h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Lou,

This sounds a great idea. Something that is quite a current popular topic is garbage. We are drowning in it. Specifically the household variety.

What can we do?

* Recycle
* Keep plastic bags for re use later
* Write to manufacturers to cut down on packaging

... and much more?

Hi ya

Do you remember those adverts (it might have been for washing powder) that "claimed" that their packs where more environmentally friendly because they could be crushed up smaller once finished and thus, miracle of miracles, have less impact on the earth when they were buried! Did those advertisers think we had boiled cabbage between our ears? The overall size might have been much less but it still contained the same mass and therefore still had the same impact on the environment!

It would be nice if the manufacturers did cut down on the amount of packaging contained in their products but I can't honestly see that happening as that would eat into their profits - we seem to get less and less actual product and more and more packaging (and air) and pay more for the privilage. The logical thing to do would be to reduce the size of the packages and bring the price down in relation but then we would really see that we are getting less and would complain so they would just increase the pack sizes again (but not necessarily the products inside) and we would end up paying more and the environmental problem (rubbish) would be just the same.

Recycling is the best solution it seems but a lot of stuff is just too expensive to recycle and we don't have enough recycling plants in the UK to deal with the vast amount of rubbish we create, at least, that the argument I've heard councils and the like put forward.

Hmmm, I've started ranting again.