Re: No Subject
STEVESUESS@aol.com
Fri, 22 Jan 1999 16:15:15 -0500
Lynn Landes writes: Let's stop screwing around with this stuff and move
on to promoting zero waste technologies and programs.
Steve says: Go for it Lynn! As to Bills words - you are absolutely
correct - this is not an easy task, and the effort needs to come in the how
to do this, not the what! People are getting bogged down in side trips that
cause more damage than help. If you put one of those typical carved in stone
time tables on ZERO WASTE what will happen is that people will rebel and
reject you before you even begin (exhibit A is the CRRA EPA letter I was
talking about in my last note to you.). And if by some miracle you do get
some law mandating ZERO WASTE by a specific date and things don't go well -
then the back lash will come and people will change the law to drop the whole
thing! This is how these things seem to work!!!
Instead what I am talking about is the idea that we promote ZERO WASTE
as the long term goal, with a target date of say 2020, but not one fixed in
stone. First we need to convince people that this is the proper goal, then
we need to come to agreement on how to do this - and that is going to be the
tougest part, because that is going to require some major shifts in how we do
things in our society! (I am talking about Hawkins tax ideas, as well as
changing ways we look at virgin resources which includes wilderness and the
creatures living there.) I believe that once we overcome this, most
difficult task, then I would hope the new laws that come about would be clear
and simple enough to create a climate where the proper behavior would come
about essentially automatically! (Again see Hawkins)
The essential point of this disscussion is to stop turning each idea
into one that becomes a part of the same ol' same ol'! If we continue to
attach contemporary thinking (such as mandated deadlines) to the ZERO WASTE
goal we might as well give up before we begin. (It is that 2005 deadline
that already put us into the realm of fringe lunatics with many people! If
you just discuss ZERO WASTE as the ultimate goal people go along with you.)
Again the goal is ZERO WASTE, and for now that is it - no further
conditions! (Of course this leads to no more landfills, and so forth.) With
that common agreement we must now open peoples minds to completely new ways
of doing business so that this can become possible, and then the new systems
to make this happen will follow from that!