Recycling and other Issues

Good Morning, Gentle Readers!

Today's image is titled Quazzar. It's a truly ancient piece, from back when I was first getting acquainted with Paint Shop Pro. I was trying to create the appearance of white light shooting from that star. As you can see, it didn't really work- But I kept it as a practice piece anyway.

Today, I am going to talk about recycling.

It's a great idea, one whose time has come- or come again. But there are a number of obstacles. For example, why do the parts to repair an item cost nearly as much or more than a new item? An ink cartridge costs between $20 and $30, but a new printer is as low as $25. Even if one were to try to reuse the spent cartridges rather than throw them in a landfill, the odds are good that the ink would spray all over where it doesn't belong instead of just on the paper.

As another example, computers are costly to maintain, or to recycle, and one has to pay a hefty sum to have the item removed- Unless one puts it out with the regular trash, which isn't strictly legal. But when the alternative is to have it sitting around cluttering the place, one does what one has to do. This item I consider amusing too; For a long time I worked on a Pentium 1 computer and dial-up connection, and have spent a lot of time laughing at people who have computers at least two generations newer than mine who complain about how old their machines are.

Yet another item is electricity. Why are most of us still on a grid, especially in light of the terrorist attacks? Why are most people being priced clear out of the market when it comes to solar energy, or other renewable forms of energy? Do the powers that be WANT us to be vulnerable to a smart terrorist who has figured out how to hack the computer systems for power companies and other similar services?

There has got to be a better way. I propose that gardening and composting be encouraged, rather than discouraged by greedy souls who want to claim copyright infringement. I propose that solar panels become standard in home construction, instead of as an option; That way, people won't be completely helpless in the face of a major power outage. I propose that prices be brought in line with the value of them items we buy, rather than being controlled by monopolies and oligopolies. Even huge conglomerates can't completely ignore that consumers can support only so much burden of debt before they stop buying goods.

Until we meet, Gentle Readers...