Sustainably debatable.

I found I learnt a fair bit from this exercise, I was particularly impressed with Denmark's attitudes and efforts towards the subject.
Admittedly it was a losing battle when it came to Denmark winning any of the money because they are so up to date with their sustainability but I also thought that the pair who covered Denmark done well to keep the policies in there and show the rest of us how good they were instead of maybe toning it down in an attempt to get some money.

On the other hand I was slightly unimpressed with the United States, to me it felt like there was an undercurrent of greed when it came to the money and that they were more interested in putting the money towards their oil problem and the military instead of helping Africa.

This of course has nothing to do with the people who represented America.

There was quite alot to research when it came to Bulgaria's sustainability, I think the country has along way to go before any of the policies will actually make any sort of effect, and there are other issues which possibly need to be addressed before the sustainability ones will be worthwhile.

I was very surprised with the problems Bulgaria face on the daily and the amount of effort that is needed to live comfortably and sustainably, not only on the economical side but also on the natural side with things such as weather and terrain making it hard for the population to move forward.

The variation of all 14 countries I personally found was abit disgraceful, I personally think its about time the bigger more economically and sustainably developed countries took some responsibility and gave the smaller countries with bigger problems a hand to help make sustainability a worldwide effort.

I found the assignment enjoyable, it was good to work with someone who I usually wouldnt and acheive something from such a small basepoint, having to build a working relationship and then work together to make the assignment work.

I feel as if my partner was better at using the information in the presentation, I find im not very good at presenting in front of a group of people.
If I was to do it again, I would focus on the matters of sustainability more than the background and facts of Bulgaria.

All together I found it was a good assignment to be set, the structure was good and it gave people the opportunity to learn about thier own country as well as others.

Those little green arrows.

People of the next generation have been brought up with the 'little green arrows' the triangle that represents a recycled future and the hope of being the first generation to grab the bull by the horns and realise that something needs to be done when it comes to the amount of waste that we throw away each day, week, month and year.

It has become apparent that within the last eight years district councils from Northamptonshire have at least tried to change the way that recycling is perceived and acted upon so we can become a more environmentally friendly and a more sustainable county.

It seems that most district councils have made sure that at least some change has become priority, this is shown through the ratings, even though some of the district's have not been as successful as others or that some were at a good level in the first place, all have changed for the best. Although another way to view these changes would be to ask whether or not they were making any effort in the beginning to recycle anything at all or was it just because the issue was becoming front page news that maybe councils should do something about it?

Either way it is obvious that there has been a definitive change in attitudes when it come to recycling and that the schemes the council have come up with to ensure that recycling is taken seriously but with ease as to not change peoples lifestyles to much has certainly worked.
Different colour bins for different refuse being collected on different days is not a particularly hard job for your average family to try and stick to, although one downfall I think this plan does have is that many families are going to get through more than just one wheelie bin every two weeks and there may be some overflow.

Of course there is always the point that we could change our entire attitudes to the products we buy and the way we transport them.
Over packaging in plastics and non recyclable packaging is becoming less of a problem but it is still there.

Wrapping goods in plastic, shrink wrapping and then cardboard boxes is all to much, the amount of plastic bags we use is absolutely ridiculous (Did you know there are enough plastic bags made each day to cover the entire worlds surface and they can take up to 500 years to decompose?... you do now.)
It is good that big supermarkets are bringing in the reusable material bags, even using big cardboard boxes for groceries is better than the average carrier bag.
I suppose my point is if there is less usual residual refuse then people will have to just recycle the everyday rubbish because there is nothing else to throw away, making it not a priority in their otherwise scheduled lives but a routine that is already there, doing better for the environment, the economy and us.


http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B63E7599-1BCC-42DF-BF9E-8BC330278515/0/NJMWMSStrategyFINAL.pdf