Posted by Snow in 
The way to the heart of recycling matters is the involvement of the largest possible population of consumers reducing the most waste. By identifying the places in our culture which are least sustainable, with consumption habits that detract from eco-friendly living, some analysis is required.
The biggest gross national product digestive consumption of American (and Western civilization at large) culture is entertainment. Whether it is by Iphone or satellite TV, cellphone or car dashboard mounted LCD HD, we want to be entertained. The challenge should be to convert the money, attention and volume of entertainment conusmption to some viable process or regrooming consumption habits towards sustainability and reduction in nonrenewable resources.
People like sitting on couches to watch TV. Big screen TV and the big game are by now reaping millions of dollars of profit in bloated sports franchises nationwide. So how come instead of converting a used couch to a newly refurbushed gently used couch, people want to buy a new couch? A couch is exactly the type of consumer good that exacts a high environmental price in terms of stress to the sustainability index. The industrial processes required to make the stuffing and the foam and the box and the upholstery, and the gas and transportational cost to get the couch delivered, make a new couch no small environmental potatoes.
Therefore I propose a couch disposal tax. Instead of shoving couches onto unsuspecting lawnfronts, they can be removed by a green agency using biofuels or solar powered vehicles to cart the stuff away. This way the couches don’t sit on the lawn by the street for weeks on end, like the couches shown above. The couch disposal tax would be paid at the time of purchase. The couch tax would also provide green employment for teens, seniors, and others actively seeking employment. The beauty of this as a green enterprise and environmentally sustainable business franchise is that the business model can be adopted and adapted in any city, region or town.
In this era of downsizing, many people are still looking for ways to consumer visibly and entertain lavishly. The football season is upon us, and that means the pressure to spiff up the family room in time for the holidays (and the New Year’s bowl games are is ramping up. Find a way to get some kind of dump emptying conversion going to earn points getting your green out. Couches are very large items and preventing hundreds, even thousands of them from hitting the landfill might prevent serious absorption of harmful dyes and chemicals into the groundwater supplies of the future.
Is that worth a little labor overtime?
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