#873 Rinse Cycle

I’ve spoken before on how hard it is to be environmental. It gets even harder as we add water to the equation.
Fresh water is a diminishing resource. More so as global warming prevents snowfall in the mountains. Less snowfall, less snowpack to melt and run off into streams and recharge aquifers.
In the meantime we’re requiring more and more water to slake the thirst of the masses who’ve had too much salty junk food.
It’s got so bad that here in the rainy northwest we’re having to water our yards on odd and even days and the county is sending out circulars encouraging us to plant drought-resistant plants.
Oh well.
But it’s brought up an interesting dilemma. Rinse or don’t rinse? Especially my recyclables. The county waste guide says glass, cans, and plastic bottles should be rinsed out before you put them in the recycle bin. But rinsing wastes water.
The compost yard waste bin is anything goes, sort of. You can put moldy pizza boxes in it, but your dog poop has to be enclosed in a plastic bag and put in the trash. There to be sealed in a landfill for the next millennium.
Anyhow, I’m not sure about the rinse factor. How little can I rinse and save the aquifer and still make recycling acceptable? Some of those blue cheese salad dressing bottles take a lot of rinsing.
It’s hard. Not as hard as the whole bicycle thing though. I was looking at some of the new ones the other day. Man oh man, talk about technology. I’m thinking lots of burned coal industrial power went into making these things. Are they really that environmentally neutral? Rubber tires, carbon frames, hi tech aluminum shifters.
Hmm.
Whenever I need recycling advice, I turn to the ultimate make-do practitioners, bums. I saw one the other day driving the definitive enviro-vehicle. He must have got it at Goodwill. A recycled bicycle.
He had bought it again so he was re-buyin it. And he was recycling with it.
On his rebicycle.
America, ya gotta love it.