I registered my blog to take part in
Blog Action Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of the current environmental situation through all bloggers dedicating their thoughts to this subject on this particular day.
I have decided to focus on Goal No. 7 of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) which states that by 2015:
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020
Though the latter two bullet points are issues which remain to be resolved at a governmental and bureaucratic level, I believe that the general public have much to contribute to environmental sustainability by integrating lifestyle choices which reduce the use of unnecessary resources.
So many people opt for the easy disposable option now. Whilst I understand the benefits of this to time management, would it really kill you to wash your own cutlery and dry your own plates? It's amazing how many people choose to use disposable paper or plastic utensils in their home and then don't even recycle them! I'm really frustrated by the lax attitude my government is taking towards the simple issue of recycling. It is neither encouraged or emphasised amongst the young which I believe is the best time to educate them on environmental development since they're probably going to be affected in their later lives by our wasteful habits.
When I was in China this summer I was impressed that the Chinese government have placed recycling bins next to general rubbish bins thus making it simple and accessible for the public to recycle materials they need to dispose of. I haven't once seen a public recycling bin in the UK nor do people even know the difference between materials which can and cannot be recycled.
In my flat, my housemate and I have a general recycling bag which is collected on a weekly basis and we try to buy environmentally friendly household resources. Last week I bought toilet tissue made from recycled paper at the local supermarket, though pleased I made an ethical choice, I was worried to learn that normal toilet tissue is not made from sustainable resources! Society makes it so hard to lead a sustainable lifestyle!
