Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thing!

[Darkwood]

Anyone aged 35 or over read this ...............sent by a friend

Checking out at the supermarket recently ,the young cashier suggested I should bring in my own bags because plastic ones weren't good for the environment . I apologised and explained that we didn't have the green thing in our day . The cashier responded "that's our problem today , your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generation!"
She was right about 1 thing we didn't have the green thing in our day,so what did we have ?
After some reflection and Soul searching on our day ,here's what I remembered .
Back then we returned milk bottles , fizzy pop and beer bottles to the store and the store returned them to the plant ,where the bottles were washed sterilised and refilled , so the same bottles were being reused repeatedly so they were recycled . But we didn't have the green thing !

We walked upstairs ,because we didn't have escalators and lifts in every store or office buildings,we walked to the shops and didn't climb into a 300 horse powered machine ,every time we wanted to go two streets away. She was right we didn't have the green thing in our day !

Back then we washed the babies nappies ,we didn't have the throw away kind . We dried our clothes on a line ,not on a energy gobbling machine burning 2-3Kw ......wind and solar power really did dry our clothes !
Kids got hand me downs from their brothers or sisters and not brand new clothing every time. But she was right we didn't have the green thing in our day .

Back then we had 1 tv or radio in the house , not a tv in every room ,and the tv had a small screen the size of a handkerchief not a screen the size of Wales !
In the kitchen we blended or stirred by hand , we didn't have electric machines doing everything for us.
When we packed a parcel for posting it was wrapped in old newspapers , to protect them ,not styrofoam or bubble wrap .
Back then we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the grass , we used a push mower that ran on human power,we exercised by working so we didn't need to go to the gym or health club to go on a treadmill run on electric ,but she's right we didn't have the green thing.
Back then we drunk from a fountain when we were thirsty ,instead of using a plastic cup or bottle every time we needed a drink. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new ones , and we replaced blades of a razor instead of throwing away when they went blunt, but we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then people took buses and kids took their bikes to school or walked instead of mum being a 24 hr taxi service.
We had only 1 electrical outlet in each room not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances, and we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellite 2,000 miles away in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we older folk were just because we didn't do the green thing !!

Please forward this if you wish another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conversation from a smarty-pants young person can read this. !

 

[Besoeker]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Anyone aged 35 or over read this ...............sent by a friend

Checking out at the supermarket recently ,the young cashier suggested I should bring in my own bags because plastic ones weren't good for the environment . I apologised and explained that we didn't have the green thing in our day . The cashier responded "that's our problem today , your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generation!"
She was right about 1 thing we didn't have the green thing in our day,so what did we have ?
After some reflection and Soul searching on our day ,here's what I remembered .
Back then we returned milk bottles , fizzy pop and beer bottles to the store and the store returned them to the plant ,where the bottles were washed sterilised and refilled , so the same bottles were being reused repeatedly so they were recycled . But we didn't have the green thing !

We walked upstairs ,because we didn't have escalators and lifts in every store or office buildings,we walked to the shops and didn't climb into a 300 horse powered machine ,every time we wanted to go two streets away. She was right we didn't have the green thing in our day !

Back then we washed the babies nappies ,we didn't have the throw away kind . We dried our clothes on a line ,not on a energy gobbling machine burning 2-3Kw ......wind and solar power really did dry our clothes !
Kids got hand me downs from their brothers or sisters and not brand new clothing every time. But she was right we didn't have the green thing in our day .

Back then we had 1 tv or radio in the house , not a tv in every room ,and the tv had a small screen the size of a handkerchief not a screen the size of Wales !
In the kitchen we blended or stirred by hand , we didn't have electric machines doing everything for us.
When we packed a parcel for posting it was wrapped in old newspapers , to protect them ,not styrofoam or bubble wrap .
Back then we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the grass , we used a push mower that ran on human power,we exercised by working so we didn't need to go to the gym or health club to go on a treadmill run on electric ,but she's right we didn't have the green thing.
Back then we drunk from a fountain when we were thirsty ,instead of using a plastic cup or bottle every time we needed a drink. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new ones , and we replaced blades of a razor instead of throwing away when they went blunt, but we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then people took buses and kids took their bikes to school or walked instead of mum being a 24 hr taxi service.
We had only 1 electrical outlet in each room not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances, and we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellite 2,000 miles away in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we older folk were just because we didn't do the green thing !!

Please forward this if you wish another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conversation from a smarty-pants young person can read this. !

Sounds American - fizzy pop is a clue - and yes, they can be more profligate.
But a few points in no particular order.
True, we don't get things in glass bottles. But we have the means, and the pressure, to recycle plastic bottles, paper, metal, cardboard etc. And sterilising uses energy.

