Juha-Heikki Tanskanen
Perspective 5.12.2018

Small deeds are great deeds

Next year, we will only publish the newsletter electronically, which will be more flexible and improve our customers’ access to information.

The last printed issue of the Rinki newsletter is now published. Next year, we will only publish the newsletter electronically, which will be more flexible and improve our customers’ access to information. Great news!

Today, much of the information travels in bits and is stored in the cloud in an eco-friendly way, but not everything can be changed into electronic format. Raw materials and products, such as food and clothing, still have to be transported from one place to another. Very few of us would be willing to return to the time when all goods were produced locally. It is very unlikely we could even produce food for the current number of people up here in the North.

We are causing climate change and, unfortunately, a large number of other challenges. Everyone has a reason to be concerned enough to consider the impact of their activities. Production of unnecessary goods accelerates climate change while replacing a product with a service slows it down. We should not demand perfection of ourselves. If we work together, all individual choices become mainstream.

Using sensible packaging is the starting point for environmentally friendly and cost-efficient logistics. Used packaging should be recycled, and the 4,400 companies with producer responsibility registered with Rinki organise the recycling. More than 450,000 tonnes of packaging materials are recycled every year by individuals who sort it in homes and in workplaces. This replaces a huge amount of virgin materials. We are going in the right direction!

I’d like to thank everyone who works with us to make it possible to recycle more packaging materials. Our partner network consists of companies with producer responsibility, producer organisations, shops, private and municipal waste management and property management companies, municipalities and authorities. Every Finn is also part of this movement. If we did not sort our waste, there would be no recycling.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Juha-Heikki Tanskanen

5.12.2018