Today I broke one of my golden rules and accepted a gift-bag proferred in the street. The gift was one those 'sustainable' carrier bags and in the bag were a couple of lights, a couple of reflective strips and a squeezy-honk bell type thing. All stuff to assist a bicycle rider not get knocked over. Admirable stuff. The event was a enviro-sustainability day thing, hence being nice to cyclists who would tell there non-cycling mates all about how great cycling is and get more peoiple out of their cars and on their bikes. Top idea. Free coffee, friut, pastries and bottles of water.
Oh dear.
Free tucker and be-nice-to cyclists is great. I genuinely applaud the efforts of those involved. But please, no bottled water. Our freebies were on offer on Sydney's Observatory Hill where there are (at least) two water fountains. Either hand out a proper bottle that will be kept and can be filled from the fountains or simply put up a sign saying 'water this way'. Don't give away bottled water. Sydney water is, well, good enough to drink. Bottled water in countries where there is abundant clean driniking water is an unecessary drain on dwindling resources. The horror of high oil prices will be nothing to the horror of no water. Without oil I walk, without water I die. Of course, this being Australia, the planets driest continent, we will soon run out of clean drining water if we continue using it to wash our cars...then we will (continue to) import the bottled stuff form Italy...
And don't try the "well the bottles can be recycled" argument on with me. Recycling is for the most part a con; it gives people a get-out-of-conscience-jail-free ticket to overconsume. Reduce consumption first, then reuse what you can and only after you've done that to the fullest extent possible should you recycle. Then burn the rest.
Started ramblinbg, sorry. Get on your bike. It's great.
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