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The United States is a very wasteful country. Created by Madison Avenue, a whole culture developed around tossing “out” the old and replacing it with “new and improved”. Despite the fact that the new is often more disposable and the old is “built to last”, we now naturally tend to follow the doctrines of the buy it, use it, and throw it “out” culture. However, for many of today’s products, there is no out.
Sometimes overlooked amid the concerted efforts to encourage renewable energy, the accumulation of waste offers problems all its own. Storing our discards takes more and more land that could (and should) be used for more beneficial purposes. The Estes Park Landfill exceeded its allowable space many years ago and we now store our trash in the Larimer County Landfill (currently on Taft Hill Road, Fort Collins), necessitating all garbage headed for storage be transported down the mountain. THAT landfill will soon outgrow its boundaries and be replaced by a brand-new state-of-the-art replacement in Wellington.
The tendency to throw all discards into one landfill-bound bucket comes from an antiquated attitude that everything biodegrades. It does not. If it did, we would not need so many landfills. Many products thrown into the landfill still have years of useful life – for someone else. Many resources (currently) stored in the landfill can be recovered to fulfill other productive uses, reserving irreplaceable resources for a time when we need them. If we keep the valuables OUT of the landfill, that new structure will last far into the future. If we ONLY store unusable biodegradable “stuff”, that landfill will last even longer and we will not need to replace it.
First of all, we must remove the organics from the landfill. Organics produce methane as they decompose and methane is a very serious greenhouse gas (ghg). Placing one ton of methane into the atmosphere is equivalent to releasing 85 tons of carbon dioxide, or driving 192,440 miles. We will probably never eliminate ALL organics, but we can make a good start by composting everything compostable and setting a considerable governmental fee on organic contributions to the landfill.
Beyond that, the more we value that which is still useable, the less we are likely to landfill. Once an individual is done with something, they need to evaluate its use to someone else. If it can be reused (or repurposed), it should be taken to a thrift shop somewhere. I have heard it said that our local thrift shops turn things away. Apparently, we are very persnickety in Estes about what we will buy – or, perhaps, we do not have enough people shopping in our thrift stores. Perhaps, before driving 26 miles to go shopping in someone else’s community, we should “shop local” more thoroughly, and save the $67 commute. Cliff Hanger Used Books even made Trip Advisor! We had a used furniture store but not enough people shopped there. I hear people say, “You cannot buy anything but T-shirts in Estes.” I wonder if they have shopped in the right places. Maybe, if each of us shopped at a local thrift shop once a month, we would discover you can buy – locally – more than you think.
Agree? Disagree? Questions? Comments? RRRcyc@signsandwishes.com
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