Contrary to what I have been taught in grade school I never really absorbed the idea of recycling. My feelings about recycling are comparable to that of flossing. Everyone says they do it but there’s only a select few that I would call dedicated participants. I feel in general people like myself only recycle if it’s convenient.
With this said I do believe recycling does and can make a huge difference to our decaying world and it’s obvious that the effort on an individual level is not enough. The general population simply doesn’t mind our oceans of debris and islands of trash.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the individual is solely to blame but the people responsible for creating the massive amounts trash as a form of income. Those in a high corporate position are just as responsible for not providing a solution for the waste they helped to create. Last lecture we mentioned in class how food at Trader Joe’s is just tossed away because it’s easier to throw it away than find something else to do with it.
The two clips that we watched seemed to use an effective ethos tactic that made my stomach turn with grief. Although the movies draw attention on the importance of responsible waste management, or lack there of, I couldn’t help but notice that absence of a solution.
I know it sounds far fetch but maybe the possibility of reducing the amount of disposable waste such as Styrofoam containers and using a better grade plastic on bottle caps so that it doesn’t just take up space till the world’s end. What if fast food restaurants didn’t have a drive thru and forced the customer to eat inside where the restaurant only served food on reusable trays. The idea that everyone has their own container for water would save so much on plastic bottle waste. Even a community water fountain funded by the city, similar to the convenient water station in Rome, would be a great alternative. Even though the change starts at the individual level if it’s not a pressing issue in the eyes of a nation or even a community it is going to be difficult road.
