Originally posted by gdjoslin: Are not we all to blame for the problem? (...) We wipe down our counters with paper towels, then grind up the left overs in the garbage disposal. In the old days it was a rag, and the scraps went to the pets, (the Vet now says I can not do that!) The list goes on and on , but we could all cut back..... Gas is now $3.49... we do not have the cheap stuff anymore!!
At my house, the paper goes out to the recycling bin which the city, I'm lucky to say, hauls away and recycles. Not every city is this advanced, I know - but we can hope.
The leftovers? Out to the mulching pile. Eveyrthing that's living was, at some point, energy from the sun. If we put what we take out of that cycle back into the cycle, Earth, Sun, and everyone seems to be pretty happy. You should see my elephant ears in the summer, and I don't pay a penny for those nasty fertilizers!!!
I can understand why a few would think that. But most people understand composting, how it's done, and that what you actually end up with rather than a "pile of garbage" is a pile of black dirt with a little topping of hay.
And yes, it's certainly easier to just ship everything out to the road and let it be someone else's problem. But it's great to have a source of fresh soil - and anyone who gardens knows how many bags of that we go through every month. A person would literally never need to buy soil again if they actively composted. And if you care about your surroundings, it's nice to know it's being used instead of sent down the drain and into the water system where it has to be handled by inefficient and expensive treatment systems, that are becoming choked with toxins and waste.
And fortunately the small sampling of folks who would just as soon stretch out on the couch and consume, as lift a shovel and do something as simple and obvious as compost are quickly becoming a dinosaur of our old 1980s entitlement way of life. It's encouraging to see people take responsibility for themselves and leave the earth a better place than when they came, rather than just use-and-toss in a meaningless cycle of self involvement.
At least it is around where I live. I can see it getting nicer daily in a lot of ways!
Mark, my grandfather was an avid gardener and a big believer in composting. This was many years ago. Many thought he was nuts... but now I think he was on to something.
Well and for those who are all about a market economy, composting is huge business too! Some people spend a fortune on expensive compost drums and tea dispensers. Me, I just like the pile and turn method.
I see that this too is rapidly straying away from the original topic which was the price of gas. Feel free to start another discussion, but I'm closing this one.
