Climate Change – take action by recycling all you can!

Today is ‘Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change’ – a day when bloggers from all over the world are doing their bit to combat climate change by raising awareness amongst their readers, of a wide range of related topics and discussions. As of Monday when I signed on to do my bit in this, the largest-ever social change event on the web, there was something like 5,983 bloggers signed on representing a total audience of well over 10.75 million readers.

Now my humble little blog isn’t going to be able to reach out to thousands, but even if only a handful of you get something out of the following post that prompts you to take action in your own lives, then I guess I will have done my bit for this event.

Climate Change

This year, Blog Action Day is concentrating on the topic of Climate Change. Understandably, climate change is considered by many scientists as the single greatest threat facing the world today. After all, it’s not only the environment that’s at risk. Catastrophic events like floods, famine and even war may be attributed to the increasing effects of climate change.

In December this year, world leaders are meeting at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen with the goal of signing an historic and ambitious agreement. The results of which, will hopefully see leading countries around the world taking important steps to reduce and remove practices within their borders, such as various forms of pollution, that contribute to climate change.

While this will hopefully be a major positive step at a multi-national level, each of us can contribute to the cause in our day to day lives by actively getting involved with something as simple as recycling.

Recycle all you can!

With the world’s population growing steadily, so is the rampant consumption of materials that require massive amounts of energy to extract and transport raw materials that are used to manufacture the products we all use. More often than not, once used, these materials end up as landfill waste. In doing so, large amounts of energy are further required to extract and manufacture natural resource replacement materials.

To put it simply, recycling your aluminum cans and bottles reduce the need for further mineral extractions that create greenhouse gases, and recycling paper and cardboard saves trees that reduce the global greenhouse effect by extracting carbon dioxide from the air.

But recycling doesn’t and shouldn’t end there. Cans, bottles and paper is a good start and something that is MORE than achievable by each and every one of us. But you can also take that extra step by recycling any number of other materials you no longer have a use for such as metals, oils, rubber, batteries and electronic devices.

Here’s a simple example of what you can do here in Vancouver. Instead of dumping that old, well-used TV in your apartment building’s dumpster room when your shiny new flat screen LCD is delivered, take it to the “Vancouver Central Return-It Depot” on Kingsway. From here it will be recycled safely and responsibly.

Online Resources

So how did I find out about this program? I visited the fantastic RCBC (Recycling Council of British Columbia) website. Here I was able to use their nifty “RCBC Recyclepedia” widget on the home page to find out where you can take end-of-use TVs in just a few easy steps. You can try it out for yourself by visiting their website at www.rcbc.bc.ca.

Another great recycling resource for Vancouverites is a special Blog entry prepared by Vancouver blogger Ashley Webster. He provides further recycling details on materials not covered by the RCBC website like CDs and DVDs.

For those in cities other than Vancouver, a little “Googling” will usually turn up a similar resource for you in your area. For example, it didn’t take me long to find this great “Planet ARK” website which provides detailed information on where and how you can recycle almost anything back home in Brisbane.

Now it’s your turn

So this is where I hand it over to you, my faithful readers. Wherever you are in the world, I challenge you to do your little bit for the climate change cause by committing to recycle at least one regularly used material that you currently just turf into the bin. ALL paper and cardboard products you work your way through are a good start!

And do me another favour. If you got anything out of this post at all, please share it with your family and friends. Email this post, Tweet it, Digg it, Stumble it… you can do them all easily by clicking the buttons below.

Thanks everyone.