Like most self-respecting OTF member, Guardian reading, leftie liberals I'm generally in favour of saving the planet. (Please, hold you applause until the end.) But I have to admit to knowing little about recycling, energy conservation, etc. Perhaps this thread could be a starting point for educating the likes of me. So a couple of questions to start.
In the grand scheme of things is my once a year return flight to Italy (say) going to make a difference? I'm being a little facetious, but what is a reasonable amount of air travel per person per year? Is there any justification for such frivolity? Does it matter a jot when China are producing a bazillion tons of carbon a second?
Does a green bin / black bin system make any difference? Ok, here in Ireland (for me in Kildare anyway) there's a black bin for general waste and green bin for recyclable stuff- paper, card, plastic. Is somebody really going through the green bin waste, separating plastic into its various types, separating card and paper, discarding the inevitable huge amount of non-recyclable / contaminated material? Obviously I'm in favour of recycling, but it doesn't seem particularly financially viable, maybe I'm wrong.
And a more esoteric query.... if I'm eating an apple when I'm out and about is it more environmentally friendly to put the core in a general waste bin or toss it into a river or hedge to biodegrade? There's a social issue here around perceived littering which would push me towards the litter bin, but it seems a bit insane to be sending a biodegradable piece of fruit to landfill.
Right, there are doublessly many other random and/or stoopid question to come if any of the planet saving, whale-loving, vegan, carbon-neutral folks on here want to point me in the right direction!
In the grand scheme of things is my once a year return flight to Italy (say) going to make a difference? I'm being a little facetious, but what is a reasonable amount of air travel per person per year? Is there any justification for such frivolity? Does it matter a jot when China are producing a bazillion tons of carbon a second?
Does a green bin / black bin system make any difference? Ok, here in Ireland (for me in Kildare anyway) there's a black bin for general waste and green bin for recyclable stuff- paper, card, plastic. Is somebody really going through the green bin waste, separating plastic into its various types, separating card and paper, discarding the inevitable huge amount of non-recyclable / contaminated material? Obviously I'm in favour of recycling, but it doesn't seem particularly financially viable, maybe I'm wrong.
And a more esoteric query.... if I'm eating an apple when I'm out and about is it more environmentally friendly to put the core in a general waste bin or toss it into a river or hedge to biodegrade? There's a social issue here around perceived littering which would push me towards the litter bin, but it seems a bit insane to be sending a biodegradable piece of fruit to landfill.
Right, there are doublessly many other random and/or stoopid question to come if any of the planet saving, whale-loving, vegan, carbon-neutral folks on here want to point me in the right direction!
Comment