Climate Change and Recycling Knives

We take time buying things, colours, size, craftsmanship etc. but not how we will recycle them. The knife is a good example of how we the people, the extra people who have extra everything contribute to climate change. The knife cannot be recycled. That’s why we have so many in the drawer.

It is a nightmare for garbage collectors because it punctures the garbage bag in the kitchen and also in the big rubbish collection trucks. I don’t know how garbage collectors crush the product and I have no inclination of doing research because it’s not pretty.  

I grimace when I lift up the lid and drop the garbage. It is not colorful and doesn’t smell nice like the home department where I bought the knives.

What is the connection between climate change and the knife? Work ethic and lifestyle. Knives that have been in the drawer for more than 10 years have a lower work ethic because they are dull.

We buy the latest knives, which are ‘sharper’, at least that’s what T.V. and online ads say. The carving knife was replaced by the electric carving knife, which in turn has been made redundant because we don’t eat meat anymore. It’s bad for us, at least that’s what T.V. and online ads say.

Knives and climate change. The second connection is lifestyle. It has made even ‘sharper’ knives  redundant. There are machines where we drop potatoes and they chop them into fingers, round chips or cubes.  

They also style carrots and other vegetables. We are busy, extremely busy so we don’t chop fruit, we drop it in a blender and voila! Delicious smoothie.

The climate change connection is that mining produced something that made the unemployed knife in the drawer. A factory manufactured it in large quantities, producing all kinds of emissions into the air. Factory pipes emptied liquid waste into rivers.  

What’s your point? The second knife in the drawer was extra. We didn’t need it. The potato peeler, that replaced the knife suffered the same fate because we don’t eat potatoes because they are bad for us, at least that’s what T.V. and online ads say.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.