affecting local change
- Social, Economy and Environment
The countdown has started...
The global structures of our 21st Century world are crumbling, unable to keep up with the growing demands of the consumer society it created.
Our natural resources are nearing depletion and what remains is the wastes we leave behind. Current infrastrucutre is unable to cope and is often stretched to capacity. Service provision is increasingly expensive and the waste miles associated with most recyclates are wholly unsustainable.
While we must continue to 'Think Globally', we have an ever increasing need to 'Act Locally'.
A vast majority of waste and recycling quickly becomes end-of-life material and is shipped off for reprocessing or to be stripped down to its component parts for eventual disposal.
In effect, wasting potentially reclaimable and reusable resources.
From out-of-date ICT equipment to mobile phones and bicycles!
A huge amount of current WEEE* material is being transported around the world for recycling, often ending up on 'rubbish mountains' in developing countries, to be sorted by children and adults in order they might make enough money selling our waste, to feed their families.
With the rising levels of unemployment in this country, noticeable reductions in local public services, combined with sizeable increases in transport costs across Wales, it seems ludicrous that we continue to pay more to "get rid of our rubbish" than we would ever do if we reclaimed, restored and reused these materials, goods and services locally.