The bloom is off the rose, honey

A nice young lady rang my doorbell the other day. She was young, early twenties I would guess, chipper in demeanor, a smile on her face and dressed for a summer's walk with a flowing gypsy-inspired dress. She was toting a clipboard with her as well.

She was working to gather signatures on her petition to show that I lived in a 'concerned' neighborhood. Are you familiar with said company, she asked? I am, I responded. Said company is an oil recycler. Well, they're spewing toxins into the air such as 'fill-in-the-oxins'. We want to show the judge we live in a concerned neighborhood. The EPA has taken them to court. It will take a year to get them to stop. With her youthful outlook it likely doesn't register with her that this type of court proceeding, if indeed it took just a year, would be like a rocket through the judicial system.

For her part she seemed genuine and really believed in what she was asking me to sign. I am not one to sign most petitions. On face value they are not what they seem to be. How many voter petitions do you hear about being thrown out because half the signatures aren't from registered voters. They aren't worth the paper they are printed on. Well, if the EPA already has taken them to court what will this do? It shows we are concerned, she said.

It is likely she would have been the same person who worked to get this company into production because it is a recycling business and 'green'. Those who tought going green and similar projects for some reason always think it stops there. Recycling is better, cheaper and cleaner. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Each venture has its own problems. Recycling adds at least one more step to a process already in place. If you recycle paper you must add a capture, sort and clean procedure to a industry that already produces a product. Do you really think that lessens the cost? Sure, I want some things recycled so they don't end up in the ocean, but that isn't always an alternative to everything. It is likely the 'toxins' this company is putting forth is the same type or similar emitted from when the oil was produced in the first place. Why? Because it starts with the same ingredients, therefore you must use similar techniques to re-manufacture it.

I think that's the one thing the green recyclers just don't understand. Recycling will produce an entirely different set of problems as we move forward with green, and if you want to save the world you likely will have to tear down something you built earlier telling the rest of us it wouldn't happen to our project.

When your bloom falls, at least it comes back next spring. Always keep your hopes up, young lady.