[greenyes] Recycling

["Wayne Turner" <WAYNET@no.address>]

In reference to the published musings of recycling opponents, Pete Pasterz wrote:

"But, I'm not of the school which says we should dismiss and ignore these
attacks...I think we should take these head on, or risk these tales to
become truths..."

I couldn't agree more.  The war of words takes it toll in subtle but tangible ways that makes it much more difficult to advance waste reduction and recycling over cheap waste disposal in 'landfills' or 'highly engineered disposal facilities'.  My favorite recent euphemism is 'natural attentuation' which means *do nothing* in the context of remediating groundwater contamination.

Advanced disposal fees and advanced recycling fees and bottle deposit systems are called, garbage taxes, recycling taxes and bottle bills, respectively, by their detractors in a successfull attempt to negatively spin useful and practical funding mechanisms.  I've purposefully cleaned up my vocabulary over the years in deference to my professional colleagues so that I no longer say 'dump' when referring to in in-ground disposal facilities.  And, I've never called a tipping fee a 'garbage tax'.  But you know, claiming the moral high ground becomes frustrating when it continues to be littered with the bones of thoughtful, useful and historically successful concepts.  Responding in kind may be the better way of getting the attention of some of these disposal pundits so long as the response isn't in conflict with one's personal beliefs and convictions.  Or, would that eliminate nearly everything in the arsenal?

Wayne