Please excuse this rant/whatever. It's all in my head and it needs to come out somewhere.
I live in a small village just outside of a trading estate in Gateshead. A couple of months ago I went out for a walk along the road leading into the village from the trading estate. Normally I will keep my head up when I am walking but for some reason this time I was looking down and I noticed the amount of rubbish that was at the side of the road from people just throwing things out their windows - there was hods of it!
It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before but it really bothered me this time.
I have never really been an 'eco warrior' or whatever people would call it, I use my recycling bin every other week but that's about it. However I got thinking about all the waste that ends up in landfills and every single piece of rubbish that I throw away and how every bit of 'un recyclable' material has to go somewhere.
It then got me thinking about Clothes, and how as a society we buy cheap but it doesn't last however its ok because its just as cheap to buy again.
So I watched
The True Cost on netflix which is a film about the repercussions of us buying from places like primark and H&M etc... (its a very eye opening film, you should watch it) and how cheap clothes are actually designed to not last so you have to go back and buy more.
Then I started following greenpeace on facebook and saw a
video about micro beads which really started to scare me.
That got me thinking about technology and how 'throw away' it is. I'm pretty certain things like iPhones are only designed to have a short life so you have to constantly get the latest one. (i have no facts to support this but im sure a round of googling will give me something!)
These are just a few of the many things that I think are problematic but we don't realise it!
I'm not normally one to be swayed by things i have read online but the more i look into this kind of thing, the more it scares me just how much we throw away and how our actions unknowingly disregard other lives and our planet.
It's overwhelming when you consider just how much of a throw away society we live in, driven by how much money people can make turning a blind eye to the state of the planet and the mistreatment of others.
I was telling one of the lads at work the other day about how i am trying much harder to be more conscious of what I throw away and what I recycle to which he said 'alright greenpeace!' as if it was a bad thing that I am trying to look after the planet more.
Have we been conditioned to think that everything is ok? Are the government burying their heads in the sand about these kind of issues or are they blinded by greed? How long will it take before something is done about it?
I know it means one thing for me to look at labels and see if they are ethically sourced but if i put packet of something down because it isnt ethically sourced, it is still there and has still been sourced from somewhere. It is such a huge issue I really don't know what can be done about it. Maybe an education to the problems may be an answer but I really don't know!
Sorry for the rant, it needed to get out of my head!
Comments
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
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Maybe, but we can change the fact that we generate a truly ridiculous amount of totally unnecessary waste.
Why, when every single large organisation in the UK is at least *pretending* that they are environmentally friendly, do bananas still come in bags in the supermarket? They've got their own fucking wrapping ffs.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Exactly, politicians will do something when it's either popular amongst the people or something they feel is good/needful/money making/saving.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
We do live in a throwaway society. So much of what we buy is not built to be repaired, and if it is, then the costs of doing so can outweigh the price of a new one. The biggest outlay is very often the price of labour, and these days, if a kitchen appliance breaks, I don't bother fixing it, I just buy a new one.
Strangely enough, I found myself staring at the contents of my rubbish bin the other day (yeah, I know, I have senior moments like that), and the vast majority of it was plastic.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1
Even there though, attempts to improve the situation often backfire. The regulations on vacuum cleaner power consumption are well meaning, but if you just make people spend twice as long doing their vacuuming then you have achieved nothing except lose respect for the authorities. The latest EU one on the power of kettles (that they are holding back until after the referendum) just sounds like complete idiocy.
Things like throwaway electricals are difficult with the rate of change of technology. Using TVs as an example, if you buy a TV that is built well enough to last 15 years, it will be obsolete well before the end of it's life. Maybe 4k will become a standard, or maybe it will be 8k or the one after 8k. Until something has become the "standard" it's going to be very difficult to get decent life out of them. The same is true of phones, computers and music playback equipment. I bought a HiFi 10 or 12 years back, and now I have to use a D to A converter (with it's wall wart) to be able to play sound from my TV through it. I bought an iPod dock a few years ago that's now basically obselete.
You could legislate "standards" but then you stifle progress. You need some kind of balance. It doesn't help though when companies like Apple deliberately use different connectors and ports than everyone else, and don't provide ongoing support for their stuff. They killed the Youtube app on their gen 2 crApple TV while people probably had ones they bought new that were less than 2 years old.
tricky problem. I do hate built-in obsolesence though.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
As I see it there are problems with:
1) Planned obsolescence, both in terms of shoddily-made goods and well-made goods designed to be not capable of repair or planned to be superseded by technology currently in development.
2) Increased consumption of goods per capita.
3) Increase of consumers of these goods.
4) Wasteful packaging.
5) Slovenliness.
Sadly, I'm not sure anyone in authority has the balls to make decisions about this. We could probably eliminate the packaging problem but I would imagine that would require EU legislation. good luck with that.
I find the whole slovenliness, littering, fly-tipping things to be hugely annoying. It's actually unnecessary. People should be better behaved. I would have no hesitation in swingeing fines being imposed for this, and I mean really swingeing fines to make people think again. Local authorities should also do more, providing more litter bins with more frequent emptying of those bins, and making it less of an ordeal to legally dispose of waste.
I was working in an office recently where the staff had proudly promoted the awards they had received for being 'green' in their staffroom; Bronze, Silver, Gold awards for recycling and eco-initiatives etc. They had half-a-dozen different bins peppered around the (very big) office for paper/plastic/metal etc - even a small bin for chewing gum. I spoke to a couple of the people who were involved with this and they said a small group were given a couple of hours a month (paid) to consolidate their 'industry leading position' in this regard and come up with new ideas - it was clear they took it very seriously; even passionate about it.
Then, one morning, I was in early and saw the cleaners walking along the office, emptying all the diverse bins into one large bin bag. I have a feeling this happens on a global scale.
Although I'd like to think that the council were getting us to change our behaviour so that when recycling was genuinely available, we would by that time have acquired the habit of putting our waste in the right receptacles.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I think youngsters are more aware of it then we were at their age and are more prepared to make green adjustments. I'm sure we'll continue to make things worse for a generation or two but if the trend continues things will eventually get better.