Green has gotten to be a loaded word. The baby boom generation, aided by Al Gore have made a lifestyle out of saving, reusing, recycling. Yes, recycling is the in word now. Some of the older generation, parents of the baby boomer group, remember how their parents, the ones who kept house and raised their families during the great depression saved everything – no jar that held jam, no little short piece of string, no worn out clothing was ever thrown away. Houses were decorated with rag rugs and hooked art made with strips of old fabric. A short piece of string came in handy to tie a small package for mailing. Then came WWII. People learned to recycling cans. Notices were posted on how to do this: you opened both ends of the can then stepped on it.
Now the booomers and younger generation are doing the same thing, but for a different reason. People are learning that consumption has consequences, not just for themselves and family but for the wellbeing of society as a whole. Indiscriminate throwing away is becoming something to be ashamed of, and industry is realizing that they now have to reduce waste and wasteful products that clog landfills with waste materials that just don’t biodegrade. Kitchens are being planned with easy access bins for recycling the usual items; glass bottles, plastic containers and paper.
It is estimated that in the United States about 50 percent of paper is now recycled, a figure which might not seem impressive, but it represents a huge advance over the recent days that paper waste was either burned or dumped in landfills. Other countries are putting their ingenuity into recycling all kinds of materials. Japan asks people to sort their trash into burnable, non-burnable and recycling bins. They have also recently passed a law requiring that companies that sell large household goods such as washing machines take back the old appliance after selling the new one. Switzerland has applied its pragmatic efficiency to recycling for years. The estimated amount of garbage per individual is about half of that produced in the United States. Most Swiss people use recycling containers and bags for recyclables are distributed to the public. Fines for noncompliance are stiff.
To cut down on plastic containers clogging up landfills, Some Canadian dairies have instituted a program of convenient depots for depositing plastic milk containers. The plastic is then made into buckets and other containers, and paper containers are reincarnated as boxes and tissue paper.
Recycling bins are placed in full view in most parks in the United States, where pedestrians can easily dispose of cans and bottles. Recycle bins are also becoming very popular accoutrements in kitchen decor, where families, not just parents, but even the very young are getting used to the idea that sorting plastic bottles and wrappings, or separating out the glass bottles and jars from the plastic ones, and storing those separately from empty cans is just a normal fact of everyday living.
What a long way we have come in a generation! From being scrupulous savers, to profligate wasters and back to scrupulosity in three generations! Green is not thought to be just a color anymore. Now it is the color of responsibility.
