Why Green is a Bunch of Hot Air

To see why all the green-taxes, industrial bargaining, smart-meters, etc won't actually do anything for the environment, look no further than your nearest group of teenagers.

One group I had in the night of April 30th decided to have their snacks in front of the store. Ok, fine.. Except for the little problem of all their wrappers being thrown everywhere but out. Chip bags, nacho containers, candy wrappers, among other things just thrown on the ground or left on the ice freezer, not even 5 feet from a garbage can. Two, if I count the one inside.

Sadly, this is about normal. Regularly there's garbage thrown around the parking lot. It was worse at another store I worked at when we had the high school students come for lunch. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones who have forgotten what a garbage container looks like.

At the start of my shift, two middle aged women came into the store. One bought a magazine and a bag of chips. The magazine had plastic wrap on it. After she paid I put her purchases in a plastic bag, and she loudly scolded me for putting it in a bag, saying she's "green." Well, I went outside later to check to see if I needed to empty the outside garbage and, to my amusement, Miss Green was close to the garbage can. She just missed it by a foot. On the ground was the wrapper for the magazine. Way to show you're green. By leaving the wrapper. On... The... Ground... RIGHT.. BESIDE!!!! The.. Garbage..

Of course, that's not the only place. You really need to go no further than your nearest roadway to see garbage thrown around on the ground.

Now. I think a lot of the initiatives being used by the government amount to nothing more than tax-grabs, money grabs or political bluster but something does need to be done. I mean, I don't need a meter telling me I'm paying a lot for hydro and am paying more regardless of my habits. But there they are. And.. We even get to PAY for the Privilege of being told I'm paying too much for hydro regardless of my usage patterns. What we do need is a way of getting people to stop using the world as their trash can.

But how..? Taxes don't work. Simply asking gets rather repetitive and tiresome. Maybe we need to add a new section to the newspapers, and to social networking sites. You see a litterer, snap their picture, throw it on Twitter or Facebook.. Send it into the newspaper. Get them to start the Litterbug Brigade or something. Pictures of those people who don't understand how to use a garbage can might shame them into learning. Or.. They might just wait till nobody's around.

It may work.. It likely won't. But it's an option.