”An Environmental Threat” does have a usually accepted definition as being “An actual or potential threat of adverse effects on living organisms and environment, by effluents, emissions, wastes, resource depletion, etc., arising out of an organisations activities.”
While it is easy for all of us to point a finger at companies/organisations such as Monsanto (See Below), we humans seem to possess a remarkable ability not to see the damage done to our local and distant environment by the connectivity of our own individual activities and actions. As a county councillor, the greatest number of complaints made directly to me concern the presence on our streets of dog-excrement. The second is considerable quantity of litter, plastic bottles, drinks cans, polystyrene clamshells, etc, which are to be found lying around everywhere, from local gutters to nearby coastlines and beyond and subsequently into our food-chain, with damaging effects on our individual health and national, indeed global individual health. It has been said and rightly so that we now live in a “Throw-away Society.”
The problem is, that when literally millions of individuals act thoughtlessly, for their own personal convenience, rather than considerately, for the good of their communities and the welfare of the little blue marble we all live on, it is the entire globe we depend upon which eventually suffers and therefor ourselves too. The rule that we should all “Make the Polluter Pay!” appears to have been cast aside by governments everywhere, for fear of causing short-term economic slowdown, which would have immediate adverse political consequences for them and might just cause a decrease in party political financial support.
Thus, here in the UK, the government is tinkering with the idea of creating what already exists in Norway, which is a plastic bottle deposit scheme, rather than passing any law that makes actually producing non-recyclable plastic a criminal offence. Within Flintshire County Council area, we operate a routine household waste and recycling system, with targets imposed by Directives emanating from the EU. If the county fails to reach the required recycling percentages/tonnages the threat of a £200 per tonne infraction charge lurks. In an effort to stay clear of that penalty, FCC makes available assorted receptacles, sacks, bins, boxes for householders to use to separate un-recyclable waste from paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and tin cans, all of which can be recycled and possess a value as recyclable materials.
Sadly, while the majority of householders are considerate enough to work with the council, a significant minority care to take no notice and just dump everything into their black non-recyclable waste bin. That is why, from the start of the new financial year of 2018-19, greater enforcement of proper kerbside recycling came into effect, with piled-up black bag side waste no longer being removed. I doubt that any single one of the householders who so far have failed or refused to engage in the county’s recycling efforts would wish to be called “An Environmental Threat” but, logically, that is what they are. In the matter of protection of our environment, we are all in it together, sink or swim!”
The strengthened regulations are designed to reduce and hopefully eliminate “Side Waste” which is council-speak for the black bin liner bags of both residual waste and recyclable waste which certain householders simply dump on top of or alongside their entirely full black bin.
FCC’s Streetscene Staff have been knocking on offenders’ doors, explaining the new rules and politely asking offending householders to put out for recycling, all material listed as recyclable, so that only genuine residual waste gets put into the black bin. Several hundred informative conversations have taken place, to little or no effect, resulting in over 1500 formal “First Warning” letters having been directed to certain households, followed up by more than 100 “Second Stage” letters. Despite all of that effort to get the message across, a hard core of Side Waste offenders have insisted in carrying on in their old, bad-habit ways, resulting in two (2) of them, so far, being issued with Fixed Penalty Notices, at £70:00 fine level.
With Government now clearly acting as the lead public relations agency for the USA GM industry, led by Monsanto, it is time that ordinary people had some counter information available. Here is an article on GM crops.
Industry world-wide has a remarkable ability for getting the cost of disposing of their wastes taken up by the public purse. In this case, the public actually pays for a non medical quality waste to be bought on their behalf and dumped into their water supply. It really does beggar belief. Take a look at this link here which will take you to a video about Fluoridation of water supplies on the Fluoride Action Network website.
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
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