It's not easy being green

Althaea

Good day

What difficulties do you encounter when trying to "do your bit"? Personally, I have quite a few, not least my recycle bins being full long before collection, which is once a month. Have you ever had a conversation with your waste disposable management? It's an eye-opener! Did you know that garden waste and pet litter should not be disposed of in any bin? You should use a composter. Not too handy if you don't have a garden but do have pets, or you're an old dear who can't cope with that. How many people use composters? What if you have no use for one? My waste disposal people told me that many recycle loads are in fact contaminated, and I have to wonder what percentage of our efforts is actually wasted.....if you'll excuse the pun
I don't drive, good, right? Not really, since I can't transport any relevant material to the nearest recycling centre. Because I don't drive, I sometimes have groceries delivered, in cardboard boxes. I try to keep them and return them, but it's not always possible. Ok, I could take more frequent trips to town and not have them delivered, and buy less packaged goods, but I'm not so young any more, and arthritic.
Ever tried to prise the paper off some containers, as we are advised to do? Takes a lot of hot water, and cleaning fluids.

These are just some of the frustrations I encounter. How about you?

Húrin

I think that people would do the cause of political ecology more favours by spending more time campaigning in various ways than expending too much thought, effort and time on "living green" and reducing their "carbon footprint".

Cookie_Monster

Full green bin is a constant problem. they should really collect them more often.

Composters to a degree are uselass unless you have quite a large garden. We have one and it was great for about 2 months but now its full and thats it for a year or so. No point in getting a second as there would be nowhere to put all the soil at the ensd of it and eventually would have to step up into the garden from the back door:D

What frustrates me the most though is having everything you try to do made irrelevant as other family member or work collegues don't bother with any of it.

Althaea

Húrin wrote: »

I think that people would do the cause of political ecology more favours by spending more time campaigning in various ways than expending too much thought, effort and time on "living green" and reducing their "carbon footprint".

Campaigning for better facilities and waste management, yes, I agree. It's not easy though for that to happen if people don't make an effort to live green too. A waste disposal company can't help it if people contaminate their recycle waste, for instance. Cookie, what bugs me is that every good action seems to have a negative counteraction. The carbon emissions driving waste to a disposal unit, the hot water required for cleaning packaging, the detergent that comes in plastic bottles. If I use a plastic bag in my kitchen waste bin, that's more plastic, if I don't, I have to wash it out and disinfect it regularly. I try to find recyclable plastic bags, they are not widely available. Oh these things don't cause me to lose sleep or anything , they are just minor annoyances, but the kind of things that your average housekeeper experiences a lot. It just seems that one thing often cancels out another.

djpbarry

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

We have one and it was great for about 2 months but now its full and thats it for a year or so. No point in getting a second as there would be nowhere to put all the soil at the ensd of it and eventually would have to step up into the garden from the back door:D

Sell it?

Húrin

Althaea wrote: »

Campaigning for better facilities and waste management, yes, I agree. It's not easy though for that to happen if people don't make an effort to live green too.

The cause I speak of is not about recycling more. It's about recycling less because it's about consuming less, building less, driving and trading less, and gaining independence from oil.

This is the kind of radical actions that need to be taken - because we are residing over a holocaust - and they can only work if implemented by the government. As anyone who watches the news can see, the obstacles that must be overcome are so enormous that we need all the help we can get.

Meanwhile, the media has people fooled into thinking the most important thing they can do is "watch their carbon footprint", vote green and buy a Prius.