Why haven't We?

Coming near to the end of Chapter 2 in Macbride’s book Recycling Reconsidered, I find myself in quite the confused and frustrated state of mind, yet still hopeful for a miracle (lol). In a nutshell, over the course of 40+ years of acting, how have we not come to a more sustainable present?! The movements in our history seem invincible and I really wish some of them had went through and actually did what was meant to do done. However, corporations, executives, or officials never fail to halt the progress. Whether the counter arguments motives were morally correct or not, progress for recycling seems to be getting no-where… now I understand our society has made gracious steps in the right direction, it does seem though in this book that every time someone has tried to begin a revolution, someone else gets it shut down. And this just goes back to people and their evolving minds; people are alway learning new things and forming new opinions all the time, that all fine and dandy but we are talking about waste here. Referring to Spenser’s comment in class about movements: there is always an opposing side to an issue, but the side that has more strength and initiative, with time, will win. But with the evolving issue on waste, some people for some reason feel like it’s not a primary issue. No, its not. We have to act and someone, or some city, needs to have the urgency and courage to put the foot down and follow through with a law/plan.

Now that I’ve ventured off topic, I’d like reiterate why I’m frustrated. I feel like we are getting no where. For example, in reading about New York’s State Bottle Bill, 1980’s Kock was elected democratic and for reasons I don’t understand, he opposed the bill. Macbride says he was “drifting to the right” of the political scale after elected and he felt the passing of bill would hinder the industry and put too many employees out of work. Hello! A zero waste community puts a ton of people out of work; shutting down landfills is a great step, but what about the employees that work there. What I’m trying to say is not everyone is going to benefit in the short run or long run, but for an overall community, the decision should be made and there has to be leaders out there that are not stopped by the word “no” that speak of the overall impact.

With frustration out the ears, I understand this process takes time, but we are nearing the “too late stage” and its time to turn it around. I know this blog might not seem like much actual content but reading Macbride’s message, I could not help but to express my observation about or progress with recycling.

Ps. I know we are making huge steps in the right direction but in the grand scheme, it personally feels like a fishbowl.