Blog 7

Blog 7

            In Chapter 4 of Recycling Reconsidered, MacBride points out that often the people who end up dealing with the wastes from everyone else are often working class people who are minorities. This was also fairly evident when we visited the recycling plant. I found it interesting that in MacBride’s book she talks about how minorities are the ones who get stuck with most of the problems that are hazardous to health. She also talks about how the Zero Waste movement supports communities that are trying to become more environmentally friendly, primarily in urban areas where the people are often lower class and of minorities.

           

            I think that this section of the book really reminded me of my older sister. My sister is majoring in Philosophy and English Studies at Ball State University. Her main focus in Philosophy is Feminist Ethics and Epistemology. Because she focuses a lot on social issues, she studies similar material to what MacBride was talking about in Chapter 4.

Awhile back, my sister and I had an interesting conversation, which made me see what MacBride was saying in another light. My sister was explaining the concept of Gentrification to me. Gentrification is basically the shifting of a community from lower valued property to higher valued property. This often occurs when the people of a lower class area try to improve their communities. While community improvements are always good, they actually do pose a few problems. One of these problems is that as the property value increases and the community improves, the people living there have more issues affording to stay in the homes where they have lived for years. Often, these people are forced out of their communities and have to find another place to live, which is usually about the same at the old community before it was fixed up.

Because of the gentrification, I worry for the people in the areas that receive the most waste. Even though people are trying to make improvements to these communities, I am afraid that the people who the improvements are supposed to be for will miss out on the nice improvements of the community because they will no longer be able to afford to live in those locations.

I believe that a good reason to strive for the Zero Waste is because of this. I think that if we lower our waste enough to where we have significantly less, maybe we will be able to improve all areas. Unfortunately, as we fix communities one at a time, the local people still may be forced out to find cheaper places. Maybe eventually we will get to a point where everywhere is cleaner, and no one has to live in the areas where waste gets concentrated. Hopefully this is obtainable. Living in a healthy environment should be affordable for everyone.