The problem of Waste Management, the accumulation and disposal of waste products worldwide, is the number one problem among the hundred or so other problems, as I view this question from up here on my Back Forty. First of all, let us ask ourselves this question. Why do we have all of this waste?

To start with, I am sure that we make too much stuff, too many useless things. It is in the interest of the business end of our industries to persuade the consuming public to buy too much of what we do not require, as well as too much of what we do require. These things then become landfill or sewage waste. The reason the manufacturer is asked to make this surplus along with shoddy goods has to do with profits and business growth. Many of our appliances, which we are persuaded to buy whether required or not, have a built-in obsolescence. After a period of time these pieces of equipment either start to deteriorate and break down or simply become less attractive than a newer model. It does not matter that the cost to produce a better model in the first place, was only a few dollars more than the one that we now have to replace. It is Good Business to follow this line even if it does lead to the scrap metal and the landfill businesses, with which we now have problems…

Hold on there, just wait, I have not finished yet!

From the Kitchen Sink, to the Bathroom, to the Cow Barn, to the Pig Sty, science and technology have developed to the pilot stages, methods of solving these problems. The Economists, who profess to be realists as well, tell us, the people and the industries involved that, as yet and into the immediate future the costs to implement these measures is too great to consider. So we continue to pollute our water and our soil, our rivers and our lakes, with the cost to our health along with the cost to the environment continually rising. You have no doubt already read my views on the, now obsolete, use of Money in our economy.

Think on these things while I get on with my autumn harvest!

Timothy Haystubble (Grass Roots Philosopher)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 1st, 2000 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.