Green, clean and guilty
The planet is warming up. Scientists are in debate about exactly
how much human activities (
or how many cows fart) are influencing this fact but all
agree that it remains a fact.
That has its pros and cons. It was beautiful out on our balcony
last week on bubbles Wednesday and there are reports that wine production
in the UK is on the up and should soon rival our
continental cousins. Chablis from Chester or a fine Runcorn Rioja
anyone?
On the flip side there's Tsunamis and cyclones and parched
lawns in the suburbs - depending on whether you have a global or
local perception that's got to be bad all round.
Closer to home we're all encouraged to do our bit. Stop eating
meat (less farting cows), shower more and bath less (tricky with a
toddler) or follow Gordon
Ramsey and eat local (and sod the strawberry producers of
Kenya some may say), but it is easier said than done.
At Paver Towers we're trying to do our bit. We've got a
waste paper collection service and we recycle our beer and bubbles
bottles so that's quite a contribution. But habits die hard and
multiple copies of the Daily Post are bought in, read and dumped in
the bin every day. A feeble effort to put a paper collection basket
on each desk was met with cooperative derision last week.
John Shinnick at Grant Thornton in Manchester has loftier
ambitions. So far this year they've recycled a pile of paper
tall enough to reach the top of the GMEX. By the end of 2009
they'll have got to Blackpool tower's dizzy heights, a
whopping 1.3m sheets of A4.
The public sector has embraced this idea far faster than we have.
Recycling is mandatory in most Government offices and many would
recoil at the paper casually binned in most offices.
But the reality of the fact is that we're busy running a
successful business and we need more than the guilt factor to halt
our day- to-day activity and make us focus.
Maybe something more like "Sod the environment. What's the
cost saving benefit of a double sided printer against the cost of
reams of A4" might be more successful with the average SME.
Surely the rationale for recycling should be to make us feel good
about ourselves? I still think ignorance can be bliss. When Sefton
Council recently introduced a waste food collection service I was
convinced I'd hardly use it, the odd bag of lettuce that's
all. Now the bin fills up on a weekly basis with everything from
plate scrapings to vegetable peelings.
And do I feel better for doing my bit? Do I hell. Now the news is
full of how
much food we're wasting. So ignorance is bliss but
beware the recycling police are coming to get you.
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