Following on from yesterday's post I have been thinking about plastics and rubbish. Our little market town is generally free from rubbish - give or take the odd coke can, the odd plastic sandwich pack -and the odd heap of dog poo some irresponsible dog walker fails to pick up.
I can't really speak for other places in this country - these days I don't go all that far afield - but I think we would all be in agreement about the bits of plastic in the sea and how they are killing and torturing our wildlife; and the dog poo which walkers seem to think doesn't need picking up in the fields, although it can cause serious harm to cattle.
But I have been watching programmes where Chris Tarrant has been making railway journeys of interest. Last week he was in Vietnam and I was keen to watch it because my grandson works in China and has recently been to Vietnam for a week's holiday. He went from the North of the country to the South on what is called the 'Reunification Railway'. I was stunned by the amount of rubbish strewn absolutely everywhere.
It was as though nobody ever picked up anything but just dropped it where they stood - plastic boxes, cardboard and paper wrappers, drinks cans and bottles - they were just everywhere.
Should it worry us ? I think so. Shouldn't every country have a programme to educate people about the need to recycle? It seems to me we are a long way off reaching any kind of solution.
About Me
- The Weaver of Grass
- I am a widow for the second time - first marrriage 39 years, second marriage 23 years - both very happy. My second marriage was to a farmer and when he died the farm was sold. I now live in the nearby small town on the edge of Wensleydale in The Yorkshire Dales. My beloved Border Terrier died a couple of years ago - I still miss her but as I am 90 and need carers I shalln't get another I have one son,who lives nearby with his wife, three grandchildren, one step grandchild, two great grandchildren and two step great grandchildren..Life is good.
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37 comments:
What I find amazing is the dog walkers who pick up the dog poo, put it into black plastic bags and hang it on a fence for someone else to deal with.
Take a look along the motorway verges and you'll see that a lot of education still needs to be done here in the UK. You'd think there was no problem at all if you walked through my home village but I see that someone has had to put up a sign asking people not to dump their bags of dog poo in their garden.
I'd love to know how many of those children would of protested had it been a weekend day.
Like John said, if you want to see real litter, drive along most motorways, the verges and bushes are strewn with litter. Rachel has the best idea, get the children out litter-picking as in all probability they're some of the worst offenders.
Was there this much litter when we were young, or did we just not notice it? I was brought up to dispose of my rubbish properly but sadly not everyone was. I can remember a visit to the beach with friends and our children, when we all bought food from the beach cafe and sat on the shingle to eat it. The other family just left all their litter and I was nervous of offending them, but was just compelled to gather up everything and put it in the bin provided.
It's the same in Spain, plastic bottles everywhere. The Netherlands pays people by weight for plastic bottles and tin cans which us brilliant and should be adopted by more countries.
Will the parents of striking children be fined for their absence?
Fight against pollution should go on, by all means, to assure a clean planet and our Health. Our mere Existence on this planet, howevwer, as threatened by increasing climate fluctuations , that's another matter. It has little or nothing to do with poo and plastics. The bottom line is that we're just helpless about that.
Children, certainly in the UK, and I suspect in the much of the world, are far more environmentally aware than we were at their age, very conscious of the physical as well as political situations they will inherit. They are being raised with an expectation of being heard as well,(something most of us would not have dreamt of?). I don't blame them for protesting.
Did anyone else see Stacey Dooley's excellent documentary on the polution caused by fast fashion? It seems that we have exported our filthy production methods to parts of the world where our Health & Safety acts have no say! (No longer on iPlayer.)
As for Rachel's suggestion that children would have been better engaged in a litter pick - isn't that just how they see their future, picking up what our and previous generations have left?
I wish it were different. Children as litter pickers isn't a good idea. It's not safe for them to walk next to traffic, pick up who knows what in trash, risk cuts and falls. Our service department guys have encountered the residue from meth, which is dangerous.
One PBS station airs news from France, Japan and Germany every day. In the Japanese news, I saw that their scientists have been developing biodegradable plastics with good success. It's something that could--eventually--make a huge difference on a global scale.
I've seen several news items where children have been involved with litter picking on beaches, whether picking up another generation's litter, or their own, it has to be a good idea and does not involve busy roads.
Just have to add (for those old enough to remember), we've come a long way since the days when the shoreline of a Great Lake in the U.S. was on fire from industrial waste. Our focus is always on what yet needs to be done. And we want it done immediately. Big changes take time. Anti-litter campaigns have been going on in America since the 1970s, and this big country is much cleaner than it used to be.
They get involved in 'beach cleans' around here in a big way, too, with those clever grab sticks for picking up smelly rubbish - the sort of gadget I'll end up with when I can no longer bend to pick up what I've just dropped!
