Natural Planet
A monthly compendium of tips, thoughts, and updates about our shared home.
by Deb Percival
Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, Or Do Without
P
eople laugh at my cell phone. I’m not very high tech. Blame my parents. During my formative years, when I begged for the newest and the coolest, my whining was met with, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” In my parents’ house, things are only replaced when they’re
broken beyond repair. It’s driven in part by frugality, and in part by a feeling of responsibility. They have always worried about throwing things “away.” There is no “away,” and they don’t want to burden future generations with their waste. And yet, in spite of my early training, I sometimes find myself
wanting more stuff. A new cell phone. A single-cup coffeemaker. A flat-screen TV. I’ve heard that having a flat-screen TV is like hav- ing your own movie theater. Cool. As a friend of mine who has a sublime appreciation for the
absurd says, “SERIOUSLY?!” Do I need my own movie theater? Individually brewed cups
of coffee? The latest phone? Obviously not. And yet, I am tempt- ed by item after item. Why? Because there is a part of me that equates having cool stuff with having a high quality of life. And you know I’m not alone.
You are not a puppet, are you? Then don’t shop like one
I don’t know who to credit for these two sentences, but I love
them. Now, when bombarded with messages that I need new stuff I am (nearly) immune. As my parents say, if you don’t buy stuff, you don’t have to
take care of and store that stuff (in big plastic bins, for exam- ple), and perhaps more importantly, you don’t eventually have to throw the stuff “away.”
Recycling Electronics
What happens to our old stuff? Where are all the cell phones, televisions, and computers? There is no “away…”
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/ carroll-text The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that U.S.
unwanted electronics totaled nearly 2 million tons in 2005, and 3 million tons in 2006. They also estimate that e-waste is growing at two to three times the rate of any other waste source. I wonder if they actually measured that, or if they simply drew that conclu- sion after looking at the sales flyers in the Sunday paper!
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June 2010
How is plastic made? With petroleum. “Drill baby, drill,” or
live with less plastic? Here are some things to try:
http://fakeplasticfish.com/plasticfreeguide/ Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Growing up,
I thought the thing that was most worn out was that saying, but as I look at all the people there are, and all the stuff we have, and all the stuff we think we need, I think perhaps it’s time to reuse it!
Author Deb Percival is a freelance writer in Connecticut. E-mail
dpercival@comcast.net.
www.naturalnutmeg.com
Recycling Plastics
How about those unrecyclable Keurig K-Cups that come with
that single-cup coffee maker I thought I needed? Not to pick on them. Look around you. There’s a lot of plastic. There is a continent of floating toxic plastic garbage in the
Pacific. Some reports say it’s twice the size of Texas, some say twice the size of the continental US. Either way, it’s growing right along with population and consumption. It supposedly grows tenfold each decade. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contained 46,000 pieces of floating plastic, which causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mam- mals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, like this albatross, which mistook them for food.
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