The Proof Is In The Packaging

By Rupert Truscott-Hughes on April 23, 2015 in Other

I know that I am a fairly negative chap at the best of times, and there are many things in this world that I despise, but nothing gets my goat quite as much as littering, particularly here in our beautiful little corner of the planet. And, quite frankly, I blame the westies, because there is no way in the world that those who call the Eastern Suburbs home could possibly be responsible for such abominable behaviour.

To be honest, the proof is often in the pudding, or, more aptly, in the packaging. The vast majority of rubbish that you see dumped at the beach or scattered around the harbour’s bays after a busy day is emblazoned with the branding of the big fast food chains like McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks and Oportos.

Obviously if Eastern Suburbs residents were responsible for leaving behind their refuse, we’d be seeing far more empty Cali Press juice containers, kale chip wrappers and coconut husks piled up in our parklands.

After all, you can’t exactly follow Pete Evans’ paleo program, subscribe to Sarah Wilson’s sugar-free sect (of sorts), or claim to be part of a fermentation-obsessed kombucha cult if you’re then going to be seen chomping down on the kind of chow that will only allow to live to ninety.
Can you imagine the amount of ‘toxins’ in that trash? Do people not worry about their own ‘wellness’? Are they not concerned about what that poison-ladened processed junk is doing to their ‘chakras’ (I don’t actually even know what that one means)?

Which leads me on to another brief point. You see part of me believes that the original creators of this waste should be held accountable for its proper disposal, at least to some extent. The aforementioned fast food chains as well as big soft drink manufacturers like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have their logos plastered prominently all over the waste, so it wouldn’t be too hard to trace it back to its origins. Even if it was something as simple as funding a few clean-up campaigns or chipping in for recycling facilities at key public places, it would certainly be a step in the right direction. Surely it could only be positive from a public relations perspective too?

Unfortunately, instead of being proactive, the soft drink lobby in particular has really been taking the piss of late. Rather than providing support for the state government’s new container disposal scheme, which is a fantastic initiative all round, they’ve done everything in their power (and they wield a significant amount) to ensure that we dwell in the environmental dark ages, and all for the sake of about ten cents a can. Shit, South Australia has been doing it for years and from all accounts it is working a treat, with recycling rates going through the roof there compared to the rest of the country.

At the end of the day, though, for the container disposal scheme to work, us, the citizens of Australia, need to clean up after ourselves, regardless of which side of Anzac Parade we live on.