Down in the dumps over winter? Go to a landfill

Not personally – I’m feeling pretty upbeat, thanks. I mean I’ve been literally down in the dumps, as in wandering around a waste disposal facility…

This turned out to be quite a cheering experience.

I used to think of landfills as the symbol for everything that was wrong with our throw-away culture. The way George Monbiot puts it described my feelings best: “To service this peculiar form of mental illness,” (rampant consumerism, that is) “we must wear down the knap of the Earth, ream the surface of the planet with great holes, fleetingly handle the products of that destruction then dump the materials into another hole.” Sums it up well, right?

However, since visiting a local landfill and seeing first-hand the effort involved in preventing our waste damaging the planet… well, I’m still depressed about our throw-away culture. Yet reassured that when we DO biff things in the bin, they’re properly dealt with.

Okay, that’s not much. But frankly, I’ll take it; with all the cold weather, winter sniffles, and ominous eco reports lately I need some good news.

Thankfully, one of my last tasks before printing this magazine is to research and write a section on just that: environmental good news. This explains why I’m now feeling upbeat. Because there’s actually some incredibly positive, genuinely important stuff happening out there – I can recommend reading about it on page 6 of Green Ideas issue 16 if you need some cheering up.

And do take a look at our landfill report on page 18 too. I’m not saying it will get you out of the dumps – but I do guarantee you’ll learn something new.

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