Plague of the Plastics

Local media has been giving a lot of attention of late to environmental issues, thanks to Mediacorp's Green Campaign, an initiative that kicked off on 7th July 2007 (070707) with the Live Earth Concert. Last night's news carried a segment about the balance of business/consumerism with saving the Earth. Midway through the report, I glanced at the NEA recycling bags sitting in the corner of our living room, and simply had to agree that businesses have a big part to play in our efforts to go green.

Thomas and I are fairly diligent when it comes to conserving and recycling. I sort through old documents regularly - those with both sides printed go into the recycling bag, those with one side blank are set aside as note paper. Junk mail, old magazines, flyers and receipts are collected and stashed into the bag as well, and envelopes are brought to the office for reuse. Since years ago we stopped sending greeting cards altogether, opting to design little e-cards of our own - personalised and environmentally friendly. These are the little green things we do, small efforts which we hope make up the big picture.

But then there are things we realise are out of our hands. The amount of plastic that we end up putting into the recycling bag, for example. Empty shampoo and detergent bottles - some brands just aren't available in foil packets. Shrink wrap from magazines - why can't they simply tape the sides and stick on a mailing label? Loads and loads of plastic packaging to make products look larger than life. Last weekend I bought a canvas case for my Ipod Nano and it came in a hard plastic shell 4 times its size. And last month, a tube of sunscreen that came in a plastic box. Why do I need the box? The sunscreen's sitting securely enough in the tube, thank you.

What's the big deal, some may ask. You send these plastic boxes for recycling, don't you? The thing is, we won't even need to recycle any of these, if these unnecessary trash weren't even generated in the first place. It's a lose-lose situation really. The companies spend extra effort on the packaging in the production line, the consumers pay for the plastic frills in the final price, and then at the end of the day it just happily ends up in the trash, expending more effort as it goes into a recycling factory, or worse, occupying a piece of our Earth while she lasts, its non-biodegradable soul continuing to haunt the galaxy after Earth's destruction...
 
This is a discussion that has been done to death by many others, I shan't go on.
So, yes, businesses out there, hear hear! There are big things to be done for the environment!