Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The War On Waste

Last night, on the ABC television, I watched an hour of television which really educated and saddened me. It was a documentary which showed me how much food we are wasting in Australia - and yet, the government is blaming us, the consumer, for this problem, when it's got nothing to do with us.

It starts at the farmers. They pull in more food than we can eat - that's enough food to feed over twice our population - and yet they are forced to throw away over 40 tonnes of it every day because it doesn't look right, it's too long, it's too short, it's too thick, it's too thin... sounds like I'm describing something disgusting, right? Well, I'm not. I'm describing bananas. Our farmers are throwing away so many bananas where there's nothing wrong with them except their size and yet, they're wasted because the big shopping centres think we don't want to eat them.
But this is to their strict standards of how food should look; making us fussy customers - which in turn makes the farmers waste so much on their farms. Putting it in ordinary terms: the farmers throw out about 40% of what they pull in every day - something they could be donating to food banks, sending to people who can't afford to eat and making sure we all eat.

Another way food it being wasted is at the shopping centres. There's big industrial bins out the back of the places where so much food is being thrown out instead of being used in the food banks. There are people who bin-dive to survive on the food there; and they are the most unlikely people as well. 
Over 20 years ago, when I was younger and working, I used to skateboard around the back of one of the local shopping centres and bin dive to find they threw out the best things! There were magazines, bread, fruit and vegetables, bags of chips and nuts... all within date. When I was spotted by security, the shopping centre whacked a padlock on the bins. Were they in denial or did they do that for my own safety? I'll never know. But if that was happening over 20 years ago, I wonder if they're doing this still.

It's not just food being wasted either. 

There's clothes, furniture and other essentials in life which makes our lives so much more comfortable which is being wasted by being tossed in landfill. 

I recycle everything I can before I have to throw it out. Almost all my clothes are from op-shops, so are my books, vinyls and furniture. 95% of my house is filled with second-hand and op-shopped items - the acception being my bedroom where I bought myself a brand new bedroom suite with a new mattress after 20 years of sleeping on the same bed (and the springs in it started poking through into me). 
When my clothes no longer fit me I donate them if they're in good-enough shape. Or if they're falling apart, I cut them up into rags and use them to clean my paint brushes or to polish my furniture. Once those rags are no longer useful, I cut them into strips and use them to tie to garden stakes (yep, I haven't used plastic ties in over 5 years, it's gentler on the plant). And once they're threadbare, it's then I throw that out... and this all takes around 4 - 5 years to take place. 
I donate everything from shoes to hats, handbags, jeans, pajamas and socks... all washed and cleaned properly, folded up and ready for use. But the one thing I don't donate is my underwear (after all if I don't want it, who else will?). 

Now, this didn't just happen. This took time. I had to take a careful look at how much money I was spending on things, figure out where the op-shops were in my area and make sure I knew what I wanted from them, knew what I could live without in my home and know how to be just happy with my lot in life... which is something we have to learn to be again. 

And this is the problem with out society. 

We have become a society of socialites, of greedy little grommets who want more, and more, and more and never think about what it's doing to the world, our bank accounts or what it will do to the future generations that when we do look around us and realise exactly how much in debt we are, how little we really do want our things and how unhappy we actually are with 'our lot in life', it'll be far too late. 

The time to act is now. If you're looking at buying new furniture from a big place like IKEA or Freedom, instead go to a Life Line Supa-Store (where the furniture is being sold) and look at the furniture there. It'll be in lovely condition, may be a little old-fashioned but will last longer because it's built properly. Some of it may be only a few years old, while other pieces will be over 40 years old and just lovely and will last longer than the 'retro-style' that's made now because it's got that weight it needs to keep it together.

And before you all start commenting on the expense to me, let me tell you something about how I've afforded to op-shop. I'm on a pension - which only just covers my rent, my bills, getting food into my stomach and my medication and putting petrol into my car - and yet, I can put aside $40 a fortnight into a bank account to save for something I really want at any op-shop around Brisbane. All you have to do is know where to look, be picky about what you want, and enjoy yourself. You're out shopping in a store, which has a bit of everything in it, and it's for a good cause too, and all you have to do on your first few visits is look... but donating to op-shops is even better for you as you don't have to throw your unwanted clothes in the bin, somebody else will enjoy them as much as you did. And besides, there's a lot of things you'll find in an op-shop you'll never find anywhere else.  

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