The Early Green Days

Posted by Greenbee on November 7, 2009

Growing up in Hawaii I remember one of the first times it hit me that one day our wastefulness will catch up with us. I was about 11 and my Dad had me and my sister tag along to drop to off some old appliances at the city dump, as we drove across the island what seems like hours (20 minutes later) we arrived at the only landfill for the island of Oahu.

Upon entering the stench hit me and my sister first and for some reason we felt our shirts would filter our any smell and bad stuff we might breath in. My Dad backed up to a huge crater that had been carved into the earth along what was once a beautiful Hawaiian mountain range. With the appliances we dragged out a bunch of bulk trash items. The plan was simple as my Dad explained with the van backed up to the huge crater all we did was drag the items to the edge and a worker would push them over to fall down into the crater.

On the ride home me and my sister discussed the things we saw and I remember asking my Dad all sort of questions about the landfill most I can’t remember to this day. I recall a realization of “what happens when the crater is full?” My Dad told me all they will do is cover it up and make a new hole. As I got older and the island began to seem less and less massive I at times recalled that trip whenever I visited the area which was where the city dump was located. I would think to myself how many holes can we make on this island? What happens if we run out of room to put in holes for our trash? As time passed questions came and there were never any answers.

Many years later when I was a partying teen I recall my Mom had began saving all our aluminum cans. At first I never inquired as to why. Perhaps she has a new hobby or the soda company had some new contest with the prize posted on the inside bottom of the can. I only cared when my Mom almost took my head off when she found a few cans in the trash. She stated that no one in the house was to throw away another can and she even put out a bucket for us to put our cans into. Naturally I finally asked what all the fuss was over. Has my Mom gotten bit by the green bug? My Mom explained that there has been some new bill passed and all soda cans and plastic bottle beverages has a tax and by saving the containers one could take them into a recycle station and in return get back their container tax money. Though monetary return was the motive it was something that got even my Mom involved. It is still to this day it is only green thing she does.

Many years after that as I was a young newlywed to a Navy enlisted I was excited moving into my first place. We lived in Naval Military Housing right outside Pearl Harbor. After moving into my new home I noticed I had two trash cans. One was a huge 72 gallon monster and the other a cute tiny green square bin. Why two containers? After reading over the military home guide, I discovered that the cute bin was for recycling. Trash and recycle pick up was only once a week and each week the massive trash can would be filled to the rim with additional bags gathered around it and yet the little green bin would be left almost empty in envy of the big bin. I was never given any list of what to put in the bin, so I had no clue what to do with the bin. I would try to put a few cans and the weekly unread newspaper into the bin as I had given it, it’s own pathetic neglected personality in hopes that one day I would help it overcome and show up its huge over towering trash bully bin. I did finally help that bin find its purpose as a nice storage container for my dog’s dry dog food.

For so many of us we were not raised with any knowledge of how to be more environmentally conscious. It seems over the past 5-7 years there has been a call to action. I am sure even before that there has been literature and environmental groups trying to bring environmental issues to people everywhere. I remember one of my major earth awareness awakening moments that really stuck hard and motivated me to change was seeing the cover of a Times Magazine years ago. It was that moment seeing the pictures that I truly began taking steps to change my own actions. We can no longer live in a comfortable naive state trying to drown the truth and tell ourselves it is not happening or won’t happen for many years to go come that is passing the buck onto our kids and that is what our past generations did to us, which is why we are in the mess we are in now. I am just one person but my few changes pass on and the changes my family make pass on and each pass will equal a huge swing of change all around. Don’t tell yourself it is too late, your reading this aren’t you? and that in itself is a start.