To inwardly rage against people who won't recycle

[siblingrevelry]

My dad told me that his neighbours either side have told him they 'can't be bothered' to recycle as per the new scheme in the area, and will just continue putting everything into their main bin.

It pisses me off that people are seemingly allowed to opt out of this public duty. I am very environmentally aware, although i realise that scraping shit off babie's nappies is a step too far for lots of folks, but why should I and many others bother washing tins, squashing plastic and taking out the recycling when others don't?

I appreciate that the jury is still out on global warming, but there is no denying that the physical space this stuff takes up in landfill affects us all.

Lazy, lazy, lazy!

It takes 20,000 litres of water to make one cotton shirt and one pair of jeans. 140 litres to make a cup of coffee. And huge amounts for grains and meat. I was very taken aback at the figures.

That's way more of a problem for people living in drought-ridden countries. Their clean water is being used up to produce the goods we consume and we are largely unaware of that I think.

Frankly, there are some days that Reject feels like the only good option...

exactly decaff - and anyone who thinks we can save the world by washing our marmite pots or whatever is sadly mistaken.

No one person can save the world doing anything. That doesn't mean that collective efforts aren't worth making. That's just an excuse to do nothing and abdicate responsibility.
I agree, reject is the best option of all - or buy as much as possible second hand. The amount if stuff thrown away every day, and the amount if resources, water and energy that's gone into making it, is horrendous.

I'm being serious but I used to get upset when I was younger about the amount of rubbish we produce and just the general gorging and waste. Older now and just try to blank it out. I hate all the plastic and packaging. Surely we should be aiming to try as someone said,reject and reduce the amount of packaging another crap we don't need. I think recycling our jam jars etc is probably pretty uselss overall. Wen I go to the supermarket I try and choose fruit and veg with less packaging, starting to shop at the local butcher and much less packaging there too.

trouble is the rest of the world looks at us with our piffling little efforts and laugh....

whilst the US shopping malls use their air conditioning to try and cool the world - half are OPEN to the air at some points! and everyone gets their bigger and bigger gas guzzling SUVs and more and more people FLY off on holiday - a box full of bottles going to the recycling does not seem like even a drop in that ocean....

the developing world is now going through the same rampant consumerism we in the West did in the 80's - but with a MUCH bigger population, power plants and factories in these countries consume so many, many, many resources - but can/should we ask them not to? we did it, and our lifestyles are now so much more comfortable....

The problem is that once more we in the UK like to think of ourselves as world leaders in this sort of thing - we are but a small island on the edge of nowhere...

I know, that's why I try and not think about it anymore and blank it out. Just too depressing.

I wish we had the system they have in other European countries where you can leave your packaging at the supermarket, would put some pressure on them & in turn producers if they had to pay to recycle or dispose of it. There are organisations working with producers to cut packaging, and develop packaging that keeps food fresher (ie resealable bags/packets) - packaging weight has actually decreased quite a lot in recent years - thinner card, thinner bottles etc, but it's not a very visible reduction from the end product.
Just because things aren't perfect doesn't mean there's no point to any of it.

But - when my MIL flies off to Australia on holiday - but says she is sooooooo green because she puts the cardboard out for recycling, it does make you think what the point is....

yes quite madeofstardust the whole thing is a sop!
and what we do in our country is nothing, i mean NOTHING when the whole of China is being rebuilt at a vast rate of knots with massive mega infrastructure projects and new houses with air -con in every room.....
quite honestly I find the idea that what we do with our little bit of rubbish will make any difference to the world breathtakingly arrogant.

Well maybe she shouldn't be boasting - but it would be worse to fly to Australia & not put out her recycling wouldn't it? Maybe we can get past the idea in a few years that everyone deserves some sort of badge for recycling, it's just what you do. Glass, plastic, paper etc - it's not rubbish, it's a raw material - why throw it in the bin?

however developing countries still produce less CO2 per capita than Europe and the US (particularly if you discount the products they are making for us to buy)

it is right that they use more and we cut back - we don't have any right to a higher standard of living than them.

Well personally I was rather thinking that ignoring the comments about 'it's all a con anyway' would be the only sensible approach. It's the school of thought my dad subscribes to and IME there's no point arguing with people in this camp. It seems to entirely stem from the daily mail anyway.

But since some people are itching for someone to address it, I'll start....

This seems to explain it: www.wastewatch.org.uk/news.php/72/is-recycling-a-con-trick

quite honestly I find the idea that what we do with our little bit of rubbish will make any difference to the world breathtakingly arrogant.

How is it arrogant to subscribe to the view that we should what we can, and do as we think others should do? In practice I agree the fact the huge swathes of the world are now going through the equivalent of the industrial revolution is hugely counteracting anything we do. It may on a purely practical level (rather than in principle, or ethically) be futile, but arrgogant????

