I’ve always been a fan of Dr Seuss’s books. Green Eggs and Ham, Hortense the Elephant and The Sneetches are just some of his gems. And they all have a message – often quite subtle. The most environmental of his stories is the Lorax – ‘I am the Lorax, and I speak for the trees, which you seem to chopping as fast as you please’.
This poem has been written in Dr Seuss style – or something similar. I’m sure if he’d known about e-waste, he’d have made that one of his themes! I wrote it with some help in the final stages from Melinda Watson, with whom I’ve co-founded E for Good (www.weareeforgood.org). We’re campaigning to change the way that e-waste is dealt with in this country – and further afield too.
At the far end of the world where nobody knows
The sweet smell of burning gets right up your nose
It comes from wires, TVs, computers and other such stuff
That’s been thrown away like pieces of fluff.
They end up in piles – and that’s what’s burning
We don’t give a damn – and we’re not learning
That this is a madness. It doesn’t make sense.
How could our society be so dense?
The children are there, wading through the junk
Picking out metals, plastics and all sorts of gunk.
It doesn’t take long, if you look around
To see that this stuff shouldn’t be thrown in the ground
There are toasters, drills, freezers and kettles
Made from plastics, toxics and all sorts of metals
Much of what’s there has hardly been used
Our wasteful society stands accused
More phones, more printers, more electronic games
Apple, Sony, Kenwood and HP are just some of the names
Many companies are simply encouraging us to buy more and more
Without any thought of the troubles in store
It’s not just where we put all the waste
Of the things we’ve used – often in haste
There’s also the impacts of digging up the stuff
When will be say that it’s enough
We slash down the forests, fowl up the rivers
Often to get just a few tiny slivers.
Whether it’s copper, or gold, or tin
The burning and poisoning is just a sin.
Clear everything away, move on the tribes
Wealthier lifestyles are used as bribes –
Scars on the landscape and piles of rubble
Are the other side of the IT bubble.
Many of these process are energy guzzling.
Some wasteful practices can be quite puzzling
Wires and charges, for example, can be part of the pack
But if you don’t want them you can’t take them back!
If there’s one thing wrong, the product won’t be used
Even if it’s as simple as a wire being fused.
You’ll be told that it’s too expensive to mend
Better to buy a new one – and keep up to trend.
We want more of the same – only a little bit better
In fact what we want is to be a trend setter
We buy lots of things that we don’t really need
Fuelled by a system that promotes greed>
But it really doesn’t have to be this way
So we’ve set up E for Good to have our say
We think the legislation is completely bonkers.
It must have been devised by a team of plonkers
I bet you’ve got wires and charges in drawers
As a result of a system which is full of flaws
We’ve got ideas on how things can be changed
To live in a world that’s not totally deranged
