In this section of the book, William met with the assistant minister of food to discuss the agricultural and food aspects of the Ecotopian system. The Assistant Minister decided to explain the sewage and garbage system. They recycled their waste and sorted out the compostables while drying the sewer sludge to make organic fertilizer. The whole country had to work on it together, but it was no more costly than how the Americans were disposing of it. Ecotopia had to drastically reduce the agricultural output of their farms after splitting up with the United States. Agricultural laws weren’t enforced but used as a moral persuasion, and the scientists were disallowed payment from private businesses or the government. About 99% of their waste was reused, thereby creating a stable state, which would continue indefinitely. William went back to his hotel room and journaled about the pamphlets given to him by the Ministry of Food. He pointed out Ecotopians produce little to no waste and that they are highly emotional. He told a story about a couple in a crazy fight at his hotel, and he realized Ecotopians were cool with extreme hostility. William took the piece he wrote about the Assistant Minister and had it wired back to his business.
The amount of waste we produce as a nation is substantially over proportioned in comparison to what is necessary. There are multiple ways in which waste is disposed of as well as recycled across the country, but there isn’t a single idea that is taking over the garbage industry, so the nation hasn’t come together to make it work because everyone is doing their unique task. I think, eventually, we will have the most efficient methods perfected, but it is a slow process to optimize such a complicated and geographically extensive task. As for the sewage, we already create fertilizer out of sewage, we call them biosolids, this process would work incredibly well and be publicly safe if the EPA stopped allowing industrial and dangerous chemicals to be dumped into the sewers. Due to biomagnification, these chemicals end up all over the food chain. As of now, the biosolids are not completely welcomed by the majority of our citizens because of the very dangerous effects it could have on humans and the rest of our environment. However, if the government were to change their policies and only allow the biosolids method for sewage sludge, factories would have to return to disposing of their waste in the costly manner utilized before they were allowed to use the sewers. Our policies won’t change in one fell swoop, a small number of changes need to be made to set the foundation, more and more decisions are made until it becomes the final product. We progress through multistep processes, not one big step like they did in Ecotopia. The Assistant Minister said that they pretty much changed the sewage system after they became a country, as if that is what it takes to change infrastructures and industries.
In the beginning, these changes require a lot of support throughout the population, and in order for people to move in that direction, they have to be moving away from something else. So, if people were more educated on the subject of sewage waste, it would be recognized as an undesirable practice, thus creating a social problem, as discussed in lecture on January 27th. On February 3rd, our class discussed the bifurcation of nature and humans and I think it could be one of the reasons why, as a nation, we refuse to acknowledge social problems regarding nature and the environment. Our separation from the environment makes the issues less important because if we are not part of nature, then we are not part of what environmental issues are affecting. Beavers build dams, and ants build relatively massive structures. We are the same as the wild animals, but we consider ourselves more sophisticated, so we separate our actions from the other beasts and say it is because of the way we build and the materials we use. The fact remains, we are part of nature. Unlike us, the Ecotopians embraced nature, they became one with it. Ecotopia wasn’t built for the environment; it was built for Ecotopians with the environment in mind. Not everything they did made sense, for example, criminalizing microwaves is irrational. The Ecotopians worked together to achieve their goals, and a nation of people all working together is my ideal nation.