Can one person make a difference?

[Eenuh]

Ah, this thread reminded me of something my cousin sent me a few years ago. Basically it was a link to a phone company called Ello Mobile (Belgian company). Basically, they're a non-profit organisation. The profit they make will be used on certain social and ecological projects. You can pick whatever project you want to support. =)

 

 

I'm thinking of signing up with them now. Maybe there's something similar in the UK?

[Fierce_LiNk]

One person can make a difference, but it depends on the task in question. Also, a small difference is still a difference. Not every difference has to be monumental or earth-shatteringly big. As long as you're doing it, it counts for something.

 

I should be doing more stuff with regards to recycling. Ine's house have a pretty good system with the boxes. At my old Uni house, we had a system there for plastics and paper, but that was as far as it went.

 

Also, if you are turning into a Veggie/Vegan machine, be sure to have a good diet and a good intake of all your recommended nutrition. Protein, et all. Don't be getting sick on us. You're no use to the world sick! So, be healthy and good luck with your endeavours.

[Ashley]

We should become more like the Japanese and have about a dozen categories for rubbish that we throw out. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html

 

Or at least there should be more bins for recycling around. Over there you will very seldom find a bin, but instead four (paper, plastic, general and something else I think) together. And just more bins around would be nice. On my 2.5 mile walk to/from work there is a bin near me and near work, and nothing for about 2 miles in between.

 

I dunno, somehow implement these changes and you'll make a difference :p

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

We should become more like the Japanese and have about a dozen categories for rubbish that we throw out. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html

 

Or at least there should be more bins for recycling around. Over there you will very seldom find a bin, but instead four (paper, plastic, general and something else I think) together. And just more bins around would be nice. On my 2.5 mile walk to/from work there is a bin near me and near work, and nothing for about 2 miles in between.

 

I dunno, somehow implement these changes and you'll make a difference :p

In Denmark we've recently taken a step backwards in that area. I think it's plastic that they don't separate anymore. It just goes the same place as the rest. -_-'

[Eenuh]

In Denmark we've recently taken a step backwards in that area. I think it's plastic that they don't separate anymore. It just goes the same place as the rest. -_-'

 

It's not really a step backwards though. It was the same here, plastic used to be done separately (all plastics), but now they've changed it so you can only put plastic bottles, metal objects like cans and drinkcartons in the same bag (we call it PMD). Other plastics however can still be recycled, but you simply have to bring them to the recycling park yourself. At least that's the way it is here.

 

We have different bags/boxes here at home. One for paper, one for the PMD, one for other plastics, one for compost and then one for normal garbage.

And then things like clothes get given to charity etc. It's really not that hard to recycle properly, you just need to set up some space for it really.

[EEVILMURRAY]

There's not enough room on our driveway to accomodate any more bins. Two is enough!

[Eenuh]

Our bins are inside the house...

 

We have a garbage bin in the kitchen, and then three small bins under the sink (for PMD, plastic and compost). Once those three small ones are full, we put them in the bigger bins we keep in the garage.

For paper we just have a cardboard box somewhere. Honestly it really doesn't take up that much space. And once a bag is full you just put it outside. I think we only have something like one actual garbage bag every one or two weeks?

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I must admit I'm not that familiar with how it's done. The general consensus in my home is that it's a step backwards as we're not sure any other solutions have been implemented. Then again, I may be wrong.

[Eenuh]

I'm sure you can still recycle it. Just find a local place that collects garbage, they will have room for it. Should be the place where you bring your recycled glass (like bottles) to as well, or bigger things you can't just throw away with the garbage. At least it's that way over here, no idea about other countries.

 

I think they separated plastics from plastic bottles because of the recycling process that is used or something. Like they aren't recycled the same way.

Honestly these days there isn't much you can't recycle in some way or another. =)

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Oh, sure, there are recycling centres. But it's a 15 minute drive, meaning we have to use fuel to get there and back when earlier we could simply sort the trash for when they came to collect it. It's definitely less ecofriendly. :/

[jayseven]

In brighton there's quite a focus on recycling, with 'black box' schemes having been run here for over 5 years. You simply put glass, paper, plastic, metal stuff into a black box and the company does its rounds once a week and sorts it as it goes. They slowly suggested people separate their material into separate bags, but now they have said not to use plastic bags anymore as it took too long per house to rip into each bag and empty the contents into the appropriate part of their truck, so it's back to everything-in-one-box, only now everyone has a separate box for glass, and they do the sorting later on rather than on-the-round.

 

In sheffield I've always tried to have a focus on recycling... in halls there was a bin outside for metal so we saved that. In our flat we had a recycling cupboard that, once full, we'd gather and take down to a recycling point down the road. In my house, I was teh only one who had any interest in recycling at all. I'd often fish out cans/glass from the bin and put them in a recycling cupboard. There as a recycling point practically over the road so I did my damn bit and then some.

 

We had a blue bin outside our house which was for paper/card only, a green one for waste and a black one for garden waste. Just as I was leaving sheffield I believe they were introducing a new scheme...

 

LONG BORING. Could've thread-ripped.

