OK I'm a bit shamefaced as I thought the 15th was a tuesday when it was in fact a monday meaning that I completely missed it. But nonetheless I will contribute some environmental based blogging today in the hope that it makes some kind of a difference even if it is a bit late!! I offer no expert knowledge or even a fully formed opinion just a debate on a point which I have wondered about a bit.
Recycling and energy saving: Free choice or by law?
I've always wondered whether recycling would one day become law. As a follower and sometime writer of Science Fiction I often envisage a future where recycling is strictly enforced and is even more of an ever present reality than it is now. But whether it should be a present day reality I'm not quite sure.
Encouraging people to recycle is all well and good but most of us have enthusiasm in short bursts not like the myriad environmental campaigners that seem to have a constant source of energy and concern (and full respect to them by the way.) Anyway, my point is that encouraging us to recycle with things like Live Earth will work but the enthusiasm will die away after not too long for most people so should more be done?
Some things do work. Our local council, and doubtless many others, send lorries to collect paper and plastic recycling every fortnight on much the same basis as a bin lorry i.e. you put your stuff outside your house and they take it away. The paper goes to a factory that produces sheets for newspapers and something similar happens to the plastic I'm sure. This system works, but it only works if people choose to do it. Most people I've seen do, but doubtless (like in our house) many paper and plastic items go in the bin and then to the landfill.
Should recycling be enforced then? The problem lies in enforcing the law because it would be unfair to punish people just because they forgot to put their newspaper in the recycling or accidentaly slipped a can into the plastic bottle bank. And I most definitely think it would cause unrest if the police were sent round or hefty fines were applied because of this problem. But I do think the government could perhaps put sanctions on excessive waste (though again you'd have to debate what is "excessive") or restrict the amount of waste that goes out.
How about positive enforcement? I think things could be done on a more positive basis to enforce recycling. For example waste could be taken away not to be dumped but to recycling centres. No doubt this is already taking place, but if Recycling facilities were to completely replace landfills then it would at least get rid of the eyesores that landfills are if nothing else. It could also encourage people to sort their rubbish more if it was all going to be recycled. Again logistically and in terms of energy consumption this may be impractical at the moment but I think it's something we should be heading towards. They could also start things like encouraging companies to only make/sell energy efficient bulbs.
A last point. OK so I clearly don't know everything and not all my points have been followed through and have more to do with the government that most of my readers. But I guess if we show an interest in recycling then the powers that be are more likely to do something about it. Anyway to close, there's something I know should be enforced. Standby lights on VCRs and whatnot should be abolished. We have a DVD player and a Freeview box, both of which display a constant red light when plugged in. This is totally unnecessary, I can tell whether it's on by pointing the remote at it and seeing if something changes - I don't need a red light constantly on and it's a great waste of energy when you put all these units in the UK together. They're not needed and companies should stop installing them.
Enough from me for now - I hope that some of it was worthwhile
Word of the post: Mega
pref. Large:
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