Don’t read this if you don’t want to think about what happens to dead animals.
I missed some good TV on Tuesday. No, not American Idol. I missed that on purpose.
I missed Mike Rowe grinding up cows on Dirty Jobs.
He worked in a rendering plant where dead animals and waste meat from farms, slaughterhouses, supermarkets and other sources is processed into fat and protein meal for use in various industries.
That’s recycling, people. A kind that many don’t want to think about. Dirty job? Yep.
There are many ways to come down on this subject. I’m neither applauding nor condemning rendering itself, I’m applauding Mike Rowe and the others involved in raising a topic worth thinking about. I agree with his comments on his blog:
These stories must be told. And the people who do the work need to be shown. Especially today, when people measure environmental stewardship by the presence of a green garbage container. Recycling – real recycling – is not about paper and plastic. It’s about flesh and bone, blood and guts, and long strands of newly reorganized DNA.
The green containers are where we come in. Actually, most of ours are blue.
Mike Rowe isn’t dismissing conventional recycling. He’s putting it in perspective. I know that from seeing the Dirty Jobs episode highlighting recycling that’s brown and not just green. Some types of recycling are less visible, less pretty, harder to do and harder to accept than what might first come to mind. It’s good to know that.
