As my last article on Global Warming today, due to my commitment to the Blog Action Day For Our Environment, I would like to write about a couple of personal experiences that make you wonder what some people, companies and paper pushers think.

First up, John Lewis our local department store. My wife went to buy some new shoes, found a nice pair (You didn’t expect me to say anything else now, did you?), but did not want to take the shoe-box. The sales assistant lady argued with her about not taking the box, so my wife said she would not take the shoes, if she had to take the box.

At that point the sales assistant realised, that my wife was serious and she may lose the sale, so she wrote on the till-receipt, that my wife could not bring the shoes back – which is her statuary right as a consumer – because she had refused to take the box.

Packaging is a major contributor to our environmental problem, consumers get penalized for not wanting packaging. We need a serious change in attitude and the way we package our goods.

North Herts District Council, has their “own way” of dealing with packaging, they just won’t pick it up anymore. We have just been told with two weeks notice that they will only collect our normal waste once every two weeks. So rather than working at the source of the problem, they just penalize the consumers.

Apart from creating some serious public health risks they have completely abdicated their responsibility towards the public, by introducing these measures without proper information and in my mind consultation. This type of policy has created a “fly-tipping” nightmare in our neighborhood, and it is getting worse by the week.

If we do not stop, just going for the “weakest link” in this chain, the consumer, we will further delay coming to sensible solutions for our environmental problem For the time being that seems to be the current way forward, for this government without own vision and the local councils. ST.

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