I would like to hear people opinion on the following.

Its my view that reducing our personal fossil fuel usage and recycling is not the most important thing to helping our environment.

It is in fact our attitude on constantly trying to save money all the time. We now have a cheap throwaway culture. We now expect everything to be cheap and then when it breaks of fails we are not surprised. Most of these goods come from Asia. Which is now the highest pollutant in the world.

Once we expected a product to last, yes it did cost more but it lasted. I have members of my family that are happy to buy a pair of cheap secateurs for less than £10, use for a season and then throw them away, instead of looking after a good paid for their entire life. Its worse with electrical goods. The cheaper we can get them the better!! Yes we buy a cheap unbranded strimmer from our local DIY store and after one or two years it gets thrown away. Did we need the strimmer in the first pace? Couldn't we have spent a little more on something that was made in regulated Europe and will maybe last longer?

Cheaper is always at a cost!

I am shocked at the amount of toys my children have this year and the amount that are never going to be used. Cheap plastic toys that have taken energy and world resources to produce for absolutely no reason. After 2 years of not being used these are going to go into the bin, and yes they are plastic so will not be recycled.

Flights for £5? Another example of our current attitude. Maybe there should be a £50 environmental charge on top of this. Every time we fly a few trees are planted. We always want to do as we like regardless of the cost to the environment, but are we happier than previous generations that didn't. I don't believe we are.

Ainsley