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Well, I have thought for a while that all the extra energy used in the recycling effort has a greater environmental cost than the savings claimed.
Hey Ho.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4877504.stm
Final section of Article:
An excuse to consume
Although the ideology of environmentalism has become more and more popular since the 1970s, its real influence has also been systematically neutered.
What does it matter if I burn energy like there is no tomorrow if I also recycle my old tins? Let's get that new DVD player, the old video can be stripped down and its parts reused.
The guilty need for the latest mobile phone with its new gadget can be assuaged by knowing that the old one may find a worthy home in a third world country.
Can it be any coincidence that, if you want to recycle your glass bottles, the recycling centre is to be found at the supermarket car park?
This relationship proclaims that "it's fine to consume because you are recycling, and while you are here why not buy some more?"
What the revival of recycling has really done, like the myth of "ethical consumerism", is to give the impression that the environmental crisis presented by global capitalism can be indefinitely delayed if only we all do our bit.
It places the blame for environmental problems not on those who make the profits, but on a faceless mass of "consumers".
It prevents us asking the important question of capitalism: how much longer can this go on, and if it is to end then how?
We can take control of our future, but not if we allow ourselves to be blinded by meaningless rituals.
Timothy Cooper is a research fellow in environmental history at the University of St Andrews, Scotland
Is recycling essential for the environment?
Or does it just make people feel less guilty?
How can we deal with the world's waste?
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ch/4877504.stm
Hey Ho.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4877504.stm
Final section of Article:
An excuse to consume
Although the ideology of environmentalism has become more and more popular since the 1970s, its real influence has also been systematically neutered.
What does it matter if I burn energy like there is no tomorrow if I also recycle my old tins? Let's get that new DVD player, the old video can be stripped down and its parts reused.
The guilty need for the latest mobile phone with its new gadget can be assuaged by knowing that the old one may find a worthy home in a third world country.
Can it be any coincidence that, if you want to recycle your glass bottles, the recycling centre is to be found at the supermarket car park?
This relationship proclaims that "it's fine to consume because you are recycling, and while you are here why not buy some more?"
What the revival of recycling has really done, like the myth of "ethical consumerism", is to give the impression that the environmental crisis presented by global capitalism can be indefinitely delayed if only we all do our bit.
It places the blame for environmental problems not on those who make the profits, but on a faceless mass of "consumers".
It prevents us asking the important question of capitalism: how much longer can this go on, and if it is to end then how?
We can take control of our future, but not if we allow ourselves to be blinded by meaningless rituals.
Timothy Cooper is a research fellow in environmental history at the University of St Andrews, Scotland
Is recycling essential for the environment?
Or does it just make people feel less guilty?
How can we deal with the world's waste?
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ch/4877504.stm
