Trash Talk?

 

 

The other day, while going through boxes and boxes of pre-computer era files, I came across a cache of essays, sermons and stories written back in the 1970s and 80s.  One particular piece -- a Rosh Hashanah sermon I delivered nearly 25 years ago -- brought back a lot of memories.  Entitled "C.A.N.D.O.," the sermon dealt in general terms with what is called tikkun olam -- the Jewish imperative to "repair the world" -- and specifically, with a campaign to replace non-recyclable Styrofoam coffee cups with ceramic mugs.     

   In rereading the sermon, my mind wandered back to research and legwork that went into it.  About a month before the High Holidays that year, it came to my attention that our 1500-member congregation used upwards of 50,000 non-recyclable Styrofoam cups per year. 

  After finding this out, I did a little math, and was shocked to discover that if you stacked 50,000 cups one inside the other, the resulting tube would be slightly more than 2 1/2 miles long.  And we were but one organization in a small town!  I couldn't begin to imagine how many millions of non-biodegradable cups were being put into our local landfill -- colorfully called "Mt. Trashmore" -- to sit and fester for the next 10,000 years.  And what about the hundreds of thousands of other towns, cities, organizations, businesses and households across the country that were similarly using and then quickly burying Styrofoam cups in landfills from Bangor to Burbank?  My mind reeled at the thought. 

   And so, flashing on an idea, I started making calls and quickly fleshed out a campaign to be called C.A.N.D.O -- "Citizens Against Non-biodegradable Disposable Objects."  The idea behind it was three-fold:

1. To raise consciousness about how much mindless damage we were doing to the environment;
   
2. To empower people to do something simple -- yet hopefully effective -- about it;
3. To raise enough money to start a pilot project whereby C.A.N.D.O. would offer to replace a group's or business's Styrofoam cups with ceramic mugs free-of-charge.

    Within a few days, I had raised enough money to purchase about a thousand ceramic mugs, spoke to students at several elementary- and middle-schools and got our mayor to agree to replace all city hall Styrofoam cups with our mugs. He agreed that using washable mugs was not only environmentally responsible; in the long-run it would be more cost-effective than purchasing all those non-biodegradable cups.

   Out of these early efforts came a sermon -- then disaster.  A handful of the congregation's most visible elders pronounced themselves "aghast" that I, a young rabbi, would "speak about trash on the holiest day of the year." (In truth, I was not sermonizing on 'trash,' and Rosh Hashanah is not the holiest day of the year.  As noted above, I was really speaking on the imperative to repair and heal the world.) And so, I was muzzled. As an employee, I had two choices: to defy the elders and risk losing my job, or to obey.  I was young.  I was cowed.  C.A.N.D.O.  was packed away for another day . . .

   Fast forward a quarter century.  We have a far, far bigger problem -- one that barely existed in 1987: bottled water.  It is a far, far bigger problem for two reasons: first, the water is an unbelievable rip-off; second, the bottles are a lethal menace to both environment and economy. 

 

 

    First, a few facts:

 

• Last year, Americans spent more than $15 billion on some 50 billion bottles of water, which works out to 167 single-use bottles for every person in the country.
• One billion dollars worth of plastic water bottles goes into landfills and litter each year.
• 30 billion plastic water bottles are thrown away every year. Plastic can take up to a thousand years to disintegrate and make up a big deposit of plastic toxic waste in both the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.
• Making bottles of water out of plastic takes more than 1.5 million barrels of oil, every year. That much oil could fuel 100,000 American cars for a year.
  
• 66 million water bottles will go into the garbage or litter today.
• Aquafina (Pepsi) and Dasani (Coke) sell 24% of all US bottled water. Yet, both are merely treated municipal tap water, resold to the public at a premium mark-up.
• San Francisco's tap water comes from Yosemite National Park and is so pure the EPA does not require it to be filtered. A bottled of Evian water at $1.35 could be refilled with San Francisco tap water once a day for over ten years before the cost would total $1.35.
• If tap water cost the same as the cheapest bottled, monthly water bills would come to $9,000.
• At nearly $4.00 a gallon, gasoline costs 3.1 cents an ounce; at an average of 10 cents an ounce, bottled water goes for nearly $13.00 a gallon.

   So what is to be done?  Is there a new C.A.N.D.O. project on the horizon? You had better believe it.  There are a number of rather simple cost-effective, environmentally responsible things we all can do:

• Sign the pledge to "Take Back the Tap."
• Buy a stainless steel or glass thermos and use it.
• If you don't like the taste -- or worry about the quality -- of your local tap water, purchase an inexpensive carbon filter; it will greatly improve the taste at a fraction of the cost.
• Encourage your school, place of employment, house of worship, gym -- wherever people gather -- install simple "hydration stations" -- drinking fountains with an extra spigot to make filling a reusable bottle quicker and easier.
• Purchase a water bottle with its own reusable filtration system -- about $10.00.
• Familiarize yourself with the facts.

