The Climate Chap: What a load of rubbish!

New Zealand is the most wasteful developed country on the planet, sending over 350,000 tonnes of waste to landfills annually. How on earth have we got into such a mess? How have we adopted a lifestyle built on rubbish? This rubbish now impacts our climate and future of our planet to a degree unimaginable a few decades ago.

When I was a kid in Barking we could not afford rubbish. True, the London smog almost killed us, but no rubbish! Essentials were delivered to our door – fruit, veggies, milk, daily newspaper, R White’s lemonade, coal, Walls ice cream. The local baker, butcher and fishmonger all had their goods displayed and unwrapped ready to be placed in Mum’s shopping bag that she used for years. The only recycling was the “rag ’n bone” men who rang their bell as they cruised the local streets looking for odd bits of junk and metal to take away – we never knew where to. Our pets willingly took care of our food scraps.

It all changed in the ‘60s. Maybe the arrival of supermarkets, maybe the introduction of processed foods, maybe American fast-food outlets with their designer plastic packaging, but all of a sudden everything was packaged, and all requiring disposing.

So, being a sophisticated society, we devised wonderful solutions to handle this ever-increasing mountain of rubbish. Inevitably we rely on local councils to provide a weekly “essential” service with one blue plastic bag a week now approaching a cost of $200 a year.

Nationally the two most popular destinations are a nearby landfill, or shipping the garbage to Third World polluted nations who are happy to earn a few bucks. Both approaches have proven to be environmentally problematic. Nobody wants a landfill nearby; the potential pollution to the local vicinity, huge increase in traffic, and substantial generation in those nasty methane gasses all contribute to NIMBY prevailing. Countries are increasingly banning importing garbage and forcing “advanced” nations to take ownership of their own rubbish.

Then there’s a relatively new solution: Recycling. Many Kiwis have adopted recycling, especially using the local “tip” where you can dump all sorts of goodies for a nominal fee, and home-based recycling, invariably also facilitated by the local councils. We have hours of endless fun sorting our paper, plastics and glass rubbish into three separate yellow plastic bags whilst enjoying bonding with our neighbours every Monday morning as we each put our bags out. We use maybe 10 yellow bags a month, therefore a further $140 a year.

So, add the blue and yellow bags to a few trips to the tip and we spend around $400 each year dumping rubbish, most of which we never needed in the first place. Crazy.

The climate crisis provides an insight into the massive amount of damaging methane gas generated by landfill and therefore the need to minimise using such facilities. Much progress is now being made, some obvious and straightforward, some quite creative.

Let’s start with the obvious. Composting is a no-brainer. This has been widely adopted in our community, ably supported by Sustainable Kaipara. Worm farms are also proving a popular

and inexpensive approach for composting. We have one in the garage that provides hours of entertainment for the family when there’s nothing on the TV.

Supermarkets have finally stopped providing plastic bags at checkout, but are still one of the largest sources of packaging rubbish. When I last looked, many customers were still using tons of plastic for their veggies, fruit, fish and meats. There must be a better way. Ensuring that all supermarket packaging can be recycled is a must!

Increasingly businesses are promoting their “greenness”. Noel Leeming will now take old PCs, printers and cameras and eco-recycle them. Ecostore provide free bins to recycle their plastic bottles, IKEA have started taking back their “pre-loved” furniture. Innovative organisations such as TerraCycle now offer a range of recycling services. Check them out at terracycle.com/en-NZ

We simply cannot continue throwing away so much rubbish. We all have a role to play, and maybe the climate crisis will be the catalyst for change. At last, a silver lining!

Recycling is necessary, but we still need to minimise using what we need to recycle. PHOTO/STEVE GREEN

The climate crisis provides an insight into the massive amount of damaging methane gas generated by landfill and therefore the need to minimise using such facilities.