green

In the line at the store, the check-out girl told an older man that he should bring his own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The man apologised to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The girl responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soft-drink bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower motor vehicle every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Queensland! In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a bubbler fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one power-point in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Good point well made

This one has been circulating for a few years now and it's still correct. The young ones don't have a clue.
The distinction has to be made between re-use and recycling though. Re-use (to wash and refill the bottles) is far less energy consuming than recycling (to smash up the bottles and melt them down to make new single use bottles). The same applies to many other common items.

The optimum (in order of effectiveness) is Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

My Mum and Dad were given a toaster and a jug in their assortment of wedding presents (early 1950's) The toaster was a stainless steel two slice toaster and when the element went, it was repaired by a bloke who knew how to fix them.... The jug, stainless steel, was used constantly and had a replacement element. These two items lasted until the old bloke who fixed the toaster died and the jug finally gave up and couldn't be fixed. Roughly about 25 years...... we have had a number of electric jugs and several toasters in the last 10 years.... average jug lasts from ? months, the toasters...... you have to take the bread out and put it back in again around the other way so BOTH sides get toasted and when they got PHUTT that's it. Chuck it out, buy another one.

Yakut

Fridges too. My old English Prestcold from the 1950's works just fine and can hold four big stockpots. We use it mostly for the bulk milk. The people at the electric shop told me when I went to get a part for my much newer (less than fifteen years old) F&P that the new ones they are selling are not expected to last more than ten years.

igor;399518 wrote: Fridges too. My old English Prestcold from the 1950's works just fine and can hold four big stockpots. We use it mostly for the bulk milk. The people at the electric shop told me when I went to get a part for my much newer (less than fifteen years old) F&P that the new ones they are selling are not expected to last more than ten years.

Engineered redundancy. Pay the extra price for a high quality appliance and when the expected life is factored in see which is actually the cheapest (per year).

Great thread.

Organix;399558 wrote: Engineered redundancy. Pay the extra price for a high quality appliance and when the expected life is factored in see which is actually the cheapest (per year).

Yes there is a whole area of industrial design and engineering devoted to intentionally built in product lifespan.
It revolves to a large extent around testing parts to destruction and statistical analysis of failure. Not to then build a better product but so that you can create a statistical mean and bell curve distribution to be able to manipulate when you would like to have the majority of a product range reach obsolesence.

Also alot of manufacturing techniques these days are to facilitate economy and ease of production, not necessarily product longevity.

A tutor blatantly rationalized it to me once back when I was a 'naive youngster' that it ensured your company/client would generate further revenue after the initial sale, from ongoing parts sales and the eventual entire product replacement. I remember I was a very sad panda that day.

RhodeRed;408007 wrote: Great thread.

.

A tutor blatantly rationalized it to me once back when I was a 'naive youngster' that it ensured your company/client would generate further revenue after the initial sale, from ongoing parts sales and the eventual entire product replacement. I remember I was a very sad panda that day.

yeah, counting on the inertia of most consumers who, once used to a specific brand, don't easily change, even though another brand might have a longer lifespan....