A throw away society and why I'm scared for the future of our planet.

Emp_Fab

TheBlueWolf said:

lloyd said:

There is nothing you can do as an individual that will make much difference, this comes down to the whole world coming together and sorting it at a higher level.

Doing your bit is important of course as it will normalise it...eventually, but for every person over here turning lights off and reusing plastic bags, there's 50 more throwing everything in the bin.

This.....

As individuals we should all do our bit but it relies on everyone else doing the same

However.... the near-guaranteed response you get when pointing this out to people is "Yeah, but what difference is it going to make if I recycle, when everyone else isn't / China is building coal-powered power stations by the million / etc ?".  This is either deliberately obtuse in an attempt to justify their own laziness or real stupidity.

Chalky

Recycling often ends up in landfill because it is cheaper to buy new materials. Councils don't recycle, they just have contracts with companies to take it away. But if its more expensive than new materials, nobody wants it. So it goes into landfill.

Would you pay £100 more for a new guitar if it was labelled "recycled"?

menamestom

I don't know why recycling is even a thing anymore.  All councils have wheelie bins (at great resource and expense) which allow to recycle most things, so nearly everybody does their bit in that respect.

The next part should be government led to reduce the supply of recyclable materials at source.  Everything we buy has multiple layers of packaging to attract your eye in the supermarket.  It serves no practical purpose and goes direct to the recycling bin after use and ticks a box that it's recyclable and going to be recycled.  But it is still a massive waste of energy and resource in the first place.

Governments need to grow some balls and tax corporations heavily based on their packaging materials, anything considered superfluous should hit them hard in the pocket.   As consumers we should think twice about buying stuff that is over packaged but it is easier said and done when the whole system means pretty much everything is over packaged.  It adds cost on the product in the first place then we're taxed by councils to get rid of it, just because hardly any companies dare lose space in the shelf battles and eye candy advertising additional packaging gives them.

Skipped

An element of what we are discussing is liking/loving what you already have.

For example: If we were to discover that anyone here was unhappy with their guitar pickup based on a 60 year old design, and had then replaced it with another pickup featuring the same resistance, the same magnets, the same 60 year old design, and that 99 out of 100 people were unable to differentiate between the new pickup and the tossed aside pickup in a double blind test.....that might be disturbing.

Fretwired

Chalky said:

Recycling often ends up in landfill because it is cheaper to buy new materials. Councils don't recycle, they just have contracts with companies to take it away. 

Council's get charged to use landfill sites so if they dump stuff they get hit with a high charges. They also have to report on how much they recycle - these are EU rules.

chillidoggy

One of the issues is that people in general are lazy, and I include myself in this. Therefore recycling must be made easy, or they simply won't do it. I do however separate paper, food waste and general shite every week, and on occasion pay a visit to see the Tip-Wankers at Margate tip, who are about as helpful as a dose of the clap. Only last week I was carrying an big old roll of carpet to the skip, when I fell over one the tarmac. One of the twats just stood their and looked at me, no offer of assistance or anything.

And then the week before I watched the Bin-Wankers throwing all our recycling in with the general waste, and I wonder what's the point of it all?

I used to work for a plastics packaging company, and was amazed at just how big an industry it was. And then when I looked in the bin, and saw the percentage of plastic I was discarding, it kind of brought it home to me. Who's to blame? Beats me, but when I wander around the supermarket it seems I can't buy anything unless it's packaged.

lloyd

chillidoggy said:

 Only last week I was carrying an big old roll of carpet to the skip, when I fell over one the tarmac. One of the twats just stood their and looked at me, no offer of assistance or anything.

This has brightened up my morning!

57Deluxe

therose789 said:

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 <EDIT>

I think you posted this here mistaking this to be The Independent....

chillidoggy

lloyd said:

chillidoggy said:

 Only last week I was carrying an big old roll of carpet to the skip, when I fell over one the tarmac. One of the twats just stood their and looked at me, no offer of assistance or anything.

This has brightened up my morning!

You can go off people, you know.

ESBlonde

Not that anyone here cares, but I have taken some small steps to reduce my 'carbon footprint'.
I try to avoid expanded polystyrene; there is no economic recycling available.
I collect all tinfoil in the house (even peeling it off the back of pill dispensers), I ensure the recycling bin is correctly used, I use household waste to make compost and have a small worm farm, I buy unsexy clothes that last years (tweed ftw) and ensure they all wear well and get recycled as applicable. I buy goods I can repair and then do so if I can, I dismantle anything electrical or mechanical to extract components before sending the remains to recycle. I use mostly low energy bulbs in the house, switch off anything I can and have solar panels on the roof. I grow fruit and vegetables to reduce food miles in season and predominantly buy 'loose' foods in the supermarket or on market stalls to avoid unnecessary packaging.
So I still drive a diesel car but get 56mpg all miles driven. I’m sure there are lots of things I do wrong and my ignorance in the amount of water wasted making jeans or the toxins released in making new  valves for my amps, or the aviation fuel used to provide me with X,Y and Z.
I believe if we behave in the right way the retailers will respond by providing what we want. Leaving a healthy planet is a duty we should all have but sadly the feeling of some in western societies to entitlement leaves me sad.
Just because we can splash the cash to get something doesn't mean we should!
But I know I can be hypocritical on the issues too.

