Most of us have that one friend, or co-worker, you know the type.
It’s the one who constantly preaches recycling. Will come to your house and dig through your trash and call you out about the empty bottle or piece of paper destined for the landfill. The one whose own home is littered with various boxes and bags of paper, plastic, batteries, Styrofoam and bottles headed for a greener future.
Well that’s me.
I take it on as my personal duty to shame friends, family, colleagues, anyone I catch throwing a perfectly good piece of recyclable material into the trash.
I gasp in horror if I go to throw something away and find something in the garbage that clearly does not belong there (ask any one of my friends, they’ve pretty much all been on the receiving end of it). But it has worked! I’ve managed to get many to start thinking before they toss items and a few have even started using those blue bins for what they’re meant for, including my co-workers.
So it was on a recent cross-country flight that I was shocked to discover that the airline simply throws away and burns everything. Even the bottles and cans that can be returned for money (I never understood that, throwing away empties, which can quickly add up to some extra spending money).
The flight attendant informed me that only in Canada can they recycle empties, but for other international destinations, particularly the U.S., they just burn it all.
I’ve heard the U.S. has appalling rates of trash. A friend from Texas says it’s disgusting how much goes in the trash and gets burned.
Meanwhile here in Vernon we’re complaining about how we need bigger recycling bins and are fighting for a composting program.
The real shocker was my final destination - Mexico. It’s such a beautiful place, whether you’re in the desert or the rain forest, you can’t help but marvel at how magical it is, with all the plants and animals, on land and in the water.
But for those of us who dare to venture outside of the fancy resorts and tourist traps, there are many areas of Mexico that are actually disgusting. Garbage litters the streets and people’s yards - so you can’t say it’s just a tourist problem.
And don’t get me wrong, I know there are greater problems that people are struggling with. But you don’t have to be rich to be clean. I just can’t help but wonder why anyone would want to litter the land so much. Especially since some of that garbage ends up in the nearby ocean, which is home to a delicate world of sea-life.
While recycling doesn’t seem to even be a consideration, I often question where the basic respect for Earth is.
I’m not trying to single out Mexico, or the U.S., it’s just a drastic difference to what many of us in Canada strive for. The three R’s are part of our early childhood curriculum.
But there are also too many in our home country who disrespect this land. Sadly it always seems to be the impoverished areas are some of the worst.
And some of our most beautiful gems are often victim to trash and destruction - recreational campgrounds, lakes and sensitive eco-systems.
Perhaps if there were more recycling fanatics worldwide, this wouldn’t be the case.