Rainforest Action Network

By Jenna Price

I HAVE tried hard to cut back on waste in my house. All those environmental websites tell me not to buy food in packaging and so I no longer buy meat at the supermarket; and quite a few fruit and vegetables are off my list since they only come in punnets or bags.

The garden is now having to furnish enough thyme for a week; enough parsley; and strawberries have had to be struck off, along with all other berries.

This is not just good for the environment but also for my pocket, since those goodies cost too much for every week use. I've swapped from plastic wrapping to paper wrapping where possible; and to almost any packaging which can be recycled. Again, tins and cans over plastic.

The people at the one takeaway shop I frequent refuse to recycle their own containers (I understand it's apparently a health hazard and am thinking about taking my own plates up there, but am afraid people will think that in the quest to be green and responsible,

I have gone completely utterly barking mad. Which may be the case.)

But here are some regular immutable problems. Why can't we all opt out of the White Pages and the Yellow Pages? They are now joined by Pink Pages and Green Pages on my front door step. I don't want them and I don't need them but when I ring the various responsible companies asking to be left off the greenhouse commissions list, nobody listens and nobody cares.

Having done one of my quick ask-the-neighbourhood surveys, I discovered nobody uses those books anymore. Sorry, an elderly couple who don't have access to a computer use the White Pages but every other person in my street of 50 houses uses the internet. It's much faster (even on what Telstra laughably describes as broadband) and it is always current. Unlike the White Pages, which I swear still has me listed at the home of my parents (sorry, slight exaggeration but you know what I mean).

If you are thinking about our national resources, for instance, trees and the oil required to distribute these rotten soggy bricks all over Australia, I reckon we might be better off clubbing together in my street and buying Arthur and Martha a cheap laptop and dial-up connection.

So my plan is this. I am going to send my books back to whichever company from which they came. I'm hoping I can mail them in a way which means the original sender gets to pay for postage. And I implore you to do the same.

Or at least start asking them if they plan to implement an opt-in scheme. Charge the people who want the phone books; or deliver them to the local library and extras can be turned into mulch.

It's not the only paper product which drives me to distraction. My children have long had to put up with their visiting friends mocking them.

You see, I don't use forest vegetation on my nether regions.

This family, endlessly complaining, has had to put up with toilet paper made from 100 per cent recycled fibres, unbleached, unembossed and unscented.

And nobody has died from cholera or other hygiene diseases.

According to the Total Environment Centre, which was established in 1972 to get the environmental message out to ordinary folk, it is important to keep as many chemicals out of your life as possible.

It's second nature for Australians to go to the supermarket and load up with the brands to which we have become accustomed. But it is also important to start thinking analytically about your shopping. God forbid you should shop less ... because it is hard to wean ourselves off our trolleyload mentality.

But if you can shop in a way which harms the planet less, that's what you need to do. The loo paper we buy isn't pretty, smells neutral, is a beige colour and certainly doesn't feel like silk.

But after 10 years, these kids have become used to it and have developed reasonably smart retorts for the spoiled few who think their bottoms need to be treated with kid gloves. Nor do we need those nasty synthetic scents, which appear to have no purpose except to add another chemical to our load.

This week, the Rainforest Action Network convened a forum in Tokyo to discuss the Japanese paper industry's role in supporting the decimation of Tasmania's old growth forests. While the Japanese paper industry mightn't find its way into our paper trail, we should support a complete rethink of how we use trees.

But all the activists in the world can't make a difference unless we do. And we certainly don't need to use trees to clean up our mess.