- How to Recycle in Buxton HOW TO RECYCLE IN BUXTON
- 52 Ways to reduce your plastic use 52ways_to_reduce_your_plastic
- What happens to High Peak Recycling WHAT HAPPENS TO HIGH PEAK RECYCLING?
- Trade Recycling TRADE RECYCLING
- Leave it Loose Leave it Loose
- What type of plastic?
WHY IS WASTE & CONSUMERISM A TRANSITION ISSUE?
Waste is a huge issue in the modern world. Things are deliberately designed not to last; repair skills are in limited supply when they break, the spare parts can costs more than a replacement product; and we’re encouraged to think we have to have a constant stream of new stuff. Misleading ‘best before’ dates, and our demand for perfection, lead to millions of tonnes of perfectly edible food being dumped every year.
This may help big business and politicians to claim that the economy is growing, so everything’s fine, but it’s not sustainable for our precious finite planet. All that stuff we throw away used up resources and took lots of energy to produce and to transport to where we bought it. Quite apart from the effect on the climate, shortages of resources can lead to instability, human rights abuses, and even wars.
Looking on the bright side, the amount of waste produced per person in the UK is actually reducing, and the proportion of waste that is recycled is increasing, although not quickly enough. Plus while recycling is better than landfill or incineration, it’s still far more energy intensive and wasteful than re-using and repairing things.
We need to reduce our consumption drastically – there is no Planet B!
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Obviously a total re-organisation of the world economy isn’t going to happen overnight, but as individuals we can massively reduce the amount we consume. We can reject the messages of the advertising industry, re-learn skills like how to repair things, and think about what really makes us happy. Chances are it’s not the latest shiny gadget, it’s more likely to be time spent with friends and family, the scent of flowers growing in the garden, watching young birds learn how to fly, listening to a favourite piece of music …