The 3 R's, We are pretty darn good

Looking through an old book to see if I want to get rid of it. From Good Housekeeping magazine September 1989. In 1989 a typical suburban American household of 3 generated about 40 lbs of garbage weekly. Broken down as:

Polystyrene foam meat trays, cups, egg cartons, and packaging, 3%

Aluminum, 1%

Disposable diapers, 3%

Wood, textiles such as household repair debris, and old clothing, 5%

Metals such as food cans and nails, 5%

Plastic such as soda bottles and bags, 5%

Glass, 8%

Misc. mixed items and conglomerates, 10% (I assume this means packaging)

Food, 11%

Paper such as newspaper, boxes, mail, and magazines, 21%

Yard wastes and grass clippings, 23%

Wow, how wastefull these 800 households in Phoenix AZ were 20 years ago!

In comparison, we are pretty good-

We do not eat meat in the house, so no foam trays, egg cartons get recycled or given to small egg producer.

We rarely use aluminum foil at all, except when camping.

Diapers, not an issue here.

Scrap wood and textiles, all freecycled, reused, or donated.

Metals-all recycled except for a very little amount that cannot be recycled.

Plastic bottles and bags, all reused or recycled.

Glass-all recycled.

Packaging, is our biggest challenge and the bulk of our garbage.

Food, all wastes composted.

Paper, all recycled or in the case of magazines, some freecycled or given away.

Yard wastes and grass clippings, all composted or left in place to be reabsorbed.

Ms. 95 senate plate

To Ms. 95 senate plate, I saw you this am, leaving Springfield on I-72. Swerving all over both lanes, driving down the middle of the road, not signaling lane changes, and then speeding away. Later, beyond Decatur I saw you again, speeding by with your phone glued to your ear. How is it that you can drive that way, recklessly, while passing laws that us commoners have to follow? I have no idea who you are and do not give a damn, but I do know you are a living, breathing, driving, hypocrite.

It is snowing, lets go in the ditch or flip over!

Just drove from Champaign to Springfield. I made it, many did not. Interestingly, 2 dozen pickup trucks, 1 dozen suvs, 3 vans, 2 small sedans, and 1 jack knifed semi truck were all in the ditch. Also, 2 cars rammed into one another and another van flipped over. Useless damage and possible injuries. Most drivers were using common sense and driving carefully. We made it home with our bodies and vehicles intact. I will never understand why people are willing to wreck their rides and possibley injure themselves or others just so they can drive fast and recklessly through the white and slippery snow.

Retiree Rant

I have not been able to figure this one out. Our neighborhood is populated with retirees. Some do volunteer type work and what not during the week. However, I assume they have more time in general than this hard working couple. On weekends, these retirees get to it with their leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and other very loud lawn equipment. This sunday morning, 9 am, someone was out with their lawnmower. Lordy- cannot we enjoy some peace on our weekends! What is wrong with a rake?

Murderous Springfield

I have always been bothered by the number of murders in this town. I did some calculations and found that the murder rate for Springfield of late is 8.585/100,000. In line with Belarus.

Cock Fighting in Springfield

Last Saturday, Nov 14 the Boy Scouts of Troop 3 were raking leaves at their host church, Douglas Ave Methodist. A red rooster showed up walking across the parking lot. It was clucking. This poor bird was a wreck, bloody defeathered back, one toe broken and flopping. We called Animal Control and they came and took the sad victim away. We had already figured out what happened to the rooster and the Animal Control person confirmed it- the rooster had been used in an illegal cock fight and lost apparently. Somehow it escaped or was dropped off, and must of heard all the raking noises and found the boy scouts and help. He had a little cracker meal before being picked up by the Animal Control.

Deer running west downtown

We were at Cafe Brio at Monroe and 6th street, at 6:20pm a large deer was going west at full speed down the sidewalk on the north side of the street. Do not know where it went after that. Darla