Our parents and grandparents were conservationists by instinct. All the more credit to them as fancy terms had not yet been invented - like reduce, re-use and re-cycle as recipes. Nor of Global Warming, Energy Budgets and Ozone Holes. They simply believed that it was sensible and proper that materials be used maximally or given away rather than being rubbished. Our generation has jettisoned much that was good.

Newspapers were bought only when they provided something to be read. They then found use as wrappings, as wipes and finally to start up the cooking hearth. Bottles were nearly invariably returnable and refilled by their suppliers.When they eventually chipped at the mouth, they became bottle lamps or kerosene containers. Even coconut shells and fallen branches fuelled the kitchen fire. Left over rice and string hoppers were sun dried and deep-fried to produce the puffed base for sweetmeats. Even the resinous smoke from the kitchen fires helped preserve dried fish and other perishables. Coconut refuse fed free range hens, spent tea leaves became potting compost. The list is endless and tribute to the natural principle that balance depends upon the end product of one activity becoming the start of the next.

Today, we have diverged perilously and replaced good sense with rank stupidity. A few examples will suffice. Bulky newspapers provide much more crap than sense (The Island may take a bow as perhaps the least offending!). Yet we import used newsprint from Singapore! Try returning an empty bottle for a refund! Many are not returnable (eg most brands of arrack). Otherwise for a pittance of a refund, you often have to take another of the same commodity and brand! The worst are the aerated water manufacturers who have abandoned re-usable glass bottles for non-refundable plastic ones! In the most ridiculous instances, you are asked for a purchase receipt - it being implied that resourceful people may turn out branded glass bottles in their backyards! Why, in heaven’s name cannot empties be fully returnable, no questions asked and in any numbers? No excuse of administrative difficulty should be countenanced by a country sorely in need of measures to stem waste. An empty should be as good as cash. It is not rocket science to realise that melting and remoulding glass is an intensely energy demanding exercise. Hence re-use should be encouraged in every way if not actually made mandatory.  Is it also not ludicrous for a country shouting out loud (and seasonally) against plastics, to allow refillable glass bottles to be replaced by disposable and environmentally damaging plastics? We sell torches that need three cells. But batteries are sold in packs of a pair! Simple arithmetic suggests that you either buy two torchlights and three packs or discard 25% of your  battery purchase if you are too poor for two torches! Incidentally, in some countries, to ensure proper disposal of the deadly lithium containing compact batteries, new batteries are sold only on surrender of the spent ones. Do we care?

Greed, profligacy, waste and selfishness has led us to global chaos and distress. Would a course correction based on concern, compassion and conservation help?