Late last year, changes with my employer moved my office back to downtown Fayetteville.
The building there had been home to the Northwest Arkansas Times since its staff moved into it in the summer of 1967. It was a bit of a homecoming for me, as I was the editor of the Times between 2001 and 2009. The Times building at 212 N. East Ave. is the headquarters for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today.
I welcomed the move. I live in Fayetteville, so it put me miles closer to my office. But another great benefit is working in a downtown area. In Springdale, the newspaper office had been in an largely industrial area. Getting pretty much anywhere required getting into a car. In downtown Fayetteville, lunchtime opportunities within walking distance abound.
The other day, I was eager for one of my favorites, half a chicken pepperjack sandwich from U.S. Pizza Co. on Dickson Street. I knew from past experience that the restaurant, like a lot of others, uses polystyrene containers for its take-out orders.
I put in my phone call. After ordering, I sheepishly asked the helpful person at the other end of the line to skip the polystyrene container and just put my sandwich, chips and pickle in a sack. I knew there was no danger that delicious sandwich was going to stick around long enough to get cold.
The waitperson said "Sure," then said it would be ready soon. Being used to restaurants asking, I inquired, "Do you need my name for the order?"
"Uh, probably not," came the response. "I doubt we're going to have another customer ordering a chicken pepperjack sandwich and ask us to put it in a sack."
I couldn't argue the point.
I related that story to a few people, one or two of whom have ribbed me that my request meant I was becoming a hippie in Fayetteville. It's all in good fun. But doesn't it fit both liberal and conservative values to take care of what we have and not be wasteful? If I'm literally going to eat the sandwich within 10 minutes after I pick it up, why do I need a container that's going to stick around the planet for centuries?
Perhaps some of the "earth-
saving" solutions fall into conservative or liberal categories, but the basic premise of limiting our damage to land and water seems self-evidently wise. If someone hands me a drink in a single-use cup, I'm not going to make them feel bad about it. But I am going to continually ask myself if what I'm doing can help keep our environment clean or will help make it dirtier or cluttered for many, many years to come.
From my perspective, caring for our environment does not require any of us to become experts on climate change or karst geology or carbon pollution, although those people have important things to say. I don't feel the need to get in some raging debate about the extent to which climate change happens and the extent to which personal behavioral choices will move the needle on that question.
I guess it's the Boy Scout in me who is often whispering in my ear, "Leave no trace." Or, to quote the Outdoor Code, to be "clean in my outdoor manner and be conservation-minded."
We live in a consumer-based world that celebrates "more" and pities "less." And as long as those garbage trucks come every week, many of us pay precious little attention to our wastefulness.
Reducing waste, reusing what we can and recycling as much as possible doesn't have to involve some hotly charged political ideology. In its simplest terms, it's really just about being responsible.
Commentary on 07/28/2019