In the 70s I can remember watching the TV programme Tomorrow's World. Raymond Baxter the then presenter told us that approximately 70 per cent of our rubbish could be recycled. That thought never left me. During the late 80s? Certainly well before the introduction of door to door collections I would deliver my recycling to what few recycling centres there were. Now with the brown and green wheelie bins I'm saved the need to deliver my recycling.
But in all the 30 years of recycling and with the local, national, international publicity for us all to recycle, what do we have to show for it? We certainly haven't seen any decrease in prices for anything, or the planet being any nearer to being saved. Is there anybody that can stand up and categorically indicate exactly what benefits we have now, on a day to day basis, as a result of recycling?
Less use of landfill sites? So what is happening to the stuff that is not filling our landfill sites? The feel good factor? But exactly what good is it doing? Unfortunately the public's perception seems to be that it is all shipped off to foreign parts to fill their landfill sites. Unless this is corrected people may not bother to recycle. No matter what punitive measures councils may enforce to make people recycle, unless the public can be given clear no-nonsense reasons to recycle, people will stop.
Laurance O'Neill, Elmfield Road, Chingford
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