Check out the photo... makes you wanna go "WOOHOO!!" (though actually BOOHOO is more appropriate)
Seemed like a good idea at the time. Fewer dishes to wash. The 1950's, a post WWII time of phenomenal growth in this country, hand in hand with growth came the mass production of single-use disposable plastics. And why not-- just throw the junk away.
Problem with "throwaway" though, 50 years later- there is no more "away." Too many people and too much stuff. A friend of mine is a lighthouse keeper in Oregon. He often finds garbage on the beach with Japanese and Chinese lettering. It's a slow float away to the other side of the Pacific. There is probably someone now standing on the shores of Hokkaido, Japan wondering when the Frito's bag that just washed up was tossed from an American picnic.
Think about it - every plastic fork, knife, spoon, cup, plate and tray in this picture continues to exist, and will do so for the next... ohhhh.... 500-1,000 years. Teaching children to cross the street we say
"STOP, LOOK, & LISTEN."
We need to do similar - 1,000 years of floating around the ocean for a plastic knife to make a ham and mayo sandwich -
"STOP, THINK, & ENACT."
Here is the lowdown, the nutshell, the basics, the boiled down nuggets as I wrote them for the presentation. This is a handout essentially, yup.
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