European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 05, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday. October 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 disposing of modern Man s Frash is a world wide problem. Below Pils off Trow Aloys pile up before Egypt s great Pyramid of Giza. Right trash tumbles out of garbage truck. National geographic society photo the problem of disposable too much trash by Fred Bayles associated press w e use them to eat drink and swaddle baby Bottoms. As a nation we spend billions of dollars or disposable items rom Razo s to rocket launchers use them then throw them away. Yet some people consider All the disposables a Boon to Mankind. Consider some of what goes into the trash each year 45 billion paper and plastic cups. 21 billion plastic cups containers dishes and to is.15 billion paper plates. 18 billion plastic lids. 16 billion diapers. 2 billion razors and razor Blades. 1.6 billion pens. 348 million lighters. All this disposing adds up. Ii is estimated that each of us throws out three to five pounds of things disposable each Day More than a Hall ton of garbage per person per annul. Most people in the Industry estimate 160 million to 180 million tons Are thrown out at ome said Joe Salimando editor of waste age. A Magazine lot the Landfill Industry. That does t count what is thrown out at the everyone thinks such waste is reprehensible. Stanley Marcus chairman emeritus of Neiman Marcus stores recently tanked throwaway pens razors lighters diapers and chemically soaked towelettes among the Best 25 consumer products of the last Quarter Century. Felt tip pens decreased the Cost of the instrument while vastly improving its he wrote in Consumers digest Magazine adding thai disposable diapers speak for some disposables Are specialized. The medical profession relies on disposable syringes gloves gowns and scalpels. The army is a notorious disposer leaving behind everything trom Bullet cartridges to rocket launchers to pilotless aircraft on the Battlefield. The military is experimenting with a new secret weapon the paper plate. Various commands Are testing Brown paper plates and plastic utensils As replacements lot the Metal mess kits Long used by soldiers. The proposed mess system would use foods easily heated in front line silk Lions and serve them up on disposable dishes. They just pass out the paper plates and Chow s ready for said Harvey Keene. A spokesman at the . Army s Nalick. Mass. Research and development Center. Mankind s disposable habit goes Back to the time Belote recorded history. Recently archaeologists found 5,000-year-old Clay cups and Ealing utensils in a dig at the ancient City of Terka. Near Sahara Syria we find these by the thousands in Small said Giorgio Buccellati. An archaeology professor at Urcla. Since there Are so Many so cheaply made we assume they were easily discarded and replaced with and history is marked with tales of fortunes built on disposable notions. In the summer of 1895, King c. Gill Elte a 40-year old travelling Salesman arid part line inventor stood in front of a Mirror with a lathered face and a Dull razor and had a revelation a razor i hot used disposable Blades. I have got it. Our Fortune is he wrote his Wile. His words wore prophetic. Gillette look his idea and a $5.000 investment and built it into a company that last year sold $2.2 billion in disposable razors pens lighters and other sundries. Disposables have grown to Mega status in modern America where an estimated $2 billion is spent on plastic and paper plates alone each year. And. Of course there is the $2.7 billion diaper Industry. So protective was Procter & Gamble about its i us diaper Empire that it went to court winning a $2 3 million judgment against Weyerhaeuser co. Lor infringing on its disposable diaper Patent p & g recently spent in excess of Hall a billion aunts retooling a production line Lor its other disposable Brand. Pampers to make diapers that absorb More and leak less. It was done to offer worldwide the technological improvements in our said Sydney Mchugh. A company spokeswoman. The diapers have been a Bane to some environmental its who complain the plastic Bottoms remain mouldering in landfills years after they Are thrown away. But when an Oregon legislator tried to introduce a Bill Banning the nappies colleagues cited it As the silliest Bill of the 1979 session. Some people make their living defending disposables. Sanitation convenience solely Economy space savings Are some of the factors rattled of by Joseph Bow executive vice president of the single service Institute a Trade organization for plastic and paper cups and plates when asked about the advantages of such disposable Loo Dware. It s Mote attractive to use disposables he said. They Are now considered something that is
