A Letter to the Editor: ‘The earth is not a trash can’

Remembering the gargantuan amounts of previously recycled trash my family created during the pandemic when there was no recycling at all (that we were barely able to stuff into our trash cans), and then getting the news of all the things we’re no longer allowed to recycle, and then seeing the paltry quantities of recyclables in my neighbors’ bins this week, it seems a foregone conclusion that these changes were a half-step to no more recycling at all.

When they don’t take the mounds of junk mail that come every week, the glass that accumulates from one’s kitchen, or the myriad plastic containers that comprise the bulk of the bulk, it seems obvious we’re on our way to no recycling.

As I often say, I hope smarter people than me are working to address these challenges. The earth is not a trash can – although I suspect it’s inevitable space will become one — yet we seem unwilling to treat it that way.

Cary Murphy Herold

Fleming Island