A Better Future ?

[Squingy]

Aren't these all just re-using plastic one way or another?
Stopping the beginning of the chain is the most difficult. No new plastic once oil runs out, though, which may just happen soon enough....

You hit the nail on the head Thelma, recycling is crutch, you still need resources to recycle. We have to stop making it really.

[nickdub]

So very happy to see that someone besides me care about things like this.

Thanks for the support - as its is I'm very much a live and let live type - so I don't expect others to automatically share my beliefs any more than I expect them to share my complete lack of interest in fashions , perfumes etc.

so by and large I just think " OK people have a different view on that" and let them get on with it - one thing that does pea me off however is people who spend all sorts of money on prepared meals, new gadgets etc and then at the end of the month moan about being skint - I'm severely tempted to give them a good shaking and explain how my mother and father had to make it through WW2 with virtually no money and rationing, with two young children - at any rate if I had a time machine that's where I'd send these whingers to see how they would learn about make do and mend.

[boatsman]

I am all in favour of recycling as much as possible. I have eight porcelain kitchen sinks that I have salvaged. New homes here come with the standard porcelain kitchen sinks and when people replace them with stainless steel they just dump the old sinks. I have a very wide garden wall and have placed the old sinks on top of the wall, leaving a gap underneath for drainage. I have been growing day lilies, gazanias and Dutch iris very successfully.

[myrrdin emrys]

a better future

looks great, you did a great job

[gardening_gal]

I wonder if this is largely an age thing?

I'm certainly much more aware/caring about the environment and waste etc than I was when I was younger. In fact I commented the other day to someone that the older I get the closer to nature I feel and the more I am naturally drawn to less consumeristic (is that even a word?!) ways.

I know there are some young folk who are very conscious of things but I do think they might be in the minority. Could be wrong though, it has been known.

[Lady BlackThumb]

Gardening gal, it could be an age thing, but conversely I also see a lot of the opposite: teens/ (or the dreaded "millenials") fighting for less waste/ renewable energy/ no more fossil fuel etc, and the "older generation" hanging on to their gas guzzler / in-my-day-we-used-all-the-pesticides-and-sniffed-asbestos and moaning about all these whiny youngun's complaining about climate change etc.

This thread cheered me up somewhat, and I do wish less plastic / less fossil fuel based crap/ less pesticide stuff was more conveniently available. I try to put my money where my mouth is, support local businesses, buy organic, but I do confess that sometimes a Tesco shop is just so bloody convenient.

On the flip side, I wish people would stop buying tat. As nicos mentioned, there is so much garbage on the shop shelves, prompting people to part with their money, all in the name of decor/ gifts. FLoaty helium balloons, ugly-as-sin badly made stuffed toys, cheap plasticky gimmicky signs saying MUM / I LOVE YOU/ BEST DAD EVER (sorry if you like this stuff) that eventually gets chucked out or "donated to a charity shop". The only one winning in this scenario is the CEO of the company manufacturing and selling all this tat.

[Lady BlackThumb]

In the spirit of recycle and upcycle (and thriftiness until I can find the time to buy a nice propagator tray set)...

Last week I discovered this Borders cookie packaging is perfect for indoor cheapy small scale propagation. The lid is perfect to keep pesky fungus gnats away, and you can lift the bottom of the tray out of the paper holder thing it's in to check how soggy the medium is. That and I made paper pots for the first time from the wrapping my toilet rolls come in.

Plus those biscuits propagated very well in my gluttonous face.

[Thelma Sanders]

Gardening gal, it could be an age thing, but conversely I also see a lot of the opposite: teens/ (or the dreaded "millenials") fighting for less waste/ renewable energy/ no more fossil fuel etc, and the "older generation" hanging on to their gas guzzler

When I see the climate change professionals stop attending meetings all over the world, flying miles every couple of months, being met at the airport by a limousine - then I'll maybe believe there's a chance for change. All the time there is one rule for them, but they want to make everything very expensive for the rest of us - there's zero chance.
A family on minimum income may be picking up plastic for recycling, growing some of their own food and walking to work - but you won't find many of them campaigning for expensive /unreliable energy.

Things do have to change, but they must find ways to change things that won't leave ordinary people with a lower standard of living, because of increased fuel costs, and also allow people in developing countries to catch up.