I came close to decking some smart mouthed kid the other day. He was spouting about how wonderfully "green"
the younger generation is and how horribly wasteful the "old folks" were. He was going on about recycling,
"alternate energy", economy cars, etc.
Well, here is the truth about the horrible wasteful old timers and wonderful greenees. Let's go back to,
say, 1940 and take a look at all the waste as compared to today.
1. Containers. Milk and beverages came in reusable heavy duty glass containers. Kids would go buy a soda
and pay an extra 2 cents deposit for the bottle. When they finished their drink, they would return the
bottle to any store that carried that brand and get their 2 cents back. The bottlers would then buy the
bottle back from the store. These bottles were then cleaned, sterylised and refilled. Since new bottles
went through the same process, there was no extra polution generated and no extra energy used in the
process. Of course, beer bottles went through the same cycle as did milk bottles. Milk was handled a little
differently though. It was delivered early in the morning, often by horse drawn wagon (zero oil use and
only natural bio-degradable byproducts produced) or, in the bigger cities by a relatively economical small truck,
usually one made by DIVCO. These trucks were powered by a small 4 cylinder engine and got maybe 12 to 14 MPG.
Now, even with todays miniature economy cars, one truck chugging around the neighborhood getting 12 MPG
means a lot less fuel burned than hundreds of people driving to the market to get milk. Canned goods were
packed in substantial steel tins. In the 30's, people would canvass neighborhoods collecting old rags, tin
cans and junk to be recycled. In a certain medium size town in PA, one such person made enough that he drove a
Deusenberg. When it became obvious that we would soon be involved in the war in Europe, and especially after
it was obvious that we WERE involved in said war, people would save their tins. Both ends were cut partly
out, enough that they could be folded in and the cans were flattened and sent off to be made into tanks
and such. Even the jelly and jam jars were not just chucked into the rubbish. They were printed with nice
designs suitable for use as drinking glasses after the labels were peeled off. It was unthinkable to throw
out other glass containers with screw-on lids as well. Those were taken to the garage and basement to be
filled with nails and bolts and such. Overall, there was ****** little non-biodegradable stuff sent off to
the dump.
Now, everything comes in disposable plastic, paper thin aluminum or, occasionally, glass, paper or thin
steel containers. These containers are tossed into a special rubbish bin. They are hauled off, sorted
using energy consuming machinery. The plastics are chopped up into small bits by an electric chopper,
then sent off to be dissolved in oil based solvents and eventually molded into new containers to be refilled
and the cycle starts again. Glass is broken up, melted down and made into new jars, etc. All this use of
energy and petroleum products is supposed to be somehow better than just cleaning out reusable containers
and reusing them.
2. Vehicles. Time was that most people were able to repair their own vehicles. When they finally reached a
point that the owner decided it wasn't worth repairing the old bus, he sold it to a junkyard and got another.
That wasn't the end of it though. The old vehicle was stripped of usable parts to keep others like it running
and many of the worn bits were reconditioned. You didn't see trainloads of flattened out late models going
to be melted down like you do today. You did see a lot of older models aging gracefully and still running
like a top. I have been informed by a large number of sources that the amount of energy consumed and pollution
generated in manufacturing new vehicles far exceeds what would be generated by keeping the older ones running.
3. "Green energy". In 1940, a good part of America was still farmland, and a good number of these farms were
not connected to "city" electricity or water. Wind driven generators and well pumps were a common sight. I
don't have any actual numbers before me at the moment, but I believe it would be safe to say that, prior to
WWII, more "green" power was generated than in these wonderful "enlightened" times.
4. Going to school. There were no "socker moms" in minivans. Kids either walked to school (minimum pollution
and zero petroleum use) or rode a bus. now, the old school buses made by Fagoel, Flexibl and Reo got maybe
8 - 9 MPG. Even at the 23 MPG the EPA says you might be able to get from a minivan, if a school bus keeps
even 3 socker moms off the road at schooltime, that is a net saving in fuel. Have you ever seen how people drive
when dropping or picking up their kids at school? Their chances of survival would go up by an order of magnitude
if the brats walked or took the bus!
5. Money. Yes, they even recycled money back then. They did it by buying products made in America by Americans
working for American owned companies. Now is the time for some idiot to pop up and shout, "But, my new
Toyota was made in America!" Maybe so, but where did your money go? It sure didn't stay here, and you'll never
see it again. Back then, when you bought something, it was made, delivered and sold by you, your family,
neighbor or even your lazy brother-in-law. People had real jobs that they were proud of. These jobs kept them
busy enough and gave them enough self esteem that they (for the most part) didn't feel any need to fool around.
Single parenthood was a rarity usually resulting from widowhood rather than wandering off looking to feel good
about ones self. And, the few single parents went to work and tried to teach proper values to their kids instead
of being too busy boozing and drugging to be bothered.
OK, I don't want to hear any more about the wonderful greenees or the terrible brownees! And, I still haven't
seen any really convincing evidence that "global warming" is not part of the natural solar cycle compounded
by an EPA summer.
