Mother Nature Sets the Example

Mother Nature sets a terrific example that we would all do well to follow.  She has no dumpsites or landfills; she throws nothing away.  Whenever something has served its purpose, it is returned to the soil from which it came.

Once the leaves on the trees have finished nourishing the plant for a season; they fall gently to the ground where they decay and return to enrich the soil, restoring nutrients previously used by their host.  The same occurs with dead branches and grasses.

We, however, rake our fallen leaves and either burn them or encase them in plastic bags to be sent off to a landfill, along with our grass clippings.  Why not follow Mother Nature’s example and use those materials to mulch our trees, shrubs and flower beds?  Instead, we go out and buy bark mulch and chemical fertilizers.


We, as a society, have become wasteful and consequently destructive of the very Earth that we so enjoy in its pristine natural beauty.

Malfunctioning appliances are rarely repaired for continued use; they are replaced and sent to the dump.

One morning recently, I noticed two couches sitting at the curb, not a hundred feet apart, waiting for the heavy trash pickup.  Other than dirty upholstery, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with them.  I watched the monster jaws of the garbage truck splinter the framework and devour what seemed to be perfectly good furniture into its hungry belly.  Tears welled in my eyes as I thought of the victims in an apartment-building fire who had lost everything they owned only the day before.  Wouldn’t they have been happy to receive those couches for further use?


Only a fraction of our population utilizes recycling programs, even when they are offered curbside pickup of glass, metal, plastic and paper products.  Most don’t want to be bothered by sorting the different materials into separate bins.  It is easier to dump it all into huge bags and send it to a landfill.

I am a firm believer in the Three Rs of conservation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  Only when we each do all that we can to stop the trashing of our environment will we be able to truly follow Mother Nature’s Example and RESTORE – which should be the Fourth R.


Okay, now it's time for me to climb down off my Soapbox and gather up my recycle.