[Dan_Dare]

Yeah the new system is for paper and glass and has more regular collections. Represent!

[Shorty]

That new system hasn't reached us yet, has it? When it does... there'll be more room in our flat

[Ville]

Anyway, yeah; 'free range' chickens can still be debeaked, killed off when too 'old', forced to lay eggs all year round, subject to growth hormones and other 'innoculations', mistreated, etc, etc.

 

Yep...male offspring are killed right off the bat, and chickens at the age of 1,5...

 

In regard to recycling, the setup here is as follows:

• general waste
  
• biowaste
  
• paper
  
• cardboard
  
• metal (a little walk away)
  
• glass (a little walk away)
  
• bottles and cans (in stores, most are refundable)
  
• plastic bags (stores)

 

Some places in Finland have also the category for "energy waste", used in incinerators, but have yet to live in such an area...Kind of stupid how much plastic goes to just general waste. There's also separate collection for electronic waste, but only at specific waste treatment sites...making it unnecessarily arduous to get rid of small stuff like broken cables etc.

[weeyellowbloke]

The biggest change I'm thinking of incorporating into my life, and without a doubt the most challenging, is becoming a vegetarian. While I'm sure there are many veggies out there reading this, I am someone who eats meat at least every day, sometimes twice a day and the task of becoming one is frankly massive. I have no idea what I will replace it with, but I cannot justify being a consumer of meat when the environmental and ethical costs are weighed up. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I think modern meat consumption is so far past anything resembling natural. The amount of strain it places on the environment through intensive farming, transportation etc, is not something I want to be associated with any more, which is why I am going to work my damn hardest to cut it out of my life. I'm still at a cross-roads though... I will definitely cut out red meat, without a doubt, and most probably chicken, but what about fish, tuna...? And more than that, eggs? milk? these are still products of the farmed animals... Is going VEGAN the only way to fully combat this problem or should I check out the Free range, locally sourced dairy products at my local Co-op?

 

The Ecologist did an article about this subject a while back that I remember reading. To sum up there conclusion, yes red meat is usually pretty unsustainable. However, this only really applied for animals that were being intensively farmed and raised on a diet of grain. For locally farmed animals, raised on a natural grass based diet the environmental impact was negligible.

 

I have friends who are vegan and while I admire their stand I don't feel it to be strictly necessary. What I do is usually try to pick vegetarian options when they're available, however if I'm offered meat I wont refuse it on the basis it's just wasting food. With vegetables, I'll try to make sure I only buy British produce, or at the minimum European, to try and cut down the transportation.

 

The main problem is that I'll soon be moving back to Birmingham from Oxford, which makes being sustainable a lot harder. Birmingham council are shite, they don't have any general recycling scheme or composting scheme like Oxford. Might write to them about that and try to prove one person can make a difference in small way.

[Ville]

However, this only really applied for animals that were being intensively farmed and raised on a diet of grain. For locally farmed animals, raised on a natural grass based diet the environmental impact was negligible.

 

Well, there's also the ethical side...

[Ashley]

I think the problem with UK recycling is there's no commonality. Ever area is different. In our uni town it was glass/paper/plastic/cardboard and then other, where I am now its glass/paper (and thin cardboard like cereal boxes), garden waste and other, in Jodie's house (London) there's a few different ones. I'd guess its down to council budgets, targets and resources or whatever but still. Shoddy.

[Raining_again]

we have red boxes for recycling. Everything goes in together. Its a smallish box so most people have 2.

 

Its fun to nosey at how much alcohol your neighbours consume :P

[jayseven]

Yeah! I have a gander at open recycling boxes to tut and scoff at what people are consuming. Twelve take-away pizza boxes?! All-day Breakfast in a tin?! HA What sort of scum lives he--- ooh look there's some left *scrape scrape scrape*

[Cube]

With regards to vegetarians, one thing I never understood is why some of them eat fish. It's like saying that you're going to stop playing video games, but still play Tetris.

[Eenuh]

With regards to vegetarians, one thing I never understood is why some of them eat fish. It's like saying that you're going to stop playing video games, but still play Tetris.

 

If they eat fish they're not really vegetarians. I mostly eat vegetarian food, but I still eat fish and occasionally other meats, so I won't call myself vegetarian.

I have a friend who does that, says she's vegetarian but then still eat fish. Just seems wrong. *shrugs*

[Sheikah]

I think it's probably general confusion/ignorance since you often hear meat and fish referred to separately. Although fish is still, most definitely, meat.

 

 

The biggest change I'm thinking of incorporating into my life, and without a doubt the most challenging, is becoming a vegetarian. While I'm sure there are many veggies out there reading this, I am someone who eats meat at least every day, sometimes twice a day and the task of becoming one is frankly massive. I have no idea what I will replace it with, but I cannot justify being a consumer of meat when the environmental and ethical costs are weighed up. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I think modern meat consumption is so far past anything resembling natural. The amount of strain it places on the environment through intensive farming, transportation etc, is not something I want to be associated with any more, which is why I am going to work my damn hardest to cut it out of my life. I'm still at a cross-roads though... I will definitely cut out red meat, without a doubt, and most probably chicken, but what about fish, tuna...? And more than that, eggs? milk? these are still products of the farmed animals... Is going VEGAN the only way to fully combat this problem or should I check out the Free range, locally sourced dairy products at my local Co-op?

