The uk is a throwaway society?

[gbb]

Not forgetting the growth in single use items , the hit and miss means of recycling and total lack of regulation on producers and suppliers.

Yes, all good points. It's a mega complicated problem.

this is one of the things that's bothered me for years, utter carp items, manufactured and shipped round the world at great environmental expense, usually useless, single use items that almost immediately ( at best) end up in the bin. No government initiatives to stop the never ending tsunami of carp we are faced with, no, because there's profit in there for someone e. Never mind the environmental cost, profit profit profit. It is truly a very complicated subject.

Some things do happen in the background re packaging. For several years companies like ours that dispose of plastic waste, film, packaging must now pay to have it disposed of, ie it a not go with general waste, it must be dealt with separately...at even more increased cost. This drives companies to reduce packaging, waste, purely because it costs them dearly. Its something some companies are acutely aware of.
But that only deals with excess waste at the point of manufacturing. If they are very efficient and don't over produce, all that packaging goes out into the wider world for them (us) to deal with.

 

[slowmotion]

@raleighnut, you do realise that even the faintest mention (sniff?) of white dogshit causes absolute nostalgia mayhem, don't you ?????

 

[Jameshow]

I have been surprised at how many riders have binned them on forum rides! I have retrieved a few and repaired them when I got home.

I used one for securing the van back doors yesterday during several trips with oversized materials and on the last trip it let go, prior to that it was around my socket set that had lost its catch. I don't think I'm going to be able patch it now!!!🤣🤣🤣

 

[FishFright]

Thread is about the UK. Who do you think is to blame for that? Can't possibly be those lovely tidy Brits. Must be someone else to blame.

Thats the root of the problem , it's always someone else causing the problem and it's always someone else's job to do something about it ( and at no cost to the tax payer ofc )

 

[gbb]

Root causes (Imho)
1970, population around 46 million. A much simpler time, less money, less waste.
2022, population around 67 million. A deeply rooted consumer society, infinitely more money available to us, overloaded with goods.
Far less community spirit. 30 years ago, we knew almost everyone up our street (yes I know, yawn, that old chestnut, but its true). Now, we're on nodding, occasional pleasantries with a handful.l of people, most we don't know, same with them and all their neighbours I assume. The turnaround of tenants up the street is huge.

20 million extra people, where do you think all the associated 'stuff and rubbish ' goes ?

And this morning, I walk out to the car to find an old mattress leant up against a fence.

Edited to amend population figures, 1970 was around 55 million, so 'only an increase of 10 mllion'ish people.

 

[Kingfisher101]

We recently replaced an old sofa - it was about 30 years old, very worn and had a spring coming out out the bottom. We don't drive and couldn't get it to the tip. I managed to dismantle it, saw it up and get rid of it in the wheelie bin with the household non-recyclable rubbish over about 5 collections.

Thats very good but I dont even have a saw and wouldnt feel comfortable with taking springs out of a frame. Good for you for doing this though.

 

[Alex321]

Thread is about the UK. Who do you think is to blame for that? Can't possibly be those lovely tidy Brits. Must be someone else to blame.

That isn't what he said or suggested.

All he is saying is that it isn't only the "Brits". The thread starter seemed to be suggesting it is a problem unique to the UK, which it isn't.

 

[Alex321]

How many still repair their inner tubes as opposed to simply replacing the punctured one for a new one?

Maybe we should look at what we can do. Ease of use is fast replacing fixing, Co2 inflators rather than using a pump being another.

I always carry a spare inner tube, and will just swap on the road. But the swapped out one gets repaired when I get home, and becomes the next spare.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The thread starter seemed to be suggesting it is a problem unique to the UK, which it isn't.

Takes a huge stretch of the imagination to draw that conclusion. The OP mentions one other country - saying that France have "started to address" the problem. No mention of any other countries.

 

[gbb]

Takes a huge stretch of the imagination to draw that conclusion. The OP mentions one other country - saying that France have "started to address" the problem. No mention of any other countries.

I have no problem with your stance, its one you're entitled to, but one I disagree with, no problem in that.
I've travelled for work quite extensively, seeing places away from the manicured tourist spots, you see a quite different picture from that portrayed in the brochures
Uruguay, Egypt, Crete, Spain, France, etc etc, they have their problems too, Crete I vividly remember lovely scenic drives up into the Lasithi Plateau, to see intermittent piles of rubbish dumped down the roadsides into valleys etc.
Egypt, as said, looks like Beirut in places.
Spain, they take their rubbish to the bin points generally, but back street look and smell dirty and unkempt.
I could go on...its simply to illustrate its a people thing, not any particular nationality.

Tbf, its nice to read in here at least, people DO care, just a shame there's not more of us.

 

[chris667]

The Tesco near where I sometimes used to moor my boat used the fact that they picked up all the litter around their bit of the towpath "even though it wasn't their responsibility to do so". Almost all of that litter had "Tesco" printed on it.

The cost of packaging disposal should be part of what we pay for our goods. Charging for carrier bags has been a massive success in this regard - noticed how there are now far fewer carrier bags there are in rubbish these days?

Should be the same for everything - that and by charging companies who make things hard to repair.

 

[BoldonLad]

The Tesco near where I sometimes used to moor my boat used the fact that they picked up all the litter around their bit of the towpath "even though it wasn't their responsibility to do so". Almost all of that litter had "Tesco" printed on it.

The cost of packaging disposal should be part of what we pay for our goods. Charging for carrier bags has been a massive success in this regard - noticed how there are now far fewer carrier bags there are in rubbish these days?

Should be the same for everything - that and by charging companies who make things hard to repair.

Don’t know where you live, but, charging for carrier bags, and introducing “bags for life”, has just resulted in same number of discarded bags, but, better quality.

As for the Tesco example, did Tesco employ staff to thrown various items of litter about?

It is dirty, idle individuals who cause the problem, nobody else.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've travelled for work quite extensively, seeing places away from the manicured tourist spots, you see a quite different picture from that portrayed in the brochures

I've no doubt that you have, but I' not sure of the relevance of this in a thread about littering and rubbish in the UK.

Mabe it is some kind of patriotic displacement activity? "Oh Britain is quite clean compared to the back streets of X.".

 

[gbb]

I've no doubt that you have, but I' not sure of the relevance of this in a thread about littering and rubbish in the UK.

Mabe it is some kind of patriotic displacement activity? "Oh Britain is quite clean compared to the back streets of X.".

No no no Its really just trying to illustrate people, where ever tey come from... litter and flytip. Its everywhere, I personally refuse to believe its a British problem. Yes the discussion is here in the UK, but its not a UK problem, its a people problem, no more, no less.

 

[Dogtrousers]

No no no Its really just trying to illustrate people, where ever tey come from... litter and flytip. Its everywhere, I personally refuse to believe its a British problem. Yes the discussion is here in the UK, but its not a UK problem, its a people problem, no more, no less.

However it is true that, in general, the problems of rubbish at the roadside is worse in Britain than some other places (Disclaimer: it is also true that there are other places where it is as bad or worse than in Britian)

It's also true that a significant proportion of Brits are dirty scumbags (Disclaimer: this is not a trait unique to Brits, nor are all Brits dirty scumbags).

What we could do is try to learn from those places where it is less of a problem. What are they doing right? Why is it less of a problem in, say Denmark and Germany? Is it because they have a better approach to waste disposal that we could adopt? Is it simply to do with population density?