By Maureen McDevitt

Bridgton Recycling Committee

I have vivid memories of a time long ago. All of our food waste was put in a garbage can, where it was then collected and sent to the local pig farm. We hung our clothes on a line to dry, which not only saved electricity, but also protected your clothes. Our bottles (yes, everything we drank came in glass bottles) were returned to the store for deposit. They were then sterilized and used again. Tin cans were picked up weekly, cleaned and recycled. It’s just the way it was. Our water came from the faucet or the hose. We would have laughed at the thought of buying water! Then came the overuse of plastic. This occurred in the 1960s.

The powerful oil companies touted plastics. Here was something that they could make a fortune on. Did you know that the idea of recycling plastic came from oil companies? They figured that if people believed that they could recycle plastic, then they would buy it without guilt! In recent years, we have found that plastic is not that easy to recycle.  

“About two-thirds of plastic ever produced has been released into the environment and remains there in some form-as debris in the oceans, as micro-or nanoparticles in air and agricultural soils, as microfibers in water supplies, or as microparticles in the human body,” reports Plaine Products Blog. “More than half of the plastic ever created has been produced in the last 15 years alone, and production grows every year.”

I’m not saying that we need to move backwards. I am saying that we need to embrace some modern ideas for our future. Food waste can now go to an anaerobic digester. This is a process where all food waste is broken down and the byproducts consist of fertilizers, pet bedding, etc. We can still hang our clothes out to dry. Bottles aren’t used as much due to their weight, but if we stopped using plastics, manufacturers would have to go back to bottles. Tin and aluminum cans are still recycled, so this is a great option. As for using plastic water bottles, this should be stopped immediately. Most water that we buy in the store is simply water that is filtered. You can put a filter in your entire house, your refrigerator, or simply in your water bottle.

It’s time that we stopped contributing to the destruction of our earth.