Is Recyling Enough?

Written by Peter Chapman on Tue 9th Mar 2004

The United Kingdom has signed up for many environmental targets. Some are European Union targets (for example to have 55% of packaging materials recycled by 2008) and some originated at the Rio earth summit in 1992 followed by the Kyoto Protocol. (Under the latter the UK's target is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012). The targets are cascading down to local government and we see the results particularly in initiatives on recycling, the separation of waste, composting of green waste, sites for fridge mountains, etc.

By and large the general public goes along with these initiatives and cooperates to make them work. But how will recycling take us towards a sustainable future if consumerism races ahead unchecked? Where are the initiatives to persuade individual consumers to consume less? Has it sunk in to a typical, conscientious family, recycling everything they can, that if they buy a new car, iron ore will have to be dug out of the ground, fossil fuel will have to be extracted to make the tyres and plastic parts and an outlay of energy used in its manufacture which makes their recycling efforts no more than a drop in the ocean by comparison. If they then use that car when they could have walked, cycled or used public transport, their consumption of finite resources again makes their recycling seem pifflingly insignificant.

Any discouragement to consumption is hardly likely to come from the government. What chancellor of the exchequer in a democracy is going to tell people to consume less, and therefore to contribute less tax revenue? It would put the economy into reverse, initiate deflation and be political suicide. In previous centuries religious leaders might have said such things. Sober, modest living without extravagance or conspicuous displays of wealth was regarded as a godly way of conducting one's self by certain religious groups of the Calvinistic and Puritan persuasions but no such urging has been heard recently. Anyway it was never urged for the sake of the environment but for the benefit of the human soul.

Education is an obvious answer. We need people to make environmentally sustainable lifestyle choices, not just to go along with their local council's recycling plans but do nothing else differently. Many local authorities realize the importance of working with schools to deliver waste and recycling targets and Waste Watch is a charity helping them by supplying educational materials and training programmes. We have to convince people that their individual efforts will make a difference.

As Liberal Democrats we have every reason to be convinced of this ourselves. After all, we are trying to persuade people to vote, when they could be saying that their individual votes have no significance and won't change anything. Let's think of one way in which consumer power does manifest itself. Supermarkets monitor their customers' intentions and actions minutely. There are consumers who like to buy British farm produce, perhaps because they want to support British farmers, perhaps because they think British animal welfare standards are high. The supermarkets make these purchasing decisions quite easy for their customers by labelling the products appropriately so we assume, or at least hope, that it has a demonstrable effect on sales.

These consumers' decisions are affected by their compassion for people and animals whose well-being they are concerned about. We shouldn't be surprised by that - the public give generously to charities supporting people and animals at home and abroad. Is there a similar desire among the public at large to do what's right for the environment?

In other words, are thousands of individual decisions being taken which are leading to less pollution, less use of finite resources and a more sustainable economy? Ask yourself the following questions:

· Are people paying high prices to travel by (energy-efficient) train instead of travelling more cheaply by (polluting) aeroplanes or cars?

· Are motorists opting for small cars with low fuel consumption and shunning big luxury models and four-wheel drives which consume a lot of fuel?

· Are people reluctant to buy consumer gadgets or do they seem to want every new thing which comes along and then discard the old one?

The answers to these questions are rather obviously "no" and tell us that we have a lot of work to do to push sustainability and the environment up to become consumers' priorities when making their day-to-day decisions.

Liberal Democrats really should be trying to lead the way on such issues and setting a good example. For instance, can we justify having two federal conferences a year? Think of all the travelling involved and consider whether the environmental impact has been given sufficient weight in the decision-making.

Peter Chapman March 9, 2004