Chris's Forester Column: July 2010
Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle
Recycling
has become an important part of central and local governments' response to halting
climate change and reducing our carbon footprints. The new coalition government
has suggested that to raise the
Roger
explained that given the nature of recycling targets and financial penalties imposed
by central government, a voucher scheme was a proven way of increasing
recycling tonnage to the council. He
also thought manufacturers had come some way in reducing the volume of product packaging
thereby reducing the need to recycle as much. He mentioned the popular mantra,
'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' and felt that the importance of these words lay in
their order so that recycling became the last stage in a product's life, not
its first.
It
was a useful discussion but I can't help feeling that we are creating piles of recycled
and recyclable material and congratulating ourselves on saving the world while
actually, the real problem, the depletion of the earth's resources goes on
apace. With the binning of a staggering
527kg of municipal solid waste per person per year we have to reassess our
habits of consumption to improve our chances of an environmentally sustainable
future. For a reality check, think oil and the
So
what's the message? As Roger reminded
me, it's: 'Reduce, Re-use, Recycle'. To
those words I'd add: ' and Repair'.
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