Can we go on like this?

Our rubbish / recyclates collecting lorries have adverts on the side to say that recycling saves the council money and so keeps the council tax down. That's the kind of incentive that might influence people.

True.

Most charity shops have stopped accepting electrical goods but in our area we have an organisation called Restart. It takes electrical goods that are still working, as well as furniture of all kinds. It employs people, many of them with disabilities and / or long-term unemployed, to refurbish the items and they are then sold at reasonable prices in their shop. Win-win all round, I'd say

Brilliant.

Our rubbish / recyclates collecting lorries have adverts on the side to say that recycling saves the council money and so keeps the council tax down. That's the kind of incentive that might influence people.

Most charity shops have stopped accepting electrical goods but in our area we have an organisation called Restart. It takes electrical goods that are still working, as well as furniture of all kinds. It employs people, many of them with disabilities and / or long-term unemployed, to refurbish the items and they are then sold at reasonable prices in their shop. Win-win all round, I'd say.

Yes I think it can and will carry on.

I used to think that we would be overrun by landfill. But the sites are scattered around.
And when you look at areas from the air, is it something like 90% of Britain is still green fields.

[I am presuming it is all right to have a look round the gransnet site at old threads?]

Brilliant - but horrifying - cartoon.

Watch this YouTube cartoon - 'Man' by Steve Cutts. Really hits home.

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=WfGMYdalClU

Oh yes NanKate and Eloethan - the Morecambe & Wise sketch with Andre Previn is an absolute classic I had to go and watch it again and I read the following comment:

At a concert in Britain afterwards, Previn had to stop the playing of the Grieg Concerto to allow the audience time to stop giggling as they remembered the sketch

Eloethan it shows how good the humour was then because we remember the words and actions so well.

I can watch or listen to Hancocks Half Hour and I remember the script in places word for word.

Yes, I loved that line too Holly - and the Andre Preview sketch is my absolute favourite.

I agree Hollydaze.

Also Morecambe and Wise with Andre Previn (or Preview as he was called).

'I am playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order'

The Scrap Iron men go round my DD"s neighbour and they live in Bournville!

Love to hear them sing out --very evocative !

I don't know why, NanKate, but I thought that was one of the funniest lines on tv I've ever heard - and I don't even like Dad's Army!

Don't tell them your name Pike.

Doomed I tell you

It's too late, we're all doomed.

Tegan - both benefit from it, it's just that some benefit a lot more than others. Sadly, it is the way our economy is structured and there is little we can do about it unless we go back to bartering.

I do agree with Eloethan in that economies (not just ours) do need a radical rethink as it does tend only to really benefit those at the top (nothing new there!) whilst providing an adequate income for those further down the 'pecking order'.

Who benefits from this consumer society; the higher eschelons of society or the lower members of society [the ones that can't afford the things that they're encouraged to buy or, if they do so,are encouraged to buy them on those great modern inventions, the credit card or the payday loan].

If our economy is organised in such a way as to rely on us using precious resources to manufacture products that we don't really need and which we are encouraged to dump in landfill as quickly as possible and then replace with something almost identical, then I feel our economy needs a radical re-think.

This is the argument for the production of the sort of horrible weapons that are destroying lives all round the world - that jobs depend on these industries, that selling arms is an important part of our economy. It's also the rationale behind vast amounts of money being spent on "vanity projects" - that they provide jobs. I think it's about time we concentrated on providing the necessities of life rather than mass producing a lot of useless stuff because the "economy" demands it.

But what about the economy? If everyone stopped spending wouldn't things go downhill? (employment, taxes etc)

I totally agree with 'sunseeker', I watched a couple of programmes on BBC2 (The Men who make us spend) about built in obsolescence and also how advertising agencies try to create discontent within us so we want the most up to date products etc. The proof of their success is all around us e.g. some people are falling over themselves to have the very latest phones, tablets, computers, cars, TVs, clothes... It would be almost amusing if it wasn't so potentially serious. I suppose I could put a positive spin on it - for those of us who prefer to buy second-hand, there's always plenty of choice on Gumtree etc.

DD lives in Letchworth Garden City and regularly has a rag and bone man come round.

When I read these things and think about them, my overwhelming feeling is one of total impotence. I know, I know, I should not think like this; but I do my bit; I am careful to the point of madness about not producing waste, but I am a mere nothing in the face of global businesses who need things to become obsolete in order to make money, and if they don't make money, then people lose their jobs, and if people lose their jobs, they cannot feed their children............sigh. I have no idea whatsoever what the answer is.

The things that we do in terms of recycling, swapping etc. are just a pee in the sea.

I take a lot of stuff to the recycling place where they seem to have a skip for just about everything - small electrics, big electrics, computers and tvs, batteries, light bulbs, garden waste, glass etc. etc. so obviously it is sorted through and hopefully reused where possible. The place is always busy so people are learning to recycle, unlike 20 years ago. Anything else, if not sold on e-Bay or given away on Gumtree, I take to my favourite charity shop, where again it is sorted and all used, apparently, to raise funds.

Maybe there is a renewed call for the rag and bone man to reappear.

Would there be an amount of caution regarding the slow down of industries if people recycled - that could lead to job losses if people cut down on purchases.

For a small country that's not bad. I worry that, with more and more countries wanting technical goods we're creating more and more..mainly because we're creating markets to sell to.

I think in some ways we are getting better at recycling. Now all shops selling batteries have places to put old ones. Our local tip shows the latest recycling rates and last week it was 76% which is not bad at all. I only see half full or less black bags sitting outside our houses so think we are trying. The one thing I really notice is how few people take their own bags to the supermarket but that will change when we have to pay for them.

Our Freegle seems to grow almost daily.

I heard recently that if the UK stopped all activities designed to protect the environment it would make only 2% difference to the world but that is no reason to stop.