The environment, are you doing your part?

PaulStat

PaulStat

PaulStat

Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
It's starting to become a thing of mine i.e. thinking about how I can be more efficient in recycling/energy saving.

Bristol council have in last couple of months adopted a new waste policy. We have one black box for things like paper, glass bottles, tins, foil etc. We have a compost bin in which we put all our food waste. We have recycling of cardboard, and the main black wheely bin only gets emptied once every two weeks.

Basically all that goes in the wheely bin these days is plastic packaging from food.

I've also recently become very anti plastic shopping bag, and whenever I go shopping I take along a few canvas like re-usable bags. We don't even wrap veg up in the little plastic food bags they provide.

If only food was stored in a an alternative to plastic packaging I could probably have no throw away waste at all!!!

As far as energy goes, all the lights in the flat are energy saving and we make sure if something isn't being used it's turned off at the mains plug.

I realise that the odd household doing this type of thing is a drop in the ocean, but if EVERYONE got into this mindset (and it's not that hard) we could really make a difference. When I eventually have kids I shall be drumming this type of thing into them, and believe everyone has a responsibility to do the same.

In fact I think that councils should impose fines on people that are being particularly wasteful, and the government as a whole should impose fines on councils that aren't providing the means for people to be more efficient.

This is thread is sparked by something I saw on BBC breakfast this morning, where a Times columnist was saying "No it [being environment concious] doesn't make a difference, and it fact it uses up our most valuable resource.....Time". Which really shocked me.

Anyway your views and opinions please? :p
 
I have often wondered if household scale recycling and other so callled 'green' measures make any difference. I do my bit, I compost all vegetable waste, recycle all glass and tins, use the local farm shop, turn off the telly and lights. I even wear a jumper and thick socks at the moment to avoid putting the heating on for a few more weeks and whenever I can I walk or use the bus. I am under no illusion that it will help with global warming, I do it because it makes good sense.

I actually don't think the UK are a major problem, nor is Europe and to some degree North America. Our wealth and technological level is such that the alternative 'green' technologies will come on stream for our use in due course and our emission will drop. We aren't the problem, China, India and South America will be an increasing problem and yet all the emphasis is on us.
 
I don't recycle, but I do watch water and energy use, e.g. have energy saving bulbs all over the house, keep the telly off stand-by, etc.

The biggest problem is soft drink - why does it come in plastic? It makes it taste bad and is an environmental nightmare. Why not adopt the German system? Use glass only, and charge deposits which you get back when returning the glass.
 
VIRII said:
A huge amount of the stuff we "recycle" still goes to landfill.
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Yup, and if you recycle a lot (certainly in North Kesteven in Lincolnshire) you're charged for a larger recycling wheelybin by way of "encouragement".
 
PaulStat said:
Really??? Why? :(
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By seperating out different types of waste you can have landfill that can still be built on, so we are not really "recycling" we are simply seperating our waste types.

You can't build on mixed waste sites because you don't know what is there.
You can build on seperated waste though assuming it is the right type of waste.

However the whole recycling thing is a con, your waste is not being recycled to anything like the degree that you thought it was.
 
AJUK said:
I have often wondered if household scale recycling and other so callled 'green' measures make any difference. I do my bit, I compost all vegetable waste, recycle all glass and tins, use the local farm shop, turn off the telly and lights. I even wear a jumper and thick socks at the moment to avoid putting the heating on for a few more weeks and whenever I can I walk or use the bus. I am under no illusion that it will help with global warming, I do it because it makes good sense.

I actually don't think the UK are a major problem, nor is Europe and to some degree North America. Our wealth and technological level is such that the alternative 'green' technologies will come on stream for our use in due course and our emission will drop. We aren't the problem, China, India and South America will be an increasing problem and yet all the emphasis is on us.
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IMO the biggest impetus will be cost - after all, hydrocarbons arent getting any cheaper, so low-plastic packaging and energy efficiency will make more and more economic sense as time goes on. The environmental angle is a nice altruistic bonus to what should be basic financial sense.
 
VIRII said:
A huge amount of the stuff we "recycle" still goes to landfill.
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I have heard that too, I beleive it is very common. I think and I stand to be corrected, rubbish can be classed as recycled becasue it has been sorted and collected, not how it is disposed. Also again I stand to be corrected but we also ship a lot of waste to other countries where they put it into landfill etc.

Where I live in Crewe, Cheshire we now have the following.

Grey, black, brown and green bins. With all those bins we can't recycle glass, tins have to be stripped of any paper wrappers, the bins are emptied as and when they seem to pass.

Some residents where I live has also been asked to take their own wheelie bins to the local tip !
 
