Production of CFC's, the leading culprit in ozone depletion, will end this year. Americans are recycling and reducing waste at ever-increasing rates. In 1985 the national recycling rate was in the low single digits. We are also complementing this trend by demanding ever more recycled materials and less packaging in consumer products. Unfortunately there is also an ample supply of bad news.
Toxic pollution is still a dreaded threat to all forms of life.
Materials such as PCB's, dioxin, even the long-banned DDT continue to wreak their deadly havoc. A new wind has swept through Washington. The Contract With America shows real signs of gutting much of the environmental legislation and regulation which have been instrumental in creating many of our success stories. Even bigger storm clouds now loom on the international horizon. Our oceans, once thought to be home to an inexhaustible food supply, are now overfished to the point of nearing biological sterility.