Kathy Clark at Venture Academy wanted me to tell her students how to get involved with their community, and maybe even suggest a project.
I figured saving the environment would be a good project, so I grabbed a shopping bag and went litter picking around the Standard-Examiner’s building in Business Depot Ogden.
It was very productive. I was surprised both at the quantity and variety. In half a mile I put together a nice circle of environmental disaster, from production to final polluting mess.
If Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is serious about his UCAIR clean air initiative, he should take a walk around the Capitol. I bet he’d find much the same.
If you wonder why the air is dirty, gasoline is so expensive and your water unfit to drink, peek into my bag.
• The bag itself.
• A lump of coal.
All those chemicals go into Utah’s air and water. Most of the smog not generated by cars is generated by coal.
• Plastic water bottles.
The Container Recycling Institute says Americans buy 36 billion bottles of water a year, but recycle only a sixth of the empties.
The Earth Policy Institute estimates that making bottles to meet the U.S. demand for bottled water requires more than 15 million barrels of oil annually.
That’s enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.
• Aluminum cans.
Aluminum doesn’t biodegrade, but does oxidize. A can you toss will be there in 100 years, unless some kind soul picks it up.
• Cigarette butts.
Animals eat them, the plastic fills their stomach and the animals starve.
• Paper.
Thousands of you still prefer your news on paper. Paper is biodegradable, but paper production still produces pollution and greenhouse gasses.
The Standard uses recycled newsprint with soy-based inks. The Standard also has a website and smart phone apps to let you read our fine product without the paper attached.
When I was done, I asked how many kids had asthma. Several raised their hands.
I asked whose parents hated gasoline prices. All did.
"So quit buying bottled water," I said, "and stick one of these in your back pocket," holding the grocery bag. "Every time you take a walk, pick litter up."
Then put your finds in the recycling bin, which is where all the stuff I found ended up.
Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or email ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net.
I spread my treasures out for the kids on sheets of the day’s Standard-Examiner. I found half a dozen. Cigarettelitter.org says trillions of these disgusting bits of stink are tossed every year. The tobacco may degrade, but the plastic filter won’t. The Container Recycling Institute says 100 billion of these are sold annually in the U.S. Aluminum is produced by electrolysis from bauxite, which uses a lot of electricity, which means coal. A four-year study by the National Resources Defense Council found little difference between bottled water and tap water. Some cities — Phoenix — have such vile tap water you have to drink bottled, but Utah’s is as good, or even better, than bottled. Sometimes it is bottled.Coal generates most of Utah’s electricity. The Union of Concerned Scientists says burning coal generates carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons that generate ozone, mercury, arsenic, lead and fine particulate matter. I once calculated all the oil produced in Utah is enough to make all the grocery bags people in the United States toss every year. Each bag adds a nickel to the cost of your groceries, too.
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