The real cost of war

Today I read that the audited costs of the Iraq war for the USA are an estimated $767bn. With ongoing healthcare and support costs the final figure will be well over $1trillion. All nations make mistakes and enter wars they later deeply regret, including the UK. What saddens me is the total WASTE this represents: Saddam was no saint, neither are the Talibhan in Afghanistan, but there has to be a better way to change nations. The phrase "swords into ploughshares" comes to mind. Jaw jaw is better than war, war. Just think how $1 trillion could have been better used.  See also William Rivers Pitt | The United States of Aftermath.

Recycling: why is it so difficult in the UK?

There is a lot that can be done to improve our recycling in the UK. My wife and I do our best trying to recycle whatever we can - papers, plastics, food waste, garden waste etc, but trying to get it recycled is far from easy.  More needs to be done to simplify the process.

We carefully save all our plastics which seem to be marked as suitable for recycling: bottles, yoghurt cartons, soft fruit plastic boxes, etc. As our local recycling centre has been closed to save costs - barmy decision - we take them 11 miles each way to our nearest centre. When there, we find only bottles can be put in the plastics recycling, so we have to separate out all the plastic food cartons as they have to go in a different bin. Then there is the garden and food waste. Some is composted. Our local council provides thick brown paper sacks for this waste and they collect it at the doorstep every 2 weeks. If I want to get more sacks I get charged 50 pence each.  Finally, we get a black bin (household non-recycled stuff) collection every week despite this bag being only about a quarter full these days.

My annoyances are these:

(a) Why not make it more clear what is, and is not, recyclable on the labels in the first place?
(b) Why do suppliers like Waitrose and Tesco sell so much stuff in non-recyclable plastic packaging?
(c) Why do I have to travel a 22 mile round trip to dispose of much of my plastics?
(d) Why should I have to pay 50p for each extra recycling sack when using them saves money on landfill?
(e) Why is recycling policy different all over the country from area to area?

Why does trying to save landfill costs and helping the environment have to be so very difficult here in the UK? Other countries make it easy, but here we seem to make it very hard.