This entry stood as the Final Exam assigned for Professor Lawrence Checkett’s ENG 096 class of Dec. 2003. The prompt is obvious, as is the three page-three point thesis sentence format. Another rudimentary work.
English Department Final Exam
In the days of phrases like: ‘individually wrapped’, ‘disposable’, and ‘throwaway’ it seems like Americans could, at any moment, be literally buried in a heap of extraneous packaging and wrappings. Nowadays, most everything comes in an easy-open, collapsible, disposable container. Whatever happened to ‘use and reuse’? Even something as gargantuan as a piece of furniture comes with its own full complement of packing and wrappers. Waste receptacles shudder at the sight of a disposable paper grocery bag, chocked full of cardboard and plastic all waiting to be emptied and jammed into the nearest waste can. With the amount of disposable materials Americans use, the inaccessibility of recycling centers, and the American attitude towards waste management, the idea that Americans are wasteful is not altogether unreasonable.
A trip to the local grocer can be a perfect example of the amount of expendable packaging used in production. Shelves upon shelves of plastic pouches and bottles, all holding but a few servings line the walls. Aluminum cans and cardboard boxes which, once opened, have served a purpose and will fade happily into trash-compactor oblivion. Tiny little candy rolls or spheres of gum are all individually wrapped; however, each also hide in yet another brightly colored crinkly cellophane package. All of these wondrous, well-wrapped items were undoubtedly shipped in larger boxes, on large, rickety, throwaway skiffs, in a truck which, when retired, will end up rusting somewhere in a dusty scrap yard.
One answer to all of the mess is Recycling The sorting, shipping and reusing of old materials to create new ones has had proven results; however, this takes a little extra thought and time. Most citizens are so busy and so focused on what needs to be done, the extra second necessary to put an empty soda can into a bin marked ‘aluminum’, just doesn’t seem worth the trouble. Few realize paper bags which held groceries today may later be used to make insulation for houses tomorrow, a stretch for sure, but better than the alternative. Being buried under a trash heap should not be the future of society. Also, there are relatively few home-based recycling programs; programs which would cost slightly more do not seem to interest most individuals, unless of course said program is on pay-per-view. Moreover, no man, woman or child feels elated over the thought off rooting through household garbage and separating glass, paper, and plastic and then figuring out what t do with everything else.
Of course, not all citizens are unaware of the current waste problem. On the contrary, many are, but the problem is an unwillingness to be concerned with an issue that seems so very far away. The attitude of “it doesn’t affect me, I’ll be dead before this happens” is a very common attitude. Many citizens are of the feeling that, if the problem is not next door, it does not exist. Most do not see heaps upon heaps of waste; therefore some that the problem is not so big a deal. But waste management is a big deal. If the citizens of today do not feel the true effects, chances are the children of today will later on down the road. Do parents want their children to inherit a broken home?
The problem of waste management and recycling has been in public awareness for quite some time. Although steps are being taken, the change is not nearly radical enough to even slow the increase in waste production, let alone reverse the damage already done. With things like war, pestilence, outbreak, pollution and the ever-ominous terrorism, the amount of waste which America is sitting in seems little in comparison. Though time has told, time and time again, the little things are the ones which always seem to come back to haunt.
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