Burn it
There's a lot in the papers lately about the piles of rubbish building up all over Australia, now that China is refusing to accept our recycling stuff. Because too much of it is contaminated, because too many people here don't do the right thing. Also because there's just too much of it I suppose.
Councils everywhere have no idea what to do except to start charging us all higher rates for rubbish removal. I don't see how this will fix the problem.
I mentioned to a neighbour that we should build huge incinerators and just burn it all. Lo and behold! in the editorial pages of the paper there are people writing in with the same idea! I'm not as cuckoo as some might think.
Apparently Japan burns their rubbish and somehow generates electricity and I believe other countries do similar. I think Sweden was mentioned. (It was in the paper so it must be true...)
If we lowly minions know about this, why doesn't our government? It certainly seems as if their only solution to anything at all, is to tax/levy/charge more cash out of us, while nothing real gets done.
We probably shouldn't go back to the old days of the backyard incinerators that blew foul black smoke over the fence and onto the neighbours clean washing either. For a start, there's no longer enough backyards, what with all the high rise flats everywhere, and burning rubbish on small balconies isn't recommended at all.
Over to you...discuss
Councils everywhere have no idea what to do except to start charging us all higher rates for rubbish removal. I don't see how this will fix the problem.
I mentioned to a neighbour that we should build huge incinerators and just burn it all. Lo and behold! in the editorial pages of the paper there are people writing in with the same idea! I'm not as cuckoo as some might think.
Apparently Japan burns their rubbish and somehow generates electricity and I believe other countries do similar. I think Sweden was mentioned. (It was in the paper so it must be true...)
If we lowly minions know about this, why doesn't our government? It certainly seems as if their only solution to anything at all, is to tax/levy/charge more cash out of us, while nothing real gets done.
We probably shouldn't go back to the old days of the backyard incinerators that blew foul black smoke over the fence and onto the neighbours clean washing either. For a start, there's no longer enough backyards, what with all the high rise flats everywhere, and burning rubbish on small balconies isn't recommended at all.
Over to you...discuss
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I really hope the powers that be CAN find a solution. A solution which doesn't involve us duck-shoving our problems to another country.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; I really like the burn it and generate electricity idea. Sort out what can be reused from it all, and burn what's left, or just burn the lot at least until the amounts get under control a bit.
Deleteit is not really that we do wrong. we are told what to do. japan recycling is to the ninth degree so anything that country sends wii be pure. our waste is so contaminated that even Indonesia won't take it.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, most of us do as we are told, but many don't and that's where the contamination comes from.
DeleteI think disposal of waste will become a really huge problem. Converting it to energy may be the answer. Hope we can find a way that doesn't cause more pollution.
ReplyDeleteArkansas Patti; I'm reminded of the movie Idiocracy, where earth is completely covered in mounds of rubbish and the people have been dumbed down to a great extent.
DeleteAn analysis of waste would be interesting. Some responsible shops are asking people to bring their own containers as the plastic is out of control and is poisonous. Our disposable society contributes greatly to this massive issue. We should have public dumps so everyone can see what we are throwing away. Incinerating properly would need filtration and then what happens to the filthy filters full of contamination? I can see huge rocket ships taking our crap to the moon. The change in our way of living is far too ginormous. We have created a massive dump on this planet in our greed and soft life styles /rant
ReplyDeleteWisewebwoman; I think back to the days when plastic was a new thing and everyone thought it was such a great idea. If only we'd had a crystal ball moment. Incinerating is a good idea, but not everything needs to be burnt. Plastics could be melted down and reformed into usable products, like safety matting, etc. I don't like the idea of sending rubbish to the moon, we need to find a workable resolution down here instead.
DeleteI don't have a solution for the trash. However, I am overjoyed to read that you actually typed "cuckoo," rather than seeing "coo coo" that I read with increasing frequency on way to many websites!
ReplyDeleteVal; I get annoyed with coo-coo too. I fear a solution to our rubbish will be very slow in coming. We can make a start by reducing our own waste, buying things with less packaging etc, but that won't have much effect on the huge piles of waste already here, not for a very long time anyway. Some people simply don't care, as long as the rubbish is removed from their homes.
DeleteChanging this world for the better in how we handle waste and a lot of other things is going to take massive determination and cooperation,
ReplyDeleteAnd that published before i was done.
DeleteAnyway, i just don't know if we have enough of those things, as well as enough time.
Converting it to energy in some way sounds smart.
messymimi; "massive determination and cooperation," and many, many decades, and probably won't happen in our lifetime, which is sad. We brought this on ourselves. Converting at least some of it to energy, somehow, is a good start.
DeleteI said to the clerk, I have my own bag. She put my purchase in a plastic bag. I pushed my bag all the way over and repeated. Finally I said to put the purchase in my bag. She did. She took her empty plastic bag off the hooks and threw is in the wastebasket. I said Shame on you, take it out and use it.
ReplyDeleteJust saying.
My city incinerates trash for steam heat to downtown buildings. Akron, Ohio
Joanne; here in Australia, using your own bags has been encouraged for many years now. stores will still supply a "reusable" plastic bag if you want them, but they aren't free, about 15-25 cents each, but I see so many people buying these for their groceries and NOT reusing them, just buying more each week. Some stores have paper bags available at a small cost, but again, people don't reuse them. They all end up in the recycling bins.
DeleteThe recycling is a mess now. We still recycle and we get an inspector who comes around to inspect our bins on a random bases - green sticker on top if all is well, red if not - pleased to say we passed with a green one, every time.
ReplyDeleteA lot of money was spend to get the recycling going, now for what!
Sounds like a good idea to burn it, but then as you say we don't want to go backwards to the backyard. Then if burnt elsewhere I can only imagine the uproar here because of the smoke. Hoping something can be done soon before it all gets too bad with litter scattered everywhere so to speak.
We humans have been lousy stewards of our planet, and the question of what to do with the countless tons of garbage our "easy-peasy throw it away and buy another one" lifestyles generate every day is just one of the many consequences. Incinerating and turning garbage into usable energy sounds like the smartest, most efficient way to deal with it, but as you know, politicians aren't always interested in smart and efficient ways to do much of anything. Even more than the garbage generated by all of us, I worry about nuclear waste, but I suppose that's a whole 'nother rant.
ReplyDeleteI remember well the days of backyard incinerators and checking that none of the neighbours were about to hang the washing! As for our modern day problems with rubbish Im sure burning would have its place and supervised correctly...
ReplyDelete