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|The South Marysburgh Mirror ARE YOU GREEN? Trash Bash always brings our environmental responsibilities to mind. We feel morally superior after we’ ve trash bashed a road. We’re disgusted by the carelessness of people who can’t be bothered keeping their McDonalds meal containers in the car until they come to a trash bin. We know we don’t dump stuff out of our car windows, so we’re picking up the mess of others. We'd like to blame tourists or visitors, but when you drive the back roads you see old tires, motor oil containers, chairs and mirrors. Do you think tourists drive to Prince Edward County, then the guy says to his wife, “You go to Sandbanks and tour the wineries. I’ll just change the oil on the car then drive the back roads and dump the containers. I‘ll get rid of those old tires we brought with us, too.” Sounds like an unusual holiday to me. I put a big dent in the side of my truck driving in the narrow entry to the underground parking at Teasel’s. ’'d like to blame someone else, but there was only me. Yeah, like litter, we’ve seen the enemy, and it’s us. ‘ake a trip to the dump and look at the glass recycling boxes. They’re full of beer and wine bottles. That’s good for the County because they get the returns r them. Are residents so wealthy and carefree that they can’t be bothered to return them for the deposit? If so, stop whining about taxes and trash bag fees. I'd take the bottles, but I’m afraid I’d get caught removing them from the bin by the dump police. Ihad a friend in Toronto, and during a visit Diane noticed he was tossing our beer bottles in the trash. In fact, everything went in the trash. Diane critiqued my friend for his lack of community responsibility, and his response was, “Do I look like a garbage man?” Well no, he didn’ t look like a garbage man, but he did look like a jerk. I'd really like to be a closet eco-warrior, but it‘s not easy. I could stop showering each day to save water. I could, but I’d smell myself and so would other people. I couldn’t take elevators because fellow passengers would cluster to the opposite ends from me, wrinkling their noses. I could stop using shampoo, too. But when my hair gets greasy, it becomes uncomfortable and bothers me. We’d probably have to wash the bedclothes more often, and the water savings would disappear. I read of one eco-warrior who eschewed toilet paper. I know you’re curious about his approach to cleanliness, but I’m only going as far as to say that forgoing that luxury is something I am not prepared to contemplate. One woman wrote that she tumed off the bathroom lights when she showered to save electricity, and because her eyes were almost always shut during these ablutions, her sacrifice was minimal. I’d also add that the electricity savings would be minimal too. ere frequently seems to be a downside to our efforts. We conscientiously recycle newspaper. But in the recycling process, a sludge of inks and other poisonous yucky stuff is created. Paper recyclers offer this sludge to farmers for free. Soon there will be another name for it because “sludge” doesn’t sound like a good product. It will be called “nitrogen clearing residue” or some such thing. Any time it’s free, be deeply suspicious. Remember black liquor which was a byproduct of pulp manufacture which was free to use as a dust retardant on gravel roads? We used to put it on our road, and you could see shimmering rainbow pools where it leached into the water. It didn’t look harmless to me. Black liquor is now illegal in Ontario, though I think it’s shipped elsewhere. As to the sludge that is a by- product of recycling paper, the creators of this product cannot find enough farmers that are prepared to take it so it’s deposited in unused gravel pits. I would speculate that from there seepage into groundwater occurs and Continued on page 6 Tree Trimming & Removal Brush chipping Lot clearing Firew Hardwood & Softwood lumber Black River Tree Service Glenn Guernsey 476-3757