Who cares about recycling? —part 1
Home » Blog » Holly Jean Brooker » Who cares about recycling? —part 1Over the last few years, there has been a real push for households to take recycling seriously—and most of us are. But what about our big businesses and institutions?
Part 1
I can vividly remember the day I received my new huge recycling bin, and a new tiny general rubbish bin while apartment living in Parnell. The Auckland City Council had removed our small blue recycling tubs, and instead provided each household with one large 240-litre wheelie bin (for recyclables), and one small 120-litre wheelie bin (for general rubbish).
I complained animatedly to my husband that it was absolutely ridiculous, if not ludicrous to think we could reduce our waste that much! I was absolutely adamant that families with kids and nappies and chaos and mess could not contain such waste in one small bin. But two years down the track, I can and I do and it’s easy and I love it!
Other city councils around Aotearoa are also on the reduce-waste bandwagon, with the Franklin City Council (just out of Auckland) recently also providing recycling bins to rural residents. And inorganic rubbish collections are a hit around Auckland city suburbs, where for one week every two years you can dump all of your unwanted stuff (and I mean all sorts of crazy stuff!) on your kerb, where eagerly waiting van drivers rifle through (illegally now) to score a pearl before the Council do their collection.
What is plaguing my mind at the moment is how insignificant our household recycling really is, when you compare it to the copious amounts of waste created by large corporations, businesses, schools, hospitals, prisons, police stations, dairies, shopping centers and the like. Some of these places do have great recycling systems in place, but there are too many businesses and institutions are that are producing large amounts of rubbish, without installing adequate recycling systems to manage the extreme amounts of waste created. These are the places where huge differences can be made.
My husband was recently in Auckland hospital for a few weeks after a canyoning accident, and I have since spent a vast amount of time there. I have walked and visited many of the nooks and crannies of this hospital: the corridors, wards, kitchens, staff kitchens, cafes, shops, whanau rooms, lounge rooms, bathrooms, laundry rooms, consultation rooms, emergency waiting room, high observation units, intensive care, you name it, I’ve been there!
What really struck me, as I lived and breathed this place, was the huge amount of rubbish processed by such a huge hospital. But there were no recycling bins! I must admit to feeling guilty every time I threw out one of hubby’s plastic vomit buckets! And to be fair, there are probably huge health risks associated with recycling items such as these. However, recycling general rubbish such as drink bottles and paper is an easy, safe option. So much more could be done in terms of sustainable practice in a large 24-hour institution such as this, when compared to individual homes.
In parallel to these large institutions who do not recycle, are local business large or small, who are chucking out recyclables willy nilly. My Dad, is a 65-year-old business owner with a farming background, who is fit, healthy and grows his own veggies. My Dad read this blog in its draft form, and he said “How boring, who cares!” Well peeps, I care. I care that his business, and lots of other businesses are not recycling. Should they be forced to? Im not sure. But as a moral responsibility, I think they should.
On a positive note, the Auckland City Council has recently set up an awesome initiative—a trial recycling system in the CBD. They have installed a number of recycling bins for shoppers and commuters to use, in easily accessible central locations. If only other big businesses and institutions would establish their own unique recycling schemes, which suits their situation.
My point is that there is a heck of a lot of non-recycling going on around our public buildings and workplaces that is not being acknowledged, and for which no one is taking responsibility.
Changing systems can be unsettling, uprooting, uncomfortable and annoying—until the change becomes normality. Most of us are super busy at work and doing things outside of what we are paid and employed to do is often avoided like the plague. However, our environment could benefit from you taking responsibility to sort out the crap!
It could be a little annoying and uncomfortable to organise and think about such things in your busy workday, but the journey to sustainability is about taking small tangible steps, one at a time. If you care a little bit, maybe you could try just setting up a recycling bin in your office kitchen? (Better yet, coxing someone into transferring this into a recycling bin outside could be an awesome opportunity to flirt with that hot guy in your office?) If you don’t care enough to do something, maybe nobody else will? Give it a shot!
Mon April 05, 2010 @ 12:06 PM
