German versus Wyoming Recycling

Posted by Edith Cook on Sunday, December 4, 2011 Under: Reading Life

Recycling has been on my mind since last time my cousin (pictured above with her mother, now deceased) visited from Germany. She commented on what seemed to her an appalling American wastefulness, an obliviousness to the need to conserve resources, as if unaware—or unwilling to acknowledge—that resources are finite. Even human-made resources like plastics won’t be with us forever, since plastics are made from petroleum, and there’s only so much recoverable petroleum left in the earth. The plastic trash that accumulates in our streets, which eventually finds its way into the world’s oceans, has created “dead zones” that are anathema to marine wildlife, which often ingests bits of plastics in the erroneous belief that these are foodstuffs. Marine baby birds have been found dead of starvation because their parents feed them these bits.

The argument is often made that if the true costs of petroleum recovery were included in its price, Americans would be paying a lot more for their gasoline. They would also become mindful of the need to conserve. On a cold winter’s morning in Wyoming, dozens of trucks and cars warm up by the curb, sometimes for 20 minutes, before their owners hop in. In fifteen minutes, one-fourth of a gallon gas is wasted, idling a car. If the true costs of producing gasoline were factored in—for example, the damage from greenhouse gases occasioned by its extraction—we would pay at the pump like the Europeans do.

Everybody recycles everything in Germany, which is one of the reasons its streets remain free of litter. There are recycle bins for your fireplace ashes, for glass and plastic containers of every sort, for paper and paper-like products and cardboard. Last time I visited, I watched my cousin remove and recycle the plastic strips that seal, e.g., pill bottles or peanut butter jars. Large cities have their “garbage police” who make sure you put your recyclables into the appropriate containers and the specified days. Here in Wyoming I compost all left-over vegetable matter from my kitchen and veggie garden, along with the falling leaves of autumn. Composting require care and diligence just as recycling does.

On the other end of the spectrum, following Japan’s nuclear disaster in connection with its earthquake, Germany decided to phase out its nuclear plants and go with coal instead. Now, I have heard it said that German coal-fired power plants are cleaner than any other country’s, which is why the Chinese use German technology in their ever-increasing power-pant construction; still, I find it hard to believe that, in view of this development, Germany will be able to abide by its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions according to the Kyoto requirements. What’s more, France next door derives 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. Germany is less than twice the size of Wyoming.  

In : Reading Life 


Tags: "recycling" "germany" "wyoming" 

About Me


Edith Cook Though I now live in Wyoming, I make frequent return trips to California with visits to travel club members along the way. At home I play classical guitar, enjoy gardening and cooking, and participate in group yoga. Getting together with family and friends is high on my agenda. I value people who write or make music and love it when my adult children and their offspring play their instruments, sing songs with me, or discuss what they read and write. Such gatherings help me cope with the losses in my life, which have been severe. Next year I hope to visit family in Germany.

 

Tags

#nokxl 350.org 350cheyenne 350org addiction adverse childhood agriculture als altitude andrew knoll apg media of the rockies arizona autism beijing bet the farm big bend national park big coal bill mckibben bill roorbach birthday bitumen blossoms bnsf botanic gardens bottled water bp brother buddhism california california" cancer cannabis casper casper star tribune change cherry cheyenne cheyenne guitar society china christopher hitchens christopher merrill christopher potter church climate climate change climate cover-up climate wars coal oil gas college station columns comfort zone confessional writing conversation cousin cousin edith cowboy indian alliance dachau danish oil december democratic women's forum desmogblog.com james hoggan division of labor dr. slobochikoff drought durango dzongsar jamyang khyentse east texas empathy epa essays ethics of writing ex-wheatfarm extinction events family family life family matters flourish frans de waal gardening germany global warming governor mead grandchildren health profile hemp hemp production henry louis gates jr horses and autism http://groups.google.com/group/edith-cook hypoxia in in animals israel-palestine conflict it's japan jonathan balcombe jourard kabat-zinn keystone xl oil pipeline klx leaving for places unknown lemon letting go life lions lives of animals los angeles guitar quartet malcolm gladwell marijuana" martin e. p. seligman memories michael mann mike magner mindfulness miwas neibsheim newspaper writing norwegian wood oil gas coal our planet our universe paris park poisoned legacy prairie dogs qi deng railroad industry rainfall patterns ranching recycling richard leakey richard littlemore robert kelley roberta flack rupert murdoch schoolchildren sea level self-awareness sidney sidney jourard sketches from my life smoking social relations something good sonya huber stephen chao still storms susan abulhawa tap water tar sands temple grandin tennessee" terry tempest williams texas thanksgiving the end of food the tree of the doves tokyo tony judt toyota prius travel turtle rock union pacific unitarian universalists utah uwyo hydraulic fracturing forum vedauwoo viktor frankl visa application visiting friends wednesday walkers wheat farm wheat production wheatland wind energy winter women in orchestras writing autobiographically writing confessions wte www.sidneyjourard.com wyoming wyoming tribune eagle wyoming tribuneeagle wyoming wheat farm wyoming's deq xi'an yoga 2015

Tags

Make a free website with Yola