Telling Our Own Story

A few days ago, we celebrated Earth Day.

A few days before that, I learned that all across this great land of ours, one by one, counties, cities and towns are stopping recycling glass because the cost to handle it and recycle it outweighs the revenue that can be generated from the recycled raw materials.

Did you know this?

I did not.

So, listen; I am not some glass recycling freak, but I am what some might call a fiscal pragmatist.  I get it that if we just throw the glass into the landfill, by the time the landfills become landfulls, I will be dead, long dead.  Presumably in the landfull myself.  The burden of dealing with whatever crap we can imagine AND a whole bunch of crap we can't imagine will fall to our progeny.

Time, you see, does matter.  Accountants look at snapshots...polaroid images of a moment in time. From that image, they determine the accountancy health of a situation.  I have worked with numbers for nearly thirty years.  If you don't want to believe me, look at the financial crisis of the mid 2000's.  If you think numbers tell the story, you're wrong.  They tell the story you want them to tell.

Stopping recycling glass tells the story of us.    It is a story of self-importance.  A story of lack of vision.  A story of a lack of self-awareness.

Its not the only one we have, and I assume that this one will be barely noticeable, but it caught my eye.