At 14:45 20/04/2012, you wrote:
Until it becomes sand again. How long does it take for the plastic
to become oil?
REH
Does it matter? We have income streams (methane) from anything
between 20 years old (landfill sites) and 1 billion+ years (plankton
residues in shale rock). Anytime between is OK.
KSH
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 3:52 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; Arthur Cordell
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Being Green Then and Now
The fallacy, of course, is that plastic bags are infinitely more
green than glass bottles. Whatever the variety of plastic, there's a
bacterium somewhere that will chew it up and deliver usable
byproducts. If there isn't an appropriate one immediately available
then one will be customized sooner or later -- bacteria are forever
mutating, swopping genes and experimenting with different formulas.
Once glass is chipped, broken or dispensed with, it represents lost
energy, never to be recovered. It is hardly more recyclable than the
sand from which it was originally made.
Keith
At 02:39 20/04/2012, Arthur wrote:
Subject: Being Green Then and Now
Being Green
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older
woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic
bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing
back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your
generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles
to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and
over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we
reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage
bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school
books. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided
for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then
we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every
store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't
climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the
throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy
gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really
did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down
clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right;
we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in
every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of the state ofMontana. In
the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have
electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a
fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers
to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we
didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We
used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working
so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that
operate on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced
the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor
just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a
24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an
entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't
need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from
satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old
folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person
who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person...
We don't like being old in the first place,
so it doesn't take much to piss us off.
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
<http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/>http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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