No more plastic, please
I think the greatest change in my personal outlook has been
my view on environmental issues.
I’m sickened by the waste we create and its impact on the planet. It’s all too easy to say there’s nothing individuals can do to make a difference, but turn that around: six billion individuals create these problems, and one by one, we can help.
One way in which our family has vowed to make a difference is in its consumption of cheap consumer goods for Jasper. Like it or not (and I bet he won’t, once he has some say in what is bought for him), we are determined that Christmas and birthday celebrations don’t result in an avalanche of random plastic junk.
The education process is going to be painful. How do you tell somebody that a panda bear, complete with tied-on plastic bamboo shoots, which has a label describing it as unsafe for children aged under three, is not a suitable, appropriate or welcome choice for the little man’s first birthday? It’s going to welfare, and no doubt before too long will end up in landfill.
There’s really no excuse for laziness from friends and family. I appreciate a surprise as much as the next person, but Jasper’s current idea of a surprise is falling over backwards. We can count on one hand the number of thoughtful, useful and inspiring gifts we’ve received for him.
Would it kill anybody to give us a phone call and – gasp! – ask us what we might want, or need, for our first born? Sorry to say it, but your ten dollars would fare much better invested in Jasper’s RESP account, so he can go out and get drunk in college. Or buy him a book token to improve his chances of making it to higher education.
What does ten dollars buy a child these days? Almost certainly, the item will be plastic and made in China. It will be grossly over-packaged with the kind of glossy cardboard that is the most difficult to recycle.
For some reason, most of these items are ruthlessly attached to their packaging with plastic-coated metal twist ties, which are also disposed of.
Enough, already. Recycling is fighting a battle that’s already lost. Less demand for crap means less crap we have to deal with – or rather, our children and their children have to deal with. Sleep well.
