Kiran’s Weblog

There’s no disputing the fact that issues facing the environment are literally everywhere at the moment, everyone seems to be doing their bit. Noticing this shift in attitude isn’t exactly difficult; advertisements seem to focus on the environment as their strongest selling point. Take ‘British Gas’ for example, firm believers in ‘the development of renewable electricity’ are giving away four free energy saving light bulbs to every customer, with imagery which explicitly makes Britain greener in the eyes of the consumer.

Cars, clothes, food, almost everything is fresh, organic and environmentally sound. This led to me wonder, has this changed the attitude of the everyday person, the ‘average Joe?’

I work in a DIY shop as a sales assistant in a small town called Aldridge with a lot of time to think. The average age of customers I would say is about sixty five, set in their ways, strong minded people who do not like change. But even their attitude towards the environment has altered over recent times, carrier bags are shunned, eco-friendly wallpaper purchased and elderly couples take a slow walk home as opposed to running their cars for a short distance. Helen Dukes, 63, commented, ‘I’m coming to the later part of my life, and its easy be selfish, just get on with what I want to do but the media has made me, and my whole family realise what little things you can do to make a big difference in the long run.’ I found this remark inspirational, the little decisions we make on a day to day level paving the way for our families for centuries ahead. I considered this lady to be a sort of spokes person for her generation dictating the way their attitudes have changed. When asked whether the environment is something she considers when shopping in general she nodding emphatically and said ‘you have to, well, it’s not something that would have even occurred to be a couple of years ago, if I’m honest but it’s everywhere these days isn’t it? I’d feel bad if I didn’t even try to make an effort.’

Yesterday on a trip to the supermarket I was presented with a large carrier bag which told me to reuse where ever possible. Another example of how environmental issues are literally, hitting the high street. Carrier bags does seem to be at the forefront of the agenda at the moment, paper bags are becoming more dominant pioneered by high street shops like ‘Primark,’ and ‘Topshop’ but what is becoming more and more common are reusable cotton shopping bags emblazoned with such slogans as ‘I’m not a plastic bag.’

Then there’s recycling, heavily promoted through TV advertisements and endorsed by many celebrities. Narrated by Eddie Izzard, the £10m multi-media advertising campaign set up by the government intends to encourage the public to recycle household waste. Focusing on the tagline ‘the possibilities for recycling are endless.’ Recycling is getting easier, collected at your door on the most part. There is however room for improvement in this area in my opinion, perhaps more information about where to take things for recycling. The only places I know of are places I have seen in passing; an information service such as this would surely be beneficial. It is refreshing to see the younger generations also taking this concept seriously, Lucie Plumpton, 19, a student from Walsall, remarked ‘I like the idea of recycling, obviously it needs to be done but I like the idea that when I’m done with something, its reused in so many different ways.’ She’s right as the well known advert tells us, endless indeed!

It seems people have finally got the message, attitudes are changing, adapting and improving to suit the current climates, greener is better.