When I was growing up, both my parents and my schooling hammered the message of recycling into my tiny little vulnerable brain.
I gobbled it all up, as kids do with these things. But I still stand by those thoughts today, because, apart from all that global warming look-after-the-planet malarkey, it's also just an efficient way to exist.
And it's particularly true with cars, I'm sure you'll agree. This is a website for car nuts after all. The thought of my current car, my old car, or any of my parent's cars that I used to cherish meeting a grisly fate is a terrible thought.
And naturally I've always despised this political stance of destroying so-called 'hoon cars'. Which is why this new footage of three vehicles in Australia; a blue Holden VT Commodore SS, a red Holden Calais, and a Honda motorcycle of some description (let us know on Facebook if you know what kind) all getting crushed is a painful watch.
Now don't get me wrong. The people who owned the three vehicles that met their doom in the clip — someone caught street racing (SS Commodore), someone caught without registration or a license (Honda motorcycle), and someone caught under the influence of drugs (Calais) — all need a swift uppercut of some description.
But, come on. There are hundreds of different alternative solutions to this problem that trump the waste and destruction of vehicles. Re-sell them, part them out, donate them to engineering institutions... It's all better than simply turning everything you don't like into cubes. And after all, it's the driver that committed the offence and should wear the punishment, not the car.
The police officer in the clip boasts that these actions have helped create a 35 per cent reduction in ticketed 'hoon' offenses. Fair dinkum. But any potential for cars like these to continue to pump money or skills into the Aussie economy is lost forever too. That's your two birds and one stone right there.
It's just a bloody waste.