Un-bye, terra followers! This is River, signing in to give you, yes YOU the latest and greatest in eco-friendly advances!
Many towns in France and other parts of Europe are replacing their waste disposal trucks with the more environmentally friendly horse or donkey drawn carriages. To read more, click here. Now, is this idea slightly silly? Maybe. But it also has many merits, such as:
- cost: horses and donkeys are much cheaper to obtain than trucks are, and when was the last time your truck reproduced? That’s what I thought. - fuel: horses don’t use energy that pollutes the environment
- traffic: for some small towns, garbage trucks can be a hassle in traffic, especially considering the narrow french roads. Jean Baptiste of Peyrestortes said that they had to close of sections of the road in order to allow for their garbage and recycling trucks to turn, a problem that is completely avoided with carriages
- novelty: this is a great way to get people recycling! I mean, you would want to recycle more too if it meant you got to watch a horse come and pick it up, right? If you are shaking your head, you are officially uninvited to my flag day party. And it’s gonna be a blast.
My problems with this article:
-Mayor Cicero claims that these carriages are much cheaper, saying:
“Compared with €5,000–7,000 annual running costs for a diesel truck, an ass costs €1,000–1,500 and can live 25-30 years. A truck costs around €25,000, [and] lasts around five years”
However, this does not take into account all the extra maintenance these animals require. They would need food, water, shelter, people who would train them and take care of them, special equipment and procedures that would allow them to work on the road, surgeries, retirement plans.... on the surface, having a donkey seems cheaper than having a truck, but is it really?
- Animal abuse. This article said nothing about the treatment of these animals, and I think this is something we have to take into consideration if we are going to rely on horse drawn carriages again. Working conditions for horses were very bad, training methods were harsh, and when they were deemed to old for the work, they were abandoned. This is why animal shelters originally opened. We just need to be careful not to repeat our mistakes, and to be aware of the extra costs that will come with these horses once they are too old to pick up our trash.
And now for the two questions we’re all asking:
1) What about the poo?
Do people mind the extra waste on their streets? Are additional waste disposal vehicles needed for the waste disposal vehicles?
2) If this trend comes to the United States, will Texans be getting rid of their trash using elephant drawn carriages? Is everything really bigger in Texas? We can only hope .
This is River, signing out.
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