Page 236 - 1970S

26 Tbe PLAIN TRUTH
TEN Ways You Can Fight
Pollution
l . OON1 T LITTER. Teach your lomi/y no! lo litter- from !he cor, sidewalk, camp–
sile, al work, school or home. 11 co sts JOc o f yovr tox money lo pick up
each roads ide beer can (Th is does no! include disposing of il), and !he average
mil e of highwoy has 590 such beer cons- ond 770 paper cups, 730 cigarelle
packs, 360 bottles, and 90 beer cartons. Motorisls d ro p 15,000 pieces per mi/e
per year in Americe. Whal a sovings of scenery ANO money if we All QUIT
LITTERINGI
2. OONJT USE NON-OEGRAOABlE PACKAGING. vo u, the con-
sumer, hove un l imiled power lo change !he pockag ing induslry. The plastic
bogs wh ich choke fish and fowl lo deoth, the slyrofoom pac kog ing and ploslic
contoiners which defy destruction, the plostic beer con loops which hove
choked sea bird$ lo dea th, ond all forms of "immorta l plastics" which ore
used only once then discorded, can be used NOT AT All if enoug h people
refuse lo buy products conta ined in them.
3 . BUY ONlY OEPOSIT BOTTlES. Each re turna ble-type bottle is vsed to
make 19 round trips befare retiring . Most of loday's battles are junked a lter
one usoge. The power of the co nsumer hos olready been d isployed here, as
the bottle induslry has cha nged their $7.5-mill ion odvertisi ng progrom lrom
slressing no-deposit bottles lo stress ing DEPOSIT bottles.
4. TEACH THE ClEANLINESS HABIT to your chi ldren, trom intancy up–
ward. lf children hove the habit of picking up alter themselves, throwing
things into !he wostebosket ONLY, no! throwing away items tho t ore ST ILL
USABLE, lhey wi ll no! increose !he "per copita" trosh thot experts ore
predicting by 1980.
5. PICK UP LITTER. Of covrse it would be impossible for jusi a few people lo
pick up oll !he liller. Su! you con ma ke your world neater !han when you
found it. Pick up litter around yovr home, your yord, yovr office, yovr school,
yovr campsite or motel room; don'! throw garbage under yovr thea ter seol or
basketball bleacher.
6. BUllO llfE INTO YOUR CAR. Over 7 mill ion cors are junked onnvolly,
mony of them abandaned by the roodsid e. Thal's lwo tons of pol lu tion thot
can be prevented by o little core. The average car coming out of Delroit has a
total life-span of six years (it was 1O years o decode ago). Much of this is
OUR foul t. With carefu l driving ond mainteno nce, ond limiting ovr trips lo !he
necessory ones, we could double the l ile of ovr cors. And when il weors out,
sell it lo o steel scrop ogent, DON'T ABANDON ITI
7 . RECYCLE YOUR NEWSPAPERS . one holt ot au household trash is
poper or poperboard p roducls. Much of this is newsprint, wilh o Sundoy
edition in o lorge c ity we ighing as muc h os 5 pound s! Many poper componies
ore beginning lo recycle newsprint for u nlimiled reusoge. For every 118 pounds
of old newspopers you return, you sove one tree, soy the compony spokesmen.
The Son Francisco Exominer reports, "The only 'X' in this equotion is the
willingne$$ of indivíduols lo sove old newspopers os o personal contribution
toword preservotion of the quolily of !he total environment" (April 26, 1970,
p . 24). lf your ci ty does not hove such a service, wrile lo your newspoper.
Con tribute your poper lo them, lo rescue more trees from becoming more Irosh.
8. START A COMPOST HEAP. Less !han one percenl ol mu nicipal trosh is
eventuolly composted, but a muc h larger percentoge of your household trosh
could ond SHOULD be. Orgonic moteriols- egg shells, meol by-producls, f ruit
ond vegetable wosle, etc.- should be returned lo !he soil by natura l means.
Leorn !he principies of composting ond build o campos! pile in your bockyord.
But be coreful lo follow proper heollh rules in composling. Check wilh city
outhorities for local regulotions.
9. BUllO CRAFTSMANSHIP inlo whot you make. lf YOU work in a foclory,
or il you women moke clothes or crofls al home, build o long lile into whot
you moke. lf ALL our monvfoclured producls were construcled with core,
a greal number of TV seis, clothes, cars, oppliances, and other prematurely
detective items would nol enter the trosh heop so soon.
10. RECYClE AS MANY ITEMS AS YOU CAN. Th is applies not
on ly lo newspopers, but o mu llitude of items. Various componies buy old
no-deposil bottles or oluminum beer cons for % <l' eoch . Other orgonizot ions
hove "paper drives." lf your clothes, toys, o r furnilure ore old but usable,
don'! "junk th em," bul contribute them lo some chori to bl e group which con
continue USING !he items. Befare junking any ítem, ask yourse lf, "Con lhis
be used ogain?" Once il enters lhe gorbage con , nobody uses it!
J une·J uly, 1970
suffocate and strangle all life on the
earth.
Groups from every walk of Iife, busi–
ness and industry, education and science
have reacted with teach-ins, seminars,
be-ins - and the great, massive effort of
April 22, Earthday! All too often these
efforts fall into the same category as the
cliché about the weather: Everybody
talks about it but nobody does anything
about it!
Every manufactured product - parti–
culady those most guilty of pollution -
will probably now be advertised, in the
light of this consciousness of enviren–
mental garbage, as a dedicated step
in the direction of deansing the earth!
Following the same pattern as other
warnings which have been given in the
past, these responses to the consequences
will be no more e.ffective than the
response to the consequences announced
regarding the dangers of cigarette
smoking. If you can remember that
far back, you will recall that every
cigarette company immediately carne
out with activated, surefue, live char–
coal, super gastrap filters! Advertis–
ing assured the public that these fil–
ters stood as a firm guardian between
any cancer-inducing product and the
customers' vital organs. Hundreds of
millions of words later, and hundreds
of bi!Jions of dgarettes later, the grim
toll of smoking-induced deaths still
daims many more than a thousand lives
a day ! Yet by now - incredible as it
may seem - so many other, and
more massive evils Ioom on the hori.zon
- nuclear annihilation, the population
explosion, worldwide famines, crime in
every category, race riots and general
civil disorder, etc. - that the cancer
threat from cigarette smoking seems to
dim to insignificance.
1 am not saying, "lt's no use wor–
ry in' nothin's gunna turn out
all right !" Not only is there something
which can be done about this pollution
problem - but I can confidently tell
you on the highest of authority that
somcthing WJLL BE DONE ABOUT IT!
Something totally effective- and soon.
Who Knows What the
Future H olds?
Everybody seems to be getting into the
prophecy game - politicians, Students,