I went for a run last week, on the day that our local paper collection for recycling happens. It was both encouraging to see how many people were doing their bit…and disappointing to see just how much stuff they were leaving out on the street. And this was just the paper.
In other recent reports, we heard the a third of food we buy is chucked out, 60% of it untouched. This includes 5,500 whole chickens, 440,000 ready meals and 1.3m yoghurt pots each day - all unopened and unused. Which, by definition, has to mean they don't even make it to the recycling bin.
All of which is, I think, part of a negative side effect of recycling: a general assumption which seems to be that, IF we do recycle, we've done our bit and can therefore buy what we like. It's the environmental get out clause for our consumerist culture if you like; a salve for the conscience of materialist liberals (amongst whom I would count myself).
It all reminded me of the Reduce Reuse Recycle mantra sung about by Jack Johnson. In this model, recycling is the last piece of the jigsaw not the first - to begin with, you consume less; then you reuse what you (or others) have bought; and only then do you recycle what's left. Or to put it another way, recycling should be what you do with the stuff you can do nothing else about, rather than the only thing you do.
But it's human nature to start with what's easy (relatively speaking): to recycle…and to think your job is done. The challenge is how we all move beyond this. Because reducing and reusing are what will have a real environmental impact. But they ask more of us - lifestyle compromises and sacrifices which (selfishly) we are rarely happy to make.
Because, where recycling can sit happily in a model of rampant consumption, the other 2 Rs are completely at odds with what is arguably the one remaining meta-narrative of our times - that we are what (and how much) we buy.
Nor are you likely to get businesses wading into this particular green area either. Encouraging recycling can be good for business after all. It earns you CSR brownie points. And people may even pay more for a 'green' product (a double win!). But encouraging your consumers to consume less, or use your products for longer (rather than go for the unnecessary but obligatory 'upgrade') runs counter to all our established (and short-termist) business models...and is likely to get shareholder in a lather as well.
Although you might argue that a business (it would probably have to be privately owned) willing to go this route, might gain some unexpected benefits as more people ask for sustainable alternatives to the way things are.
Or maybe it's up to us to make that difference: if we could all pick just one thing to reduce or reuse, the impact would be significant.
And once you've kicked one habit, the next is always easier.
Recent Comments