No excuses this time
Opinion: How can we ensure people take environmental issues seriously?
The recession has basically crash-landed on top of the issue of being ‘green’. The green and brown bin is still there. The recycling bank is still down the road. Climate change is still a problem. These are all choice ‘green’ words, which we’re sick to death of hearing. I like to think of the environment as a company that needs to be re-branded. If the recession is the excuse being used, then we will have to change our products to fit in with people’s new circumstances.
There’s this product called recycling. It started off great! It was the cool thing to do, but unfortunately it’s slipping into decline. There’s nothing new being offered and people are losing interest in it. If this continues, soon the environment is going to be out of business and then we’ll all be wishing that we’d put our milk cartons into the right bin.
But we need a new, attractive way to get people to get back into the swing of things. Could we make recycling sexy? No, probably not. The whole bikini and cardboard combination wouldn’t be a great look. How about forcing people? No, probably not. We may get into a bit of a mess there.
I have it. Incentives! Most people are going to want a few extra coins in their back pockets. We can use the green issue as a way of getting people to retrain the brain into saving our environment. I know now, more than ever, that spending money on incentives to recycle is a weird idea, but if it’s to increase our input into saving the globe, then stewards we must be. Surely there has to be money from somewhere that we can use to save on future costs.
“OMG Eco-chic is so last year!”
Dragging those green and brown bins to the side of the road seems to be far too labour-intensive for the usually conscientious person. Let’s face it; eco-chic went out the window when the Winter collection came around in 2008. It’s not the cool thing to do now. Those bins are full of rotting recyclables and decaying dinners, why would I want to touch them?!
It used to be hip to be seen with your reusable shopping bag on your bicycle, heading to the local organic food store, but the effort of it all has finally caught up with people, and now they’re throwing their green morals to the side. I doubt Yves Saint Laurent is going to start a green line, or Dior will offer to plant a tree for every pair of hemp trousers sold, but initiative is needed. Word of mouth maybe: “Did you hear that wicker is so in now?”
Should we really use the recession as an excuse to damage our environment? At the end of the day, it’s going to come back around and bite us in the ass. Why not nip it in the bud at a point when we can’t afford not to do so? Incorporate being environmentally friendly into your daily life, and soon it will become as easy as breathing. You don’t have to grow your own vegetable patch or plant flowers all over your town (even though that would be nice) - it’s just a bit of an effort that’s needed. And if we are to benefit, what do we have to lose?
“There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.” Ghandi
By: Andrew Smith
Your Comments
There are no comments for this article yet, please leave one!
Login to leave a comment on this article
Login | Sign Up