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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Mac McKinnon

Observations

By MacMcKinnon
Enterprise Publisher

Tuesday, August 25, 1998

Trash may someday

become bigger problem


When you go to eat out, do you ever consider how much trash
is being generated?

I know that's not a subject most people want to consider
when they're eating but surely it occurs that there is a lot
of trash.

Many eating establishments use wrapped utensils, whether
they be metal or plastic. Obviously, the concern is to make
things sanitary. That wrapping is trash. Then there are
napkins and in many cases, paper tablecloths. More trash.

If you go to a takeout place, there is the bag the food goes
in, either foil or styrofoam containers plus paper wrappers,
plus the containers all the condiments (ketchup, mustard,
mayonnaise, salt, pepper) come in.

If you eat at a regular restaurant, most serve more than you
can eat and you want to take it home so you ask for a
"doggie bag." That usually comes in the form of foil or a
styrofoam container and then there are the cups for drinks.

Stop and consider that the trash for one small family is
considerable. Multiple that by the 260 million people in our
country.

Our nation has become a disposable society and one of these
days, that trash is going to bury us. Many cities and states
are now scrambling to find places to dump their garbage.

We can't burn it because it pollutes the air and we have to
be careful in burying it so as to avoid contaminating the
water supplies.

It might seem that I'm picking on restaurants and I don't
mean to as all items you buy these days including clothes
come wrapped in something with a plastic hangar, placed in a
bag and there are multiple tags. While it may not seem like
much, when you add it up, it amounts to a lot.

Most grocery items are that way. And it seems that the
wrapping on grocery and drug items is becoming more
extensive as manufacturers seek ways to provide freshness
and protect the public from contamination and tampering.

Let me give just one example. I bought a pack of cookies
recently. They came in a nice heavy duty bag. Inside the bag
were two sleeves of cookies, wrapped and sealed in plastic.
That bag of cookies generated a good bit of garbage.

Other countries don't do what we do. They simple don't
indulge in waste. It seems as a nation we are paranoid and
overconcerned with freshness.

In this country we are constantly tearing down buildings and
building new ones. One example is a perfectly good house O.
J. Simpson lived in. However, it wasn't good enough for the
new owner so he is tearing it down and building a new one.
That happens all over this country.

Can you imagine people in Europe or Japan or China or
anywhere else indulging in this kind of waste?

We as a nation are too spoiled and that includes me.
However, one of these days we are going to wake up and find
garbage is taking us over. We need to conserve before this
happens and be realistic.

Something to think about.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mac McKinnon is the editor and publisher of
the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears each Tuesday. He
can be e-mailed at: bigmac@bitstreet.com

Your View

Resident enjoys reading newspaper on-line


To The Editor:
As a former resident of Pecos, I have enjoyed your on-line
newspaper very much. We have lived through the seventies,
the eighties, and now the nineties. What will we commonly
call the next decade?

Jim Hill

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Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.

324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

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