Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

The other day in class we spoke of Pincher Oklahoma, and the lead contamination that spans the space of 40 square miles. Sad truly. What this did was make me think of the other vast parts of the world that are covered in the crap (Ever head of the Garbage Patch? Twice the size of Texas and just floating out there in our oceans. Yay us.) that at some point we thought we needed and then realized later we didn't need, didn't want, or have now replaced with other crap that will someday find itself next to the current crap. We are stupid as a species. We make make make, build build build, and buy buy buy. Then we throw it away and start all over. Each morning we wake up and go about our business of using those man made plastics that will take FOREVER to decompose, and then simply throw them away without a second thought. We go to the store and buy fruit and put them in each individual plastic baggie, and then when we get to the check out it goes into a larger plastic bag, and then when we get home the fruits go into a plastic fruit bowl and the plastic baggies having served their short life purpose go into a larger plastic garbage bag and are later on down the line sent to a landfill to sit with millions of other plastic baggies. They have cheese individually wrapped and then wrapped in another package to keep that set amount together and then we repeat the plastic baggie process all over again. Disgusting. So what should we do? Most stores have ceased carrying paper bags so asking for those and then using those in your compost is out of the question now. Instead we can turn to recycled plastic bottles that have been turned into a carrying case that we may now place our purchases in. hmmm reduce the need to produce more plastic and reuse the plastic we already have by recycling? WOW what a concept.
We no longer take the time to make our own toothpastes, instead we buy the hard plastic tubes and toss them away as well. But the art still exists, all it takes is a little googling and a few ingredients (most found in cardboard boxes believe it or not!)  The toothbrushes, razors, shampoo bottles, have to go somewhere...and for the majority of families of the world that somewhere is the trash and then straight to the landfill. Some are environmentally consciences and do recycling...and to those people I say thank you. THANK YOU. You are helping this Earth.
A few things that grind my gears (as peter griffin of Family Guy on Adult Swim would say)
The electronic garbage...why not send those old electronics to third world countries and allow them to use them? Old computers, cellphones, toys, fans, etc. Those cars we no longer use? People would consider those a blessing and even if they do not run, can still be used as a home, a huge upgrade from no home, or a bench in a park. Make a Hobo Park with cars we no longer use if we are not going to recycle the metal off of them and place these cars in lots and allow the hobos to use them instead of running down other parts of communities. Another thing, we have so many old buildings no longer in use just falling to pieces and forgoten like grandpa in the nursing home. Well, how about we either spruce the buildings up and save what parts we can or put the poor thing out of its misery and build on that lot? Nope we can not do that can we? We simply must by out the park next to it, chop down all the trees, kill all plants, run off all the animals, and build a new building there. grrrindddinnnggg my geeeaarrrsss. Now lets turn to the excessive amount of childrens crap that is pumped out daily? What happened to cloth diapers with the diaper van coming around every few days to pick up the soiled nappies and bring in the clean ones? We became commercialized, and Mcdonalized...and lazy so now we send diaper after disposable diaper to the landfills. Not to mention all the toys they create. Most are not necessary and will end up in the trash. You can make wooden toys, homemade rattles, and teethers and save a boat load of money and it will not have the possible lead paint that many childrens toys made in china end up containing. You will have made the things yourself and know exactly what went into making them. Don't have time to make them? Check out thrift stores...there isn't much that bleach will not clean and kill. Your baby will not die or notice if the toys they have we first loved by someone else. Help reduce the crap in our landfills by reducing the need to produce the uneeded items, and recycling the ones we already have. The Producers will not continue to produce if the Consumers refuse to Consume.