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I am sitting here just a few feet away from my 175-year-old wood cookstove.
I live amongst hundreds of antiques that are used from time to time, still quite functional.
If it weren't for the cell phone my candlestick phones would still be in service.
I have hand crank phonographs and stacks of 78 RPM records, even needles for the old tone arm cobra.
I have a stereopticon viewer and a box full of stereo pictures older than most of you all, of places and buildings that no longer exist, from around the world.
Best of all I enjoy these things and more because I am retired.
I try not to buy things in plastic bottles, but I can't seem to find laundry detergent powder in boxes anymore. If I could, I would much rather buy it that way. Most of our recycling isn't really getting recycled anymore. I live on the west coast and our disposal company says China won't buy our plastic and cans anymore because it's not cleaned properly, so it's too hard to turn into other products. At least a thin cardboard box will eventually biodegrade.
Even glass recycling is complicated because of colors, and though people were careful about that, the buyers of the recycling would cheat and lie saying the glass was mixed and only pay a fraction of its value.
There are methods of recycling plastics for fake wood products that are a great substitute in many cases that are not structural and last far longer with no splintering, splitting, or rot, or mold.
Culturally things need to change toward using these materials rather than wood whenever possible, it's better all the way around.
Much as I can appreciate antiques, I like modern stuff too.
Wood is 100% naturally re-cyclable. Same with paper.
Nobody mourns the loss of the cornstalk at harvest time. Why should we mourn the loss of a tree?--It is easily replaced. Corn has a one year life cycle. Trees have a life cycle of decades, but still the same thing -- a crop for harvest.
Almost all lumber now comes from forests grown as dedicated crops, and those forests provide good habitat for many creatures.
OTOH-- plastics may prove superior to wood in various applications. They, after all, are made from material that would be otherwise a waste product, so turning them into useable products before ultimately being tossed out only delays their demise. Plastic products are not as bad as some would make them seem.
For example, have you switched back to bar soap in a paper or cardboard box in place of plastic bottle body wash? Have you switched from disposable plastic razors or disposable heads for a double edge safety razor?
I've used the bar soap for a couple years ago I prefer that greatly over body wash it has nothing to do with the green. I try to safety razor I didn't care much for it and it locked up and I couldn't use it anymore.
But the best thing you can do is don't drink beverages out of plastic bottles. If you have to have a beverage that only comes in a plastic bottle by the bigger bottles so you don't have to throw one away every time you have the beverage. I drink out of glass jars.
I used manual beard trimmers for a while. They broke and became dull. My beard requires power tools.
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