Insania

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has spoken, the politicians have uttered their platitudes, environmental activists call for action, the flat earthers remain in denial and the rest of us go shopping"

So says Fazlun Khalid of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences on the BBC website. And isn't he right. With all the legislation and action currently being considered by the Governments, NGO's and think tanks the world over, how much action is being taken by the likes of you and me? How many compromises are being considered? How many employees are trying to change the attitude of their colleagues?

I had a meeting with Westminster Council yesterday. They showed me some interesting images they had captured from rubbish trucks they were searching. Within these trucks 22% of the rubbish turned out to be newspapers heading straight for the landfill sites east of London.

• 4 officers analyzed 1 tonne of street cleaning waste on 29/11/2006. The waste was presented loose from litter bins and in sweepers bags. The contents of 166 sweepers bags were segregated.

• 219 kg of newspapers collected. 22% of the waste sorted was newspaper.

Some of the photographs they took featured unopened newspaper bundles. Papers that had not even been distributed.

Do we not have a responsibility to call to an end this insanity? For how much longer can we all turn a blind eye each and every day to all the unnecessary waste going straight to landfill?