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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Roofing, Recycling, the Environment, and You and Me

We've got it all wrong. I apologize. I've mislead my clients.
We have been selling energy efficiency and green roofing practices to our customers as a long term saving plan. The impetus has been on the economic return of being green. This is wrong and selfish. We should be green because we are not red. We should go and not stop.
As Jason Garrett said, when asked why he was training so hard when he probably would never get to play, for the inherit benefit of it.
That is why we should recycle: for the inherent benefit. Profit is great. I love it. But contentment and satisfaction are better.
Here's my idea:
Cities recycle for profit. Irving does not recycle glass containers because they can't make money on it.
Duh? They don't do it for the common good?
I have a plan. Why don't we form cooperatives where people specialize in recycling. One neighbor or two do the glass, another the paper, others still the plastic. We could dedicate compost areas and work together to keep out the rodents.
Another idea is the adjustable kiln. One temperature setting could melt metals, another glass. The fuel could come from the waste we can't recycle. Burn baby burn. Otherwise we could work to share and gather the trash and call in professional recyclers. Nothing wasted, everything gained. We'd all feel better. Maybe we could make some change while keeping Mother Earth a little cleaner.
Trash cooperatives, energy generation, glass and metal production, fertilizer, seeds, landscaping blocks could all be made. It would be like art school and Boy Scouts rolled into one.
We recycle roofing for some body's profit. Why not mine and yours?
A few shared locally run machines and a little donated effort by our unemployed or under employed neighbors and we could create a worker's paradise. As long as it is voluntary you can count me in. If you try to force me I'll rebel.
We could make our own bottles and ferment our own beer, wine, or vinegar. Just think. The possibilities are endless. We might even make some roofing material. Siding material? Pavement? Street repair goop? News? Goodwill? Energy? Good feelings?
If anyone has a good idea on how we can collectively make our neighborhood trash into treasure I'm all for it.
I'm going to figure out how to use the thousands of pounds of trash I collect every year into a planet saving scheme.

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