The Paper Conspiracy.

Why, where and how come is it so prolific?

Burgenland is miles ahead of many other countries in regard to recycling and in fact it took Bob and I a very long time to come to grips with it. It is really not so easy to know what to place in which container, and what is organic waste.

The latter they call the Bio-Tonne / Organic-bin which I took to mean that it must contain all and sundry which normally resides on your compost heap...when I heard someone tell me that even cooked meat etc could go in there, I quickly checked if it wasn't April first. Imagine putting leftover cooked food in an organic bin?

Today, and thankfully so, was the paper collection day. Our bin was overflowing with squashed paper of all sorts-Newspaper, letters, pamphlets, cardboard boxes and the nefarious packaging paper. Why are companies so enraptured with wrapping everything to the nth degree? Surely a plastic ( bad as it is ) covering should suffice instead of still putting a layer of cardboard over a cereal box or a six pack of joghurt.

Where does it all go and don't tell me that recycling paper is a perfect equation because one mustn't forget the chemicals used to make any packaging look appealing and addictive to the likes of us. Where do those end up? Into our groundwater via many twists and turns perhaps? Wouldn't it be a nice compromise if any and all packaging had to be in black and white before phasing it out all together?

To be honest, I am very much at fault for purchasing all those wrapped products as it is difficult not to. I do try and shop in a reasonable manner but when I see the daily batch of waste paper collecting in our waste paper basket, I get cross with myself for being so irresponsible while at the same time wondering at the mountain of waste paper everyone of us billions of earthlings is collecting daily.

Biggi