the recycling illusion

When I was in Grade 6, my teacher taught us about climate change and global warming. I’m not sure if it was part of the official curriculum, or she was just passionate about it, but it felt like we spent a lot of time learning about greenhouse gases and the ozone layer (or lack thereof). Ever since then, I’ve been concerned about the impact of my actions on the environment.

To be fair, my concern has varied over time, but there’s usually a baseline whisper from my conscience: Do I really need to buy this [item packaged in plastic]? Can I reuse or repurpose this instead of throwing it in the bin? Do I really need to drive, or can I take public transport? Am I using too much water?

Some time ago, I learnt that Australia was exporting plastic recyclables to China for processing, and then China decided it didn’t want our plastic waste anymore. Since there were insufficient local recycling plants to divert this to, all of our plastic recyclables started going straight to landfill. I even remember watching some kind of news story about a Victorian woman who was stockpiling recyclables along the side of her house until the government put a solution in place. (I hope she’s not drowning under piles of used plastics by now.)

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when sharing is not caring (part 2)

[This is a continuation of last week’s post about the environmental impact of ride-share apps and related services]

I would firstly like to acknowledge that it’s very possible that before these food delivery apps existed, people might have just driven their own cars to these places and bought take-away, hence causing an approximately equal amount of transport-related environmental impact. However, I would also like to point out that this is all very hypothetical because this is my speculation and pondering based on the experience of people I know, not a rigorous scientific news article.

Still, to be fair, I recently heard on the radio that some banks might start looking at people’s usage of food delivery apps when deciding whether or not to approve home loans. Guess I’m not the only one under the impression that these things aren’t always used conscientiously. 

when sharing is not caring (part 1)

I have actually been a bit reluctant to write this post because I don’t want to give the impression that I think I know everything about this matter (which I don’t) but it’s something that I think about a lot, so I wanted to just put this out there and see what other people think. I was going to just make this a singular post, but it ended up being so long, I’ve decided to split it into two separate posts. [Part 2 will be published next week.]

People who know me well will know that I care a lot about environmental conservation. I spend a great deal of time reflecting on how my actions affect the environment (quite possibly as a result of getting this drilled into me in Grade 4). Lately I’ve taken to pondering about the impact of societal changes on energy usage and waste production. 

canned vs frozen

A lot of lunchtime conversations at work revolve around food. The other day, we happened to be talking about corn, and whether it was better to use canned corn or frozen corn. Unless you really like corn, this might seem like it’s going to be a boring post, but it’s actually not about corn at all. It’s about plastic.

it starts with 1

The other day, a friend of mine shared a photo of a large-scale sculpture of a couple of fish made mostly from plastic bottles. The sculptures are displayed on a beach (I think in Brazil somewhere) and were intended to draw attention to the amount of litter found on beaches and in oceans.

However, scrolling through the comments attached to the photo, I found out that the bottles were only glued on (with an apparently flimsy glue) and, over time, have begun falling off the sculpture. Kind of ironic, but I suppose the message was still getting through.

The photo was initially shared on FB by an organisation called “1 Million Women“, and came with the harrowing prediction that by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. After browsing their FB page briefly, I followed the link to their official website, and actually ended up spending about an hour just reading articles there.