Recycling

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

It is a pity that we are not able to consciously discard certain words from the English language.   While some become obsolete or change in meaning, these processes take centuries.    It is pertinent to the point I want to make that metaphors play a much more important part in our communication than we think.  They help us to form mental pictures so that the words have greater meaning.   I am thinking specifically of the word “waste”.   This conveys something that must be discarded; something with no value.  We speak of a “waste of time”, a “waste of space” and, even in the case of people of whom we think ill, a “waste of oxygen”.    It is little wonder, therefore, that we have such scant appreciation of the potential value of waste, let alone its cost if we don’t try and realise this value.   Indeed, reducing this cost, or eliminating it altogether, is value in itself.

I am not a green activist; nor have I been a model citizen as far as waste management is concerned.  Like most people, I have waited for someone else to spur me on to some sort of conscious effort to deal with domestic waste.    Where I live, free plastic bags are made available for recyclable waste – plastic, paper, tin cans, for example.    It has been easy enough to select the appropriate bin so that the weekly placement of the rubbish for collection involves two plastic bags rather than one.   I have been quite astonished at how little of the weekly waste is in the black bag.   By contrast, the volume of waste in the orange bag is several times more.    This can be recycled.   I have many neighbours – it is a large residential complex – but the number who take advantage of the free bags and deal with their waste by separating it is comparatively small.    We have all grown up expecting that someone will come along after us and discard our waste for us.  We pay the municipality to do this, after all.  

Some municipalities are more progressive than others and have adopted waste management strategies that either encourage or compel residents to be more responsible as far as their waste is concerned.   In many overseas countries, I’m told, residents are instructed by local authorities to put out their classified waste in certain ways, on certain days and at certain times.   Punitive measures follow any breach of the rules.   This is to ensure the longer-term welfare of the residents of the town, even if they don’t necessarily appreciate it themselves.   The reality is that the disposal of waste is wasteful in itself; and to a very large degree.   Landfill sites run out of capacity in time and require replacement.  This costs millions.   In the meantime, the satisfactory maintenance of such a facility also costs a great deal of money, not to mention its adverse environmental impacts.    An objective view must regard much of this expenditure as quite unnecessary and unjustified.   It can be saved by the simple expedient of residents making an input into their own waste management.    Industries should do the same, of course, even though the nature of their waste often makes proper management of it very expensive.    In the domestic setting, however, the measures that minimize and classify waste are not costly at all.

It is a peculiarity, it seems to me, that people complain bitterly about municipal charges, but don’t do a great deal to reduce municipal expenses.    The way in which people dump litter all over the streets and pavements shows a level of indifference about many things, not the least of which is the cost for someone else to have to clean it up.    In Maritzburg, where waste management is one of our greatest weaknesses, some people never stop complaining about the filth, while others blithely go ahead and contribute to it.   It shows that self-regulation may well be a myth.  We need to be led and, if necessary, disciplined.   Some older people may take offence at this, but I don’t see signs of a younger generation being any more responsible.  In fact, I think the level of civic responsibility is declining at a rapid rate.  

While there is some merit in leaving people to make their own decisions as one of the parcel of human rights, we cannot afford to do this in a society where there is so little understanding of responsibilities.    So, we advocate democracy; but we don’t always deserve it.             

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