“It’s
green side out, maggot!” the beetle-browed misanthrope in the Smokey-Bear hat
screamed at me from a distance of what I figured to be about 6 microns. “You
think you’re in the desert?” It was my first day as a member of the Marine
Corps, my informant was our platoon’s drill instructor, and the object of his
fury was the manner in which I had mistakenly donned my just-issued poncho…brown
side out.
The
purpose of Sgt. Miner’s green-side-out lesson was to acquaint me and my fellow
“boots” with the wonders of what was known as 782 gear, its contribution to the
art of camouflage, and the Corps’ innate sense of functionality…that with the
mere flip of material we were ready for jungle or desert
warfare.
The
Wages of Stealth
While
my “pooping-and-snooping” days are well and truly behind me, the specter of
camouflage lives on—nowhere more pronounced than in the world of waste
management, in which stealth has been taken to such a high perfection as would
leave Sgt. Miner silent in admiration.
As
far as the vast majority of the public is concerned, good trash is that which
disappears into the bowels of a monster truck and vanishes into the great
by-and-by whose whereabouts comes to light only through an unfortunate encounter
with odor or litter—or, worse still, when the need for siting a new facility
arises.
And
therein lies the most regrettable consequences of the stealth version of green
side out.
Changing
the Guard
When
we propose new and needed facilities or projects, how often are we lucky enough
to escape with our skins, much less public support? The answer is hardly cloaked
in mystery. By and large, the general public, including many of our elected
officials, is as unaware of what happens to its cast-offs after they’re spirited
away as it is to the remarkable organization that oversees the activities that
make up what we as caretakers know as an integrated waste management system. Not
only is ours a complex undertaking, but it is one that surely puts us at the
front of the environmental parade. Stewardship is not part of our agenda, not a
behavior we turn on when it suits us, but one that lies in the very foundation
of our existence. But so long as we work to stay below the radar, who knows or,
for that matter, cares? Isn’t it time we tried tooting our own
horn?
As
Waste Management commercials have proposed to the public, waste management (the
lower case variety) is the real deal when it comes to environmental stewardship.
Mr. Big has given us a true boost when it comes to public awareness, so don’t
you think we owe it to ourselves and our elected representatives to drive the
point home?
How
powerful an impact can we have on public perception if we leave the camouflage
to the Marine Corps and cast ourselves fully green side out?