| Recycling vs. Reusing - How to make our living greener |
| Posted by Enviroadmin |
| Monday, 22 August 2011 13:02 |
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I remember watching a documentary about the slums in India and I was profoundly impressed when they showed how trash was recycled in these areas. In fact up to ninety percent of all waste was recycled. That is an outstanding figure when we compare this to our first world countries. In South Africa recycling is, I believe, still in its infancy, yet we have a great awareness of this. At selected garages, schools and other designated areas around the country there are containers for glass, paper, plastics and other recyclable items. I remember how our school had these too, we even held our yearly plant a tree day initiatives and I can recall how little we used the containers and how little it changed our ways of consumerism. However there are many initiatives and projects out there ready to recycle our waste. Look at the price we have put on plastic bags when we do shopping. Great initiative but in the long run it might be of poor insight. We are taking the easy way out and with nature there is no such thing just like in economics as a free lunch. The question on my mind is if our pattern of consumption is sustainable? Or more specifically, are our consumption patterns helping us in making our environment prosper or is this in fact the very thing which is harmful in our attempts to clean up our act? The input is of focus here. How we use products is of vital importance. When I use say a disposable razor do I throw it away after one use? Maybe after five used? Or perhaps I can use the blade until it can’t shave anymore? Even if it takes me half an hour to shave it would be a preferable option in my attempt to do my bit in not wasting as much as buying a new disposable razor every week, which in turn also contains wrapping I have to dispose of, together with the resources I have to use to obtain it. Essentially the less we use the less we will waste. In my opinion this is a much better approach in looking after our environment than to continue using products poorly. Recycling needs resources to make these products usable again, yet in doing so, there is no way certain to say it will end up as waste again after one use. There is more. We are dimly aware of what we are really doing to nature. What resources are used and what resources have been polluted should come in fine print with every product we buy. I remember a book I received where it stated in exact numbers how many trees were used to make this particular book, how much water was used, how many chemicals and so on. It made quite an impression on me of how much was needed to produce a simple book. Imagine going the extra mile and include more information as to what impact it had on the environment, to do so would create an even bigger awareness of our daily impact on nature. Picture the following. You’re at your grocer and as you start to read the ingredients you realise there is a fine print saying: this product has killed on average five land dwelling species, an estimated hundred fish and bird species, destroyed 1ha of arable ground, poisoned five human beings and caused unknown ruin to the environment. Please enjoy with care. Would we still buy such a product? I would be ashamed of buying just apples to know this is our reality we are dealing with. And this is one product which could have a million buyers. Do the math. I believe research and information is the way of making ourselves aware of what our real impact is and a commitment to continue to do so in saving our environment. It takes real effort to do so in our “five minute quick this is easier” days, whereas the environmental way would take thirty minutes, it will take time and patience to establish a green living society. An even better approach is the consumption of green products which has little impact on the environment. Yet again all chains to the whole process needs to taken into consideration, awareness and research is of vital importance here. Just because it says its ‘green’ doesn’t mean it has not made detrimental waves in our environment. We should be asking during which part of the manufacturing cycle does the producer decide that his product is “green”. Remember recycling is at the end of the whole economic process, when most of the damage has already been done, to know the full cycle of every product is what we should aim for. Should we change our demand to better ‘cleaner’ products, we could influence the whole process of our environmental impact. When this is done the input will ‘green’ the whole process which will then become much more economically and environmentally viable. |
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