There is a big big job to do in terms of recycling, and for the moment very little is done.
I often go to the recycling center of my municipality and when I see what is thrown away, I am horrified!
For example, a new big container was recently installed to throw away the furniture and I cry regularly
(with others) when we see the quality and good condition of what is thrown: much better quality and in better condition than most of the furniture I have at home.
Regularly, there are large stocks of NEW and still packaged products arriving at the recycling center, probably companies that go bankrupt and that have to empty a hangar or a room in an emergency: everything is loaded into a dump truck that comes to dump at the recycling center. It is a sad reality!
Another example, I am a member of a
association which militates for the use of the bicycle in town and who opened
a participative bike workshop in an underprivileged area of a large municipality: to repair bikes we collect all the bike equipment and old bikes. For years we have been trying to convince elected officials to recover the very large number of bikes which leave in the dumpsters of recycling centers to restore them, resell them at a symbolic price or lend them: for the moment no positive return from elected officials. (We just manage to recover some bikes in the dumpsters by negotiating with the complacent staff of the recycling center).
Likewise, we have noticed that regularly a huge stock of bikes still in good condition, which have been stolen and recovered by the police in cellars, stash houses, or abandoned on the street, are resold
by weight for a symbolic price to a ... scrap dealer!
Last subject that makes my hair stand on end: food waste.The one we regularly talk about raising our arms to the sky wondering how it is still possible in our time when so many people lack food. Regularly I go around bakeries and fruit and vegetable shops to find out if I can collect unsold items that go to the dumpster every day to give them to my animals (horses, ponies, rabbits, ...).
Some businesses refuse to give ("it sounds bad ..." some say, and others, "it's forbidden to give for reasons of responsibility ..."), but only with other businesses this are hundreds of kg of food just a little shabby or unsold from the day before which
could should be collected instead of being thrown away: sometimes there are too many for me to recover everything!
And at the same time, there are many charities that make desperate calls for food donations and that organize occasional food donation operations in the parking lots of supermarkets ...