Cycles of Change

摘要

One of my first summer jobs in the early '80s was as a trash collector - well, assistant trash collector, helping my uncle (the collector-in-chief) on his Friday morning run through our little town. We started at dawn and finished around lunchtime, and during those hours, we solved the world's problems and shared opinions on the day's news. One morning, after collecting rubbish from a neighbor who was evidently disposing of a lifetime collection of beer cans and plastic bottles, I shared something that I had read recently about a community that just started a curbside recycling program, one of the first in the nation. With all the wisdom of my 14 years, I proclaimed this to be an enlightened program that would save the world if it enjoyed widespread adoption.