For weeks, the recycling tub had been spilling over on to the kitchen floor with non-recyclable garbage.  In my normal culturally sensitive way,  I blamed the Irishman who recently moved in to the house . Presumably the Irish were a bit behind on this one and the poor dear didn't understand what the second bin was for. I finally cornered him and proceeded to make an idiot out of myself explaining how we sort the rubbish in this country.

Yet again, turns out Australia's a little bit behind.  Paddy wasn't neglecting to separate the recycling, he's just used to a much wider range of products being collected and was dutifully putting them all aside. He was apalled to learn the limits to our council's recycling program.

Ireland only adopted state sponsored recycling  a few years back. Being a a tiny island with a dense population, they've used up all their landfill and now have to pay other countries to ship and store their refuse offshore. That rather costly incentive saw his hometown council move from no recycling program to a world class one in under 3years.

It's always the newly converted who are most devout.

On our massive island with a sparse population, we've got the oportunity to be totally slack for a while longer.

So it's up to indvidual recycling bores to fight the good fight. Recycling is part of a defensive strategy though, attacking the problem demands using less stuff in the first place.

December 31^st 1999 I made a resolution to stop accepting plastic bags at  the shops.  As new year's resolutions go it's been pretty well observed.  Why not try it yourself?  Just stay strong, local shopkeepers eventually get the message, after the hundredth or so visit, that you really don't want a plastic bag for your plastic bag containing a loaf of bread.

Exceptions are allowed when it's raining and something needs to be kept dry, or when a plastic bag is urgently required to pick up dog poo or some other glamorous task. Fancy plastic bags from clothes shops are excluded from the rule on the condition they must be kept and reused until in tatters.

Unfortunately we live in a society where even "I don't need a bag thanks " doogooders waste massive amounts of plastic.  It's so hard to find products not wrapped in multiple layers of the junk.

Like many of my counterparts from the latte sipping lite-left,  my most regular and easily avoidable environmental sin is take-away coffee.

It's not so bad, just a one cup a day habit... occassionally two.

Like a teetotaller slipping valium, there is somethng despicable about a dedicated plastic bag abstainer addicted to plastic coffee cup lids.

More shame , they're actually made from recyclable plastic but they just get tossed in the bin.  Do you know anyone who washes their recyclables and pops them in their purse to take home?

A few months back I posted a blog here about (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch).  That post was successful in prickling my own conscience for a couple of weeks of consuming less plastic.

Today, the steady decline from grace was completed.

I just ate my lunch with plastic utensils, off a styrofoam plate, then wiped my mouth with an individually plastic wrapped napkin. In my defence, I was tricked.  It was in a normal looking cafe within a shopping centre , not one of the evil takeaway franchises.

Privately operated cafes and restaurants have always managed to wash and dry the dishes, cutlery and glasses necessary to serve a full a-la-carte menu.  So why do we consider it an impossible imposition on massive businesses which only serve a small, standardised menu? 

How did it become acceptable, even desirable that an establishment can charge $14.50 for a quieche with salad and expect you to cut it with a plastic knife? It's madness, on so many levels.

We  need to acknowledge that everytime we use a disposable plastic bag or cup we are littering.  Even when we dipose of it "in the bins provided", we are still littering, because most of it ends up in the ocean or at best in landfill. Well thats just dumping it out of sight out of mind. These small pleasantries which really add nothing to our quality of life and pollute our world need to go.

If a recycling bore like me can't self-regulate reliably, then the rest of you lot certainly can't be trusted and the government should put us all on a shorter leash.

Somebody please disipline me, I've been a naughty, naughty wasteful girl.

Free disposable plastic bags and disposable packaging for dine-in guests in eateries must be legislated against.