Sparta Vermont "e-Waste" Rap! 802 meets 300!


Inspired by both the movie "300" and the Vermont Rap Song "802".  This is my rap song slash  peace offer to the regulators whose draft means well, but creates a Catch-22 of unintended consequences in trying to "correct" EPA's 2007 CRT Rule using 1998 EPA UW Rules.   We have a year before February 2012.  Don't let the Perfect become the Enemy of the Good Point Recycling... take a year to make these changes, and look at the data closely.     
802 Meets 300 - Robin Ingenthron (2011)

Vermont has the right
To stop all reuse
Vermont has the right
To presume abuse


Vermont has the right
To stop our resale
Vermont has the right
To put recyclers in jail



Vermont has the right
To require 42 tests
To ban resale on ebay
Or Craigslist, or the rest


Vermont has the right
To call Las Chicas polluters
Vermont has the right
To presume we are like looters


Vermont has the right
To label TVs as 'goo'
We just hope they will see us
For the good that we do.


Fair Trade Commerce
Got its start up here, 
like Green Mountain Coffee
And Wolavers Beer


We want to fit in
We want to make jobs
We want to get respect
We aren't e-waste slobs.


Like Regulators in Vermont
We are proud of our state
But like a dude in "300"
This could kick us to our fate.


Hope they take the time
To consider words before they kick
Sparta or Montpelier
Yankee reuse is sick!*

Like rain forest crunch
we want to do this right.
Take a look at how we started
Let's make fairtrade airtight.


The cries against tyranny
The sophisticated repair
The Egyptians, Mexicans and Indonesians
Placed their hopes on us here.


Please take the time
To meet them face to face
Fair Trade Recycling
Beats propaganda about race.


I don't blame you for your caution
and cannot blame you for your fear
But listen to the clapping
Green hope is not brown fear.

802 and 300
Or 80% export waste
Don't mistake data and numbers
Or skip 2012 in haste.


*That's a double entendre on the word "sick", which is a compliment among the youts in 802 land.    But its also a warning, that if ANY state is to stand up to "planned obsolescence in hindsight", and mandated destruction, if Egyptians and Mexicans are to trust ANY recycler to engage them in fair trade... why not Vermont?  Why not us?  Why not give this a chance?  Maybe we can be the Fair Trade Recycling, Green Mountain Reuse, true stewards of reuse, repair and recycling, inviting people from around the world to visit and help people to see all of us, Vermonters and Africans and Asians and Latin Americans - to see all people for what they CAN do, not for what they CANNOT do.

Peace.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed

From today's proud state of the art press release
Also in the news:  State of the art shredder opens in Canada.  Take a look at the photos in the press release.  Oh, how proud we must be!  Hail to the white man!  An environmental miracle!

How could a woman stripping plastic off of a wire by hand ever, ever achieve the wonder of this shredded fluff.

Or, mon dieu, an African man stooping to repair it!




I don't see how I could possibly be in favor of fair trade after seeing this remarkable photo from today's press release.  I should just hang it up!  Take a chill pill!

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