 |
magazine / mj06
 |
May/June 2006 issue |
|
|
|
FEATURE
GARBAGE
Waste generation
A new wave of plastic products and techno trash is clogging the waste stream. Can we divert the disposable deluge?
Excerpt of story by Chris Turner with illustrations by Géard Dubois
I was on a long-haul Air Canada flight a few
months ago, and as usual, a flight attendant came by
shortly after takeoff and handed me a pair of headphones
in a sealed plastic bag. I plugged them in and
listened to half of the CBC news broadcast. Then I
watched just enough of the first movie to determine that it was
a particularly rank film, and I slept through the second movie.
Before our descent into Calgary, the flight attendants
came around again, toting enormous, transparent garbage
bags to collect the refuse from the flight. I was seated near
the rear, so by the time they got to me, their bags were
bulging masses of newsprint and wire. I dutifully flung my
headphones into the bag’s proffered maw. They’d seen about
20 minutes of use.
The thing is, I’ve already got at least a half-dozen pairs of airline headphones
gathering dust in shoeboxes on my basement shelves. I’d been told they were mine to
keep for subsequent flights, but I fly frequently and I’ve never seen anyone yank out
an old pair of complimentary headphones from a carry-on. Along with the headphones, I’ve
got old stereo cables and video-game controllers, several power adapters of indeterminate
origin and a busted cordless phone — all of it stored, because I can’t bring
myself to think of it as junk. After all, my first Walkman (circa 1982) had struck me as
an eyepopping marvel of futuristic portability, not least because the headphones were a fifth
the size of the ones I’d been using with my parents’ stereo. They were so sleek
and lightweight, you could wear them anywhere — a portable escape hatch from the tedium
of long car rides or interminable shopping trips. To simply throw them out after one use?
Unthinkable. And now? Into the trash with this morning’s Globe.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
|
|
|
