♓︎ Pisces

“When your kitchen is flooding, do you mop the floor, or plunge the sink?  Neither, you turn off the faucet.” In response to the crisis of plastic waste, this has been the common advice: eliminate single use plastic. While it is very logical, it does nothing for the massive amount of plastic pollution already wreaking havoc, and it suggests nothing about what to actually replace it with. Shaming the consumer for their habits is not going to accomplish system wide change. The only way to ‘turn the faucet off’ is to stop producing it and making it available to them as a choice. But what possible motivation would a manufacturer have to do that? Is there a carrot or stick big enough to sway such a beast? Probably not. Something needs to come along which is actually faster, cheaper, or better, preferably all three to do away with it entirely. The circle needs to be closed, from Cradle to Cradle. Now that we have this strange idea that things we throw away just go away forever, it will be a difficult delusion to undo, but it is possible. And necessary. 

 

Pisces’ mission is the management of the volunteer network in that sort of, ‘teach a man to fish’ way rather than banking on one large company to come up with a huge ocean net. Plastic pollution is so insidious because the pieces are so small, they float and get everywhere so you almost have no choice but to manage it by hand. It’s possible it could be mechanized, that in the future we could have some sort of robots, either programmed or remotely operated, who go around and collect garbage. The logistics of that would be rather nightmarish for sure. But maybe if it were presented as a game, or monetized, so that kids could play it in lieu of the repetitive fetch quests they are already spending countless hours on. 

 

In the scifi epic, Horizon Zero Dawn, one of the most spectacular concepts in it is the machines themselves and their ecosystem, where the ‘herbivore’ machines consume organic material and convert it into biofuel, and scavenger machines salvage parts from damaged machines and ruins. The current work of Boston Dynamics springs to mind, but they aren’t working towards this salvaging end so much. Really what we want is more like WallE. Recycling is just not a great solution in the long run, because in a paradoxical way it has become a bandaid that only encourages over production while recovering very little. It’s simply too difficult to separate the different materials, and some materials are hardly worth bothering with due to their weight vs. value such as glass. Trying to reclaim and melt it back down is a huge amount of effort even when automated, and a large portion of it ends up getting thrown right back out anyway, so we need to address the garbage crisis itself. The #1 priority that we can all do right now actually is not recycling inorganics but composting, and elimination of food waste.  We as individuals have full control of that, there are many great ways from vermiculture, to backyard gardening or donating to local community gardens to make good use of kitchen scraps.

 

To bring this concept of missions in lieu of houses full circle, the 12 and final house calls for introspection and reintegration of the cycle of learning back into the self. In the natural world, waste = food, for every input there is an output and with enough time every niche will be filled, each resource utilized. Although the environment may change more dramatically than the species which currently comprise our diverse ecosystem can adapt to, our charge as stewards of this world could enhance the rebound time and vibrance if we set our minds to it. And by applying our foresight, we can take steps to safeguard the genetic legacy of those species at risk by creating seed libraries, preserving samples, and learning everything we possibly can about them while they are alive.