I have been investigating the world of sustainable society. This is an environmental issue which is prominent with the governments of the world. I do this as the administrator of www.ozrecycle.com.au – The Australian Recyclers Community (Perhaps I should rename it to The Australian Re-Users Community?) where Australians give away their unwanted items to other members who need them (whether that be for personal use or resale we do not know).
It was recently mentioned to me that re-using is more enviromentally friendly than recycling. I can see the sense in this as the cost of recycling (not just financially but the energy consumption as well as man hours) far outweighs the environmental cost of someone re-using another person’s unwanted item (one man’s junk is another man’s treasure). It would be interesting to find out how many local councils promote the re-use of items rather than encouraging recycling. These two types of landfill reductions should, in my opinion, be promoted alongside each other with re-use being the preferred option.
I welcome any insights or comments.
I definitely agree that re-using is more environmentally friendly. Re-using cuts down on landfill, the consumption of manufacturing energy and the use of more fossil fuels.
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
Oz Recycle (http://www.ozrecycle.com) was featured on ABC Radio for a ten minute interview by Debra on the morning show Eco-Warrior segment on the 5th July 2010.
I was asked some very strange questions such as:
Why did we set it up nationally? (Would we set it up in any other way?)
What did we do to quality control the items which were offered? (what are we supposed to do? Go around to everyone’s house who made an offer to make sure the item was in good condition?)
After spending the ten minutes being asked questions (which were not on the list of questions sent to me and prepared for before the interview – she didn’t ask any of those) Debra decided it was time to give a plug to a site which we are not even involved with.
So much for taking my time seriously ABC and ‘DEBRA’ in particular! I hope it was worth your time. Just because you couldn’t get an interview with the other people you wanted to talk to you decided it was time to try and discredit my efforts to help with an environmental issue and promote them instead! Last time I will respond to a request from the ABC for an interview.
I spend a lot of time in front of the computer monitoring items which are posted to http://www.ozrecycle.com and I hope people appreciate that I actually make a loss from the site.