The Artdog Quote of the Week
The first thing that leaped to my mind when I read this was the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (although all oceans have them, and there actually are more than one in the Pacific alone, depending on how you look at it/them).
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| Pacific currents and how they accumulate garbage–particularly troublesome are the plastics. |
My second thought moved on to landfills and their limitations–which are many and becoming progressively more difficult to deal with. And that’s not even beginning to talk about the problem of illegal dumping (also called “fly-tipping” and other, less savory things), which is a persistent problem almost everywhere.
Even the familiar process of recycling can be less “green” than we’d like for it to be, since volatile markets for recycled materials and contamination or un-recyclable items can elevate the cost of recycling for municipalities. The problem has been growing for years, and solutions seem elusive.
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| Sorters in recycling plants are essential, or all sorts of non-recyclables can get through to gum up the works. |
As in most areas of life, public education is key, smart government policies can make a huge difference, and realities are always changing, so innovations that change with them are always needed.
We all have a part to play. How’s yours going?
IMAGES: Many thanks to Green Heart at Work, for the wonderful quote from Greenpeace’s Annie Leonard; to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for the diagram of the Pacific currents and trash accumulations; and to The Washington Post and Getty Images, via Fortune, for the photo of the recycling sorters in Elkridge MD.