Similarities between recycling and composting…

As I just finished reading the May 2013 National Geographic Magazine Article titled “Our Fertilized World” the author Dan Charles quotes Sieglinde Snapp a crop scientist from Michigan State University who says that ‘countries that can’t afford massive amounts of fertilizer need a more sustainable approach; such as relying on nitrogen-fixing plants. After 20 years of teaching and working with farming families in Malawi, the soil is becoming more fertile without the use of any fertilizer. Pigeon peas and peanuts rotated annually with corn increases Malawi food production.’

“Acquiring and conserving nitrogen in the future will take considerable know-how and patience.” Ron Rosmann in Iowa stated, “Farming without added nitrogen ‘takes more management, more labor and more attention to detail.’”

Dan Charles concluded“…When chemist Fritz Haber first learned how to capture nitrogen from the air, synthetic fertilizer seemed like an easy shortcut out of scarcity, delivering a limitless supply of agriculture’s most important nutrient. Yet new limits on nitrogen are appearing. This time the innovations that save us-and our planet-may not be invented in a chemistry laboratory. Instead they may come from farmers and field in every corner of the world.”

Yes, doing things naturally and sustainably does require a bit more thinking outside the box, challenging the mentality of our culture, whether that thinking is bestowed on us by the powers that be (corporations or the government) or by our own stifling, fast-paced living styles.

It brings to mind a book that a friend recently loaned to me titled, “The One Straw Revolution” that was written by Masanobu Fukuoka of Japan. I will write more about the things he taught in his book later in this blog, but he stated on page 25, “Lately I have been thinking that the point must be reached when scientists, politicians, artists, philosophers, men of religion, and all those who work in the fields should gather here, gaze out over these fields, and talk things over together. I think this is the kind of thing that must happen if people are to see beyond their specialties. Humanity does not know nature.”

I notice that there are similarities between recycling and composting in regards to this rethinking of our modern culture. Today our fast paced lifestyles dictate that we need everything NOW; whether it is a quick way to discard of everything in a nearby trash can or the belief that we need synthetic fertilizers on monoculture crops grown in third world countries in order to eat what we want.

We don’t reconsider this type of thinking. Quick, convenient and simply is what we look for! When we want to discard plastic bottles and aluminum cans once we have consumed the drink that was inside, we want a bin to throw it in. When we are hungry, we want a quick and easy meal to eat.

What we don’t realize is that we have the power to dictate what and how companies fulfill our needs as consumers. Businesses will bend to the will of customers only if we request what we want, get organized and refuse to purchase items that we don’t want. Money talks louder than words.

We could request that businesses provide a recycle bin at their location for your recycling needs and that recycling cans be located near every trash bin in the United States. We need to stop looking for a trash can, learn about natural resources, and learn to recycle items we wish to discard. We should ask that our food and beverages be simply packaged returnable dishes, so all the materials can be reclaimed and recycled.

A trash can is the catch all for everyone. We have basically been brainwashed into thinking that it is fine to throw reusable materials into a garbage can because we don’t think about where it goes afterwards.

Again we are far removed from our first love, the earth. Where will these materials end up once placed into the trash can? Where, you ask… In a big hole in the ground (a landfill) where the material will be buried, and over the course of a few thousand years, will release methane gases which will overburden our earth’s atmosphere causing climatic unpredictable changes in our global temperatures and weather, causing catastrophic, violent storms, damaging earth changing events (such as high record scale earthquakes and tsunami) and other unstable phenomena. 

Is this the kind of earth that we want to leave behind for our children, and their children’s children? Do we want to use up all the natural resources of our earth, digging and mining them up and then burying them irresponsibly once we are finished with our manmade products? Does it make more sense to recycle the materials and reuse them to make a new bottle rather than throwing them into a deep, dark hole so they can overburden us with heavy greenhouse gases later? 

It is time to understand where we are headed. Are we acting responsibly for our future generations or are we living for the moment of quick and easy methods. We need to remember our earth has finite resources; the air we breathe the water we drink, as well as the earth and minerals inside only exist in the state that we leave them in. If the earth is in disarray, then are we not the cause and to be blamed?!

We need to return to the basics of our ancestors and remember they practiced many practical and environmentally sound methods of living. Recycling, reclamation through reuse, rethinking and responding to the manufacturing corporations that produce the products that we purchase on store shelves as well as the food we consume on a daily basis. It is up to us. It is time to take charge of our destiny. We can do it!