Refuse, Reuse, Recycle
Organic Wastes Paper Plastics Glass Metal
The above crede is the one which has always appealed to me most, but many
use the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle adage.
The Refuse part has always appealed to me because of the ability within all
of us to say "no". A major part of our environmental footprint is
simply our consumption. The more we buy, the greater our footprint is. One
might buy a compost bin for instance. A noble cause one might assume, but it
has had to be manufactured and transported at a carbon cost. To eschew, to
let go (of the attachment to own, to possess, to buy) is a difficult habit
to break when the cultural impetus is to consume, consume, consume.
Organic Wastes
At the recent Rick Farley lectures in Bathurst, Robyn Williams highlighted the
enormous waste in food is generated in both the US and Australia. The US figure
is something like $100 billian US annually. The great majority of this finishes
up as landfill. Firstly it is gross waste of water and agriculturally/transport
generated GHG production. At the very least this can be converted to compost
and returned to the earth. The challenge to reducet he waste in the first place
is primary and then what waste is totally unavoidable, to be converted into
soil enhancing compost is the next challenge. That this might actually be profitable
for the organisations who get involved in this process is yet another example
of turning the disadvantage of climate change and its economic cost into a
benefit.
I have included some links for further information on just this and if an entrepeure
amongs you can grasp this opportunity, then we will all benefit.
Paper
I had the feeling that once we regulary recycled out paper and converted our
usage to recycled papere products it was all over. However, according to the
Clearwater story (see link on sidebar), paper can only be recycled three times
before the fibres become so short they cannot be utilised efficiently in new
paper production. This product then goes to landfill.
Again we are faced with cutting down the amount of paper we use.
As a teacher, for many years I laboured under the delusion of more handouts on
paper, the better teacher I was.
Later I came to realise this was my basic insecurity talking. Most of my handouts
went unread and the students neither suffered or gained noticably for my hours
bent over a photocopier valiently trying to eek double sided copies out of a
technology not well suited to such a novel concept. With the best of intentions
I wasted paper on a Gargantuan scale.
It is still a dilema for a teacher, as enabling work on line for students to
read, is not a perfect solution. Many students will be inclined to print it out
anyway and mostly in one sided mode.
Once again, innovative solutions from you could save many acres of living trees
from being converted into paper pulp and many tonnes of unuseable recycled fibres
from land fill. Howver, being organic, such fibres could perhaps be part of the
essential carbon ration in good compost.
Plastics
I have always had a dislike of plastics. My first job on graduation was with
ACI the glass manufacturers and perhaps that explains my bias. However, now
when I try to look more closely at the respective merits of plastic verses
glass, I am aware of the great merit of decreased waste which is inherent in
plastic. If indeed we still had glass milk bottles and we were able to get
some money back in returning the empties, we are still faced with a considerable
carbon debt in transporting them back to the manufacturers and in transporting
the filled bottles back to the customer. Against this, the plastic bottles
are remelted (at some carbon debt) and reformed into bottles and then transported,
filled and sold.
If anyone follows this debate, we would welcome your input.
As with many other areas, eg. leaving your computer on - longer life, verses
turning it and your monitor off every night (less power consumption), the story
is unclear to this writer and your input is most welcome.
Glass
Most of the debate about glass is contained in the above rave on plastics. As
is well known, South Australia still has a program of returning glass containers
for a price to be paid to those who do this recycling. Many in the environment
movement, enshrine this practice and would like to see it extended throughout
the country.
I believe, this practice is the norm in Germany for a range of products, not
just glass and hence, very little finishes up in the landfill bins in the average
home.
Metal
Many of us will remember our scrap metal dealer as part of every community. We
still have one in Bathurst and I am a reasonably regular visitor for both buying
and selling.
In tough times, selling lead, copper, brass and bronze were often a means of
putting food on the table of poor families. Perhaps those really tough times
will come again sooner than we think if our politicians do not grasp the warnings
signalled by the likes of Stern.