We try to be faithful recyclers around
the house. I make regular runs to town with the pickup full of
newspapers, bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard boxes and tin.
I
take old pipe and steel to the scrap metal yard and buy car parts at G
& B Salvage. Yesterday I noticed our toilet paper was labeled “100%
unbleached, 100% recycled paper, 100% post consumer content and 59.4 sq.
ft. in total area.” It’s a little like newsprint and I feel odd using
toilet paper somebody else had used but I guess we’re doin’ the right
thing. Sister Sue said they were using it, too. But it struck her as one
of the incongruities of modern times that recycled toilet paper costs
more than a roll of the new.
I
remember the same thing happened with gasoline when they introduced
unleaded. It cost more than regular to which they had to add the lead.
How ‘bout sugarless gum? Bottled water? Egg substitutes? Hamburger
Helper cost more per pound than hamburger. Are we being skewered on our
noble quest to be green and healthy?
Several
years ago the cattle business went on a binge to recycle manure and
feed it back to the steers. Concrete pens, elaborate washing systems,
dryers and millions of dollars yielded us a product with the nutrition
and palatability of bedding for the price of caviar.
The
trend towards lean beef gives me second thoughts, as well. Just looking
at a hubcap size Holstein round steak, you realize God intended it for
taco meat. But if that same steak goes into a specialty health food meat
counter it cost twice as much. It is labeled Au Bouf DeLite and
guaranteed to contain less than .01% fat. Cooking instructions are
explicit: Boil for three days and pound until flat as hammered gravy.
No comments:
Post a Comment