Shocker!!!

I recycle. Everyday. I carry four trash bags everytime I take the trash out, like hundreds of thousands of people in Spain. The glass into a seperate container, the metal, plastic, tetrabricks, aluminium into another, paper and carton into another and finally organic and other non-recyclable waste into a fourth bin. Needless to say, those of us who recycle are trying to do what we can to put in our little grain of sand towards the betterment of our mother, our planet.

But when the result is this (read article below), I am left completely flabbergasted and wondering where the waste I generate goes? Does it go to another country? Do little children in a far away land play around stinking heaps of my garbage?

Then it brings me to the larger picture. Is recycling really good? Should I re-think about continuing to recycle? How am I assured that my garbage in Spain is not exported to India, Brazil or Cambodia? Is it fair for one country to go "green" at the expense of another? At the end of the day, the garbage still remains on the planet. Things to ponder over...

What remains clear is that the Government of India has proved its incompetence once again, the Govt of Tamil Nadu too; along with the companies involved in this dirty and careless activity, who are importing what is surely toxic waste with complete disregard for any kind of moral or social responsibility. How does the Govt of Britain justify this?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LONDON/NEW DELHI: Garbage is literally flying and hitting the roof thousands of kilometres away. A TV report about household waste collected weekly across Britain for recycling being shipped and dumped in India has the green brigade up in arms.

As part of Britain's efforts to go green and improve the environment, UK councils ask households to carefully separate waste into different categories: plastics, metal, paper and glass so that they can be recycled.

But, according to an investigation by a British TV channel, these bags are shipped to India on the waste black market, which is cheaper. It costs up to £148 (Rs 12,000) to recycle a tonne of rubbish once it is separated but only £40 (Rs 2,800) to ship it to India.

The investigation found that a receipt put into a paper recycling bin in Essex turned up at the top of a stinking rubbish mound in Tamil Nadu. It was traced to Walton-on-the-Naze home of Geoff Moore. His receipt for CDs was found by investigators at a sprawling rubbish heap in Tamil Nadu. They also found juice cartons, British newspapers, Walkers crisp packets, UK school reports and plastic bags.

Read the rest of the article here.