Page 532 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
recent issue people have been recycling. I hope for him, as for all of us, he too may be recycled. We must all follow these examples. I think each one of us should, in a very kindly way, look out for all of our activities, and may I say to all my colleagues on all sides of the Assembly that, if you find me not doing this myself, you should upbraid me. I am myself an addict - I have been an addict of a number of things in my life - to the reuse of envelopes. I especially commend you, Mr Speaker. I notice you reuse envelopes, and I much appreciated receiving a letter from you in a reused envelope. I hope that will spread all through the Assembly.
I turn briefly to the matter of big bins. We await the evidence - and no doubt the Government and the committee will be looking at all this - but I do raise these two questions and commend them to the committee. Thinking of recycling, what would you then do with all those small plastic bins? I have an answer to that, by the way.
A member: Recycle them.
DR KINLOCH: How do you recycle them? The second point relates to those of us who are recycled in our magnificently mature years. There is possibly a physical problem for older and frailer citizens in handling big bins.
A member: It is easier for the old and frail to put those bins out than it is to carry heavy bins.
DR KINLOCH: Well, we await the evidence on that, and we will be interested to hear that eventually. I will conclude with a story, if I may, Mr Speaker. Many years ago, in the northern summer of 1954, before some of you were born, I was an iceman and garbageman at Camp Mayflower, Orleans, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Those were the days when I used to have to fetch ice - actual, physical ice - in an old truck to be delivered to ice boxes and refrigerators. It was a long time ago. It was a marvellous learning experience, especially about garbage in that camp.
The owner of the camp was an old retired sailor called Norman White. I discover in my life I keep coming across people called Norman who have a terrific influence on me, and they are all sterling, solid characters. I particularly remember this Norman White - Captain White. Captain White was not a philosopher or a theologian, but I have carried with me over 35 years part of his basic philosophy of life. It is summed up, to some degree, in the following statement:
If you use something long enough, it will break. When it breaks, it can be fixed. If you can't fix it, you can always use it for something else.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .