“Endarkenment”- Environmental Complacency

Rice in polystyrene being kept warm on the pot of cooked rice 

For quite some time I've struggled with the idea that apart from a dedicated few the amount of individual effort that so many people put into taking affirmative action for the environment is actually diminishing. That’s how it seems to me. Yes, the younger generation are more proactive but still many well-educated individuals, who must have been bombarded with evidence to suggest that the time-bomb is ticking on our planet, are complacent if not complicit.

 

Even in a sit down cafe meals are often served in polystyrene

Whenever I mention the overuse of polystyrene, plastic straws, single use plastic bags and disposable containers and utensils eye rolling, sighing or even outright contempt are normal responses from those who are informed enough to know better. Many others in our local community are barely aware of the impact of their actions. However, people who articulate the same values and standards as I see as essential, still fail to walk the talk and this I find unforgivable.

 

containers standing by waiting for orders to fill them

We live in a developing country where the cost of a take away meal can be as low as $1.25 and that cost often includes the polystyrene container, several plastic bags, rubber bands and maybe even disposable chopsticks or a plastic spoon. Takeaway drinks, which are so cheaply available that several purchases in a day by any one individual are not uncommon, are similarly afflicted with cups, lids, straws and carry bags or slings. To change all of those items to compostable alternatives would simply escalate the cost to the extent that the packaging would be more costly than the contents. For these reasons I find it impossible to see a quick fix here for local vendors and customers struggling to survive on a daily basis.

Drinks to go

Though education campaigns and modelling better disposal practices could do much to improve the worsening street, countryside and coastal garbage issues, that means it will be at least another generation before change is evident and neither we nor the planet have the luxury of that much time.

 

polystyrene everywhere

I advocate for taking cloth bags and reusable containers into markets and always do myself. While this simple measure is often a source of amusement to vendors and some simply will not put their produce in anything but a single use plastic bag, others have embraced this behaviour so there is reason to believe change is indeed possible. Some have in fact reverted to using Lotus leaves or banana leaves and those items are actually available for purchase in the markets along with the fresh produce. 

Just home from the market with lotus leaves, silicon reseal bags and plastic reusable boxes 

For those vendors who insist on using plastic bags, we respond by washing them and taking them back to those in question to use for our next purchase. Some other customers do attempt refuse, reuse, and recycle practices but most simply take every bag offered and reuse the bag only once more for rubbish disposal at best.

 

She's got it down pretty well - reused pet bottles, tiffin tins and only one plastic bag

The common place practice of simply tossing anything at all on the ground in whatever place you ceased to need it absolutely disgusts me and I see the adverse reactions of foreign tourists regularly.

 

a vendor with bags, bags, and more bags and even the pre-bagged sliced loaf will go in a bag to make it easier to carry home on the moto!

NB the single slice of bread some people buy -that's how tight the budget really is.

In a society where confrontation is avoided at all cost how can we overcome such lack of resources and responsibility except through education? I see no simple, short, or long term fixes and it worries me enormously.

 

rice packed and awaiting customers

I was also dismayed to observe how much polystyrene is still in use in Australia on our recent trip home. However, I was truly heartened to see the incredible progress made with respect to plastic and disposable utensils. Yes, we are better placed to bear the increased costs of environmentally friendly alternatives and legislation has been the driving force behind many of the positive changes in both attitudes and actions. There is nonetheless a complacency and inaction when it comes to sorting and appropriate disposal of waste and a cynical disbelief that the system is actually achieving the results that we are led to believe it is, in my view. More individuals are making more of an effort but will any of it be enough to rectify the imbalance after years of neglect and denial? I don't think so.

standard plastic bag of drink with straw - in this case the rehydration much needed by a cyclo rider

I’m no saint but I just don't get how you cannot feel the necessity to act now and do the little you can.

 

Happy chap but ......Oh no! That load!polystyrene and paper napkins being delivered to local establishments

I was inspired to write this piece after reading and re-reading the following quote. It saddens me to think this is the bleak scenario we are creating for future generations.

 

“It’s grief for the regions we deadlanded, the ice caps we melted, the Gulf Stream we redirected, the rivers we drained, the coasts we flooded, the lakes we choked with crap, the seas we killed, the species we drove to extinction, the pollinators we wiped out, the oil we squandered, the drugs we rendered impotent, the comforting liars we voted into office—all so we didn’t have change our cosy lifestyles. People talk about the Endarkenment like our ancestors talked about the Black Death, as if it’s an act of God. But we summoned it, with every tank of oil we burned our way through. My generation were diners stuffing ourselves senseless at the Restaurant of the Earth’s Riches knowing—while denying—that we’d be doing a runner and leaving our grandchildren a tab that can never be paid”

 Excerpt From: Mitchell, David. “The Bone Clocks: A Novel.” Random House Publishing Group,

 

“ENDARKENMENT” it’s certainly a fine made-up word that I hope doesn’t become part of the lexicon in the not too distant future.

At least four plastic bags on one early morning market outing and like many others the chances are she does it everyday as refrigeration is often via ice and iceboxes

“If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem”

 

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)

A writer, political activist and early leader of the Black Panther Party