STANDARDIZATION...how helpful is it, really?

The hubs and I recently took part of a trade show sponsored by an organization called WasteCaps Nebraska.  Their goal is to encourage recycling and any other measure that might aid in helping our environment.  Though many think pumping septic tanks is quite dirty, we are actually recycling wastewater.  After we haul the septic contents away, it is then treated and released back into a river –by this time it is safe and good for the environment.   Really when you think about it, septic systems were among the first recycling systems ever invented – our first attempt at reusing water. 

While at the show, we enjoyed hearing the keynote speaker, Mitch Hedlund, who is the founder of Recycle Across America.  She presented recycling in a way I had never considered before and stressed the importance of standardizing our recycling methods.  Let me explain.  If you consider the different places we put items to be recycled, what do they look like?  Are they the same?  I would venture to say no.  Here’s another question to consider: You are at an event, say a county fair, and you want to throw your trash away, have you ever been confused between the trash can and the recycle can?  When you look inside do the contents look the same?  Why is that?  According to Mitch Hedlund it is because we don’t have a standardized system for our recycling.

Check out these pictures of recycle bins – some are very clear, some not so much.  Think if the clear ones were standardized! 

I’m not much of a recycler.   I know, my carbon footprint is large.  I recycle cans but that’s about it.  Though I see the need to take care of our planet, I also see how most recycled products tend to be more expensive to use and many times aren’t as high quality as their non-recycled counter parts.  With this information in mind, why even bother to recycle?  I mean, what’s the point?

After listening to Ms. Hedlund, I think she does have a point with standardizing our recycling cans.  You see, one of the reasons recycling costs so much is that it takes a lot of time and money to sort the recycled products and since there is no one system for recycling, people like you and me are constantly confused when we go to throw items away.  It’s not clearly marked and when you look inside the contents of the “recycled” products don’t seem to be that different from the trash.  By the time our horribly cluttered recycle bins get to the recycling plants they have so much unusable junk in them that getting things sorted to be usable is a long, laborious job.  Her theory is that if there is a standardized system recycling would become fool proof.  Therefore, our recycling centers would be efficient, our recycled products would be pure, and in the end, our recycled products would be cost effective.  Win-win-win.

Hmm…something to think about, right?

But, has creating standardized measures helped us before?  Are we sure this will work?  Consider these examples:

EXAMPLE #1: Standardizing knobs on medical equipment

In the 1960s and 1970s the mortality rate of people undergoing surgery was quite high.  Though procedures were not extensive or even life-threatening, many people would not survive due to the machines dosing the anesthesia.  One doctor suggested this was because some of the knobs had to be turned right for an increase in one type of medicine and others knobs on the very same machine were turned left for an increase in another type of medicine.  This was difficult for doctors to keep straight and conduct surgery.  After implementing the idea that all knobs should be turned in the same direction for an increase in dosage, survival rates increased 600%.  Standardizing medical equipment saved lives.

EXAMPLE #2: Time zones

Do you know that even in the late 1800s we didn’t have standardized time zones?  Time was decided by EACH INDIVIDUAL TOWN based on their sundials.  Therefore, if you were to travel from town to town, even if they weren’t far apart, time could be off by many minutes.  Now consider running the railroad in this type of environment.  Trains were expected to arrive and leave at specific times, but when every town had their own time zone (so to speak…) it was impossible for the railroad to ever reach destinations in a timely manner.  However, once a standardized time zone was introduced, this was no longer a problem.

EXAMPLE #3: Stop signs (and signs in general)

For many years, there was a variety of stop signs.  Some read stop, some had a hand held up, some were square, some were round, etc.  Finally, one man suggested that all stop signs everywhere should be identical!  Same color, same shape, same everything.  The stop sign became the first universal sign that is recognized the world over.  Because the stop sign standardization worked so well, this idea carried over into other signs that we still use and recognize today.

So, with all this in mind, can you see Ms. Hedlund’s point?  I do.  I think she is really on to something.  Think about all the other areas in our life where the standardization of something creates order and helps us be more efficient in our world.  There are countless examples.

This campaign really rang true for me, and I hope it will with you too.  I don’t consider myself a tree hugger, but I do think it is our responsibility to take care of what God blessed us with.  If standardizing measures in recycling can help clean up our world and create recycled products that are more affordable for us to use, then shouldn’t we do it?

For more information about Mitch Hedlund and Recycle Across Amercia, visit their website at www.recycleacrossamerica.org