I've never understood why a product as fragile as Sugar is sold in Folded paper where as most other less fragile products need loads of cardboard and packaging :confused:
For starters all overdone packaging should be Banned.
Same as these Massive bottles of drink that are sold when you could quite easily buy a Small bottle and add the water yourself once home.
As far as current recycling goes i think it is Crap BS. The only benefit i see is to those recyling companys and the Building companys that get more ground to build there disgusting MDF rabbit hutches on.
Another thing that really ***** me off about this crap is Dog mess. I mean what ******* idiot decided it was a good idea to make it law to put a Natural fertilizer in a plastic bag that takes over 100 years to rot.
I have picked up every one of my dogs craps and see the point in it but to put it in a bag that takes a hundred years to rot :confused:
Why the **** don't they sell a more degradable bag to put your dog crap in.
Another thing is the Public transport. **** me it is always a Bus that Destroys the air i breathe whilst out dog walking. Cars go past No big deal these days as most are fairly clean but you get a Bus go past and you choke for 20 minutes.
It totally ***** me off when people speak about the environment and do **** all about it themselves. Worst offenders are the Politicians and the public sector. Recently my local council spent something like 30k on xmas lights and that was just for putting them up.
Energy conservation and for 8 weeks a year the whole country is lit up like some American Nightmare..
WHAT A ******* JOKE.
 
All the buses round here seem to pump out pure chlorine :) or some other extremely smelly gas. Tastes nice tho.

As far as recyling glass and stuff? I read somewhere that it actually uses a lot more energy to recycle it than it does to make more from a sustainable source?
That was probably quite old and hopefully untrue now.

I would like to see a blanket ban of 4x4 cars anywhere near major cities. Tax them to hell and back. Tax all cars to hell and back some more. Increase public trapsort by 100% and then tax cars some more. THat would be a good start.

THen move onto areoplanes and budget airlines.

Then everyone become a vegan.
 
Efour2 said:
All the buses round here seem to pump out pure chlorine :) or some other extremely smelly gas. Tastes nice tho.

As far as recyling glass and stuff? I read somewhere that it actually uses a lot more energy to recycle it than it does to make more from a sustainable source?
That was probably quite old and hopefully untrue now.

I would like to see a blanket ban of 4x4 cars anywhere near major cities. Tax them to hell and back. Tax all cars to hell and back some more. Increase public trapsort by 100% and then tax cars some more. THat would be a good start.

THen move onto areoplanes and budget airlines.

Then everyone become a vegan.
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I think i heard somewhere that the emissions from a one way transatlantic flight are the same the average house hold car produces in one YEAR.
 
I am looking into all this more and more as we have our own house soon and its the perfect time to start.

However, its not the idividual consumers that are the major problem, its industry as a whole. I work in Despatch for a large factory, we work on a different site than the factory so its all put on pallets and wrapped and then its sent to us.

Just the amount of pallet wrap we throw away each 12 shift is disgusting, im talking 2-3 large skips every 24 hours. For those that dont know, pallet wrap is like a large, thicker and stronger version of clingfilm.

Then we have all the cardboard etc.

We are just one company out of thousands, but its seems being environmentally friendly isnt important to them.
 
I gave up using a car a couple of years ago and bought a push bike. That and walking are the only forms of transport I use these days.

I also have all my computer, hi fi equipment, telly and guitar amps on a fat mains switch so that nothing can draw any current by being on standby.

I think that helps.
 
MNuTz said:
I am looking into all this more and more as we have our own house soon and its the perfect time to start.

However, its not the idividual consumers that are the major problem, its industry as a whole. I work in Despatch for a large factory, we work on a different site than the factory so its all put on pallets and wrapped and then its sent to us.

Just the amount of pallet wrap we throw away each 12 shift is disgusting, im talking 2-3 large skips every 24 hours. For those that dont know, pallet wrap is like a large, thicker and stronger version of clingfilm.

Then we have all the cardboard etc.

We are just one company out of thousands, but its seems being environmentally friendly isnt important to them.
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In that case the government needs to force companies to think about it's policies. If they don't meet targets by date X, fine them through the roof.
 
Being a student i use energy saving bulbs, put as much things off at the mains as possible, and havent started using the heating as yet. I walk pretty much everywhere, or share a car if im offered a lift.

Mainly it's so it doesnt cost me much, but we'll call it being environmentally friendly ;)
 
i think its going to take some years before recycling becomes the industry it should.its obvious that we we cannot keep slinging rubbish in holes in the ground for ever and its only in recent years that alternatives have been looked into.
 
I bought my car ( BMW M3 ) to help with the environment


we are all always being told how bad fossil fuels are for the environment , so I am doing my bit to help get rid of them as quickly as possible :D ;)
 
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