Why Should We Recycle?

Life on earth is a fragile balance of natural resources. Mineral deposits forests, fish, soil, breathable air and drinkable water are all finite supplies of resources.

Humans are now perilously close to depleting all of these in our greed and lust for progress and progression. We take these resources without any regard for their supply, or even how the loss of them could disrupt any other part of the eco-system- the flora, fauna, and myriad types of species we share our world with, and transform it all into useless waste!

Some of this waste is visible, and it is this waste that we can very quickly act against and reduce, but as a species ourselves, acting together, we need to be more aware of and active against the invisible pollution, the fumes from exhausts, industrial emissions, and water pollutants.

See the Evidence

A very hard-hitting exposition of this is Al Gore's film and book follow-up: 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Out now on DVD to rent (renting is the ultimate recycling!), this film shows you in graphic pictures what words fail to: the human effect on this fragile world.

We cannot recommend seeing this film strongly enough – many people are leaving the cinemas with a newly-found lifetime commitment to clean up their act, waste and pollutant wise, and do their bit to help clean up and protect this planet.Most recently a ship ran aground off the Cornish coast in bad weather and alongside the images in the media of all the consumer goods that were washing up on the nearest beach, were images of the damage from the leaking oil - birds covered in oil, long slicks sat in the water, killing the life of the sea. All this for our compulsion to transport more and more goods round the world.

Effects of Waste

The volume of waste we are producing is too large for nature to recycle it by itself, and some artificial wastes cannot be recycled by living organisms or bacteria alone. We have then to manufacture poisons and chemicals to treat some waste, which has a further degrading effect on the environment surrounding it. The effect of all the creation and existence of this waste is too complex to be predicted. Several experts have now suggested that due to our actions we are seeing evolution in reverse.

Back to the huge piles of waste we are literally sitting on – in the East Anglia region, it was announced this past week that all the landfill sites here have a maximum of 10 years life left, before they need to be sealed, covered, and closed. Then the process of finding other big holes to dump all of our rubbish in goes on. One of the biggest sites in the UK, Brogborough in Bedfordshire, must close as early as 2008 as it is already nearing its capacity.

So Now, Let’s Play Our Part

Reading all the facts and figures about Climate Change, Environmental despoliation and destruction, and our cumulative rubbish mountains make for very gloomy reading indeed.

However the purpose of this site is to inspire you to change your consumer habits, and find your own unique creative responses to these challenges. Getting into the habit of saving each drink can, every bottle or newspaper used, and finding a place to recycle it is a great step forward. We would urge everyone to read and research more, see media like the film mentioned, and respond to the problem appropriately. Recycling is definitely the way forward. So reduce, reuse, and recycle!