I should probably warn you…
I have one foot on my soap box…
And now two (and I feel oh so much taller).
I have a huge bug bare…and I’m going to share it with you.
Before we moved to Norfolk Island, we lived in one of those
sterile new housing estates in a large country town. I’m sure you know the estates I’m talking
about – where all the houses look the same and you need a magnifying glass in aide
of searching for a tree. It was a jungle of concrete, bricks and tin roofs in
various shades of beige (all of which appealed to us at the time, for some peculiar
reason). Well, all the houses in our neighbourhood were provided with two bins;
a large otto for recycling and a smaller otto for other general household
waste. Every Tuesday, as I pushed the
bins down our steep driveway, I’d applaud myself for having filled the
recycling bin, whilst barely filling the general waste bin by a third.
Here’s what I think about this on reflection…
BIG WOOP!
So I sorted my rubbish.
Hooray for me. What was the real
impact of my actions? Did it mean I was motivated to generate less waste all
round? No way.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think recycling is important. But I
also think it comes with a huge cost; namely the resources needed to make the
process successful - money, time and energy! I think recycling fools us. It makes us feel OK about rubbish. It helps us to justify our purchases. It makes us think that recyclable plastic
(and huge quantities of it) is acceptable. We say to ourselves “Let’s just put
some of our rubbish in the recycling tub, and all will be right in the world of
landfill”!
Yeah right – delusional.
I didn’t think too much about rubbish back then. As far as I was concerned, we were doing our
bit. But imagine a world where the recycling
bin is just about empty, say even half full (because I don’t want to scare you
off with my wild ideas here people). Try
and imagine, what it would be like if the rubbish we put in our recycling bins
never existed in the first place? Imagine.
Can you? It’s really hard. For a start, think what that would mean for
the weekly grocery shop.
Now that we live on an island, the issue of rubbish disposal
is in our face, every single day! And here’s where I have a sad tale to tell. Lets’ say you are visiting our waste management
centre for the very first time. You’d be
impressed! On first glance you’d probably think ‘this place has rubbish
disposal totally under control’. But boy
oh boy would you be wrong. Yes we have
compartmentalized bins with convincing labels, leading you to believe everything
is sorted and properly dealt with, but the truth is ugly, very ugly. In reality, glass and metal is recycled, but everything
else…it pains me to write this...is set on fire in a large pit and then pushed
off the side of a cliff into a watery grave below! Shocking isn’t it! I don’t blame anyone for this situation. And I understand it’s due to lacking resources
(particularly financial) and expertise. The responsibility shouldn’t fall on certain
groups or individuals. We all own this
problem. We all contribute to it. In some way, we are no different from
anywhere else. How is landfill any better? I don’t believe it is in the long
term. Still, it truly worries me that this is how we deal with waste on our
beautiful, precious island!
So now, let’s get back to reducing the waste in the recycling
bin, or any bin for that matter. How
does that work exactly? Well, as I’ve already explained, we don’t have recycling
bins here, so that means I have to carefully consider every purchase I make. I have to remind myself that everything I
place in a bin is going to ultimately end up with the fish! Thinking this way
has changed the way we shop and the way we operate in our daily life. It’s altered the way we store left-overs and
snacks, it’s impacted on what types of packaged foods we buy and it has even changed
the way I look at toys. This constant ‘rubbish’ worry has changed everything. And let me make it very clear, we are far
from getting it right. There are still so many things I buy that come in one
form of packaging only – the dreaded evil plastic!
There are so many small, simple things we can do to reduce
waste. Like others I know, I have many ideas.
Some of them could be put in place by the whole community. But depressingly, there are many folk who don’t
share my concern. They selfishly think
it’s their God-given right to consume and pollute. These people can’t imagine
life without bottled water, or lettuce pre-washed and packaged in a bag or glad
wrap. These people make me crazy mad!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Sadly, you find such views in every community, in places close
to home, and those far away. But of
course there are also people who just don’t know any better, the individuals
who, if you just gently point it out, recognise the issues and consider making
a few little changes. Little changes that equal big impact.
So.
Where am I headed with all this?
What are my intentions
with this rant you ask?
Well an idea came to me in the middle of the night (as
all great ideas do). Reflecting on
recent changes we’d made, I thought to myself, maybe it would be useful if I wrote
about them in a weekly blog post. An opportunity
to share some of the ideas we currently have
in place in our household, that impact on waste reduction. To me they are
glaringly obvious, but one thing I’m learning as I get older, is never assume
anything. If there is one person, and one person only who takes one of my ideas
and applies it, then I’ll feel happy. It
will be one tiny baby sized step towards creating an island, and ultimately a
world with less waste. And that can only
be a good thing right?
Stay tuned for my first idea, later this week!
And I’m hopping off my soap box now (and I promise to tuck it
away for a while).
