November 21, 2005
On September 5, 2005 I wrote the following. "In our area there is no reasonable way to dispose of the batteries, printer cartridges, out of date computers.How can we become a recycling reuse nation and really take the need seriously?"
I have learned about progress in these areas of need even this week. Last Sunday in the Wisconsin State Journal I saw for the first time details about a recycling system that now handles all the Madison recyclables from one bag. It is based on an exotic machine that can sort (after hand sorting of obvious non recyclables, like a bowling ball) that takes all sorts of scrap paper, cardboard, office paper, even those ubiquitous envelopes with the see through fronts for the addresses address and puts all into the proper area for the reuse cycle itself. When I went to our local township I then learned that the same thing is now done with the recyclables from our rural community, also that they a have a way to get the batteries and printer cartridges into a recycling system as well. For those in larger communities this may all be old hat, but for us it's a great leap forward.
In Thanksgiving season we give thanks for the traditional things, health, strength, family, friends, turkey etc and we echo the thoughts of Psalm 100 as the ultimate area of thankfulness. "Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations."
But it is also a requirement that we give thanks for the great steps forward in medicine, agriculture, communications and all the innovations since you and I were young, if you who read this are not indeed still young. But I think we should also be deeply thankful for seemingly modest problems in solving some of the unhappy byproducts of "progress." Sure we have a lot to do and can never rest until the least of these in any society can enjoy a happy, fruitful life but it is encouraging to see an advance in making better use of the finite resources of our solar system.
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