We compost compostable waste.

Disposable nappies are no worse for the environment according to many sources and I know that the material used to make them is recycled.

I do write with an ink pen. A quite nice one. But most paper is unsuitable. Those which are, are much more expensive. And finding a bottle of ink is a challenge. And eyewateringly expensive. Have you tried? For the price of the pen and ink I could buy a lifetime's supply of ball points for an army. Actually, I mostly use mechanical pencils with 0.5mm leads that can be replaced. I bought a pack of ten of these pencils some years ago. The whole ten cost me 50p in Sainsburys.

The grass cutting thing is interesting. We here, in UK, tend not to use petrol mowers. Most of us mere mortals simply can't afford properties with enough land to justify one. But electric mowers, maybe. I had a neighbour who used one in the same sized garden as I did. He'd take out his, mow his lawn, then work out in the gym in his garage. I had a mechanical one, did the lawn in my lunch break and probably got as much exercise as he. And the nice stripey effect to boot.

Televisions. We have two. One is seldom on. If it was stolen it would probably take us a month or more to notice. The main unit is in our lounge. It's on standby for probably 164 hours a week. On standby it uses less than 1W. Actually 0.9W.

My children did walk to school. My grandchildren do now. I cycled - but it was six miles each way.

No, we probably didn't need a computer to find the nearest pizza joint. And, even if I had a computer, it wouldn't have found one. Because there wasn't one.

But yes, we do use a computer to order things. In truth, almost everything. How green is that? Well, the van driver does 20-30 drops a day. Saving potentially 29 car trips. And the driver takes the previous lot of bags for recycling.

And I don't now drive my 300hp Jag. The blue XJSV12.

My current car routinely gets better than 60 mpg. And it what's called fully loaded - all the boys toys you can think of.

And I am over 35 - then some. Past my sell-by date by some margin.
And more grumpy that Victor Meldrew.

 

[Guest77]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Very well said Darkwood, changing the subject slightly to add we used to pop over the road to see if an elderley neighbour needed help and was okay, we only had cash and not credit cards so huge debts were a no-no, okay we didn't have any money but plastic cards giving credit didn't exist, we used to play in the street with the other local kids and didn't sit in front of a computer playing on facebook 18 hours a day like todays youth, we had respect for our parents back then and expected a clip around the ear if we didn't follow the rules, we could talk all day about past years, I bet I could think of a lot of bad things about it though, I prefer today than yesterday myself.

 

[Besoeker]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Very well said Darkwood, changing the subject slightly to add we used to pop over the road to see if an elderley neighbour needed help and was okay, we only had cash and not credit cards so huge debts were a no-no, okay we didn't have any money but plastic cards giving credit didn't exist, we used to play in the street with the other local kids and didn't sit in front of a computer playing on facebook 18 hours a day like todays youth, we had respect for our parents back then and expected a clip around the ear if we didn't follow the rules, we could talk all day about past years, I bet I could think of a lot of bad things about it though, I prefer today than yesterday myself.

Indeed. Easy to use the rose tinted.
We still do the neighbours thing even thought we are relatively recent here - about eight years ago.
One of our near neighbours was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo hospital treatment and therapy. During that period Mrs B cooked for her and we took meals.

Community spirit exists.

 

[Darkwood]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Sounds American - fizzy pop is a clue - and yes, they can be more profligate.
Not sure why, I used to call it fizzy pop throughout my youth and Soda Stream was my gassy little friend.
But a few points in no particular order.
True, we don't get things in glass bottles. But we have the means, and the pressure, to recycle plastic bottles, paper, metal, cardboard etc. And sterilising uses energy.
A large proportion of plastic containers are still not recycleable and even when they are some councils are not doing their duty and up shipping it off to other countries which isn't a good footprint if you can imagine.

We compost coTmpostable waste.
This happens in my era too and less food was wasted, waist lines were smaller and allotments were far and many where as many are dissapearing due to council reclaim on land (currrently under discussion in parliment to)
Disposable nappies are no worse for the environment according to many sources and I know that the material used to make them is recycled.
You raise a good point on that on but the problem is still the packaging and wrapping these disposables come in is mostly non recycleable,we have the technology now its just not been utilised by every company to minimise costs and sod the environment.
I do write with an ink pen. A quite nice one. But most paper is unsuitable. Those which are, are much more expensive. And finding a bottle of ink is a challenge. And eyewateringly expensive. Have you tried? For the price of the pen and ink I could buy a lifetime's supply of ball points for an army. Actually, I mostly use mechanical pencils with 0.5mm leads that can be replaced. I bought a pack of ten of these pencils some years ago. The whole ten cost me 50p in Sainsburys.

