The Amount of Waste we Produce is Scary!
It really is, and it really seems like the powers that be prefer words to action. This can be evidenced by the amount of households in Ireland that still do not have a Brown Bin, by the amount of waste service providers still offering fixed rate contracts (contrary to what the Minister claims), by the amount of mixed waste which is willingly collected from apartment blocks and on campus student accommodations, and by the amount of illegal dumping to be seen throughout the country. Meanwhile enforcement by the Local Authoities et al. is frighteningly invisiible.
There is however a glimmer of hope as Irish people by and large want to do the right thing. This however can be difficult when there is little or no encouragement and enforcement from the powers that be. 600 litre wheelie bins of mixed waste can be seen outside apartment blocks and on campus student accommodation on a daily basis, there is blatant home burning of waste and the obvious non use of the green of brown bin by householders. These are activites that undermine the efforts of the conscientious householders, leading them to believe that nothing changes except the Minister!
Another recent welcome development is the move by retailers to reduce their waste, particularly food waste, and Irish companies Greencore, Hilton Foods, Kerry Group, Kepak, and Ornua have joined forces with Tesco Ireland to halve food waste by 2020. So the vast majority of householders and now retailers are pitching in. So where are the others?
The generation of vast amount of unecessary waste is scary at the best of times, but it is even more scary when those who can do something about it, don’t and won’t. Now that is scary! Really scary!
