This is not a moan but an observation/enquiry about many years of recycling?

I have been (and remain) an avid recycler. Well before we had wheely-bins I would drive to recycling centres to drop stuff off...Which even then, did make me wonder if the environmental good I may have achieved by recycling had been cancelled out by me driving to the centres? We’ve now had wheely-bins for many years, so no need to drive to the centres.

Despite all the many years of recycling by us all (nation-wide) I can’t say that I have seen, heard or even read of it making the slightest difference to anything?...Can it really be just for the “feel-good factor”? I’ve even heard apocryphal stories of recycling being shipped off to China to go into a landfill?

It has often been explained to me that recycling is a very long-term thing and we are saving the planet, and its resources for our children’s children etc...so we won’t see the final result. I’m quite happy to continue recycling. But surely during the decades we have been recycling there must something to show for it other than statistics telling us how very well we’ve done but could still do better? In living memory we have got rid of the famous London smogs and pea-soupers and even the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller?

One thing for sure is recycling is Big Business, and a lot of employment is created and no doubt a lot of money being made too?

If it were possible to demonstrate the tangible benefits of recycling I’m sure it would encourage even more people to recycle.?”

Perhaps if we got an answer to my final sentence I’d like to think it’s possible more people may feel more inclined to recycle?

Laurance O’Neill

Chingford