The grass cutting thing is interesting. We here, in UK, tend not to use petrol mowers. Most of us mere mortals simply can't afford properties with enough land to justify one. But electric mowers, maybe. I had a neighbour who used one in the same sized garden as I did. He'd take out his, mow his lawn, then work out in the gym in his garage. I had a mechanical one, did the lawn in my lunch break and probably got as much exercise as he. And the nice stripey effect to boot.

Televisions. We have two. One is seldom on. If it was stolen it would probably take us a month or more to notice. The main unit is in our lounge. It's on standby for probably 164 hours a week. On standby it uses less than 1W. Actually 0.9W.
That's personal usage which doesn't reflect the trend many families will have multiple tellys on at the same time even leaving the ruddy things on standby is a massive drain on energy when in mass, you can add phone charges to that list as well always left plugged in permanently.

My children did walk to school. My grandchildren do now. I cycled - but it was six miles each way.
I walked 2 miles to school everyday up and down a steep hill, its very true that in modern times kids are ferried around even for small journeys and especially when its raining - I live oposite a school and live in a close nit town -I see this trend all the time and pretty sure its reflected throughout the country.

No, we probably didn't need a computer to find the nearest pizza joint. And, even if I had a computer, it wouldn't have found one. Because there wasn't one.

Stop been picky it was a generalised point ...any takeaway then even the chippy falls into the list.

But yes, we do use a computer to order things. In truth, almost everything. How green is that? Well, the van driver does 20-30 drops a day. Saving potentially 29 car trips. And the driver takes the previous lot of bags for recycling.
This really isn't any greener in the large scale of things the online shopping trend has meant a lot of companies have had to build or rent large picking wharehouses which have their own greenhouse stamp ..this point could be argued --- for tat for a while so I'll not get too deep on this one it varies per company.

And I don't now drive my 300hp Jag. The blue XJSV12.

My current car routinely gets better than 60 mpg. And it what's called fully loaded - all the boys toys you can think of.

And I am over 35 - then some. Past my sell-by date by some margin.
And more grumpy that Victor Meldrew.

My post was just for a humourous nature really a copy and paste from a mate, although its origins may well be American it still brings home a few points all of which could be argued or broken down till the cows come home but TBH it wasn't posted for the accuracy of its content it was merely posted to add a little humour to the forum.

 

[UNG]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Indeed. Easy to use the rose tinted.
We still do the neighbours thing even thought we are relatively recent here - about eight years ago.
One of our near neighbours was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo hospital treatment and therapy. During that period Mrs B cooked for her and we took meals.

Community spirit exists.

The trouble these days you stop to help someone and it is treated with suspicion picking up hitch hikers these days is a no no especially if you are a male and it's girls who are hitch hiking the next thing you might find is a rape charge coming your way even though nothing happened. You can only do your best to help but if people don't want it you can't force it on them, like wise offering help may incur a risk that we cannot accept and therefore don't offer assistance


The evolving world is it's own biggest enemy with climate change being a lot deeper than just producing less CO2 or recycling a bit more we have had ice ages so global warming and cooling is a natural cycle we may be speeding up or slowing down. Earth is a small bit of rock floating around in space has it ever occupied the place in space that it is in today and will it ever again

 

[Guest111]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

The whole carrier bag thing makes me laugh,when they bring in the charge for bags I intend to go into my local supermarket,buy about a hundred quids worth of shopping then tell them I don't want it when they try and charge me for bags.A few years back you could get boxes from the supermarket and they were handy for keeping things in when you'd been shopping,now they only leave out those useless banana boxes with the big hole in the middle.The current bags are so thin they are useless,I've seen a few people coming out of the supermarket with a bottle of spirits in a bag and it rips,bottle smashes and customer is without a drink.Technically I suppose one would have a claim against the store as clearly the bag is not fit for purpose.

 

[telectrix]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

try shopping in wales. plastic carrier bags are charged at 5p (yes a whole shilling). the idea is to cut down on the bags in landfills. befvore these bags were introduced, we all took our own bags or had paper ones. just today's bone idle society.

 

[Guest111]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

try shopping in wales. plastic carrier bags are charged at 5p (yes a whole shilling). the idea is to cut down on the bags in landfills. befvore these bags were introduced, we all took our own bags or had paper ones. just today's bone idle society.

I find that those they give you at the Elex shows are very good,I even use the one from the napit expo for my spare laptop.

 

[Guest77]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

I don't see whay we have to take any bags at all there Tel, with the price of shopping today they should supply paper bags like the yanks get and carry it to the car as well, food is a terrible price today, I went to Tesco this morning and bought next to nothing and it was 45 quid.

