ireadthenewstoday

"Recycling one ton of plastic, saves, on average, the energy equivilent of 197 gallons of gasoline". I know I've said this before but yesterday I was on the campus of the University of San Francisco. USF is a jesuit college almost in the geographical center of San Francisco. It's a private college and tution is high, plus the high cost of housing in San francisco equates to a fairly affluent student body. On the block long walkway to the gym there are two garbage cans and near the doors to enter the gym there is a recycling bin and a garbage can side by side. What caught my eye was the garbage cans were overflowing with empty plastic water bottles and empty energy drink containers and all the plastic containers from take out fast food. It's not my entertainment to go around looking at the contents of garbage cans, but since President Bush blamed the American people in his speech the other night for being addicted to oil, it got me thinking more about immediate fixes. After passing the three overflowing garbage cans with all recyclibale crap in them, I looked at the recycle bin and it was about 1/2 full. No doubt these affluent private college students drive cars and are oil addicts. So why is it, the so called "best and brightest" of our youth don't have a clue or care about recycling as a treatment for oil addiction? Lets multiply this scenario millions of times dailey across the country on other college campuses (that don't even have recycle bins to only fill 1/2 up) and urban shopping centers and communities without recycling programs and you've got millions of gallons of gas going into the garbage. Of course since we have a President without a clue or care about recycling, I guess it's easy to understand why even college students don't give a damn.