By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Some council staff, such as those of North Lincolnshire Council, want to make the week all about how even the smallest everyday actions and changes will have a positive impact and ultimately help the local environment.
They want residents to remember to recycle glass jars as well as bottles, or recycle things from upstairs as well as downstairs, and to recycle while out and about, and this is the general message, I should think, as to this week.
However, and I know, I am playing my usual harp on which I am harping on, we also must consider that in all our actions recycle should be the last resource.
First of all we need to reduce our waste to begin with and then we must consider always foremost after reduce the other “R”, namely, reuse, which is followed by upcycling.
Recycling, on the other hand, that is the recycling bin and -center should always only be considered as the ultimate final option if there really is not other way.
This is, though, not a message that councils seem to be concentration on at all and to many other agencies and organizations also seem to just know one “R” and that is the one that ends with cycle, as in recycle.
Why? The “Three Rs” are “reduce, reuse, recycle” and not “recycle, recycle, recycle”; at least it was not when I checked last.
© 2011
