Today is America Recycles Day. It is being billed as “the only nationally recognized day dedicated to the promotion of recycling programs in the United States.” What an exemplary opportunity to spread the joy of sustainable living, right? Well, not according to Lloyd Alter of PlantGreen.com.
Alter believes the day should be geared not toward recycling so much as teaching consumers to consider waste at the time of purchase rather than at the time of disposal. He points to several of the events sponsors and partners who created this mess by creating disposable products. Alter refers to the focus on recycling a fraudulent practice that permits companies to avoid “producer responsibility.” Instead of celebrating recycling, Alter believes we should be celebrating a Zero Waste Day.
While creating recycling awareness and avenues by which people can properly dispose of such materials is essential to building sustainable communities, Alter’s has a point: as long as consumers demand nothing more than the status quo from producers, we will get just that. Changes in production will come only when consumer demand deems them necessary. Just as people shape legislative policy, consumers will shape what is produced.
In the spirit of Alter’s quest for Zero Waste Day, we ask that in addition to spreading awareness about recycling on November 15, you also consider ways to eliminate waste entirely. Here are a few of Alter’s suggestions to get you started:
-patronize restaurants (coffee shops, etc.) that use real dishware instead of single-use containers
-buy fresh (and local) food that comes without packaging
-refrain from buying anything disposable (which is everything from gum, to cigarettes, to a pack of subway tokens, to the morning paper, to take-out, and on and on and on…)
