end-of-semester-blowout
the thing that bugs me about the end of the semester is not the finals [those are simply stressful] or the fact that suddenly I have all this free time and all my friends are gone [lame] but the garbage generated by my fellow students.
weird, I know.
I guess I thought more of my fellow students, but I realize that not everyone is a quasi-environmental activist. I'm not Sierra club crazy - folks, we know how to burn coal cleanly now, and it's not so much the polution as the HEAT thrown off by the miles upon square miles of asphalt and concrete with out a tree in sight, and the rapid release of stored energy from long dead plant matter [aka oil] that's causing the problem. But I digress. What bothers me is the mountains of perfectly good clothing, towels and household goods that get trashed every year, not to mention the microwaves and refridgerators which have special disposal instructions!! I shouldn't have to remind anyone that these are tough economic times, so instead of putting just a dumpster out there in the off campus housing lots, what about one of those yellow shoe-and-clothing drop off bins. There's one south of town, but what college student is going to bother driving down there. I realize this would take all the fun out of it for so-called dumpster divers, but not every one is going to participate any how, so seriously, it can't hurt. "Donation-drop offs" in the dorms are only a fractional percentage of the usable items that get thrown away, though I applaud this initiative, which has been in place for a few years now. What would be an even bigger gas is if we could get people to drop off the laundry detergent that they can't use, and wash all the donated clothes with it in washers with the cost donated by local laundromats. Imagine. People helping people. Reducing the amount of waste and the hazardous chemical [remember that half full bottle of Windex you threw out? Oh, yeah, and the computer parts and cell phone?] impact.
I dunno. Just a thought. Maybe I just care too much.
weird, I know.
I guess I thought more of my fellow students, but I realize that not everyone is a quasi-environmental activist. I'm not Sierra club crazy - folks, we know how to burn coal cleanly now, and it's not so much the polution as the HEAT thrown off by the miles upon square miles of asphalt and concrete with out a tree in sight, and the rapid release of stored energy from long dead plant matter [aka oil] that's causing the problem. But I digress. What bothers me is the mountains of perfectly good clothing, towels and household goods that get trashed every year, not to mention the microwaves and refridgerators which have special disposal instructions!! I shouldn't have to remind anyone that these are tough economic times, so instead of putting just a dumpster out there in the off campus housing lots, what about one of those yellow shoe-and-clothing drop off bins. There's one south of town, but what college student is going to bother driving down there. I realize this would take all the fun out of it for so-called dumpster divers, but not every one is going to participate any how, so seriously, it can't hurt. "Donation-drop offs" in the dorms are only a fractional percentage of the usable items that get thrown away, though I applaud this initiative, which has been in place for a few years now. What would be an even bigger gas is if we could get people to drop off the laundry detergent that they can't use, and wash all the donated clothes with it in washers with the cost donated by local laundromats. Imagine. People helping people. Reducing the amount of waste and the hazardous chemical [remember that half full bottle of Windex you threw out? Oh, yeah, and the computer parts and cell phone?] impact.
I dunno. Just a thought. Maybe I just care too much.