There was a meeting of the Legislature this morning to discuss the impending "garbage calamity," which will occur in 2-3 years, when the landfill that we are currently trucking our garbage to, closes. The Legislature is looking into a solution that would involve untried technology, unknown side effects of air and water pollution, water usage, and the possible release of other very toxic chemicals into our environment. The Hughes Energy proposal is new, unproven technology, and perhaps there is a place for it in our future, but until we KNOW, we should, I believe, focus on the solutions that we know: mandatory residential and commercial recycling, rapid phase-out of single-use plastics, expanding and updating the 1982 Bottle Bill, further development of local (and personal) composting systems, and putting pressure on our State and Federal representatives to pass the Extended Producer Responsibility Act, which will help put the solution back in the court of the folks who created it in the first place.
As we move more and more toward electric vehicles, the fossil fuel industry will become more and more vigorous in creating more and more plastic to maintain their bottom lines. Over the last few years, there has been an explosion of plastic-producing factories all over the country and the world, but clustered around "industrial alleys" and areas of poverty that become victims of environmental injustice.
People, in general, are incredibly lax about their consumption and disposal of difficult substances. That needs to change! Individuals and businesses could do a great deal more, and if it takes financial pressure, then that's what we need to do.
Kathie Aberman
Liberty, NY
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Narrowsburg
Narrowsburg