Off by Five Billion

Just what exactly possessed you to print such a poor public service message as the one that appeared on Page A-4 of the September 16th edition of your fine paper?

Being an editor of a newspaper in high school, I could possibly see the appeal of such a message as a filler for a slot otherwise left empty. However, that does not mean I would fill the blank pocket with such a hackneyed message as that of recycling benefits.

Yet this is a minor detail next to the fact that the message displays only shallow knowledge of environmental practices.

The statement that "Nobody has any use for old orange rinds and apple cores" shows complete ignorance of a recycling alternative known as "composting." Rapidly biodegrading materials such as food and leaves can be put in a compost pile which uses a self heating process to turn this otherwise "garbage" into fertile soil.

In addition, there is the reference to "our ten billion-year-old planet" which is off by a mere five billion years. Please let me know who is responsible for such a piece of writing and how exactly this slipped through your editors. Ethan Nasr '96