David: Wash Your Soap

I am happy to help on clean up Australia day, and I like to use the right bin for recycling, but there is this ever present feeling that my efforts amount to less than zero on a global scale.

The Environment, better yet the lack of, here are some examples of what I mean…

Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Many of them still get thrown away, even though they are recyclable.



The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood and other products. That’s more than 1.5 billion trees used each year, just for the U.S.




The “Ecological Footprint” calculates the total flow of materials and energy necessary to support an economy or individual, in terms of acres of land. For all the world to live as an American or Canadian, we would need two more earths to support their needs!
Source: www.globalinheritance.org/store/recyclingINFO.html.webloc

In 2002/3 Industrial and Commercial waste in England totaled 68 million tonnes.
Source: www.defra.gov.uk/



These are facts are fairly broad but they paint a picture, that time is rapidly running out for our existence on this planet, the waste alone could see us with condos built on landfill, wearing $50,000 Mercedes gas masks.

It is essential that we start reusing, our waste, most items are recyclable, and in this age of the environmentally fashionable, when is a better time? Industry needs to be governed, recycling must be enforced.

Waste is not the grave of a product, it is merely the cradle of another, this philosophy could see a change… I hope!