Can We Talk 2

My Personal Green New Deal

         I can't control the world or even my community. I can only control what I do.

         I have been concerned for the last 50 years about the environment; it's not new. We once complained about aerosol cans that invaded the ozone layer. Now those cans have been replaced. Industry has been forced to take strategies to eliminate wastes according to law, preventing the pollution of water, including ground run-off. The Chesapeake Bay has been cleaned up after severe damage to the harvests of fish and shellfish. Waters far inland affected that. Many of these things were corrected by legislation and expense by businesses. Some were brought about by broad consumer complaining or banning the use of offending products. We now have "friendlier" insecticides, including mosquito repellent for our skin.

         Most people are far more conscious of not wasting water than their parents or grandparents. For instance, we don't leave the water running while brushing our teeth. We don't allow toilets to leak or run constantly. We catch the rainwater for use on gardens and flower beds, and not just in desert areas. We still use baking soda and vinegar for many household cleaning jobs. I remember the old rule of the 60's was to put a box of baking soda in the drain every month to negate household detergents and shampoos. We put our coffee grounds in the planters to decompose into the soil. We no longer throw expired or unused medicine into the toilet or the regular trash, but hold it for yearly collections in the community for improved disposal.

         Now I have read that landfills do not want your food waste. I thought the decomposing matter would be welcome, but it is not, which is why they want brush and leaves separate. So I have started my own compost. Everyday I put kitchen trash in a pie pan. No fats or animal matter or dairy products. I only recycle egg shells, which I break up even more, coffee grounds, tea bags with tags, onion skins, fruit peelings (I cut banana peels with kitchen shears since they take forever to break down), and wilted lettuce or other things from my refrigerator that have gone bad. We use a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, as opposed to processed. Daily I take the pan to my back porch, remove the lid from a recycled plastic laundry detergent tub, and dump it in. I clamp the lid tight to avoid rain and flies. When the bucket is almost full, I take it to my compost pile. Right now I could take it to my dried up vegetable patch, which is free of weeds and plants. I'd have to dig it into the soil. The pile is at the back fence on the lower side, not too close to living areas of neighbors. We dump leaves, cut grass, and small branches there. We keep the pitch fork there and turn it several times a year.

         It smells horrible when I uncap it, but after a few days in the sun or rain, the odor goes away. I'm afraid it will splash on me, so I am careful. I wear old shoes and lots of mosquito repellent, since that is one of our bad areas. So I am keeping biodegradable trash out of the landfill, and speeding up the breakdown of my compost. Next year or the one after, I'll have some organic compost to mix in with soil for planting. (You have to turn it over and get the rotted stuff from the bottom, not the fresh upper layers.)

         This small gesture doesn't make up for other countries, or big business. It doesn't help people in apartments or dorms. But if all rural and suburban home dwellers would do this, we'd make a small impact.