new quandary


OK, Michele, I am taking you up on your Magic Eightball offer.

Dear Michele and WWW:

What is the deal with these orange net things you see at construction sites? My understanding is that it is an environmental law that they have to be there for erosion control. But they are totally useless. But it is the law, so there they are.

I heard this from a relative in the real estate business many years ago. I recently tried to google up some info, just out of curiosity, but came up short. All I found was sites like this one that sell the stuff.

My gut feeling is that the silly stuff is useless, and producing and disposing of mile after mile of it every year is probably in fact bad for the environment.

It is just one of my pet peeves. Every time I see the stuff, which is obviously very often, I do a little Hatey Smurf dance in my head.

So, Michele, give! What is the deal here???

11 comments:

Mark Martin said...

hmmm -

Maybe there is some idiocy on the part of construction crews in play here too. I currently pass the stuff on my way to work every day, out in the wilderness. No crowd control problems there.

SRBissette said...

Mark control -- that's all it's about -- Mark control.

slatts said...

yeah...I thought it was for fence-stuff too. Not environmental. The black garbage bag stuff is for environmental. It looks just as useless being so low and all...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I must have accidentally wandered into Andy Rooney's blog...

I think it's just something they put up to keep people out of dangerous areas. Something that can be easily rolled up and carried in equipment trucks. And I would argue that it's not useless, that it achieves its intended purpose. You'd prefer nothing there?

Jim R.

Mark Martin said...

Drive out to the water reservoir in Haydenville. Tell me that orange net is serving any purpose whatsoever.

And many many more. I see them all the time, NOT controlling crowds. I'm clinging fiercely to this prejudice against orange netting until you prove me wrong.

Mark Martin said...

PS - please ask your Uncle Tom R about them. And let me / us all know what he says!

Anonymous said...

They're to keep people out, whether there's a crowd or not. What's your obsession with crowds?

Uncle Tom is busy trying to spin all the dirty facts that are coming out about him now. Did you know he was arrested for public drunkenness as a 20-year-old college student? I can't believe someone would go out drinking while in college. This is so embarrassing, it's just—

I can't talk about it.

Jim R.

Anonymous said...

Hic.

Whar'shat oranj fensh shit? Why I otta --

Anonymous said...

I happen to work for a company that manufactures that orange fencing crap, and I can tell you right now that it's there to mesmerize crowds into docility. Look into the spaces...

No wait, it's one of those optical illusion things- if you stare at it long enough, you see beautiful structures rising into the sky, and not the squalid streets of your sad burg.

Besides, orange is the new black, and useless non-biodegradable plastic safety fences are the new bollards.

eeTeeD said...

remember that “artist” guy who gets grants for millions of dollars, then uses it to do things like cover small islands and skyscrapers with fabric? well, the orange fences are part of his project to cover the world in orange netting. he told the people at moma that he wants to “show how man is TRAPPED in a NET of materialism”. faced with such BRILLIANCE moma gave him 47 million dollars to bring his bold vision to life.
but seriously........ am i the only one offended by that fabric guy? i mean, i don’t know which is worse, that people actually treat him and his “art” with respect, or that people actually give him millions of dollars to do nothing but waste our planet’s precious resources.

Mark Martin said...

My dear wonderful friend at work LOVES that fabric guy. She "finally gets it, and it is brilliant!"

I forgive her.