We all know that the world is in QUITE a state at the moment, as can be seen from the whole green revolution. In Cape Town stores such as Pick ‘n Pay and Woolworths are now expanding their range of organic produce(With Woolworths easily taking first place and scoring the podium chicks) Organic foods obviously don’t use artificial pesticides or fertilisers and are produced like in the old days which means it is kinder to the earth and does not destroy the planet we have been born into.
One of the major worldwide problems is that of plastic, something we have come to rely heavily on. Everything we buy comes packaged in plastic from fruits, vegetables, tablets, cooldrinks to magazines and virtually anything you can think of. We are being told to use re-usable bags for our shopping, but while this might make a difference, even if it is a small one, the world needs to make a huge change. We need to substitute something for plastic, something that is not harmful to the environment.
There is a fundamental flaw in the design of humans. We are just too clever! We managed to evolve to such an extent that we are flying into space, building bigger structures, drilling into the earth for oil to fuel our lives and basically doing whatever we want. The problem is that we were never given a blueprint for how to live life. No one ever told us that burning fossil fuels would destroy the planet or that plastic is destroying everything. We were never told what was right or wrong and so we have had to learn from some monumental mistakes.
In my mind, 2008 is going to be one of the greenest years yet in the minds of consumers. Granted, carbon emissions will probably not go down as places like the USA refuse to sign into things such as the Kyoto protocol. And then places like China open up coal burning power stations constantly which does not help either. It’s not to say South Africa are any better as our public transport system leaves a lot to be desired, necessitating that everyone needs to drive their own car to work. Well obviously not everyone, but most people do drive their own cars to work. Add to that our coal burning power stations and we are also a disaster.
I suppose no one is perfect but it’s the small things that are going to make a big difference. I was chatting to my mate Gary a while ago and we were speaking about Heath Nash. Heath Nash is a pretty famous South African designer who focuses on re-using waste and turning it into designs for the house. From used milk cartons to those white clips on bread bags, he uses it all. Gary was recently featured in House and Leisure, and the aim of his project was to make a design based on sustainability, with Heath Nash as his mentor.
Gary made a light of sorts, featured below:
You see, according to an article in Mens Health Best Life, the world produces some 60 billion tons of plastic every single year. And it basically goes on to say that other than the small amount of plastic incinerated, and it’s a very small amount, every single bit of plastic ever made still exists. If we don’t recycle it, it ends up being put into landfill, thus destroying the planet and having consequences that we cannot even begin to fathom. It eventually starts to break down and enters the food chain, poisoning us.
Just think back to when you were a kid and you had that plastic baby bottle. Your mom threw it in the bin. That bottle is probably still somewhere in the ground, just waiting to wreak havoc. Imagine seeing evil in your baby bottle? When you begin to think about it, it seems the destruction of the planet cannot be stopped. What are we going to replace plastic with?
How are we going to clean up all the plastic that has been put into the earth? I guess no one really knows the answers to that.
What we can do for now is to recycle everything instead of blindly throwing it into the bin.
Instead of doing what I say, you can now in fact do what I do! Cape Town is quickly running out of landfill space. Cape Town has six landfill sites and only three are in operation. So it is imperative that we recycle. Friends of mine who live in Pinelands now have to recycle and the recyclable waste is put into seperate bags which is then picked up from their houses. More than 3000 households in Pinelands are involved in this pilot project called Think Twice.
In November 2007 alone the entire initiative collected 84 tons of recyclable waste in Cape Town(According to The Tatler) It also says that Cape Town generates up to 6000 tons of waste every day, which is to say the very least, a monumental amount!
In other areas however people have to drop off their own recyclables. Which is not a problem, but seeing as though most people in todays world live a life based on convenience, they want their recyclables to be collected from their home.
I believe it will not be too long before all areas need to recycle. We will need all our recyclables to be collected by the refuse collectors. Yet still, according to the Men’s Health article, only three to five percent of plastics are recycled in any way. It also goes on to say that only plastics labelled with a triangle and the numbers “1″ or “2″ on them have much of a life after they have been used.
Consider the fact that a disposable nappy takes some 500 years to degrade, and we are in some serious trouble.
But until something new comes to replace plastic, we are going to need to recycle and that’s what I’m doing here at SLXS, in the hope that you all follow me! It’s the least we can do.
Here is the VR3 two weeks ago, drowning in plastic, paper, tins and glass from SLXS, all going to recycling:
Chicks dig the VR3
I hope we all follow this example and reduce, re-use and recycle.
Sources:
Heath Nash at INCAPETOWN
US not signing into Kyoto Protocol- MSNBC.COM
China open coal burning power plants- COMMONDREAMS.ORG
Geothermal power- WIKIPEDIA
Cape Town landfill sites- CITY OF CAPE TOWN
Souther Suburbs Tatler 10th of January 2008
Men’s Health Best Life June 2007
For links on where to drop recycling in Cape Town please see:
Sean Lloyd
Editor
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