Happy New Year, I hope it is good for you, though looking at the news these days I am not so sure.
The festive period is always billed as the most wonderful time of the year and yes, it is lovely to have some time off from the grinding mill, to spend time with family and friends. It can also be hard work, with all the present buying, the food cooking and generally being nice to people you long ago decided to live apart from.
Without doubt though, it is also the most wasteful time of the year. Both our recycling and general waste bins are filled to overflowing, so much so that we have stuff backed up waiting for the bins to be cleared.
If aliens were to land from a distant planet they would think we gave each other cardboard or brightly coloured paper for Xmas. All the kids’ toys are more packaging than gifts and each is wrapped in enough paper to cover a small county. All of this ends in the bin and we kid ourselves we are being kind to the planet by putting it out for recycling. I guess much of it will go up in smoke.
Food is another area of excess and waste. As humans, we can only eat so much. We may be able to stuff ourselves on the big day, yet there is a limit to how much we can consume. Everyone, however, buys enough to feed not only ourselves but all those people who may or may not turn up, invited or not. The shops are shut for a day or two and so we stock up just in case. Inevitably we cannot eat or drink everything we have bought and a lot goes into the bin, half eaten or worse, untouched.
The truth is, for most of us in this country, that food is overly available. The shops are full of it and we can’t really consume more than we would do normally. The shops should not be so busy yet they are and much of this excess only ends up as waste.
We are a wasteful species and this is the most wasteful time of the year. I hope you enjoyed it!
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 