I must admit to recycling (even have it on good authority that one or two of my learned anti-green colleagues do) even though, as is, it’s a waste of time, effort and resources.There is nothing intrinsically wrong with recycling – a point made by Julia Hailes at the 2007 Battle of Ideas with her jam jar and aluminium foil and remark that Thomas Deichmann considered nuclear waste recycling as viable. She did omit Deichmann’s retort that if it’s worthwhile then the best solutions would be engineering ones - he can claim an interest here as he is an engineer.
In engineering works things are usually worked down to a minimum of effort - certainly in larger, heavier industry. There's still much room for improvement as much still relies heavily on the craft and graft of skilled and experienced employees; this a point brought home when China originally turned down buying MG Rover as this highly robotised factory was deemed 'old fashioned'. I took a look around the 'cutting edge' factory worked in at the time.
Hmmm.
Recycling’s 'feelgood factor' reminds of when I had my own fabrication business - at times of stress (nearly always) I’d sort into small piles screws, washers, nuts n bolts that were actually quite worthless – but it provided ‘something’ to do and stopped dwelling on more urgent tasks. Ms. Hailes, who, admittedly, held out very well in a joint batting with Julie Hill, attested to this therapeutic value of even a small effort helping us feel connected to part of something bigger.
Occasionally therapeutic, perhaps, but not as an all encompassing policy.
'Recycling' is likely a natural part of our nature inasmuch as we see further utility in many things. In steelworks offcuts are used for all manner of things but you wouldn't want household or garden items that look like they'll last forever, or heavily compromised in their use.
An example that ought be familiar (and one that ‘sparked’ this piece) was washing out a milk carton. Nothing too bad about that as it’s usually done at the end of a normal wash (no dishwasher – yet) with waste water (or used, or abused if you want to get caught up in pc semantics). Ok enough if that was the end. But, oh no, the milk oft leaves a residue that requires a flush out with hot water and a squirtette of washing up liquid; after all, when washed n squashed the bottle rim collapses and any unwashed milk begins to stink – not nice inside the house or out. This time of year cooler weather keeps any smells down but the stuff ends up blown all over the streets – as do the bins, of which more later.I’d already wondered whether the cap and bottle were of the same plastic or whether to separate them before thinking that the label would be difficult to peel off but I better had because it may clog up whatever machine was going to clean up these bottles later, or not.
A retired couple tell me that they cut all their plastic bottles down and compact them as much as possible - whether many of us go that far is questionable but imagining just part of the above scenario replicated by x million seems woefully inefficient.
Long by then I’d begun to question what actual worth was in this bottle – smelt a bit like those coupons with a nominal value of 0.001p and energies to reclaim it far outweighed.(1)
This seems a sad and sickening waste of people’s time; doing little more than patronise effort, inflate the egos of our so-called leaders and give further rein to darling eco-worriers. It may provide succour to the likes of Ms Hailes but surely we have better things to do?
Perhaps we ought to take a step back - much of the ‘excess’ packaging is borne of health n safety or hygiene reasons; or because it protects, aids handling or presents the product. The latter mayhaps a case in point but there’s many an eco-worrier (not to mention politicians) reliant on packaging and dodgy 'science'.
Further to that though is the relatively abundant wealth we can can amass; and here is likely the crux of the matter – our consumption and often more how we reproduce it. It is likely there’s some underlying message to our actions inasmuch as we know the effort we require to purchase items only to see them superseded and our expensive buy worth less. We may decry the process yet we all have our once luxury and now commonplace items and products generally improve.
On the whole we don’t seem to mind recycling – even if the occasional discussion at ‘the bins’ is sceptical. I daresay that should we all put in the effort then those that command it wouldn’t be able to cope. Stories abound of sorted rubbish going to landfill, incinerator and shipped to the Far east. Someone seems to be pulling a fast one as it seems that recycling is largely for ‘feelgood’ reasons (as much as EU diktat (2). It should be noted the propaganda useage of people giving up iron railings and all manner of pots and pans only for them to be stored in warehouses or dumped in the sea during WW1 + 2.A case could be made for better waste disposal (even how we organise our labours) but does recycling actually do anything of genuine, practical value? I’d argue not and that its major proponents are guilty of simplistic narcissism. Simplistic as argued above re resources but also as this would not be the way to save the planet from apparent impending doom - that can only come about from greater technological development and even more mastery over natural events; narcissistic because ‘those that do’ elevate themselves above 'those that don’t' and berate the very people and processes that make society operate; their feeling good about themselves is largely parasitical on the wealth created by the rest of us.
It should not be forgotten that recycling started out as a nice-as-pie voluntary idea and within a short space of time has become compulsory, with fines and increased charges. That's not nice and what ever happened to public service? Disgruntled binmen,likely feeling the squeeze on their jobs, now leave our bins obstructing pathways; in fact, they can be out for the bulk of the day should the round not arrive until afternoons and during windy weather end up getting blown all over- no cheers for the council.
One wonders how long nice-as-pie rain, bath and god knows what else water recycling becomes enforced due to sewers largely built in a relatively more industrious era and now past their sell by date . . .
(1) a TV advert states that a computer can be ran for x minutes using ‘energy’ tied up in waste bottles – try as I might I can’t find the slot on mine where they are fed in.
(2) At a Leeds City council meeting considering waste incineration I was told by a labour councillor that 'our hands were tied due to EU regulations'. Not so when it comes to opting out of the 48hrs working directive, eh?
See also - Recycled rubbish kept in storage because no one will buy it.
Daily Mail Nov 2008.
