One of the signs of resource depletion is the development of unconventional alternative sources. As prices rise, more exotic forms of extraction become economically viable. In the case of oil, it’s now expensive enough to make deep water drilling and tar sands possible. The price of gas has spurred Japan to experiment with methane hydrates, […]
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Ecover’s recovered sea plastic packaging
I’ve written in the past about the continent-sized mass of floating plastic debris that circles in the Pacific ocean. There’s one in the Atlantic too, and three others. Each of them marks a confluence of sea currents, so floating waste accumulates there. Biodegradeable waste such as scrap wood will eventually rot away, but plastics just […]
Saving the dark
I’d heard of nature reserves, marine reserves, and national strategic oil reserves. Dark reserves are a new one to me, but Britain got its second this month. Brecon Beacons National Park, in Wales, has just been declared an international dark sky reserve. It joins Exmoor National Park as the two places in Britain so far […]
Waste and the definition of affluence
Yesterday’s post about waste was from a developing world point of view, but I read an interesting counterpoint last night. It’s from Mark Burch, writing on the idea of Sufficiency for the Simplicity Institute. “The very goal of consumer culture, which is universal affluence, ignores the definition of affluence which is ‘more than enough; abundance; […]
Food waste in developing countries
The issue of food waste was in the news last week, after a report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers showed that up to 50% of the world’s food is wasted. We usually look at this from our own perspective, the amount we throw away as households and the behaviour of supermarkets. We feel guilty […]
The changing culture of disposability
In the past, most things that you owned were built to last. Household goods were expensive, and you looked after what you had, repairing things and maintaining them. In the early 20th century, new industrial processes and new materials – plastic especially – began to change that. One of the first and best known examples […]
Guerilla composting with the Urban Farming Guys
Every year when the leaves fall off the trees, I find myself walking past a big pile of bagged up leaves and thinking I should take some home. Inevitably, I always come across the council’s efforts on my way somewhere, rather than on the way home. Like last year, the frost is here and I’ve […]
The indestructible football
When we lived in Madagascar, keeping us in footballs was an ongoing challenge for my dad. You couldn’t really buy quality balls, so we went through a cheap and badly stitched ball every few weeks. Occasionally someone would send a proper branded soccer ball from England, a happy day. Although it would be treated with […]
Building of the week – THTKB
On a normal building site, 20% of the materials are wasted. It means that for every five houses built, the equivalent of a whole other house is thrown away. In 2008 the TV series Grand Design set out to demonstrate that you could build a house out of that waste, and that it could be […]
Dive! – living off America’s waste
About ten years ago I visited some friends in Wheaton, Illinois who lived very well out of the dumpsters. There were seven or eight of them living in one house, and they would divide up and decide who was going to check which supermarkets, and then do a little tour of all the best spots. […]
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