Jack’s Winning Words 4/21/14
“Let’s talk trash!”  (T-shirt Slogan)  A study has shown that each American creates 4.5# of garbage every day…close to a ton a year.  Tomorrow is Earth Day, and the suggestion has been made...to see if you of can go the whole day without creating any garbage.  I’m going to try; how about you?  Maybe we should put a reminder note by the waste basket.   There are many ways to protect the environment.  Do you have any ideas?      ;-)  Jack

FROM HONEST JOHN:  I remember as a kid that we never had to carry trash out to the curb. ====JACK:  Not even the clinkers?

FROM TARMART REV:  I drive by our "trash site" often north of Willmar . . . maintained well and many would not even recognize it as such . . . but I'm haunted often by seeing the world's garbage throughout the day at Wal-Mart, Target and other fast-food eateries. The multi-multiple bags and stacks of paper products, flattened cardboard boxes, plastic containers and such things as amount of toilet paper, toweling and the like that pass by sight everyday. I would suppose if we would eat at home, wash our dishes and glasses instead of eating out would put a major dent in some of this . . . of course put numerable fast-food places out of businesses as well. Overwhelming!! 0:-/====JACK:  Do you use throw-away plastic glasses for communion at your church?====REV:  Yes, Sir...4-5 times a year...I do miss our once traditional monthly times around the communion table... however, Good Friday service found us walking to the front taking a piece of bread and dipping it into a chalice before partaking.====JACK:  Do you think that it's reasonable to suggest that churches stop using throw-away glasses in order to protect the environment?  Is life a matter of compromises?====REV:  Would "eatable bread-like cups" holding the juice or wine take away the symbolism that is needed? ====JACK:  WWJD?

FROM NORM'S MILFORD BLOG:  Thanks for the inspiration - http://normsmilfordblog.com/2014/04/21/three-little-words-that-can-change-your-life-lets-talk-trash/
====JACK:  I have a feeling that "no trash day" tomorrow will be easier said than done.  But, isn't that why our planet continues to be increasingly polluted?

FROM BEECEE IN MICHIGAN:  That'll be a tough one!====JACK:  Usually doing the things that are worthwhile take some effort.

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  The only way I'm going to be able to go a whole day without creating garbage is that I'll postpone my batch until the next day.  Another means of resisting garbage accumulation is to do nothing all day long.  The T-shirt encouraging people with "Let's talk trash" is overkill...just listening to today's music, tuning in to rap, or overhearing conversation in a variety of public places will provide all the "talking trash" one could hope for.  For Earth Day I shall plant a tree.====JACK:  "Noise" can be another kind of pollution.  Creative people can think of creative ways to cut down on pollution.  How about burying coffee grounds and banana peels?====RI:  Your suggestions are good, and I agree with you that creative people can come up with more ways to reduce the problem.  Nevertheless, putting it bluntly, to get rid of trash we need to get rid of people. ====JACK:  Haven't you seen the ubiquitous graffiti, "God Don't Make No Trash!"?====RI:  Your WW today created quite a response.  Your comments about trash pollution made me think again about an article in The Boston Globe about how we survive in the event of a global disaster.  I thought you might like to read the piece.  The following appeared on Bostonglobe.com:
Headline: Want to reboot civilization? What you’ll need - The Boston Globe
Date:     Apr 21, 2014     When you’re looking down the barrel of a civilization-erasing event, you have to plan for a world where humanity has lost everything. Canned goods might be nice, but you’d better have brought along a can opener—or know how to make one. What information should we leave survivors? And how do we store it so they can actually make use of it? In recent years, these questions have jumped onto the research agendas of a range of thinkers, from physicists to philosophers to agricultural engineers to librarians, who are considering how to curate and preserve caches of the most useful and important information, tools, and biological samples from today’s world.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/04/19/want-reboot-civilization-what-you-need/fReMGOEq2ZkgZ8WPu3xLCL/story.html?s_campaign=8315

FROM PH IN MINNESOTA:  i just read the other day that the Mall of America creates over 26 tons of trash a day!!   the good news is that they recycle about 70% of it.  and they are working to do better.  440 stores can create a lot of trash i guess.  hope you had a good Easter.====JACK:  I read that NYC creates enough trash each day to fill the Empire State Building.  Some churches join the recycling movement by having rummage sales.

FROM SPARTAN JS:  Recycling does not count as garbage, correct?     I try to recycle or reuse just about everything.====JACK:  Earth Day should be easier for you than for the average polluter.  I remember the difference a 10-cent can deposit meant for the landscape.  I also remember when there was no curbside recycling and everything was considered garbage.  But, more can be done.

