American Waste

Disposable Packaging

It’s amazing to think that in todays’ society, with instant communication and with instant digital imaging, we still fail to see the big picture.  Thanks to America’s insatiable appetite for consumption of all thing wrapped in plastic, we are now one of the world’s top producers of garbage.  

Latest reports indicate that America now creates 254 million tons of waste each year.  Less than a third of this amount is recycled.  Thanks to the financial meltdown of 2008, the recycling industry has become virtually nonexistent, so the numbers become even more skewed.  Connecting dots is not a game to be taken lightly, as it will lead the participant into troubled waters, far from anything resembling a comfort zone.  This national appetite for waste creation has obviously turned into a global environmental catastrophe, floating upon the high seas, far from home, eventually landing on distant shores, among other places.

Waste News

In the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Hawaii, lies the Central Pacific Gyre.  Natural currents and weak winds combine to help create something quite unnatural.  This is the place where yet one more irresponsible act of mankind gives an all-star performance on the center stage of environmental damage.  Plastic waste congregates within the gyre, covering an area, by most estimates, twice the size of Texas, with new immigrants arriving by the day, so to speak.  Within this area, plastic fragment pollution, as it’s known, outweighs naturally occurring plankton by a ration of 6:1.    

Plastic disposable containers, foam containers and disposable garbage beyond comprehension floats on the ocean’s surface, waiting for the sun’s rays to break it down into smaller and smaller pieces.  Eventually, these pieces become an attraction for marine wildlife, where entry into the food chain begins.  

With studies being  conducted to determine the effect of hormonal interruptions at these lower stages of the food chain, along with the ultimate effect on humanity, disturbing news is beginning to come forth.   Tests continue to show that most major health issues in the U.S. over the last 30 years have a relationship of sorts with plastics residing in the food chain.  

Higher Education Business

Somewhere along the way, man’s quest for higher eduction has taken a wrong turn.  It’s becoming increasingly clear that this wrong turn has placed us on a path of no return.