It is going to ostensibly be spring soon. I know that many people in northern climates have months to go before things really start to bloom, but I thought I’d talk about picnics anyway.
My childhood memories of family picnics involved a lot of plastic garbage. KFC was often a go to place on the way to the beach. Plastic bags, plastic forks and knives (in their own little bag, of course), plastic tubs of potato salad, buns in their own little bags…
The biggest container was, of course, the bucket. If Kentucky Fried Chicken is something that you must have now and then, why not just get the bucket? You can plan ahead with a jar of your own coleslaw and a jug of iced tea. I used to have a four piece set of enameled metal serving dishes. They get beat up eventually, but they served us well for camping and picnics and also serving groups of children.
I will preface this post with a confession. The story that illustrates my ingenuity and resourcefulness predates my commitment to reducing plastic and I did eventually replace my homemade item with a plastic one.
Back when I lived on a property that has partly forested, I had the crappy little plastic arm that lifts up the chain inside the toilet tank break. Rather than go to the store 40 miles away for a new crappy plastic arm, I looked around in the back yard for a branch that would make a suitable replacement. It actually worked quite well. I did not count the flushes, there were probably less than 10,000. I think it was eventually replaced for social reasons rather than practical ones.
From the Wasteland of Reality TV comes a show that puts an environmental twist on a stale premise. Hey, that’s kinda like recycling, and the best part is they don’t use the word PIMP. Wasted is basically an environmentally themed Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Here is a synopsis from IMDB…
A half-hour factual entertainment series that proves you don’t have to be extreme to be green. From worm farms to rainwater butts and solar power to heat pumps, we take your average household of eco horrors and turn it into a clean green haven, saving our families serious cash in the process. Every week we take a different family, audit their waste and energy usage with our unique eco calculator and confront them with the terrifying truth about their long-term impact on the planet. Our eco-expert will put them on a green regime to clean up their act. After tracking the family we re-calculate their household footprint and hand over their cash savings. WASTED! is an information-rich series that transforms your average eco criminal into your ultimate green convert.
I was really bummed out when I read a comment that people my age who don’t have a TV primarily bring about this deficit so they can tell all their friends that they don’t have a TV. There is nothing more depressing than finding out that you personify a cliche. In actuality I live in a furnished flat that includes a TV. I just don’t pay for cable and I don’t switch it on. I am proud to say that I have never, in my entire life, bought a television set. I wonder if the reality show encourages their featured households to abandon television viewing as a way to reduce consumption.
I would have happily included a clip of the TV show if I could find one on YouTube. Here is a heavy handed and shocking anti-television hip hop video instead..
I was doing the random browsing that I prefer to call research this morning and stumbled upon this old picture of an excavation. These British naval types are satisfying their curiosity by mucking about in an ancient dump/tip/midden. I used to do this myself back when I was a kid. I grew up in a heavily forested area of Canada. In the days before petroleum powered machinery, lumberjacks had little choice but to remain at their worksite for weeks at a time in little encampments. Every one of these would have its own little trash heap. I used to examine the glass and galvanized metal objects that remained in these when I was hiking in the woods.
I also occasionally discovered some modern day miniature dumps left by weekenders.
I try to focus on reduction strategies with this blog. I have been wading through the websites of government boards this morning and there seems to always be a focus on recycling. I guess one problem is that it is hard to measure reduction. The Integrated Waste Management Board of California is proud of the fact that they have achieved a diversion rate of 52%, as of 2005. Californians create 92 million tons of waste each year. 52% of that means BIG BUSINESS for recycling companies. Reduction does not mean big business for anybody. That’s not entirely true, companies that make alternative products that facilitate reduction would see an increase.