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  I can't eat the rind of my grapefruit--or the grounds of my coffee. ====JACK:  But you could start a compost pile...or just dig them into your garden.====MARLYS:  I live in a townhouse--no garden.====JACK:  Sneak out at night and dig a hole under one of the shrubs.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Stay in bed.====JACK:  Your get-up-and-go has gotten-up-and-went.

FROM DC IN KANSAS:  And how about "talking trash"?  How about more than one day for that?====JACK:  It would be pretty quiet on Jayhawkers' basketball floor.

FROM DAIRYLAND DONNA: We bought a large recycling container at Home Depot and every week have more in that container that our regular trash container. You just need to think before you throw things away.====JACK:  As long as the recycling bin contains more than the trash cans, you're on the right track.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Sure, I will try it.  We recycle most of our trash now anyway.  Over by Richmond there is a huge dump.  It is hundreds of feet high.  Most of the garbage comes from Canada.  They pay to have it shipped over here.  Can you imagine that????====JACK:  The privy was one of the original ways of composting.====JUDY:  Yep, everything went down the hole.  One of the stories I heard from my Aunt Pat was how my dad (her brother) threw her dolly down the hole when he got mad at her!

FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS:  Great one! We are committed to recycling and the more you recycle the more you realize how much we consume.  Have you ever read Moby Duck?  It’s the great/sad story of a H.S. teacher who goes in search of 200,000 little rubber ducks that were dumped into the ocean in 1992 when there was a tropical storm.  He visits the ocean gyres that they’ve talked about last month (after the plane crash) and how much plastic is in the ocean – both whole and in tiny fractions of pieces…very frustrating.====JACK:  No, I haven't read Moby Duck.  I did read about all of the Tsunami debris that has washed up on the shore.  I think that some communities dump their garbage into the ocean.  Even China is beginning to realize that they can't continue to dump pollutants into the air.  The old song takes on new meaning, "When will they ever learn...?"====BBC:  The sad/interesting thing about 400 pp Moby Duck was that recycling almost doesn’t matter.  The amount of plastic produced is so immense that unless production is virtually stopped, it does not matter how much we recycle or reuse.  There are too many billion people on the earth to continue making more of a product that does not biodegradeWe’ve been reusing and recycling for years but are going to purchase permanent (glass) bottles to completely stop wasting…I hope.====JACK:  "At this time" there appears to be no solution.  But, given time...things happen.

FROM DR J IN OHIO:  NASA invites you -- and everyone else on the planet -- to take part in a worldwide celebration of Earth Day this year with the agency's #GlobalSelfie event.  On Earth Day NASA is asking you to step outside and take a picture of yourself holding a piece of paper telling NASA where you are located. NASA has provided templates in more than 2 dozen languages. At GLOBE, we have added the GLOBE logo so that you can identify with the GLOBE Community. Find your form on the GLOBE website, print it, and use it in your selfie. Next, post your selfie to social media. Your #GlobalSelfie will be used to create a mosaic image of Earth -- a new "Blue Marble" built image-by-image with your photos.====JACK:  Lake Superior State Univ in the UP publishes an annual list of words that should be eliminated from the English language,  This year, selfie was on the list.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Like many others, recycling  of paper, plastic bags, cans and bottles, has reduced my weekly trash to one small bag, except when I have a houseful of company!  But as one blogger said (in frustration, I"m sure), "we need to get rid of some people"...Observing some "pigs" on the highway,, with trash streaming out windows, and in our parks, where debris is often left everywhere but in containers provided,is so exasperating!  But we who are responsible, will do our darndest to honor the environment and beautify it because we CARE!====JACK:  Let's celebrate what has been accomplished in our lifetime!  Count them.  Name them one by one.  See what has been done.
FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  i am conscious of this every day.====JACK:  The world thanks you!

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  To stop all littering would be a good start.  One year we were in DC the day after earth day and you would not believe all of the trash on the national mall. It was like do as a day, not what do.  Turning off the lights and recycling mostly everything, by putting it in the recycling bin or giving it to someone who can use it.====JACK:  Earth Day trashers...How ironic!

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Today's WW help. Last fall I took a Coursera Internet Course, "Subsistence Marketplace" and the professor showed a lot of slides and videos of places all over the world where people are living at a subsistence level. You would think, having not much money, there would not be much garbage but there were plastic bags and bottles, etc., etc., etc. all over their landscape too. Plastic is so cheap and convenient. But, just as there was a time "before plastic", hopefully someone will invent something better and there will be a time "after plastic" and hopefully there will still be people around then too. Even, if I am fatigued thinking about this subject, did enjoy reading the various perspectives on your blog and realizing that people are cogitating and some doing something about this problem.====JACK:  I, too, was surprised at the amount of "trash talk" today.  But tomorrow is the day when talk has to turn into action.