Friday, August 15, 2008
Traditional Tea Drinkers Shun Dangerous Bottles
By dangerous bottles I refer to those with so-called "recyclable" label # 7' which contain BPA (see link below to a really great article on Boston.com)*.
We here try not to buy or use ANY plastic bottles--just a ceramic or glass cup to use over and over and over again... or a gourd mate to use over and over and over again...
So don't tell me-- "it's okay... because I'm going to throw that pre-packaged, pre-mixed Guayaki bottle into the recycling and all will be well with the world."
Do you know what has to happen to a bottle that actually does make it into the recycling?
First of all it has to get to a recycling plant. Most rural areas which have a separate container for glass are not actually recycling it at all; they are smashing it down to bury as "inert waste" such as concrete or rock. It is only a slight betterment for them legally in that they can claim a higher percentage of "inert material" going into their landfill.
So, say your little Snapple bottle actually gets to a plant for recycling. If it isn't separated into "clear" but has been allowed (usually) to mix with other colors (fun in society, but bad in recycling) it will go to a less valuable pile. In many cases if it has been mixed it won't end up getting recycled at all if the value of mixed material is too low. It might end up as asphalt road bed.
Well; Lucky bottle hops onto a conveyor and a VERRRY strong magnet, with lots of electricity running through it, pulls out all of the (not only steel but) aluminum as well--because a VERRRY strong magnet will really do that!
Then it's on to the ferociously hot natural gas burning incinerator to burn off labels and trash and rubber condoms (I've worked in recycling and now know where the general population's favorite place to cast these off is!)
After burning is crushing--with a giant electric-(thus coal or hydro or nuclear) powered steel crusher which goes at those little ravaged Lipton bottles with its many whirling iron teeth. After crushing of course is hauling, because most recycling plants don't actually make the bottles; they get driven far and wide for making Gallo green, the exclusive Coke green, etc.
Then back to the factory for bottling, for labelling... when all along you could have just heated up a pot of water and thrown in some tea in your good old mate or tea cup.
If you do have your own humble tea cup or gourd you will now be able to sit back and relax thinking of all of the waste and motion you have avoided.
If, like us, you are interested in starting a re-use campaign in the U.S.of A. please send along any good research you may run across regarding getting congress to pass a law.
Enjoy!
Labels: #7, BPA, landfill, mate, plastic, re-use, recycling, tea cup, yerba
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Wooden Mates Will Never Make it to the New World
...for the same reason that Columbus would never make it to the New World: his boat would sink from cracking and swelling of the wood... for the same reason that the Norse and the Chinese, and the Polynesians, and the Egyptians, and the Aleuts in Kayaks all never made it to the "New" World thousands of years before mighty Columbus the haughty and confused. Of course they all DID make it here... because wood and water DO mix--it's just that you have to keep it at a relatively stable humidity content (like as in totally submerged.)
You may be understanding by now that I am leading you on another adventure. We are not getting to India any day now. In fact the real reason wooden mates may not make it to the New World in any great quantity is that these "New Worlders" in general don't seem capable of coping with a little "abnormality" these days... such as a small crack in their mate cup. It is not supposed to happen to a "new" thing: the getting of a little crack in it. This is the thinking of a plastic mind [that's right I said "plastic mind" when I was really wanting you to think "spastic mind", but understanding that "plastic" refers to the fact that everyone has become accustomed to plastic's ability to perform the function of holding water so cheaply and UNIFORMLY. We have become UNIFORM these days, in large part, because of our ability to experience it through plastic. In the days of yore, when a gourd or a leather flask were the height of style in drinking vessels, we knew to ignore a few small.. cracks. Now it is as if the Nina is sinking and all of the future of "civilization" is going down with it!]
Yes, I put "civilization" in quotes, because I have great misgivings about what people mean when they say that. It just may be that dolphins and their ilk have the highest level of civilization on this planet. While touring through the oceans in great (getting lesser and lesser) pods chasing giant (becoming miniscule) schools of fish their lack of need and desire for material things is a great advantage. They may play with a boat occasionally... but then it's back to gnashing anchovies.
Grabbing a piece of bamboo from the forest floor and using it for a drinking vessel is inspired and useful. It is what our ancestors did. Inventing fire was useful. Sitting around with friends drinking yerba mate tea leaves out of a simple bamboo, wood, or gourd cup is both inspiring and useful (albeit a bit more deeply diving into artifice than simply snacking on live anchovies).
Put a price tag on it though and suddenly the natives are restlessly irritated and windging about the seep of tea coming out of their piece of carved wood. It happens. You have traded a few scheckels for a bit of history and found it wanting. If you bought a cruise on the Nina I am certain you would be complaining as well [the durned thing wasn't more than 40 feet long if I remember correctly!]
My advice is to have a seat on board and enjoy the ride; if you keep your top up you'll get there in one piece. Just remember: if Christopho Colombo made it so can you.
Labels: ancestors, bamboo, Christopher Columbus, cracking, cruise, dolphins, drinking, humidity, new world, Nina, plastic, swelling, vessel, wood, wooden boat, yerba mate
