We have very little to attribute our current reckless direction to, other than the predominant view of our world a series of expediencies. As I have finished many blogs, If not us, who? If not now, when? I'm going to switch that up a bit and start off with these questions. Fallout be damned is the sort of internal monologue that got us into so many past errors of judgement. Literally, Fukushima is the perfect example. Just because it falls from the headlines does not mean that the background radiation exposure of all life on Earth goes back to pre-disaster levels. In many sci-fi novels, they speak of terra-forming, but the only skill modern culture seems to exhibit is terra-deformation. Our wanton creation of waste has led to constraints on our health and welfare, the economy, the viability of our species and that of other organisms on the planet. Many cities today have no more room for the waste that they generate and continue to spend billions, hauling it "somewhere else". we all know that one of the first rule in ECO-logical thought is that there is no "away".
A brilliant source for information on the quest for zero waste is trashisfortossers.com, When we look into our use characteristics, distinguishing the difference between wants and needs often liberates us from trash generating activities. I am currently building a replicable business plan for anyone in a wood products region. If there is waste wood that is untreated in your region, contact me with assistance on building a business plan for your area. One of the most basic elements of our life process is that we humans "create" un-natural concentrations of even natural products that have far more damage than they ever could under natural conditions.
I used to love being in nature when I was a child. The first time I went exploring around my grandfather's house, I could tell that something very bad was going on. The wetlands complex behind his place had virtually no life in it. Occasionally, a deer would wander through, but there were no pollywogs in spring, no fish, other than a few tiny, seemingly stunted, minnows. Salamanders and frogs were strangely absent, but far off on the far side of the marsh a few spring peepers could be heard, and at the neighbor's, who had a fully developed forest cover had a solitary bullfrog that you could hear in fall, when the water was warmest. As was my pattern back then, I explored in ever larger circles. Late the first year I was nearly a mile away from the house, when I saw the source of the disturbance. The excelsior factory, where giant logs were whittled down to make the curlicues that were used as packing material for fragile items. Before plastic made itself the predominant packing material, we humans still shipped fragile material and although the product of choice was 100% "natural" having acres of logs piled up and more acres covered with the sawdust that resulted, the acrid stench of rotting sawdust and the leachate that flowed through this waste material all combined to have an ecological disturbance far greater than the limited property boundary.
We could return to using excelsior, but reduce the ecological consequences by using just in time supply chain efficiencies, perhaps a covered holding and processing area, to reduce water contamination and if we got truly serious, have the wherewithal to either take back used material or direct end users to places that turn said "waste" into biochar. This potentially completes the eco-cycle. When we expend energy to change materials into other products, we need to figure in the ecological damage the occurs to produce the energy we use to accomplish the transformation as well as the ecological liabilities of those product becoming part of the waste stream.
zerowastehome.com is another route to look more deeply into this aspect of our lifestyle. We have begun to ask the right questions and how other people answer the questions that we are learning to ask can help us to redefine the world around us in new ways. I still own and use most of the items that I took on this trip 27 years ago. The bike has gotten new pedals in that time, and I have gone through a couple more tires. I replaced the chain and have nearly worn out the front chain wheel as well although I have not replaced it yet. The saddle broke on the trip, and had to be discarded as well, but my current saddle, a brooks was purchased at a rummage sale for fifteen dollars.
I calculated the amount of oil that I used on the chain, during my 4,280 mile trip at somewhere near two tablespoons, all of it residual from oil containers left at gas stations and already "disposed of", I guess most of that had been waste, but I liberated it from most often closed containers. Although some of that was "disposed of properly", some washed off during rain events. I still feel a little bad about spewing oil into relatively pristine environs. My hope was that even in polluted ones, my passing was teaching enough about ecological integrity that the tiny bits of oil would be offset by changes in human activities by those who heard my message. Ultimately, the life style that we choose will always have some detrimental ecological consequences, but in my experience, the lower the negative impacts, the greater the rewards, so let me know what changes you are willing to try and some of the unimagined benefits that come from that change.
A brilliant source for information on the quest for zero waste is trashisfortossers.com, When we look into our use characteristics, distinguishing the difference between wants and needs often liberates us from trash generating activities. I am currently building a replicable business plan for anyone in a wood products region. If there is waste wood that is untreated in your region, contact me with assistance on building a business plan for your area. One of the most basic elements of our life process is that we humans "create" un-natural concentrations of even natural products that have far more damage than they ever could under natural conditions.
I used to love being in nature when I was a child. The first time I went exploring around my grandfather's house, I could tell that something very bad was going on. The wetlands complex behind his place had virtually no life in it. Occasionally, a deer would wander through, but there were no pollywogs in spring, no fish, other than a few tiny, seemingly stunted, minnows. Salamanders and frogs were strangely absent, but far off on the far side of the marsh a few spring peepers could be heard, and at the neighbor's, who had a fully developed forest cover had a solitary bullfrog that you could hear in fall, when the water was warmest. As was my pattern back then, I explored in ever larger circles. Late the first year I was nearly a mile away from the house, when I saw the source of the disturbance. The excelsior factory, where giant logs were whittled down to make the curlicues that were used as packing material for fragile items. Before plastic made itself the predominant packing material, we humans still shipped fragile material and although the product of choice was 100% "natural" having acres of logs piled up and more acres covered with the sawdust that resulted, the acrid stench of rotting sawdust and the leachate that flowed through this waste material all combined to have an ecological disturbance far greater than the limited property boundary.
We could return to using excelsior, but reduce the ecological consequences by using just in time supply chain efficiencies, perhaps a covered holding and processing area, to reduce water contamination and if we got truly serious, have the wherewithal to either take back used material or direct end users to places that turn said "waste" into biochar. This potentially completes the eco-cycle. When we expend energy to change materials into other products, we need to figure in the ecological damage the occurs to produce the energy we use to accomplish the transformation as well as the ecological liabilities of those product becoming part of the waste stream.
 |
| On my Great Lakes Awareness Ride, I created virtually no trash, not by choice as much as how unwieldy superfluous stuff is when living on two wheels. Days after taking this picture, my kickstand went to someone who needed it more than I. I discarded a tire (due to sabotage) and two tubes (one, part of the sabotage incident). Clothes discarded, as summer approached, were given to Goodwill. |
I calculated the amount of oil that I used on the chain, during my 4,280 mile trip at somewhere near two tablespoons, all of it residual from oil containers left at gas stations and already "disposed of", I guess most of that had been waste, but I liberated it from most often closed containers. Although some of that was "disposed of properly", some washed off during rain events. I still feel a little bad about spewing oil into relatively pristine environs. My hope was that even in polluted ones, my passing was teaching enough about ecological integrity that the tiny bits of oil would be offset by changes in human activities by those who heard my message. Ultimately, the life style that we choose will always have some detrimental ecological consequences, but in my experience, the lower the negative impacts, the greater the rewards, so let me know what changes you are willing to try and some of the unimagined benefits that come from that change.
No comments:
Post a Comment