February 16, 2009
Opinion
Colorado's astounding litter dilemma
Ever go camping, hiking, biking, boating or skiing in the Colorado High Country. What can you depend on seeing besides the natural beauty of the mountains? You guessed it: litter in every shape, form and style! A good many people visiting the wilderness do not possess a brain. In fact, if their brains were gasoline, they wouldn’t have enough gasoline to fill an ant’s motorcycle and drive half way around a BB!
Fifty-one percent of Colorado’s aluminum, bottle and glass beverage containers reach recycling centers annually. The other 49 percent get tossed into the garbage, along highways, and into rivers, lakes and streams.
Last year, the aluminum industry reported the national recycling rate for cans known as ABC’s (aluminum beverage cans) at 51 percent.
According to E-Magazine, “In 2006, U.S. manufacturers sold 100.6 billion ABCs, but recycled 51 percent. That remaining 48 billion cans were land-filled, littered or burned in garbage incinerators. To comprehend such large numbers, consider this: dividing those 48 billions wasted cans by 31,536,000 seconds in a year shows Americans discarding 1,500 cans every second.”
You can figure that one pound of aluminum yields 34-12 ounce cans, so that 1,500 cans equate to 44 pounds of aluminum discarded every second. That equals 1.3 billion pounds of wasted aluminum per year.
“One year’s worth of America’s trashed cans would provide enough aluminum to make more than 8,000 747 airplanes each comprised of 147,000 pounds aluminum,” according to Boeing Aircraft.
Here in Colorado, Peter Coors’ litter legacy continues as he trashed the return/deposit initiatives in the 70s and 80s. As you can see from this report, Coors’ legacy bequeaths upon us container trash in every corner of Colorado. If he possessed any concern for our environment, he would have supported the 10 cent deposit/return law, which in turn would have saved our wilderness beauty.
More than that, it would have created greater environmental responsibility in Colorado and across the West. Instead, we waste unbelievable resources and trash nature at a disgusting level of litter. Coors could have been a force for the good of us all.
Instead, Coors spent millions along with his corporate cronies to defeat our efforts for recycling laws based on economic incentives.
At some point, I invite environmentally concerned Coloradans to move toward another 10 cent deposit/return law in Colorado. We could fashion it after Michigan’s, which has been a commanding success for the past 20 years.
Imagine walking, paddling, pedaling, running, sailing and camping in Colorado’s wilderness unblemished by container litter. Imagine driving along roads, highways and through cities with no container trash. Imagine rivers, lakes and streams free of cans, bottles and plastic containers. Imagine those who do toss their containers discovering an armada of kids picking up those containers for 10 cents a shot.
Imagine personal responsibility for packing it in and pack it out!
To get more involved: www. www.container-recycling.org
http://www.examiner.com/x-3515-Denver-Political-Issues-Examiner~y2009m2d16-Colorados-astounding-litter-dilemma