My utterly deranged mother uses the same argument about global warming (ie it's arrogant to think that we're important enough for global warming to be man-made). I think it's entirely arrogant of her to think that we can do what we want with no consequences.

well I see what you mean ...I do make a definite effort to reduce 'food miles' but honestly don't think it would make much difference in the greater scheme of things. Perhaps big business could lead the way more? Us householders really are small fry.
Also your average 'green' is a raging fascist

and no I do not read the Daily Mail - why has this accusation become the standard response to anyone with a different opinion to yourself?

I don't think I'm a raging fascist, I'm quite mild mannered actually!
But really, households aren't small fry. Less tonnage than industry, yes - but in industry metal recycling is already very well established. Uk households produce about 30 million tonnes of waste a year - and about half of it could have been recycled. if the facilities are there for you to do it, why not? It does make a difference.

Dh has done his bit for the planet this week by working out why the fridge part of our fridge freezer wasn't working - he took out the back panel of the freezer and found a huge lump of ice, bunging up the whole thing. When it melted, the fridge started cooling again - so we didn't have to buy a new one and scrap the old one!

Had I not had a tame engineer on tap, I am not sure we would have called out the repairman - the fridge freezer is out of warranty, so we'd have had to pay the call-out charge, and with no idea why it wasn't working, or whether, if we got it fixed, something else would break next week (as it is over 5 years old, and therefore, in today's built-in-obselesecence day and age, practically antique), costing us yet more money - we would probably have ditched it and bought a new one with a warranty.

It is a shame that society in general seems to be so deskilled that we are so wary of trying to mend anything that we tend to throw away and buy new. Then you add in the fact that so many small appliances are made to be non-repairable - you can't get them apart, and if you can, you can't easily diagnose the problem or get hold of the parts - so things like kettles, irons, toasters become disposable.

A few months ago, the pumped power shower in our bathroom stopped working. Dh was able to track down the company who made it, who offered him a servicing kit, and full, step by step instructions, so he could take the shower out of the wall, service it, and replace all the seals and other perishable parts - and now it works perfectly. It was a fiddly job, and took him most of an afternoon, but he reckons that anyone with a bit of sense, a few basic tools, and some patience could have done it - and that is great - but how many products are there out there that enable this sort of amateur servicing and repair?

We should be pressurising companies to make products that will last and that can be mended easily and cheaply when they break down. But they aren't going to do this, because it will cut into their profits.

suppose it's the start or a more enviromental mindset though. Gets us all thinking at least and talking. One of my hates is the short life span of shoddy built appliances now. Convinced they are making things crappily so that folk have to keep replacing white goods, electrical stuff every few years now. And all the fucking plastic tat everywhere. Cheap toys for a few pence tha ae useless and last two seconds. They are whole factories set up somewhere to produce this crap. my kids get party bags etc and usually all the shit goes straight in the bin - absolutely useless. Suppose some poor soul in a third world country is making a living from it though.

But then I fly and drive a lot, much more probably than average - bottom line is we really don't want to give up our nice western lifestyles.

I think its probably an over-reaction, to RAGE at them.

I do use the recycling bin, as its so easy, I don't rinse bottles though or recycle organic waste into the silly little boxes.

I know I should but I cant be arsed. Its the same as saving energy or saving money.. I cant be bothered.

Ah, cross posted STDG. Yes everything is disposable - just chuck it our and buy a cheap new one.

Our food waste goes every week along with all the other recycling. THe normal rubbish is once a fortnight. If I didn't recycle the food waste it would be sitting in the bin for two weeks so it's less smelly to recycle.

The variability of recycling collection around the UK is crazy!

and in my mother's and MIL's eyes - so long as they put the old one in the recycling at the tip - then they are being "green" - that is the big myth on recycling.....

in her youth my mum would have thought nothing to have sewn a new zip into a skirt to keep it going, now she would go to Primark - and a new one gets made and shipped in from India for her - but she puts the old one into the ragbag at the tip - so she is "green" .....

I have taught the dses how to take up a dropped hem, put a few stitches in to mend a pair of jogging bottoms (not beautifully, mind - but they are still functional), and put a button on - but I suspect many, many parents don't have these skills to pass on to their children, which is really sad indeed.

Lots of sceptics out there about whether our piddling little efforts will do any good - maybe when it comes to global warming etc we might not be able to impact long term, but no one has yet been able to justify to me why it's acceptable to just keep filling landfill (in this country or another).

Surely, without recycling we would end up like the cartoon of the untidy bedroom - where stuff is repeatedly shoved under the rug to the point where there's no where else for it to go?

Years ago we didn't have the non-decomposing items like plastics and nappies, so this is a relatively new phenomenon.

So a question again for those who don't/won't; where else should all this stuff go if we don't at least try to reuse and recycle? If every glass jar & bottle ever made is just thrown away, will we not eventually end up knee deep in rubbish?