New Product A Polluting Factor

This product is to wash knives only. Is it necessary when there are dishwashers? It will be thrown away eventually, another object that cannot be re-cycled to mother earth. Some company made money. That's all that matters, not the environment.

One earth.  One humanity.  The pollution of land and sea is the dividend when humanity tosses aside, the umbilical cord between the two. The tendency to look for scapegoats, and not the cause and effect leads to the emphasis on plastic bottles, Styrofoam food trays, last year’s cell phones and drinking straws, as the major pollutants. 

Research and development in all fields is a contributing factor because it is constantly researching better electronic gadgets, pharmaceutical products, automobiles, building materials, toasters and waffle makers, microwave ovens, toys, non-ageing creams, garden tools, or guns, in a nutshell, a better life. 

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All these products cannot be recycled.  They are not leaves that dry up, drop from trees and make the soil rich again.  Incidentally, what constitutes a better life is subject to debate. Research and development is two-pronged.  It helps humanity solve problems, for example, various drugs that relieve pain and suffering.  It also creates a need, and plastic bottles are a case in point.  The perception that tap water municipalities provide has imperfections, led to bottled water. 

Research and development produced a solution, but not how the product will be discarded after the single use, because recycling is outside its ambit.  Waste disposal is in the city’s job description.

The need created by research and development can be top down or there could be a choice option.  That is why there are more people cooking with tap water and drinking it than those using strictly bottled water.  San Francisco addressed the pollution problem by banning the sale of bottled water on city property.

Sometimes there is no element of choice.  Consumers are force-fed.  Take body lotions and liquid soaps for example. The drugstore shelf might have both plastic bottles: with a pump or with an ordinary cap you open and pour the liquid on your hand.  Cleaning products also have spray bottles.

Research and development did not consider how pumps will be recycled, simply because industry clients come with some product development spec: develop a product that will make it easier for consumers to have their headphones on and apply body lotion at the same time.  Or, develop a mobile phone that will put the competition out of business.

Blue recycling boxes will not solve the problem because of buying patterns.  Maybe putting the blame on research and development is a cop-out, because it produces things we want to make life easier.  Driving past a garbage dump or scrapyard does not stop the craving for a new family car, this 2017 Christmas.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.