“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.” I like this expression, but without the ‘enough.’ That connotes laziness to me.

I don’t think we should let organizations rest on their laurels. There’s too much at stake and plenty of room for improvement. So I’ll compliment groups for each positive step, but encourage/poke/prod them to waste less food. Someone has to push the envelope a bit…

Like I said, Recyclemania is generally a positive thing. I just wish they’d improve that one category. And maybe with your help in figuring out how to measure what’s not used, they will.

Yes, in an ideal world we’d all use less and there’s be little recycling. We’re not there yet. Let organizations get a benefit by increasing recycling & composting. Some years down the road, when recycling is as common as trash cans, then push for the next step. But if all one does is critize an effort for not being perfect, then who’s going to make the effort at all?

I *am* interested in a way to measure what isn’t used. As you say, it’s hard to measure what isn’t there and measuring is natural in a competition. Measuring recycling piles is easy so what we need is an equally easy to measure “not used” piles. Ideas, class?

I don’t have a problem with a person or an organization getting a specific, individual benefit – such a profit – from doing a right thing. Profit motivates people and companies, let’s harness it to achieve our goals rather than deride someone for benefiting from doing a right thing.

My personal rant: I wish my municipal recycling can were as large as my municipal garbage can! Even better, that the two switched sizes. We recycle far more than we throw out. (Now I wonder, is someone going to dump on me for having so much to recycle?)

Harry, who reduces, reuses, and recycles.

Solid points, Dan.

To be fair I do think schools are reducing more through traylessness…Reusing, maybe a little through those coffee mugs and water bottles. But we have a long way to go!

As far as recycling is concerned, I’ve noticed that many people can only imagine it as a one-’R’ operation; the act of reducing and reusing materials seems less like ‘recycling’ to many people than the relocation of waste into a green bin of some sort. Afterall, melting thousands of plastic water bottles back into more plastic water bottles has the effect of giving you the warm-fuzzies, without threatening your current lifestyle. Once you start to talk about not drinking bottled water at all, or eating less food, then you start to challenge people’s ‘do what I feel like’ attitude, which is messy, and not likely to make it into the admissions packets (notwithstanding the threat implied by curbing consumption to those companies holding student services contracts).
Peace and Love,
Dan