Ed,
Congratulations to Maclean Lions Club for returning more than $230,000 to the community in the past two years from their extremely successful Return and Earn recycling facility (CVI 31/7/24).
It is wonderful to see that so many community members return their recyclable beverage containers for the 10 cents refund.
Maclean Lions Club have really done “the right thing” for the community by showing our Clarence Valley Council that Maclean Lions Club is serious about trying to convince the community to choose to waste less resources.
I hope our present Council takes the time to help Maclean Lions Club find a really satisfactory site for this very successful Return and Earn recycling facility.
Older community members and residents who have migrated from many European countries will remember growing up with Container Deposit Legislation (CDL). This also stands for Containers Designed to Last – refillable beverage containers that are washed and reused again and again and again. The best waste option is to minimise waste, which is a far more sustainable option than what we now have, namely, to manage waste.
If you want to ensure that your children’s and grandchildren’s future is more sustainable by wasting less resources it’s well worth considering the Waste Hierarchy, bearing in mind that a 1% REDUCTION in consumption is thought to be equivalent to a 25% recycling rate:-
The 8 Rs.
Number 1 REFUSE to use.
No.2. REDUCE both consumption and waste.
No.3. REUSE range of products that can be reused again and again
No.4. REDESIGN products to design-out waste and toxics used.
No.5. REPAIR more products that can be repaired.
No.6. RECYCLE only products that are easy to recycle, for which there is a genuine market.
No.7. REEMPLOY retirees who want to continue to work as valued, contributing community members.
No.8. REGULATE disposal.
Most Waste Hierarchies only consider the uses and waste of material resources and entirely avoid including the waste and underutilisation of human resources who volunteer as V.I.Ps – Volunteers In Partnership in community recycling and waste minimisation programs. These are our genuine community V.I.Ps, be they retirees, people receiving Disability Pensions or people who are unemployed.
With the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence, we can anticipate there will be an increasing number of underutilised human resources in the waste stream, unless we make better choices about the products we buy and choose to use; for the future is what we choose.
Many thanks to the Australian Marine Conservation Society for their information on plastics use in Australia and their on-going efforts to try to ensure that less waste such as micro-plastics end up in marine food chains.
Harry Johnson, Iluka
Former Teacher/Coordinator, Kingfisher Recycling Centre, Aspley Special School, Brisbane