The Silent and Brave revision page #125

Lately I am thinking about businesses that make tons of money but destroy Earth at the same time. I am sure they would all say that more regulations would cause them to instantly crumble and send our global economy into a death spiral from which it would never recover. I am sure they would come up with myriad reasons why my proposals would never work. Still, I am going to try to come up with three ideas that I think would help. It’s just an exercise.

For my first target, I choose drink companies. Beer, wine, soda, energy drinks. These companies have proliferated like crazy since Red Bull came on the scene. When I go into work, there are invariably one million cans of different assorted flavors on the table in the break room. It seems like no one can make it through the day without their Monster. Coca-cola has owned most of the world since the turn of the twentieth century. (Look it up. I’m sure it’s true.) I myself am responsible for a trash can full of beer bottles every month, at least. I haven’t even mentioned the water bottles. Everyone is bottling water. There is now an entire aisle at the supermarket that just sells water. Based on this evidence, I am going to say that none of these companies is hurting. In fact, I’m going to say that they’re doing quite well. So here’s my proposal.

What if companies were no longer allowed to use new containers for the beverages they sell? What if they were required to use 100% recycled materials? What if there were penalties for not complying? Wouldn’t it be great if Coca-cola and Budweiser had to raid landfills to find materials to house their delicious concoctions? Wouldn’t it make the world a better, cleaner place? I think it would. I think they would complain, but if they focused on that instead of on inventing some sort of new cancer causing sweetener that tastes like stomach acid I think they could make it happen.