Em I the only one bothered by this..?

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Me and my wife are trying to cut down on using plastics. Sometimes its inevitable but we try to avoid it wherever se can. We take out own recyclable bags to store, we visit package less stores where u bring your own jars and buy directly into it. And i am contemplating about buying the shredder for plastic waste so that i could at least co pact it well.... the saddest thing is that its not how it will affect us, but i am very concerned what our children inherit. Its all about peoples laziness and greed.

[OPEN_RANGE]

good on you martin, you have the right approach and are setting a positive example for your children

[francomanko]

yeah its just awful and yeah good on you Martin and Pixelbox...

right...apologies for the long dull post.....

A while ago my partner and I decided to try to aim to be zero waste because its just insane the amount of plastics that are being used and thrown away. But its not just plastics in the sea, there's a broader issue of waste in general. People are throwing away huge bags of crap into the landfills, next time its bin collection day, just go out onto your street and look at how much stuff is thrown away..its insane. Problem is that we've grown up thinking its normal..which has to change because it isn't, its disgraceful.

Recycling plastic isn't the answer and it has tended to give people a false sense of security. me included, because even if your town/district has the ability to recycle, generally plastics can only be recycled around 4 times and then thats it! Also food waste in landfills is also massive problem, I think its estimated that 20% of what goes into municipal landfills is food, which generates methane because it doesnt break down like it would when you compost it.

So we've been using reusable bags/containers and vegetable net bags for years, way more convenient than plastic bags, but some of the things we changed about our habits a while ago were:

• We take our foodwaste to a local community gardens who compost it.
• When we are in a supermarket we now ask ourselves :
  • Do we really need it? (im not trying to be a buzzkill, but you'll feel better for it if you ask yourself this question..save money too)
  • Is it compostable? (if it can go back into the ground then great, if not then try to avoid.)
  • Can we get a different item that's in a glass or aluminium container that doesn't have any plastic seals etc.
  • Can we make it ourselves (you'll be surprised at how many things you can...hair product was our latest success)
• What little rubbish that has to go to landfill we put in paper bags and into street bins, instead of the council plastic bags. (street bins that dont have plastic bag liners)

All in all the changes we've made have made us happier, we haven't put a street bin out for collection in about a year, our waste although not zero, has been dramatically reduced, and we enjoy making things we took for granted..my sourdough bread is waaaaaaay better that supermarket bread

The only downside is now I cant help looking at all the plastic packaging in the supermarkets, just insane, and also the amount of people, especially with young kids, who seem to not give a damn about even making the bare minimum change of using reusable bags...thats really disheartening for me.Oh and next time you go to a sushi bar, just look at the amount of single use containers that fly out of those places.....dammmmn whats wrong with people the information has been out there for so long yet they cant even be bothered to reuse a container and that that in instead!!!

If people dont wise up and start taking some personal responsibility for a change, the world is truly screwed.

Right im off to vent my anger by burning some car tyres


Be a star put a reusable in the car

[Morbid Angel]

nice post francomanko Our city changed policy to split all food into separate bin for compost, its a great idea. But issue remains with all the other waste, which we throw away. In China for example its a giant problem, while the streets are cleaned daily, there is an insane amount of trash in their landfill which is so full it can't handle it any more then 1-2 years. When I throw stuff out I always pay attention to what it is. Most of the stuff is what we are given or sold, by manufacturer, like packaging, or other material which has short life, but made of very durable materials. If the 90% of the packaging was changed it would reduce our footprint in the environment from plastic to something else. But no factory or manufacturer seems to be interested in doing this...

[Morbid Angel]

Just read this today and even more disturbed...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43363545

[francomanko]

it wasnt that many years ago when the world was worrying about nuclear energy waste and the damage it could do to the environment, all the while we were probably creating a vastly more damaging situation with plastics. Not enough instant death for people to make a change i suppose.

[Ihno]

Nuclear waste is a huge problem. Especially in the oceans. There are 2-3 declined russian nuclear submarines with h bombs, reactors and fuel rods inside. They're rotting, and they might turn soon into a nuclear disaster in a depth of 1000m. Plus everyone dumped nuclear waste in the oceans for 50 years. Those barrels are rotting too. And unfortunately some countries are still dumping a part of their waste in the oceans. We're working very hard to destroy this planet.

[rivoli]

We're working very hard to destroy this planet.

and electing the best people to get the job done...

[Morbid Angel]

Yet more info: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/gr...atch-1.4582626