Where does all the trash come from?

So, I made a trip to Wal-mart. I go about every 3 months and each time I regret it. Why do I go? Always for something cheap. Mind boggling. Like walking in socks on a carpet in the winter time. You know the minute you touch something after walking you will get shocked. Afterwards, you act surprised.

Anyway, before I left I was sitting in the car and the "cart person" (I don't know the technical title) came by to get the runaway carts. Usually, people leave their empty soda containers, food wrappers, etc. in the cart thinking that it will be thrown away by the cart person.

Know what? The cart person took the trash and threw it on the ground. Do you know how much trash is in a typical Wal-Mart parking lot! All this time, I thought it was the shopper, but it's the cart person.

I should know that a trip to Wal-mart would wake me up with a shock.

Price Tag

Today, I found out that the Evanston recycling center will be closed in August. This closure will save the city about $100,000.00.

Really, sounds like a lot huh? Consider the following provided by PSSI-Stanford Recycling:

one glass bottle=4 hours of a 100 kilowatt light bulb
one ton of recycled paper=9 barrels of oil or 7,000 gallons of water
one ton of recycle plastic=16.3 barrels of oil or 98 million Btu's of energy

The above numbers aren't even close to the amount of recycling the City of Evanston/surrounding areas could possible produce. In addition, staff that will lose their jobs.

Not a good idea, not at all.

Life in Reverse

This weekend my brother visited. We went to Milennium Park at 10:00 p.m. to spectate the Bug Invasion. The bugs were about 3 times bigger than us (mechanical....of course). It was eery to look up and realize if reality were a little different, we humans would be struggling for survival. How would that feel?

"The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre an second."
James G. Speth
Dean
School of Forestry-Environmental Studies
Yale