ESBlonde

About the glass in landfill, the landfil tax is now such that councils will have to consider better solutions for 'anything' that they can dispose of cheaper.

lloyd

ESBlonde said:

Not that anyone here cares, but I have taken some small steps to reduce my 'carbon footprint'.
I try to avoid expanded polystyrene; there is no economic recycling available.
I collect all tinfoil in the house (even peeling it off the back of pill dispensers), I ensure the recycling bin is correctly used, I use household waste to make compost and have a small worm farm, I buy unsexy clothes that last years (tweed ftw) and ensure they all wear well and get recycled as applicable. I buy goods I can repair and then do so if I can, I dismantle anything electrical or mechanical to extract components before sending the remains to recycle. I use mostly low energy bulbs in the house, switch off anything I can and have solar panels on the roof. I grow fruit and vegetables to reduce food miles in season and predominantly buy 'loose' foods in the supermarket or on market stalls to avoid unnecessary packaging.
So I still drive a diesel car but get 56mpg all miles driven. I’m sure there are lots of things I do wrong and my ignorance in the amount of water wasted making jeans or the toxins released in making new  valves for my amps, or the aviation fuel used to provide me with X,Y and Z.
I believe if we behave in the right way the retailers will respond by providing what we want. Leaving a healthy planet is a duty we should all have but sadly the feeling of some in western societies to entitlement leaves me sad.
Just because we can splash the cash to get something doesn't mean we should!
But I know I can be hypocritical on the issues too.

That's great that you're doing it but I can't help feel that ultimately it's a waste of time.

How much does recycling all your aluminium foil offset against building the car you drive?

How much carbon is released when manufacturing them solar panels etc?

I'm not having a go at all, it's just that modern life by its very nature demands that we use a lot of natural resources.

We're all hypocrites so don't beat yourself up.

I remember watching a video with a turtle having a straw pulled out of it's nose-fucking horrendous and the scientists pulling it out were slamming 'other humans' for being cunts-like they'd never used a straw and it been thrown in the bin....it's shit but that's the way it is.

I don't see any end to it.

Troy

It doesn't help if the council decides that to empty green (garden waste) bins you now have to pay more on top of the current council tax... Whereas previously they emptied for free.

PolarityMan

Sambostar said:

Barbanabarbarous indeed.

I seriously bet I am King wasteless here though eh, apart from the odd save the planet vegan weirdo.  In terms of vaguely normal people I reckon I am. 

It's cute that you think you're vaguely normal :P

ICBM

Chalky said:

Would you pay £100 more for a new guitar if it was labelled "recycled"?

Yes. They are very cool. However they're a lot more than £100 more…

http://www.skateguitar.com

http://www.prismaguitars.com

Drew_TNBD

Garbage in, garbage out... you can't polish a turd.... even if it has ovaries!

https://hequal.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/constance-ladies-only-please.jpg?w=700

Sambostar

Flanging_Fred said:

I have underpants that are older than @Bucket. ; Do I get a Greenpeace gold star?

(or total social rejection?)

I never though about it that way, but most of my wardrobe is and my underpants.

scrumhalf

Sambostar said:

Flanging_Fred said:

I have underpants that are older than @Bucket. ; Do I get a Greenpeace gold star?

(or total social rejection?)

I never though about it that way, but most of my wardrobe is and my underpants.

Most of your wardrobe is underpants.

Sambostar

Ah but I have some really nice FORD and Shelby racing jackets from the late '70's, just waiting for a time when I'm bald that I'II suit them.  Time is a coming.

Chalky

Fretwired;1045601" said:

Chalky said:

Recycling often ends up in landfill because it is cheaper to buy new materials. Councils don't recycle, they just have contracts with companies to take it away. 





Council's get charged to use landfill sites so if they dump stuff they get hit with a high charges. They also have to report on how much they recycle - these are EU rules.

Well duh. But when nobody will take it they have to do whatever is necessary. Chap at our recycling was explaining about plasterboard and how the company contracted to take it will just refuse a load if it has any trace of insulation foam. They are not averse to using such excuses to turn it away when they just don't want it but can't break the contract. The fact is that recycled material, bar aluminium, is generally worth bugger all to anybody.