used once and discarded for the next drink.  You have only to notice the casually thrown cigarette from a car or the Styrofoam box that most restaurants use for takeout to come to the conclusion that it’s not so much that we don’t care, it is really that we have been pre-programmed to use certain things in a certain way.  Most people just don’t know any better.  If they do, then shame on them. 

The consequences of the small things we do every day add up to a tidal wave of waste, a torrent of pollutants and the “mysterious” disappearance of species, human maladies such as the epidemic of autism in our children, and the almost casual occurrence of cancer in the general population.  According to the Olduvai Theory, the petroleum age will essentially end in 2030 and the world will change at an incredibly fast and irrevocable way.  In short, we must stop what we are doing, stop how we are doing it and begin to change the habits of our lifetime.

I used to get my hair cut at Moe’s Barber Shop on Duval Street and one of his Rotarian sayings posted on the mirror was, “First you make your habits, then your habits make you.”  The habit du jour is use it once and throw it away.  We must change that as fast as we possibly can to one of reducing what we use, or at least find a way to re-use things and, as a last resort, either compost or recycle what we use.  The earth simply cannot sustain the current rate of material consumption that the petro-chemical industry has trained us to do.  If we don’t, the subsequent effects on our environment will leave future generations to fend for themselves in a drastically degraded environment.  Gosh, what a swell legacy!

With this introduction, this column will begin the discussion of what used to be the three Rs, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle that now has the addition of a fourth R: Rot (compost).  It is exemplified by that strange symbol that you see on many materials which is loosely called the chasing arrows, or three arrows following each other indicating that the product was either recycled or is recyclable.

While recycling has its place, I believe that our first line of defense against misuse of the planet is reducing what we use.  The space allowed this column does not permit a total discussion so it will have to be dribbled out over several issues.  I hope you bear with it because it’s worth considering.

Reducing – The act of reducing means simply to use less of something.  How do we do that?  I believe that if you are reading this column, you are absorbing the meaning of my words with a certain degree of intelligence and an abiding amount of curiosity so I will not insult you with the elementary.  The things we use every day such as paper, plastic, glass and wood constitute most of the products we buy every day.  Simply look at them when you buy or use them and think to yourself, how is it possible to use less of this? 

Instead of using roll upon roll of paper towels (wrapped in plastic!), use a cloth rag and put it in the laundry.  It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper and we are losing 25 million acres of first growth forest every year.  This country uses 1.5 million tons of plastic for the omnipresent water bottle, most of which are disposed of in landfills or incinerated.  Use a reusable aluminum container for your water.  The 1.5 million tons of plastic used in water bottles we throw away in this country every year is enough to make two water filters for every household on the planet!  Each day in the U.S. alone, 70 million bottles of water are consumed and only one in six is recycled.  Do the math.

Plastic bags are awful but paper bags use massive amounts of wood as well as some very toxic chemicals to make them.  Buy canvas bags!  If grocery stores don’t have to buy bags, prices will go down.  Everybody wins!  Communities all across this country and whole countries, including China and Great Britain, are simply banning plastic bags.  Can an environmentally sensitive island as small as Key West do any less?

Don’t buy prepackaged.  Buy as much as you can in bulk.  Again, packaging costs grocery stores money.  Throwing away the packaging costs us all!

Someone once said, “Choice is misery.  No choice is clarity.”  Can it be made any more clear that we have little choice in this regard?

Next Column: The North Pacific Gyre … You Can’t Make Up This Kind Of Stuff.

Chris Belland
Love Your Island Co-Chair