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Things in the UK are changing pretty rapidly, due largely to the introduction of an increasingly-high "landfill tax" on stuff that is dumped. Far too many local councils, though, are still not up to speed on recycling. (and many of them use private contractors to collect waste, which adds another layer to the system which is not always an advantage). Personally, if the Council's waste contractor did what the video shows on even one occasion, I'd withold Council Tax payment for the month until there was some assurance it wouldn't happen again ...
Of course, recycling should always be the penultimate stage!
Reduce the amount of potential waste you buy: especially buy food in appropriate quantities, and avoid stuff with excessive packaging.
Re-use - everything from glass jars for home-made jam, to passing on unwanted furniture and stuff to friends, family, or through schemes like Freecycle or car boot sales. Unwanted clothes etc to charity.
Repair - everything from new covers on old furniture onwards ... and there's a thriving market on e-bay for old electronic stuff for "spares or repair" from the collectors and enthusiasts!
Recycle - and not just the obvious kerbside stuff: home-composting where possible etc is always a good idea.
At work, I'm in an area where the local council does not collect waste for re-cycling from small trade premises, only domestic ones. So I pay a specialist re-cycling firm to pick up or paper (sorted into 'plain' and 'other'), and to collect glass bottles after Private Views and other events. They have just added the facility to recycle batteries, and I'm encouraging everyone in the building to bring in batteries to recycle: in the UK there are still rather few places that do this, and batteries contain all kinds of nasties that are best not let loose in landfill or incinerated!
There's a lot more that I - and most of us, I suspect - could do. But reducing the amount of "waste" by 50% is pretty easy ... then it gets more difficult, with things for which no obvious re-use or recycling pathway yet exists.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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mm
i have a very open mind on all the recycling thing, my impression is its a big scam for big taxes all rapped up in the global warming balls shit.
4x4 have largecar tax why because the green creeps thought they cause polution, wow. the rockys were under water many years ago yes, so it all happened b4, so why should these green nutcases help the government make taxes higher.
wach we have a energy problem , but will the nut cases kick off about nucular fuel again, or think hang on we need it.
we have set fields aside for bio fuel wow how stupid now people are starving.
In a nut shell the whole thing pisses me off.
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Many things which piss us off also happen to be true.
Keeping a very open mind doesn't mean questioning something ad absurdum; it means bearing in mind that either side could be right, and acting accordingly. (I'd also say that one has to make sure one seeks out every opinion and scientific theory, as it's all too easy to find oneself remembering only those that one wants to hear.) Recycling and conserving energy don't cause anyone any harm (and they have easily demonstrable public health benefits), but the harm from not behaving in a responsible manner is potentially extremely grave indeed. Lack of knowledge about an issue is not justification for ignoring it.
The world has been through innumerable ice ages and many global extinction events. We are currently living in a period of exceptional climate stability, where it is neither too hot nor too cold for many species to thrive, including us. Modern man has only been around for a few thousand years. Just because the world has been much hotter and colder in the past, this doesn't mean that such conditions would benefit him at all. A significant swing in global temperatures in either direction would quickly lead to mass starvation. In the worst case, we could bring on a self-perpetuating global extinction event ourselves. Just because the probability is not high during our lifetimes (unless someone starts a nuclear war, that is) this doesn't mean we shouldn't bear it in mind for future generations (unless we're selfish and ignore everything that goes on beyond the ends of our own noses).
What exactly do you mean by "4x4 have largecar tax because the green creeps thought they cause polution, wow"? It sounds eminently sensible to me: for most people with large cars, a small car would be fine. You're not seriously suggesting that large cars don't cause pollution?
David
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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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ok
first well said.
let your over worked brain think.
The amount of pollution from the u.k and europe is so small.
Now think? India...USA...... China and all the rain forests that are burnt down.
[Sentence deleted by the Moderator]
The over educated prats in this country are its ruin.
and this is pointed a no particular person or persons.
John, it is possible to maintain civility in disagreement.
Moderator
[Updated on: Mon, 21 July 2008 08:05] by Moderator |
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John.. wrote:
> The amount of pollution from the u.k and europe is so small.
>
> Now think? India...USA...... China and all the rain forests that are burnt down.
Regardless of how much, or how little, Europe in general and the UK in particular may contribute to the degradation of the environment (climate change, release of long half-life radioactive material, concentration and release of biologically-dangerous materials including organic mercury compounds & enzyme material, etc), it is never right to do something just because other people are also doing it.
In this case, we're effectively pissing in other people's drink and shitting on their food. regardless of whether the "other people" are those now alive in other countries, or our own descendants. I personally don't feel it's a particularly pleasant thing to do.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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They had a big push here about recycling, however, it didnt last long. The answer to the problem came in the form of machines that could separate wast. I have watched the one they use at one of the collection stations here and its rather amazing.
Im sure that the earth has been thru hot spells and for sure cold spells in the past. At some time in the past the deserts were lush with vegitation and had rivers flowing thru them. The greenhouse affect is being compounded by human polution. When the ocean level rises and my front lawn becomes ocean front property Im sure Ill be happy but there are going to be some really upset people in Florida and Louisiana.
If you stand for Freedom, but you wont stand for war, then you dont stand for anything worth fighting for.
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John.. wrote:
>let your over worked brain think.
[...]
>Please a lot of money has been spent on your brain please use it
Back to personal insults already, Jack?
As to whether it's okay to do something just because everyone else is already doing it -- how can that ever be a justification for anything? That line of reasoning has directly led to many of history's most bloody atrocities. The very least we can do is set an example. While we are a small country, and may only be producing a small percentage of the world's pollution, we are still one of the world's most influential.
David
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Not altogether surprising. But the video is pointless. That should have been raised properly with the various authorities concerned.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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