Polluted by Plastics and Politicians
Janet Kuypers
1/28-29/25
I might choose to be psycho-belligerent about recycling plastic.
When driving across the U.S., I’d stop at a truck stop, end up
Filling my car with plastics multiple truckers left in piles on the
Curbs; I could at least drop it all off to recycle at a WalMart...
Call me over the top... I could retort with that trite line that
“If you’re not a part of the solution you’re a part of the problem.”
And wow, how uppity of me, acting all high and mighty. But no
Matter how recycle-nazi I get, Americans only recycle ten per-
Cent of all plastics because there’s no place to recycle, and with
Not obvious solution, no one has the patience to solve anything.
(When Chicago, decades ago, started a mass recycling program,
They told us we had to buy blue plastic bags to pitch recyclables.
Even the recycle-nazi won’t pay for dyed plastic bags to recycle.
What a joke.) It is a joke indeed, because I think people are too
Used to pre-formed plastic containers for their daily office lunches,
And don’t look for microscopic recycle symbols to reuse packaging
Before recycling. Just pitch it. It’s easier. Like most Americans,
We’ve been overwhelmed — and then we become complacent.
We have become a part of the problem. So, who’s to blame when
Plastics infiltrate everything, from our food to our blood, to our
Placenta. Each American consumes a credit-card-worth of plastic
Daily, and sure, blame the companies for collectively pulling the
Wool over our eyes that recycling is a real solution — when there’s
No place to even recycle the vast majority of what we consume —
But we were fed lies and we’re now stuck in a system most don’t
Know how to get out of.
This is beginning to sound like politics
In America now too, as one quote unquote “leader” for either major
Party tells its people what they think we want to hear, then they do
Whatever they want and see how much they can get away with
Before having to cut back and act like they care again. Politics is
One of the greatest races I’ve seen (other than the corporate one),
But whether it be plastics or politics, they’re both something we
Thought we needed, thought we couldn’t live without, all while
That elusive someone pulled the wool over our eyes, told us what
We wanted to hear, and then didn’t care if our choices did us in.
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