18 March: Global recycling day
Who remembers the yellow ostrich, Zibi, who taught us to use dustbins in the 1980’s? I believe that this campaign has inspired many people to clean up their immediate environment. But, like all other rules that has to be reconsidered after time, I can’t help to think that this rule to dispose waste may be at the centre of some of the big problems that we have today. We live in a time of disposable nappies, fast food, wet wipes, disposable cutlery, plastic bags and any imaginable thing that gets used once and is then disposed.
But waste in the dustbin does not disappear. It goes to landfill sites, which are filling up at an alarming rate. If you go camping in the bush, there is a good chance that your waste is disposed of in a hole somewhere on the farm, because the farms do not have waste removal services like the cities. Waste does not always stay in the landfill sites, many of it are blown away. Rain on landfill sites filter through the waste and becomes toxic, polluting the groundwater. We are slowly getting used to finding plastics instead of sea shells on our beaches. Yet, most people feel good about themselves if they ‘zap it in the Zibi bin’; it is what Zibi told us to do!
To work towards a sustainable future, is sometimes considered to be ‘green’, but it is not just a set of rules that we have to obey. A better relationship with the earth improves people’s general wellbeing. For example, it is not just ‘green’ to avoid single use plastics, like packaging material, it is also healthier. Food and drinks have an interaction with the packaging and there is concern over the chemicals that migrate from the packaging to the food (Barnes et al 2007). The more contact between the food and the packaging, the more chemicals you consume. Heat and high fat content increases the amount of polystyrene in your food or drink (Tawfik and Huyghebaert, 1998). Consumers are choosing more BPA free plastic bottles for their babies, because BPA is a chemical in plastics that can seep into the food or drinks and at high levels it may have an impact on the endocrine system, which regulates hormones. There is also BPA in canned food (Crozier-Haynes, 2010).
Unfortunately, at the moment we cannot avoid packaging and single use items completely, but with a little planning there is a lot that we can avoid. You can get into the habit of taking your own bags to put vegetables in when you go shopping, many shops have this option for you. At some shops, you can even buy fish and meat in your own containers. Have a travel mug in your car for when you want to buy coffee on the go. Do not accept disposable plates, mugs and cutlery, and never be the one to receive guests with disposable tableware, not even for kids’ parties. I raised my babies on cloth nappies, it is not difficult at all. The modern cloth nappies are beautiful and work very well, nothing compared to the old cloth nappies and in my experience, they were better than disposables. Eat whole foods and avoid packaged foods. And if you cannot avoid the use of disposable things or packaging, you must at least recycle those things that can be recycled. There are many companies doing curb-side recycling, for a minimal fee. Personally, I do all of the above and more, it saves me money, requires no extra time and I still live a very comfortable life.
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CROZIER-HAYNES M (2010) Keeping BPA from Baby: Why the Endocrine Disruptor Bisphenol-A Should Be Banned from Products for Infants and Children
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