 

I'm sure many people will get to this page and think TL;DR, but the point I'm trying to make is will this actually make a difference? Is there something that makes millions of people consider elements of this and then think, "f**k it, what's the point?" Can one person make a difference when they try? What do you do to make a difference?

 

The world is an overwhelmingly big place and choices like this can seem very, very insignificant in the grand scheme of things but if you don't fight by what you believe in, does that make you someone who simply exists in the world, like a virus, or someone who lives in it with a hope for making it a better place for everyone?

 

So I suppose now, to actually make the difference at a national scale I have to join Labour and make them socialist again, or join the Green party and try and convince the public that they are not doped up hippies...

 

I have to say, living life like this is pointless. Worrying that things you eat may be environmentally unfriendly in their rearing is just a step too far. I'm not trying to be offensive, but I honestly don't see your individual choice to stop eating meat to have any effect on the environment.

 

You could easily reduce your environmental damage by not buying a car at all, or buying a bike/electric bike. I used to have a girlfriend who was the most egotistical, proud arse in the world about being friendly to animals/the environment by being vegan. Little did she know (through ignorance and taking vegan websites as gospel scientific truth) that the constant medical drugs she took for various conditions had each involved no doubt thousands to millions of animals in testing. And that's not animals that were free range reared (should you choose to buy that) and endured a moment of pain upon death - these are animals that suffered for weeks, months or years. At the end of the day, she chose the importance of sustaining her wellbeing over animal life. She'd often say that the testing of these drugs was in the past and therefore made no difference, yet they constantly improve the drugs and continue to test them on animals.

 

Anyway, bit off topic there. My point is that everyone is slowly destroying the environment, and it is utterly inevitable. It's why I'm not particularly concerned (prolonging the inevitable merely sets up impending doom for generations slightly further down the line). It's noble to reduce damage to the environment since more people will ultimately have a life, but there are better, more meaningful ways. Selecting against food, your source of nutrients and good for your wellbeing, seems a bit wrong to me. Cutting out a car, maybe buying your meat locally too. Better options.

 

Plus, because bad experience makes me dislike veganism. For every animal dynastygal chose not to eat, I ate three.

[Frank]

I have a lot of admiration for such a daring task that you're taking up.

It will definitely take a lot of work and determination to make this change feel 'natural' in your day-to-day life. More power to you :p

 

I would be a little careful though because, if it was me, I'd probably be so enthusiastic to begin but after about a week or so maybe give up.

 

Also, if it sometimes feels pointless then ask some of your friends/family or just people that you know to maybe join in a little bit. It doesn't necessarily have to be as extreme as what you're doing

Also, just think of Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.!

So, can one person make a difference? Yes they bloody can!

[Nicktendo]

I have to say, living life like this is pointless. I'm not trying to be offensive, but...

 

Plus, because bad experience makes me dislike veganism. For every animal dynastygal chose not to eat, I ate three.

 

As soon as I saw Sheikah had posted, I knew it would be a negative opinion...

[Ville]

I have to say, living life like this is pointless.

 

Heh, now that's a pretty pessimistic stance...It's not pointless at all.

 

You could easily reduce your environmental damage by not buying a car at all, or buying a bike/electric bike. I used to have a girlfriend who was the most egotistical, proud arse in the world about being friendly to animals/the environment by being vegan. Little did she know (through ignorance and taking vegan websites as gospel scientific truth) that the constant medical drugs she took for various conditions had each involved no doubt thousands to millions of animals in testing. And that's not animals that were free range reared (should you choose to buy that) and endured a moment of pain upon death - these are animals that suffered for weeks, months or years. At the end of the day, she chose the importance of sustaining her wellbeing over animal life. She'd often say that the testing of these drugs was in the past and therefore made no difference, yet they constantly improve the drugs and continue to test them on animals.

 

Interesting to hear about the drug testing...However, your logic here does not add up. I mean if you eat meat and use animal-tested products, you support and create suffering via two means. However, if you renounce meat yet continue with animal-tested products, surely you create LESS suffering than in the previous case.

 

Selecting against food, your source of nutrients and good for your wellbeing, seems a bit wrong to me.

 

Heh, changing your diet is not just an issue of viewpoint, it does affect your mind and body...possibly enhancing your wellbeing. Also, it's not just an environmental issue, but an ethical one. Basically animals are treated more or less like inanimate objects, farmed like any commodity...Systematically brought to life for one purpose: to kill and eat them. And yet they are like us...having a consciousness, being able to see, hear, taste, smell and feel, with the capacity to experience joy and happiness, yet also pain, fear and suffering...which no sentient being wants to feel. One reason, why we don't farm fellow humans...From a standpoint of compassion, it makes little sense to farm animals for food, if the constant by-product is just pain and suffering...makes even less sense to do it so systematically and in such a large scale...