The Day After Blog Action Day

I was supposedly writing about environment yeseterday, but it was pretty busy day, so I missed it. Or, maybe I can say I go by Hawaiian time, so I'm still on the day I'm supposed to write about it.

When talking about environment, I always think of trashes. The first time I remember talking about it was when I was about 3th or 4th grade. We learned about the subject in social science class, and each student were to make a class newspaper about it. I think I wrote about how nearby community pool uses heat from burning the trash to keep their water warm. I also wrote about how burning plastic (I think. I don't remember any more) will create dioxin, and it's very bad for our body. The word "dioxin" was frequently used then probably because of Việt-chan and Đức-chan.

So about trash. In Japan, this subject seems to be very big. When I went back to my parents' house couple of years ago, I tried to throw trashes how I used to when I was still in Japan, but my mother kept yelling at me: "No, no! Don't throw that in that basket! This goes here!" There were tons of way to separate the trash according to their type. In the end, I got fed up and just left the trashes in the kitchen, so my mother could throw them away from me.

In the States, on the other hand, separating trash doesn't seem to be so big of subject. We still do separate trashes in some area. The place I live now, San Jose, separate them to can/glasses, papers, and other trashes. Though, when I was in college, San Luis Obispo, all the trash went into one trash container. The place I live now, Palo Alto, has only one garbage can for recyclables. Scary, isn't it?

I thought so, too, until I found out from my ex-roommate (an elementary school teacher) that there are actually people who work at garbage disposal facility to sort out garbages. Quoting from City of San Jose, Garbage & Recycling page:

At the MRF, the truck driver empties the recyclables onto a conveyer belt. A system of belts, screens, electromagnets, and blasts of air separate paper, plastics, glass, aluminum, and other materials. While much of the system is automated, workers help separate certain materials by hand.

While this is quite a lot of work on city, but at least I'm relieve to hear/read about it. At least we are recycling something here. Though, probably it is better if each family separates recyclables according to their type and put in each bag or something, so the sorting would be much easier.

Oh yeah, one good (?) thing in the States. We get charged extra 5 cents or so for recycling fee per a can or a bottle. Then, once we collect them and bring them to certain facility (usually near supermarkets), we actually get some cash back. I think it is a good way to make people recycle. Most of the time, homeless people collect cans and bottles to do this type of recycling, but still, it's better than nothing... :)


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