Has this website been useful?

We depend on your financial contributions to keep it running!
  Please help us out with a donation today.

Container and Packaging
Recycling UPDATE
Summer/Fall 2001 Issue

On September 11, as we were preparing to go to press with this newsletter, tragedy struck at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in the Pennsylvania countryside. Working close to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, our offices were closed by building management a couple of hours after the attacks began.

In the days that followed, all of us have struggled with feelings of shock, disbelief, grief and sympathy for our fellow citizens. All at once, the most compelling concerns of daily life and work somehow seemed smaller, less important.

President Bush called for a National Day of Prayer. Like so many others, we paused from our daily routines.

This week the nation begins to pick up the pieces and get back to work. As the president and world leaders discuss how to respond, few can predict how all our lives will change in coming months and years. We all want to help!

Reflecting on the history of recycling, Tom Brokaw's book on "The Greatest Generation" came to mind. During World War II, millions of Americans saved and recycled all kinds of materials.

Even today, many of our most ardent supporters speak of habits of thrift and recycling dating back to childhood experiences in the Great Depression and World War II.

Sometimes it seems we are fighting a losing battle against the rising tide of bottle and can waste. Then someone calls or writes to remind us that recycling is about American values and looking out for future generations.

In Hawaii, during the early months of 2001, elementary school students supporting the bottle bill spoke about our shared responsibility to recycle and conserve. It sounded much like the words a grandparent or great grandparent might have spoken. These children remind us that the child is often father to the man.

So while it's hard to know what to expect in coming months, CRI pauses to remember those lost in the tragic attack on America. And we remember parents and grandparents who taught us so many important life lessons.

We are working again, undeterred by the terrorists. We are all grateful for the words of sympathy and support from friends around the world.

Ultimately, the work we do as recycling advocates is about values and about the future. We pledge our efforts to seek ways to promote the common good, as individuals and as a public interest organization.