Reducing waste
We all know plastic can be a bad thing and that we need to reduce its use. This is the case throughout the world. When I was a child in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s we did not really have a big problem with waste in the same way – though we had our own ways of creating unwanted waste. There were huge slag heaps from the coal mines, filth being chucked out of chimneys everywhere, polluted rivers, too many pesticides, and my personal favourite, visiting the coking plant to collect coke, which burnt on personal fires very efficiently, but in order to convert coal to coke various chemicals had to be burnt off, and the coking plant was like something out of Dante’s Inferno but with big dirty bells on.
At home it was different. My Dad was a self-employed joiner, and he recycled everything he could. The food waste was composted, newspapers and foil were taken for recycling, all forms of metal were taken to the scrapyard (later, when I was an impoverished student, he collected the scrap for me and I would take it to the scrapyard to make a few pounds; even later, when he was an impoverished pensioner I would help collect the scrap and then take it to the scrapyard so he could boost his pension). As a joiner he needed wood, and whenever possible he would use recycled wood. I remember Breadsall Hall being demolished and he bought some huge joists from there. Of course, recycled wood meant recycled nails, so I have no idea how many rusty nails I have pulled out of old bits of wood so that both wood and nails can be reused. At the back of his shed there was glass, old chimney pots, bricks, stone, asbestos roofing (1970s remember), and all manner of things that would come in usesful somewhere, and they usually did. When I was a child milk came in reusable bottles (we are still doing that because we have a milkman and it is becoming more popular again) and pop in glass bottles, so we would collect them and take them to the shop for a few pence. It all helped reduce waste. Why throw away a bottle that is worth 5p? And if you do then a child will find it and take it to the shop. Food that was too good to put in the compost was eaten the next day. Food was bought in recyclable packaging, and shopping bags lasted a lifetime (yes, the modern world is starting again on that one).
The list goes on, but that was then and this is now. We need to do something quickly. In India recenty we saw the problems of plastic waste. It litters the tropical beaches, the roads, the jungles, everywhere. Water in the tap is not fit to drink so you need to either buy water in plastic bottles or filter it, and the former is by far the most common. In India the piles of waste are everywhere, with little being done to clear it up, except what can be eaten by cattle, pigs and dogs. India provides a good example of what we must not be like when it comes to waste.
We can all start by doing something, by changing the way we behave (India had this effect on me in several ways!). Don’t buy pop in plastic. Don’t buy water at all in the UK, we have perfectly good tap water (sparkling water is an exception), so no water in plastic. The packaging in supermarkets is horrendous. When selecting vegetables don’t put anything in plastic bags, put them all in a basket and let the cashier sort them out and weigh them – if there were weighing machines by the fruit and veg we could do it ourselves and then have a ticket indicating overall cost. Do as others have suggested and leave unwanted packaging at the till. Eventually the supermarketes will realise we don’t want the packaging.
I have a more radical idea for takeaways. Whenever you are within a certain radius of one of these hideous monuments to what is wrong with society there is packaging everywhere. Instead, they should not be allowed to put food in throwaway packaging, we should all carry our own packaging, which could, for instance, be in the form of a plastic (nothing wrong with reusable plastics) click-together tray which can hold burgers, chips and so on; and we are all supposed to have our own takeaway cups now for the drinks (that will also limit the size of drinks). Collect your takeaway, eat it, don’t throw the tray out of the car window, take it home, wash it, and put it back in the car for next time. I am sure that if I was at all bright in the business sense I could make a few million with this idea. McDonalds and KFC and so on could all produce their own versions with their logos on. There would have to be a substantial minimum charge for them so that no one would want to throw them away.
It can be done. We did a lot of it in the past anyway. Some of it is just going back to previous recycling days when people were not so rich they could afford to throw things away. It does need action on the part of governments though. Unless there is profit for the big businesses they will not be interested. Governments too will not be interested unless they think there are votes involved. So get to it, write to your MP (or non-UK equivalent) and start making some real changes.
Dr Nigel Hunt 
To be fair, India sets quite a good example of sustainability. Several cities have banned the use of single use plastic (something I haven’t found in the UK). Also, the concept of plastic packaging of veggies and fruit in supermarkets is a very Western concept (albeit slowly making its way into urban India). Most people I know still buy their produce off carts on the streets that goes directly into shopping baskets and into homes with zero use of plastic packaging.
However, I do agree that disposal of plastic waste is poorer in India due to the lack of civic sense which is what you’re talking about. We need do better on this front.
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