In her blog Warth maintains the power to change things and force manufacturers to use recyclable materials lies with customers, but admits that multi-million dollar marketing campaigns are hard to fight.
Yuri Schokking feels that the contents of an individual bin can reveal a lot about human nature: plastic cream bottles still half-full, plastic trays still containing meat, for example, the things people could not be bothered to clean or dispose of properly.
Schokking says that re-processing recyclable plastic and turning it into new products is impossible to do in New Zealand because of its small population. In other words, New Zealanders would need to consume more plastic to make a re-processing operation cost-effective and possible over the long term.
David knows some people are unwilling to meet the full costs of disposal. ‘People say, “Well, I don’t like that price, so I’m going to find an alternative”.’ He says that alternative is often driving down a remote rural road and throwing rubbish from the car onto farm land. Auckland Council spends $900,000 annually cleaning it up.
Kaibosh’s Matt Dagger says, ‘Nearly 40 percent of food waste happens before it gets to markets: carrots are misshapen, or fruit the wrong colour. I’m disgusted by the degree of waste that industry and consumers seem to tolerate when there are so many people without the financial means to feed their family.’
In some ways, reducing food waste may be easier than making efforts to recycle its packaging. But is recycling the way forward? No, says Alison Singer of environmental organisation Worldwatch, which claims that, by easing people’s conscience, recycling encourages high consumption habits.
Questions
1. Recycling actually causes people to buy and use even more products.
2. It is wrong to be wasteful when some people in the community are affected by poverty.
3. People can be lazy when it comes to separating their general rubbish from their recyclable products.
4. It is up to consumers to make companies change the way they package their products.
5. It is uneconomical in New Zealand to make new products out of recycled plastic waste.
6. The cost of disposing of rubbish properly encourages some people to behave in an irresponsible way.