A few weeks ago, Dre and I helped clean up after the demolition derby at the Greeley Stampede. Our job was to pick up all the trash people left behind. The Stampede includes all of your regular big event fare . . . nachos, soda, funnel cakes, etc.

After the entire stadium had been cleaned up, I counted at least 30 bags of trash. It broke my heart. At one point, I opened up some of the trash bags and started filling up a recycling container by one of the exits with plastic bottles, cups, whatever would go in. After about two bags, the container was full.

Just imagine how much of that stuff going to the landfill could have been recycled!! It kills me to think about it. It also kills me to think that some people in our society will label recycling advocates as "hippies" or "treehuggers," and refuse to change their ways. Have they seen what our waste is doing to the oceans?

There's a giant mass of trash in the Pacific called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It apparently holds 100 million tons of crap, and stretches 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast. According to this site, 90% of all trash in the oceans is plastic, with every square mile containing 46,000 pieces.

How hard would it have been for those people at the Stampede to drop their soda bottle or beer can into a recycle bin on the way out? It makes me crazy!! A quick search on Google images with the query "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" reveals the skeleton of an albatross that mistook plastic for food, its body filled with the stuff. It's awful.

What needs to happen so that we change this?