I’ll place a bet that it isn’t quite as much as the taxi driver who brought me to the airport this morning does.
Recycling in the west is often a matter of environmental conscience, we do it because we feel better about ourselves (or we feel like we’re doing our bit) when we put that aluminum can in the right trash container or drop a stack of old newspapers off at a location that specializes in such things.
The cultures in the countries around Asia seem to care a little more. Every day you see examples of reuse in ways that we just don’t tend to see in the west, and it isn’t just a case of sending trash in the right direction, it has more to do with recognizing and respecting every resource around you.
The janitor at our apartment block is a great example.
When you see him sweeping the corridors he isn’t carrying a plastic broom, sweeping the dust and grime into a specially designed device that carries it from the floor to the trash can. Instead you’ll see him sweeping with a broom that he made himself from debris fallen from local trees, he sweeps into an old oil can that he has cut at forty five degrees then attached a previously broken broom handle to. Nothing goes to waste.
Around here you see examples like this every day, people really appear to care about getting the most of the resources that they have. It isn’t an environmental drive designed to clear an aching conscience, it is a real will to get the most out of every resource available.
As we joined the Pan Island Expressway (PIE to the locals) at about 7:30am this morning my taxi driver did two things in pretty much the same motion. In response to the rising sun he flicked off his headlights, they were clearly no longer needed, but he also reached above his head and moved the switch on the interior light from auto to off.
I asked him if he did that every day, and he replied, “of course, it saves the bulb”.
I should have expected nothing else. Sometimes I think we have a lot to learn.
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