tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post8898981830580155525..comments2023-12-23T09:28:20.869+00:00Comments on The View from Cullingworth: Reducing landfill is a good thing to do - not some sort of EU green conspiracyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-18910398049263839162014-12-01T19:19:11.748+00:002014-12-01T19:19:11.748+00:00What about charging for plastic bags, as well? I k...What about charging for plastic bags, as well? I know the libertarian tendency are generally against it. But consider the fact that producing bags and disposing of old bags has direct and indisrect financial costs, and environmental costs that can't be quantified but are every bit as real. Therefore users of them should pay.<br /><br />You've got these bags for life. They are an environmental boon. And if people can turn a pound making branded ones, why not if they sense a business opportunity? I have one (it was made in aid of footpaths at The Roaches, which I thought was only fair since I benefit from footpaths that workers and volunteers laid down without my help) and it must have saved me dozens of carrier bags over the years. <br /><br />Undoubtedly, people have done this kind of thing wrong down the years and government involvement tends to worsen matters. That's an argument for putting it right, not for not bothering.<br /><br />I am quite keen on environmental matters. But I am estranged from "greens" most of the time. Therefore I want to see thinking come from people who are not of the Caroline Lucas tendency.asquithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14246701347539264295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-18771744087697661322014-12-01T07:29:20.370+00:002014-12-01T07:29:20.370+00:00The disposal of waste has become ridiculous. We al...The disposal of waste has become ridiculous. We all have a number of bins into which we separate the waste. There isn't much evidence in my bins of anything nasty. In fact we stopped segregating food waste since it was smelly and attracted insects etc. <br /><br />Going back along the trial of waste generation there is a single point which the government would do well to consider. Reduce packaging at source. Simples. Less recycling. So manufacturers of goods would have to reduce their packaging. Next step remove all packing which is reasonable at the store you shop in. Give them your recycling in effect. I feel sure that they would squeeze their suppliers to reduce packaging and they would find a way of selling the stuff that was left by customers.<br /><br />Going back along the chain currently means we have to separate etc. The council collects and sells what they can. Wait a minute that doesn't belong to them. Each household should be paid for their rubbish, the councils include waste removal in the rates. <br /><br />For the most part filling in big holes with rubbish isn't a bad idea as long as the rubbish isn't toxic etc. Most disused quarries and such like holes in the ground have solid rock etc on all sides. If it doesn't dont tip there. <br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-6753141927501415612014-11-30T22:11:05.853+00:002014-11-30T22:11:05.853+00:00Apart from a natural tendency to use less and avoi...Apart from a natural tendency to use less and avoid unnecessary purchases, and use what I have to the max rather than throw things away and needlessly replace them, I don't have that much to say because I rather think it calls for more specialist knowledge than I have, and unlike Delingpole, Brooker and other scourges of anything green, I don't go round mouthing off... apart from to quote a previous comment I left here:<br /><br />"[someone I met] said surely it was pointless to have environmental regulations when China and India would pollute for us all.<br /><br />And I simply said to him that he wouldn't want to endure the air and water pollution that are considered normal in these countries, nor would he want the state or corporations to ride roughshod over the common man as they routinely do in large parts of the world. You may not like a particular regulation, and maybe I wouldn't either, but disagreeing with the concept of regulation is wrong on this grounds.<br /><br />And we haven't even got the levels of primary poverty that MIGHT be viewed as an excuse in those countries. (The few people who are destitute, we can argue over how they came to be in their state, but no one can say it's due to a lack of resources in the country as a whole).<br /><br />I will keep my back yard clean even if my neighbours all live in filth and make money selling to fly tippers, and so would any resident of the estate if they wanted to live decently and said money wasn't the only think keeping them from dying of hunger".<br /><br />Furthermore, one does not simply act as though waste isn't a problem. And it's often offshored. It doesn't somehow stop mattering to the world when it's Over There.<br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18073917asquithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14246701347539264295noreply@blogger.com