Read the last line of my first comment again Rachel. I said nothing about children not picking up litter now - merely that in the future they would be dealing with the problems we leave behind us.
All this argument about children picking up trash reminds me of my state.
I live in California. We have regular beach clean up events, adopt-a-highway clean up programs; we've banned plastic grocery bags and plastic drinking straws, and absolutely believe we're going to save the planet. Stores still get plastic grocery bags for 10 cents each at the check out if you forgot your reusable totes. Consider how much other plastic there is in every grocery store. Plastic drinking straws are available everywhere upon request. Our 3 billion dollar high speed rail was scrapped this week as "too expensive". Homelessness is such a problem in our cities that departments have been established to clean human excrement off the sidewalks. Human. Not canine. And we've obviously not made a bit of difference in Vietnam. Or China. Or India. If Japan can perfect biodegradable plastic? That at least has a chance of making a real difference vs. a feel good one. Over time. Because it takes time.
a good discussion again, for the most part that is. Beware those who do not appreciate the Norfolk sense of humour!
My puzzlement is how people can dismiss the views of 99.9% of scientists. No point in arguing really, it probably just entrenches their views.
For some reason I feel like crying.
There are frequent beach cleans here and the children are very actively involved and appear to know far more about the whys and wherefores than older people. Although disabled I pick up on my daily walks, if everyone did that....
vietnamcoracle.com/trashtalks/litter-in-vietnam.
A friend in Windermere just sent me a link to this article on litter in Vietnam - sorry I can't do links but hopefully this is enough information to find it - I do hope so. It is an interesting article and does throw more light on the subject.
It did also strike me how the use of plastic bags has gone down in supermarkets since they started charging 5 pence per bag. Food for thought there, although apparently the heavy-duty plastic bags made to last that people are buying instead are not
biodegradeable and will last almost for ever in some form. But money obviously talks (doesn't it always) and there are ways of making people pick up their litter.
Thanks for the discussion - most enlightening.
I remember our first visit to Ireland when my son asked us to buy some whiskey and bring it back for him. So we went to a Tesco, bought the whiskey and learned that a plastic bag to carry it was about 16 cents! I was taken aback, and asked the girl if I was supposed to walk around the streets with two bottles of whiskey under my arms, and she said, "Oh yeah. We all do that here." I just couldn't, and bought the bag.
I would dearly love to see the plastic bags be abandoned. There are some moves here in the states to do that.
Interesting, Pat. And sad. We learn as we go. Plastic grocery bags were considered eco-friendly when they were introduced, because they were made from recycled plastics. Clothing and other items were made from recycled rubber. Boxes and household paper goods made from recycled paper. Even glass and metals (aluminum) were collected and made into other products. But it was expensive and created more carbon emissions, so fell out of favor. We can worry. We can argue. The Serenity Prayer seems appropriate somehow.
Well Weaver Pat, that post content got your readers going.
In every direction. Highly entertaining. As for rubbish in Vietnam, there is sometimes finger pointimg at Asian countries, who have taken up elements of Western living with great gusto and the results lay all around in clear sight.
However people would would do well to clean up their own back yards first if clean surrounds are important to them. As for plastic, it's here to stay and it's a problem. There's always a possible solution, it it will have many hurdles to jump before it gains traction. People are very seldom of one accord and these attitudes drag ideas down.
Aren't we wonderful as a race of beings inhabiting the earth?
Alphie
I live 5 blocks from the ocean and pick up plastic everyday to try and keep if from going into the storm drains. My husband asked if I really believed picking up one bag would make a difference and then we had a whale die not too far from us and they found a plastic bag in its throat...so one bag would have made a difference. I wonder if the folks that trash the world trash their homes?
I completely agree with you on the rubbish business. It's a problem that is going to explode on us in the future. Climate change is another issue. When I was a child much of this area was in it's natural state. How sad that much of it has been destroyed.
We have to tackle the manufacturers of course, they who put everything in plastic bags or containers. Just writing this made me think of the 'Chudley' bags Lucy's biscuits come in. Brightly plastic they could easily be replaced by strong paper bags.
Even more interesting comments. Bring back paper bags, stop producing plastic bags, sadly too simplistic for the mess we have got ourselves into. But it would be a start. Thanks everyone.
Remember when paper production was considered the biggest threat to the planet? And the destruction of rain forests? That was in the 1980s, if I remember correctly. Ah, well.
And satellite photographs show that the Amazon rain forest once had roads running through it and these have now been mapped and it was not always forested. In the 1970s we were warned of the coming of the next Ice Age by the Climate Research Unit and advised to rethink farming in East Anglia. You are quite right about paper and paper reduced in quality thereafter.
Rachels comment reminds me there are ancient roads in the North Sea. My mum told me about them, said she'd heard they are drovers roads and people used to bring cattle across from the continent.
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