It's time for another HUDseen rant about the issue that no one cares about anymore: garbage!
Why should we expect anyone in downtown Hudson to take home their empty cans and bottles to recycle them when there is a garbage can on every corner and no one cares if the cans are full of recyclable material? DPW doesn't care what's inside the public trash cans -- they empty them regardless of what's inside. (I counted six recyclable containers clogging the mouth of the trash can, and I could see more below.)
We pay for a crew of three DPW workers in a truck to empty the cans and drive the contents out of Hudson to Newman Road in Greenport. The Columbia County Solid Waste Department then pays a company by the name of Casella Waste Systems to transport that garbage mixed with recyclable material hundreds of miles away (in hugely polluting trucks) to be buried in a landfill where it will sit forever and produce methane gas for centuries, ensuring that the planet burns up prematurely. Beer cans and all. Some "system," ain't it?Do you know how much energy goes into creating an aluminum can? Neither do I, but it's an obscene amount. Any metal (especially aluminum!) that is "thrown away," sent to a landfill or incinerated is an absolute indignity to our planet and humankind. Paper, too!
The only way out of our garbage dilemma -- if there is a way out -- is to go back -- way, way back -- to the days when every town had their own garbage dump; when there were no such things as disposable plastic crap, public trash cans, dumpsters or enormous trucks full of garbage driving hundreds of miles to mega-landfills three states away; and when the act of throwing something "away" was not possible. Everyone was responsible for their own waste and it all stayed local. This is how the earth's natural system operates.
If Hudson still had its own dump, we wouldn't have public trash cans available for people to put anything they want in them. Everyone would be forced to think about and deal with the waste they produce, including how to recycle, reduce and reuse as much of it as possible. People who try to throw away recyclable material or dump their trash in an alley at night would be pilloried. I honestly think this is the only way out of the garbage problem -- the days of sending our trash "away" is going to come to a screeching halt someday, and we had better be prepared. Right now, there is absolutely no disincentive for someone to place a newspaper, used coffee cup or beer can in a garbage can or a blue city garbage bag, because there is no cost or worry to do so. When all you see are garbage cans, all you have in your hands is garbage. Reducing, reusing, and recycling is a hassle. Dealing with one's own waste responsibly is a hassle -- where's the closest public trash can? We can't continue to act as though this is acceptable or sustainable, because it isn't.
The public trash can outside of the post office on 4th Street is an oddity and a case study in what is wrong with DPW's thinking (or lack of) about garbage and taxpayer funds. There is no justifiable reason for that trash can to be there and taxpayers should not be paying to have it emptied every other day. 
It would be fascinating to know when and why the first
public trash cans appeared on Hudson's streets,
even when this can first appeared on South 4th Street.
A few days ago, after exiting the post office, I noticed something sticking out of the can that struck me as odd. It was a medium sized, easily recyclable corrugated box that someone, with some effort, had tried to stuff inside. Try as I could, I could not get it back out of the hole. But it was obvious why it was there -- someone had picked up their package at the post office, opened the box up, removed the contents and stuffed the box in the public trash can outside just to be quickly rid of it. (If they opened the package inside, they may have realized that the box would never have fit in the trash cans inside the building.) And we are subsidizing someone -- possibly a non-Hudson resident -- who sees no need to recycle that box at home? Someone who regards what was formerly part of tree as disposable, no different than a chewed piece of gum?
Look in that trash can any day of the week and what you will primarily see is junk mail, envelopes and other packaging that people -- many who do not live in Hudson! -- have acquired from the post office and held in their hands for seconds, not minutes, and just want to be rid and not take with them into their cars. Sometimes the paper is filled right to the top of the can! If that can were not there, what do you suppose postal customers would do with their disposables instead? Would they drop it all on the sidewalk? Or take it home and either put it in the recycling bin where it belongs or in a trash can or bag that they will pay to have removed? Our DPW is telling us loud and clear that it would prefer Hudson residents to pay for people -- many from outside of Hudson! -- to fill that can with ANYTHING they are handed inside the post office but have no need for, including easily recyclable corrugated boxes. Hour after hour and day after day, fill that public trash can up with postal waste! Our DPW would rather postal customers -- many from outside of Hudson! -- not take their junk home and dispose of it on their own time and at their own expense. This makes absolutely no goddamn sense and simply degrades our quality of life, throwing money away that should and could be spent on something worthwhile that might improve life for the residents of Hudson.
There are no bodegas, coffee shops, or takeout joints near that public trash can and no one walking by there is looking for a place to put their trash. (If they are, there is no shortage of cans available on Warren Street!) If there is a need for a trash can directly in front of the post office, it should be courtesy of the US Postal Service, not the City of Hudson and its taxpayers. This is what happens when a distracted, unsupervised and unaccountable DPW Superintendent like Robert Perry is allowed to spend taxpayer money as if it were trash.
"You know what, Mr. Perry? Our cash ain't trash! Stop treating it like it is or go find another job where you have no one watching what you do all day for fifty dollars an hour!"
Recently, there was a one-day event at the Riverfront Park which I think was a Summer Solstice celebration. There were no, or very few, food vendors involved. I counted 31 very full trash bags that were waiting for DPW the morning after the event. Thirty-one! At least two bags were not tied closed, and inside there was all sorts of recyclable material with the usual suspects: corrugated boxes, cans, bottles, paper of all sorts. And lots of the worst kind of garbage: styrofoam! DPW took it all "away," even the flattened boxes that were not in bags. Do you think this would happen -- zero recycling, zero concern for minimizing the waste -- if those 31 bags of trash were headed to a garbage dump in Hudson? Would this be allowed or even possible? Of course not. It's only acceptable and possible because we can send the stuff far away and let some other town deal with it.
Let's all join hands and sing the praises of
our mother earth and the sun!
Would 131 bags of trash have been
acceptable as well? How about 331?
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| Forgive us mother, for we have sinned! |
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