 

[trev]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

The trouble these days you stop to help someone and it is treated with suspicion picking up hitch hikers these days is a no no especially if you are a male and it's girls who are hitch hiking the next thing you might find is a rape charge coming your way even though nothing happened.

If you want to avoid a rape charge from female hitch hikers, do not have sex with female hitch hikers.
Top hitch hiker/rape charge avoidance advice there.
I'd rather be viewed with suspicion than avoid a situation where someone might need help.

 

[telectrix]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

A warning for you and any of your friends who may be regular customers at Tesco.

Over the last month I became the victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get some shopping turned out to be quite traumatic.



Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you!


Here's how the scam works:

Two seriously good looking 21 year old girls come over to your car as you are loading your stuff into the boot. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windowlene,

with their cleavage almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.

When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say No and instead ask you for a lift to another shopping centre. You agree and they get in the back seat.

On the way, they start having sex with each other. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and performs oral on you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen on May 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, June 2nd, 4th, three times on the 5th, three times just
yesterday, and very likely again this upcoming weekend as soon as I can buy more wallets.

 

[Adam W]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

We never had a cup, we used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

 

[Besoeker]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

My post was just for a humourous nature really a copy and paste from a mate, although its origins may well be American it still brings home a few points all of which could be argued or broken down till the cows come home but TBH it wasn't posted for the accuracy of its content it was merely posted to add a little humour to the forum.

That I know.
And I think you took mine far too seriously.
But there are some serious points. Rose tinted being one.

I'm not for a moment suggesting in the world is hunky dory. Or that we are doing so much better. For example, tens of thousands dying a day, every day, of starvation is not remotely acceptable in my opinion.

Anyway, back on being green, much of my professional life has been related to energy saving projects.
On one project on one site the energy savings per day amount to more that the consumption of an average household for six years.

Altruistic? Not really. Just a business reducing operating costs.

 

[Knobhead]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

Like any “energy saving device” it costs money, usually a disproportionate amount.

Not many businesses will pay for something unless the pay back period is reasonable. Above two years and the accountant will have an apoplectic fit.

The carbon levy is causing businesses to pack up and leave the country. We lost all our business to Spain, a European country that has the sense to stick two fingers up to Brussels. They gain jobs, we loose them.

Once again it all comes down to money.

Besoeker, you say a company saved as much energy per day as an average household would use in six years. I view figures like that with suspicion as it is plain and simple sale talk with no specific figures.

I’ll ask a straight question, what was the pay back period?

 

[Slowhand]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

We never had a cup, we used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

Rolled up newspaper? Luxury!!
We never had a teapot. We had raw tea!! Had to suck a teabag on the way to work and be grateful
for it!

 

[dingledong]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

I must admit I like a weak cup of tea and as an experiment tried to see no w many cups of tea from 1 tea bag after 4 bit yucky 6 was my limit
Now we was poor

 

[Fin170]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

New tv is 80 watts (max) and the previous one was ~200 and half the size...

Not sure of the energy draw of a 70s or 80s one but I remember the ones I had from the 90s kicking out a fair amount of heat

 

[Pete999]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

You think that's bad back when I was a kid my Dad used to come home from work with a packet of extra strong mints and us kids had to sit round while he blew on us just to keep warm, C/H bah humbug

 

[Darkwood]

Re: Next time you get told our generation was wasteful and not 'Green' here's the thi

The old CRT tv's actually used little in comparison going with the trend of each houshold having a large flatscreen and have you ever checked out the heat these flatscreens tv's dish out?

The biggest issue I have with all this green promotion is the quality and life expectancy of its claims is never realised, too may companies jump on the band wagon with green products saturating a market with products made poorly and at extortionate prices that have a high failure rate... now where you get these green energy saving promotion companies again these are always springing up from nothing lasting several yrs and dissapearing because the key thing they never factor into their calculations is the price drop over the yrs of the green products they sell and the quality increase as the market weeds out the crap. Yes on paper at the time it all looks rosy but I proved to 2 of these companies their figures don't add up or fail to take vital key points into account.

Take LED's for instance over the 5yr introduction period these lamps have dropped in price by over 60% as competition is fierce and the market is saturated and give it another 3-4 yrs the cost of a good quality manufactured LED product could be 80% less than it market introduction cost ... now get one of these green energy promotion companies and accept their wares you could in fact lose out financially accepting the 'green option' there and then as appose to waiting till a volatile and unreliable market settles in. As the price crashes on the products their promote over 90% of these green promotion companies fold as their is no requirement for them to convince anyone anymore as these products are routinely fitted by your bog standard sparks as they become the norm.