Vision 2030
Modern consumption (© Jenny Band)
By 2030, Totnes and district has achieved almost zero waste and almost 100% resource recovery. Everything is valued and reused and recycled in ways that minimise impact on the environment. Few people have money to spend on luxuries, nor the space to accommodate a lot of clutter, as home space is used for all the tools, materials and books needed being more creative to meet own needs, such as cooking, sewing, DIY, gardening. In place of excess money, most people have created more time to live more diverse lives to enable them provide for more of their own basic needs. Through this change, values around resources and waste have moved on and reflect respect, an ethical approach and prudence, and recognition of the connection between resources and the planet, viewing with astonishment the brief but severe mass-consumerism and the throw away society at the turn of the 21st century.
2030 A tale of waste
Waste isn’t really a word we use much these days. By the time we have reused, repaired, restored and recycled all our things, we rarely have much left to worry about. It’s just as well, as any thing we do have to get rid of costs a fortune; that was a very clever move by the government.
My wife was the chief commandant on waste in our house when we got married in 2015. Our wedding day coincided with all the wheelie bins being rounded up and used for separated waste at the end of the street. Quite a few people were unhappy with that and went marching up the road to collect their bin back. It was no good though; the waste officer had them all padlocked to the railings. The protest in town was a bit more colourful, a big group of people had gathered with placards saying they wouldn’t pay their council taxes and to their surprise found themselves listening to announcements from the local authority Bod saying they had all been reduced anyway to reflect the costs going down. The problem being the newspaper wasn’t printed that week due to a black-out and so very few people got their facts right. It was all okay in the end and everyone went home happy, but in the middle of all this we were trying to get our very neat pony and trap down Fore Street with out getting any scratches and our wedding guests were all trying to walk behind us, navigating their way through the crowds.
The zero waste idea didn’t go down very well when it was announced in 2012. A lot of people thought it was impossible. The fact that the way we were carrying on with all our consuming, wastage and filling up landfills was impossible didn’t occur to most people. All the people in our street went on the “Say no to Incineration” march. It was a real marching time, protests for this and that, probably because so many people were losing their jobs and wanted someone to notice. All the 5 Rs for Zero Waste took quite a bit of getting used to, remembering to take your bag to the shop, and remembering to take the bottles and jars to get refilled. Doris made a big notice on the back of the kitchen door. We were already pretty used to sorting out the waste, and it made a big difference when the recycling & reuse place in Babbage Road expanded. I made us a little box on wheels, which I knocked up one afternoon to take the recycling.
My own contribution is the compost heap. I made a 3 section wooden box with pull out panels on the front. One section is rotting down ready for the garden, the middle one I turn every week and the other one I put all the weeds and peelings in. It works a treat. My neighbour was so impressed he asked me to make him one in exchange for a fruit tree. Now that’s what I call recycling.
Lawrence Dunnit, Ashprington
2 comments on “Vision 2030”
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Para 7
“recycling” (the last word in Para7) it definitely is not! It’s re-use! The compost box is made from old pallets or slats from a wooden bed. We have a re-use centre which tries to find homes for lots and lots of “stuff”, whether it be a reconditioned washing machine or using the sides of a collapsed IKEA wardrobe (which is beyond repair) to board over a well insulated loft. Re-use centres will encourage DIY and re-making through skilshare workshops. These re-use centres are to be part of a nationwide network arising from the latest EU Waste Framework Directive. They should be an integral part of a TT. If Totnes wants one we’d be happy to give advice. One last word: recycling is not necessarily part of the solution, if the product being recycled has been used for some unsustainable purpose eg aluminium cans used for sugary fizzy drinks or plastic bottles used for spring water. While we should recycle these when they become part of the waste stream we should give more attention to devising strategies for discouraging their unsustainable use (a carbon tax would help here)
The reference to recycling is intended as a play on words where it is the idea that it recycled. (This short piece is a fabricated tale from the future). Thanks for pointing it out tho’