   One  of the frustrating -- indeed dangerous -- aspects of modern life is how easily immediacy and acquiescence can trump both individual responsibility and collective conscience.  Frequently, it seems that all society demands of us is that we be consumers, rather than creators; that we entrust power to the titans, whether or not they have our best interests in mind. We have not been placed on this earth to be its egocentric, despoiling masters but rather its sensitive nurturing stewards.  Together -- as a community and as individuals -- there is much we C.A.N.D.O. to re-empower ourselves.  Starting with something as wholly basic as the water we drink is a good first step.

   And that, is not trash talk . . .

©2012 Kurt F. Stone

Comments

[A. Wald]

Water bottles are not just a blight in the US. The Greek islands which used to depend on well water are now overwhelmed by tourists and there is not a enough drinking water so plastic bottles now line the beach!!!!

You will be happy to know that some film productions like Burt Wonderstone (starring my car Mr. Da Silva Honda, as the car parked in the lot of the seedy Las Vegas Motel) have a green policy, so we were told to bring our own refillable water bottles and each week a green award is giving to the crew members who did the most recycling (like taking a set that is no longer needed and recycling the materials to build something useful in the community). That said, bottled water is often necessary when shooting on location in say the countryside or desert and you have lots of extras who potentially could get dehydrated. But that is a special case. No one needs bottled water in their home except for emergency purposes. When there is a quake often the water supply gets a bit muddy or water mains break.

In France we always drank Eau de Robinet (tap water, which of course came from the French alps)

[Chuck]

Cannot agree more; however, if you ever paid $1.35 for a bottle, you've been ripped off--Publix sells a 2 gallon container for 89 cents, their own in house brand--hope you are well, my professor

[Chris]

Bottled water has been one of my issues. I never understood how people could fall for buying it. Safety of babyhood??
A related issues is utilizing the rain water, especially in areas where freshwater is scarce – will be scarce.
During one of our snowbird experiences we spent time on Cayman Brac. Maybe you have seen the lovely pink or sky blue cottages with front and back patios. These patios are on top of concrete rainwater reservoirs, used to flush toilets, take showers and do dishes. Could be used to water gardens, too.
We had to pay $200 to fill to fill the reservoir with freshwater, $1 to flush the toilet! (The gutters and downspouts did not work!) I also had watched people siphon off water from unoccupied properties.
Cayman Brac is beautiful! Brac is Irish for cliff. The Carribean plate slips under the North American plate and lifts it 40 feet above sea level to make it the highest point on the north American continent as measured from the continental plate from the deepest plate of the trench, with a maximum depth of 7,686 metres (25,217 ft).
Tourists come to scuba dive. Since the island is volcanic it’s shore is very sharp iron stone. It is best to swim in ocean water pools.
We bought bikes and pedaled to the food store, the post office and the library for 1/2 hour of free internet and DVDs. We also bought food prepared by local women to feed the local working people. The locals all knew us! To there surprise I cleaned the beach, filling 2 trash cans! Trash comes ashore because the cruise ships dump it! We attended services at the small SYNAGOGUE built by a local man AS A GIFT for his Jewish wife, a nurse he met during WWII in England. They also run a B&B.
Nature? Not paradise! At least 5 plants shed there poison on unsuspecting victims walking under them. Iron stone is treacherous to walk on. The walking trails end. But the roads are paved. Chattering flocks of hard to see parrots. We'd open coconuts for Hermit crabs, fights would brake out over them. At night we’d see tens of tine Hermit crabs occupying a coconut some as little as 1/8 inch. We also watched ants: single ‘scouts’ would find the mosquitoes we killed and came with ‘soldiers’ to carry away the insect. Another ant ‘troop’ would come and try to take the insect, pulling on wings, legs and antennas. Fascinating!?

[J. Linn]

This is so interesting. I have been screaming( to anyone who would listen) about how OUTRAGEOUS it is that we PAY for water!I am amazed that no one else thinks this is INSANE. I want to know why they do not make water from my sink drinkable. I really am beyond disbelief. Thank you for joining me. We are so few. So sad.

[Deborah B Silver]

A wonderful sermon.
Have you forwarded this to newspapers ?
It comes across beautifully, and should certainly make an impression----even to JUST one person----it makes a difference !!!