Cleaning Up After Wanton Acts of Wastefulness

“My pet hate is watching people being wantonly wasteful” says Andrea Cally in The Age. “I’d rather see blood and gore than people treating the bay like a giant ashtray, emptying rubbish onto the road, or my personal nightmare, leaving the shower or tap running. As we become more conscious about climate change and our carbon footprint, we may think these wanton acts of wastefulness have gone the way of the chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling screen heroes of yesteryear. Think again.” Surprisingly, people are still making more rubbish and on Clean Up Australia Day (6 March) thousands will scour the country on a mass pick up run.

Andrea Cally In The Age (4 March 2011)

Infidelities, identity fraud and blatant sexism aside, one of the most disturbing scenes in the ’60s period drama series Mad Men is the aftermath of a Draper family picnic. In the blink of an eye this idyllic picture of domestic bliss turns into one of wanton destruction, as the picture-perfect Don and Betty commit a blatant act of litter and run.

As soon as Don downs the last of his beer, he hurls his empty can into the trees. Meanwhile, his wife casually dumps the remaining food scraps and rubbish on the grass and walks away. These crimes against nature are all the more shocking because they are committed in front of impressionable children.

We all have our own forms of film torture. For some, it’s people who drive without looking at the road, or staged driving in a studio. Others hate onscreen violence or heights. My pet hate is watching people being wantonly wasteful.

I’d rather see blood and gore than people treating the bay like a giant ashtray, emptying rubbish onto the road, or my personal nightmare, leaving the shower or tap running.

As we become more conscious about climate change and our carbon footprint, we may think these wanton acts of wastefulness have gone the way of the chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling screen heroes of yesteryear. Think again.

We are undoubtedly more environmentally aware today than the Drapers. But while our on-screen alter egos are environmentally evolving — encouraging us to be at one with nature in Avatar, showing us that greed and oil don’t mix in There Will be Blood, and giving us a glimpse into the wasteland we are creating inWall-E — the 2010 Clean Up Australia Day report shows the reality isn’t quite so squeaky green.

Last year’s report shows there was a 6 per cent increase in the number of items recovered at each site, equating to an extra 124 items per square kilometre.

Seven of the 10 most common items found were recyclable, and nine of those 10 were forms of packaging, including paper, PET drink bottles, alcohol bottles and aluminium cans. Clearly the ‘‘reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle’’ message isn’t registering.

Beaches and coastal areas were the third-most rubbished sites last year, and rivers and creeks were not far behind in fifth place. About 80 per cent of land-based litter, ends up in our waterways. This includes  plastic bags, which have a 450-year life expectancy. Any animal that ingests a plastic bag will die;  once its body decomposes, the plastic bag is freed to kill again. It has certainly earned its nickname as the serial killer of the sea.

The number of miscellaneous items recovered peaked at 21.2 per cent in 2010, compared with a 15-year average of 13 per cent. This upward trend is due to the number of cigarette butts found, which made up 92 per cent of this waste stream. Despite the fact that the number of people smoking has nearly halvedfrom 30.5 per cent in 1988 to 16.6 per cent in 2007, one in every five items removed during last year’s clean up was the legacy of this dirty little habit.

While cigarette butts were the most common item found, plastic food and drink containers achieved the most coverage for the 16th consecutive year, comprising 40 per cent of all recovered items.

Made from a cocktail of chemical compounds, plastic is one of the most pervasive and destructive waste forms in the world. During its long lifespan it poses a danger to surrounding flora and fauna through leaching, animal ingestion and injury, as well as transporting invasive species.

We all have a part to play in righting these rubbish-related wrongs, including the film and television industry, which reflects the acceptable social mores of the day. These industries have certainly done their bit when it comes to cigarettes, especially the fag-free, fresh-breathed fraternity in TV land.

You only have to listen to the loud chorus of disapproval whenMad Men confronts us with images of pregnant women sucking on a cigarette or socking back a wine to realise how much our attitudes have changed when it comes to polluting our bodies. Now it’s a matter of applying that logic to our external environment.

I, for one, would sleep better if the film industry introduced an animal-welfare style disclaimer for the environment that guaranteed that ‘‘no valuable resources were wasted; no landscapes, airspaces or waterways were contaminated, during the making of this film/TV show’’.

In the meantime I will be doing my bit by keeping my patch of Australia beautiful this Sunday. Care to join me?

Andrea Cally is a freelance writer. Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday. www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au

Source: http://www.theage.com.au