I have always considered myself to be reasonably green (in the environment sense not naive). Today a report has been published to urge the government to encourage us to be more green. This sounds great in theory but the practice seems so much harder. I often feel that my own efforts are just paying lip service to a much more important issue that frankly is out of my control.
Last year we went on holiday to Germany – the place we stayed was equipped with what seemed like loads of rubbish bins – each with a set purpose – bio degradable, paper, cans, glass etc – all needed to be sorted. Quite frankly it became something of a full time job to ensure that everything was done properly. And we did take it all very seriously. No-one could throw anything away without a heated debate about which bin we should use. (You can tell what an exciting holiday we had). I thoroughly enjoyed this feeling that I was helping the environment by separating my peelings from my paper. So much so that when I got home I went on to the web and made a donation to a charity to carbon neutral our flights to round things off.
Then the doubts start to set in – frankly do my little efforts make any difference when no-one else seems to be that bothered. Why should I get on my bike to save the environment when my neighbour buys one of the biggest gas guzzling 4x4’s on the market. Wouldn’t it be better if manufacturers cut down on the amount of packaging they used in goods to avoid the need to recycle so much – rather than me struggle to fit all the stuff in my green wheelie bin.
So is it really a case of ‘I will if you will’ or should we pseudo greenies carry on with our bit and hope that little efforts here and there make a big difference some-where along the line?
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