As I sit on the terrace of my luxury villa in Santorini, enjoying a toasted sandwich and sipping an ice coffee.. I look out on the glistening blue ocean or ‘flooded caldera’ (volcano).. as it is better known.. Just then it hits me at how lucky we are to live for even a few seconds on this planet we decided to call Earth.

The minoan civilisation, that lived here 3,100 years BC, built a community that would today be viewed with complete envy. Everyone was equal, there were no wars .. People lived with colourful clothing and buildings.. Simple lives being lived but also in a decadent way. The story goes that this exuberance angered the Gods and ultimately they paid the price by being completely wiped from the planet with the biggest volcanic eruption in the history of mankind. Even sailing 140km to the Island of Crete didn’t save them as the Tsunami wiped them all away.

So, what do I conclude.. Well my overriding thought is enjoy every moment you can as it might just be your last. Also, be respectful of this planet as it might just decide its time to reset again.. Finally, be kind to other humans, I mean why not? We’re all in this together.. Whatever ‘this’ is.

Now, where’s that toastie! 

And yes, the ocean is as blue as you imagine. 

“To pant in Norway is to return a drinks bottle or can to the supermarket and get a refund of the deposit you paid when purchasing”.

• 

Well, how have the Norwegian’s got this so right and the UK has it all wrong! Like many components of modern life, this is a simple idea that used to be a ‘thing’ and has sadly been allowed to disappear from our way of life. Whilst the UK has striven for cheap prices and mass production, not only causing a huge issue with plastic pollution and recycling issues, but also with obesity in younger generations and the need to ‘control’ consumption by retrospectively adding a sugar-tax to these drinks. The Norwegian approach has been to implement a very simple deposit scheme on plastic bottles and aluminium cans. The ‘pant’ is a set amount of kroner put onto the price of the individual drink. These amounts are charged at 1, 2 & 3 PANT depending on the size of the bottle/can. 

• 

Once the item has been consumed, the vessel can be returned to a local supermarket by the consumer, fed into a machine for processing and an immediate refund is printed onto a coupon. 

• 

This can then be used against shopping, issued as a cash return or even donated to a charity scheme (this has the added incentive of entering you into a lottery with the possibility of an immediate cash prize!).

• 

So there you have it, simple! And the result, no recycling issues as most of this has been returned by the consumer (Norway achieves a 97% recycling target). The pathways and roadsides are completely void of any pollution, it just does not happen. 

Consumption is not controlled with additional taxation, it simply has a slightly higher price put on the product and limited availability ie. huge multi-packs of 24 & 30 cans aren’t freely available. This means that from a young age people learn the value of a purchase and there is no culture of waste initiated. 

Through generations of respect for the environment and for others and through implementation of a very basic values and programs for recycling, the Norway ‘model’ is most certainly a thing worth consideration. 

We can only hope that the UK improves with our own approach to the way in which we consume and in-turn affect the environment in which we live in. 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton