Festival to combat discrimination toward Roma bottle collectors

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Roma Amor campaign will encourage respectful behaviour though crime fears linger

Reports of abuse and discrimination against Roma Gypsies who attend Roskilde Festival to collect bottles for their deposits has led festival organisers to begin a campaign to help foster better relations.

The campaign, Roma Amor, started in June 2011 and has stimulated lively debate on Facebook where many people have voiced their worries about the link between the Roma and crime at the annual music festival.

“I have had some bad experience with Roma,” worte Andreas Thanh Long Jensen. “I busted one of them going through my tent and my bag. He said that he was just checking for cans, but why would I hide them in my sleeping bag.”

Frederik Petersson commented that the bottle deposits ought to go to charity. “I find it kind of selfish to collect bottles for personal gain, when other people do the exact same thing to help people who are actually in need.”

Aware of these sorts of concerns, the festival has launched a refund mediation team as part of the ‘good refund initiative’. The team will maintain a dialogue with the Roma collectors and encourage them and festival-goers to be respectful of each other.

The campaign also hopes to highlight conditions for a group of people that faces high rates of poverty. Many of those in Denmark have travelled here to pick up bottles in order to scrape together a living.

Roma Amor is part of a larger effort by Roskilde Festival organisers this year to bring about awareness of poverty and the plight of people such as the Roma.

Campaign Manager, Anna Sophie Rønde, drew attention to the discrimination by festival guests, who have been known to hang signs outside their camps warning off Roma, often in profane or offensive language.

“When Roma people go to Roskilde Festival to collect deposits, it’s not necessarily because they are Roma, but because they are poor,” she said.

Rønde also pointed out that in Romania, where Roma make up 2.5 percent of the population, only 27 percent of Roma are employed. Those that are employed earn around €10 a day.

A team of social workers has also been established to ensure that children are not made to work through the night and in front of main stages, where their size allows them to slip through the crowds to pick up discarded cans and bottles.

The point made by Frederik Petersson is rather silly if not naïve; the deposit on the bottles and cans is there for the person who bought the bottles or the cans and if they are too lazy to take the bottles back why should not those that wish to do so collect them for income.

It was like that for us when we were children when we still had a deposit scheme on bottles, both soft drink and beer, and many a child's pocket money was made up from just the collecting of such discards.

That it is, nowadays, at those festivals and other such locations in Europe Romani adults and children who collect the bottles and cans for deposit is a sign that other people do not value such amounts of small change as are those depots. But, does the saying to state that many pennies make a pound?

The fact is that were it not for the Romani People at such events many of those bottles and cans would be left laying about and not be returned to where they belong. The problem is that the purchasers do not, as said, the small amount which constitutes the deposit enough to bring back those bottles or cans to claim it.

That is, really, what is wrong with society in our so-called developed countries, whether Western Europe or the USA, etc. People still, despite the Great Recession more or less still in full swing, do not value their pennies enough to make those deposit schemes work properly.

Let the Romani go about their business and as to children being overworked. Good G-d, the kids see that, in general, as fun, and that includes and especially scavenging in front of the main stages. There is also money to be found lost on the ground which they will be more than happy to add to their collections.

I doubt, also, that the festival goers would love adults gathering the collectables in front of the main stages and thus blocking their view of the happenings on the stages.

In addition to that it is natural for Romani (Gypsy) children to “work” and has always been, in the same way as children have always worked on farms from a young age. Now they are bored all the time and get up to mischief. Let them do valuable work and they will feel much better too.

© 2011

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Turning trash into treasure

Diverting waste is the ultimate act of sustainability

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

There are abundant resources for any home sustainability project you wish to undertake. All you have to do is learn to look in the right places first! And, these resources are completely free.

There is nothing more sustainable than trying to get the most use out of the embodied energy of any material. That means: if you have got an old cupboard you don’t have a place for anymore, don’t smash it and use it as firewood! Countless gallons of water and petroleum went into turning that wood into a cupboard, so brainstorm other ways to use it in its high-energy state, or give to someone who can use it. In fact I am normally the one who ends up with such an item from others, as I am generally happy to accept such donations, though I have to say that my home is currently a little overflowing with such items.

In “Cradle to Cradle”, the authors talk about how recycling materials often results in “downcycling”– where the subsequent use of the material results in low-grade, un-recyclable products. Since this is the current state of design, recycling is nowhere near “sustainable.” On the other hand, reusing materials and not thinking of them as “waste” leads to a more ecologically-responsible lifestyle.

Don't let me loose on any skip, as dumpsters are called over here, as long as there is place at home, in the garage or the shed. Alas there are times where stuff has to remain there for one or the other reason. The biggest one is that I am not a driver and do not own a motorcar. Thus transportation is a problem at times and other times it is the case, as it is at present, that there is simply no space either in the house, the grange or the shed. The grange is full of bicycles, abandoned and some damaged, to be rebuilt, and the shed is just, well, full. But using found and available materials makes everything in my home all the more specific, original, and creative!

Here are some tips for where you can find just about anything you need.

“Garbage picking” in affluent neighborhoods. This is by far the most successful means of acquiring excellent materials. Simply driving or biking around the streets on trash night (easily determined on the Internet), there are tons – at times literally – of interesting and useful things to be picked up.

The neighborhoods don’t have to be affluent either, but I think you’ll find that the rate of good materials is higher on a house-to-house basis in such neighborhoods. Shame on them for being so wasteful… but good for you and your projects.

Freecycle or the “Free” section on Craigslist. Dozens of furniture items, building materials, and miscellaneous household stuff are being given away right now in your neighborhood on these online forums! For FREE! When was the last time you could get loads of lumber for free? Also, check out the barter and other sections for good deals.

Dumpsters or skips, as they are called in Britain, or Containers in Germany: Ever driven around to the back of a grocery store or a strip mall? There is lots of great stuff there but, and here it comes; in many places going through those is, theoretically and practically, regarded as trespass and theft. So, you have been warned. Check your local ordinances and laws as to this.

Tag sales. Sometimes people just don’t know what goodies they are tossing out.

Free box. Some community projects, especially cooperatives, may offer a free box. Common items include clothing, slightly damaged tools, and miscellaneous small items.

Wholesalers. Occasionally you will find large, unusual items from food distributors, retailers, supply stores, etc. This includes 55-gallon drums. And don’t forget…

The Junkyard! Want to build a wind turbine for home use? It’s a pretty simple procedure… and it requires a car alternator. Get one for a couple bucks at a junk yard!

Well, I think you are getting the idea.

I am lucky, in a way, that I often find useful items thrown away by people in my day job. I love litter bins... and on top of that there is what people “fly tip”.

While, officially, I hate fly tippers, and that is true, there are times when the stuff is rather useful, such as a bow saw – perfectly usable still though may need a new blade – dumped by some tree surgeons that fly tipped a load of branches in the park.

I could start a very long list here of stuff people throw into bins, or not, as the case may be, and also lose and never bother to cone back for but that would be way too long and, I should think, boring. Suffice to say I won't have to buy a woolly hat for years.

© 2011

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What IS stopping us recycling?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A lack of storage space or access to recycling sites, confusion over collection days and skepticism about the environmental benefits are just some of the obstacles stopping people recycling more.

And I would say that the access to recycling sites and the lack of them in fact is the greatest problem here, In addition to that recycling would increase most remarkably, as has been proven elsewhere, when financial incentives are given for recycling, e.g. by being paid for collected drinks cans brought to the recycling centers.

The government-funded Waste & Resources Action Plan (WRAP) has carried out research investigating the barriers preventing a further rise in household recycling rates – and offering local authorities advice on overcoming them.

According to WRAP, these barriers can be broken down into four distinct areas, and those are: physical, behavioural, lack of knowledge and attitudes and perceptions.

On the physical front, people struggle when containers for collecting recycling are unsuitable or there is no space for storage, when collections are unreliable and when they have no way of getting to recycling sites. The latter, in my experience, is one of the greatest inhibitors for people's recycling abilities.

In addition to that, in the area where I have experience with personally, it takes ages of waiting in line with vehicles to get stuff dropped off at the recycling centers, which are few and far between, and often not easy to get to either. The getting to is even worse when one does not have a motor vehicle at one's disposal and one lives where the curbside recycling units refuse to go.

Behavioural obstacles, so the study found, include people being too busy, having difficulty with establishing a routine for sorting out recycling or simply if they forgetting to put it out at the right time.

In many cases people also lack the knowledge of how their scheme, if there is any, works or what materials can be recycled.

There is often also great confusion, it must be said, at the local authority recycling management level as to what plastics, for instance, are recyclable. I have been told at more than one instance that certain plastic packaging was not recyclable when the manufacturer assures that the packaging is PET.

Attitudes and perceptions throws up a mixed bag of barriers. There are some people that simply doubt the environmental benefits of recycling, and then there are others who feel that they are not adequately rewarded for doing the right thing and then again others are feel that sorting through waste is dirty.

Those that feel that they are not adequately rewarded for recycling are, I think, on to a very valid point, and as I mentioned already, in countries where payment is given for material brought in the recycling rates are much higher and there are even people who literally live off gathering up the waste that other people drop, for sale.

Phillip Ward, Director of Local Government Services at WRAP, said: "Only by addressing these barriers will we get people to recycle more things more often.

"Good communication about their recycling service is vital but it will not persuade people to use services which are unreliable or too complicated.

"We believe this research will help local authorities boost their own recycling rates and to build on their existing successes. WRAP will continue to support local authorities in achieving this."

To the comments of the WRAP representative could be added that, and yes, I do keep on about it, a proper nationwide scheme of rewarding people for bringing in recyclables would make even more of a difference.

But, while this works in so many other countries, I am sure that we will be told that it just cannot work in Britain, as with so many other good ideas, on the environmental front. Britain, so we are told again and again, is different and while things may work in Germany, the Netherlands or the USA, they could never work here.

Time to think and rethink, methinks...

© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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Households are catching on when it comes to recycling, but only slowly

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The amount of refuse that local authorities have to collect and send to landfill dropped slightly during the year 2007.

The figures published by Defra recently show that municipal waste has fallen from 29.1m to 28.8m tonnes by the end of last year and the amount being landfilled had fallen from 16.9 to 15.8 tonnes.

The volume of household waste in collections also decreased from 25.8m to 25.6m tonnes, while residents boosted recycling from 30.9% to 33.9% between January and December.

The average amount of residual household waste per head in 2007 was 334kg compared to 353kg per head between April 2006 and March 2007.

Having, however, also seen the amount of household rubbish that is being fly tipped one does have to wonder how many people are really the good ones that do recycle and thereby keep stuff out of the landfills from household collections.

Has anyone, I wonder, checked on the amount of rubbish that is being landfilled that is being collected as fly tipped waste from parks and open spaces and the countryside?

According to minsters, the statistics, which still need to be finalised, are evidence that the efforts of local authorities and householders to cut waste are paying off.

Waste Minister Joan Ruddock said that her postbag is full of letters from people saying they want to recycle more.

"But”, the minister said, “unless they know their efforts are making a real difference, they won't keep trying. That's why statistics like these are so important.”

Statistics are only statistics. We need to have incentives to get people to recycle even more, and they will if they get paid in the end for their effort.

Such schemes in other countries, such as the Unites States, have shown that not only will this reduce the amount of waste that comes in from household collections, but that also there will be less litter in the municipal litter bins, as people will collect all those items that they can get money for at the reverse vending machines of the recycling centers, whether municipality run or private.

Obviously, there will always be the black sheep who will go and steal recyclables for resale but I think that such a minority should not stand in the way of having the same schemes put into operating in Britain.

Britain still is the dustbin of Europe and we put more waste into the ground than any other country in the European Union, and probably elsewhere.

And while this is costing the council taxpayer dearly in landfill taxes and councils dearly in fines it really is costing us all a lot more. Aside from the fact that we are rapidly running out of holes in the ground where to deposit all that waste.

Much of the non-recyclable and non-compostable waste that in the end has nowhere else to go could also, as it is done, per example, in Sweden, be burned in combined heat and power plants. Only problem there is that the NIMBYs arrive immediately, with the likes of the Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace in the forefront, says we must recycle, recycle, recycle.

Yes, indeed, we MUST recycle but... and the but is that not everything is recyclable. However, much of that which is not recyclable can be burned and heat and electricity be created from it. Why not?

© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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Plastic Lids from Coffee Jars

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The lids from glass coffee jars of the instant coffee variety, such as Nescafe, and others, which more often than not are of plastic, and of a kind of plastic that, so I understand, is not easily recyclable via local authority recycling schemes, for instance, can be easily re-purposed and recycled into nice and useful little dishes for a number of different uses.

Once the paper seal, that is, invariably, found stuck, by one means or another, in the top, is removed and the lid cleaned such lids can be used for a number of tasks, from holding paper clips, rubber bands, or drawing pins on the desk, to be used as individual serving dishes for peanuts, raisins, or other small snack of this kind. They also make great “small change” trays and such like. With some lateral thinking, I am am sure, we can all come up with a lot more uses for them.

The lids from the larger glass jars are, obviously, better suited for the use as serving dishes, though all sizes, I am sure, can be recycled into some use around the home and office and even the workshop.

The jars themselves, with lids, also have their uses, as our grandfathers and grandmothers sure could tell us. I am sure that many of us will have seen grandpa's workshop with those glass jars full of nuts, bolts, screws, nails, or whatever else, or grandma's button collection in jars. Other uses of glass jars shall come to be mentioned in another little article, with and without lids. Here the main issue, is and was, the plastic lids, and this primarily because they cannot, in most cases be recycled and even if we would send our jars to recycling the lids would still end up in landfill sites. Aside from the fact that it would be a shame of them filling up those sites it would be a shame to waste them.

© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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American way of life put at risk through climate change

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has come under fire for, apparently, discounting the impact of climate change, has now come out and said global warming poses real risk to human health and the American way of life.

Risks include, according to the EPA in a new report, more heat-related deaths, more heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and wildfires.

"Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems that support our way of life in the United States," the agency's Joel Scheraga said in a telephone briefing.

The report does not specify, however, how many people in the United States could die due to climate change, because that number can be changed by taking action, Scheraga said.

There is one problem with that equation, as I have said in other articles already, and that is that we will have a problem with that theory if, as I, and many others, believe that Climate Change is not so much cause by the action of Man but more a cyclic event of the Earth itself. If it is the latter than we must take other actions as well so as to minimize the impact and to learn and live with the changes in our climate on a local as well as worldwide level.

Climate change is expected to affect water supplies across the United States, as well as other countries, with reduced water flow in rivers, lower groundwater levels and more salt creeping into coastal rivers and groundwater.

People who live along the coasts will face the consequences of rising sea levels and severe weather events while city dwellers can expect higher energy demand to cool buildings -- though the demand for heat will probably decline – if we are lucky.

We must do two things... and that is to (1) look at reducing anything that could be a contributing factor to climate change and (2) prepare for the possibility climate change is not man-made and that there is nothing or little that we can to stop it. That is to say that this, more than likely, a cycle that the Earth goes through every so many centuries and if that is the case, as I believe it is, we must prepare for this at the same time.

I am not saying that we should not reduce any pollution and emissions and should not work on renewable energy and such. We must do so indeed and the same as regards to recycling, waste reduction, reusing, upcycling, and all those steps.

Let's go and do it...

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

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London Borough of Brent prepares for mandatory recycling

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Residents in the London Borough of Brent are gearing up and preparing themselves for the introduction of compulsory recycling next month.

From the 4th of August, those residents of the Borough who live in houses or houses converted into flats will have to recycle or will face a fine of up to £1,000 (US$2,000).

Brent Council is introducing those new regulations in a bid to increase its recycling rate and avoid rising landfill costs. The former is, obviously, in order to meet targets imposed from central government, the latter to save money.

Its landfill bill is set to be around £7m this year, but council chiefs predict it could increase to as much as £10m by 2011 if it continues to collect the same amount of waste.

While we all agree, I am sure, that recycling is the way to go, aside from the first step and that is reduction of waste for starters and also reuse, running about slapping fines on those that do not recycle (enough) is certainly not the answer. It would appear to me that this yet another way of taxing people and getting more money for the coffers of the councils.

A huge publicity campaign has been underway to alert local people to the change and hundreds of households have ordered recycling boxes from the council.

Council leader Cllr Paul Lorber said: "I want to say thank you to everyone who is already recycling. If you aren't, you should get involved to avoid a fine.

"We all have to recycle more or the cost will be passed onto local people. And recycling will help us preserve the planet for future generations.

"Two-thirds of what people throw away can be recycled, and it's easy to do using the green box scheme, so compulsory recycling should help us make a substantial improvement.

"The early signs are good - more and more people are getting involved. Let's work together to make Brent one of the best recycling boroughs in Britain."

This is despite the fact that Brent council is part Liberal-Democrats and part Tories and that the Tory party only the other day called for financial incentives for recycling rather than fines and was accusing central government of that. Here it is it's own party members in this councils that seem to follow a completely different line. Obviously, sound and text bites for the media are something different to reality, whether Tory, Labor or Lib-Dem. What's new? It would appear that the Tory leadership are either not in tune with its councillors and others or that the Shadow Cabinet members are but out to get publicity while the truth remains different.

If you aren't recycling already, you should get involved to avoid a fine, say the leader of the Council to his residents. In other word, a threat. Get a recycling box and recycle or get fined.

What the result of this will be is like elsewhere where such schemes have been introduced and that is the increase in fly tipping, especially in alleyways and in parks, open spaces and derelict land. Brilliant idea – NOT!

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

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Tories call for payments to recyclers rather than fines for people who don't

Households should be paid for recycling in a bid to boost the UK's recycling rates, say the Conservatives

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

One can but wonder as to whether the leading members of the Tory Party are reading the Green (Living) Review for I have been saying this, in the pages of this journal as well as in meetings with other members of the press, as well as politicians, local and central, that is to say that we need to give people incentives to recycle.

In a speech to the Green Alliance, an environmental lobby group, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said Government's use of fines and taxation was "old fashioned" and "heavy handed" and one can but applaud the Shadow Chancellor for his insight. Maybe the Tories too are soon capable of inventing the wheel or such.

He pointed to the example of America, where households in hundreds of cities are paid up to $50 a month by local authorities as an incentive to recycle.

The payments, which vary according to the amount of recycling, are funded by the amount the authorities save in landfill taxes as less waste is being sent to landfill.

"In some communities, it has increased the amount of household waste being recycled by more than 200%," Mr Osborne said.

"And there is an important equity dimension too. While the poorest households were previously the least likely to recycle, as soon as they start receiving a financial incentive for recycling, they typically become amongst the most likely households to recycle.

"I want to see this innovative approach rolled out across the UK."

Not only are the households paid but anyone can bring recyclables to the recycling centers, whether privately operated or run by the municipalities, and turn those finds, whether soda or beer cans, bottles, glass jars, etc., into cash.

It would be good if Mr. Osborne would be so good as to study the schemes properly in the USA, all of them. All of them seem to make great sense and it would make a change if in this country we could actually implement something similar – and there are other countries too those examples we could look at – rather than being given, each and every time when one suggest such approaches to the current government that, while such things may well work in other countries, they could never work in Britain; because Britain is different, they then add.

We must get away from a “cannot do” attitude simply because such schemes have not been invented and thought of in this country to a “can do” approach and look at implementing all good schemes here in the UK, and the sooner the better.

In the USA, in fact, many of the poorest households, and also the homeless families, actually make a living – yes, a living – from collecting recyclables from trash bins in parks and other places. And while the USA pays people to recycle the current UK government of so-called Labor (the real Labour men like Hardie, Salter and Brockway would turn in their graves) rather uses the clunking fist approach of treats, fines and such like, rather than giving people any sort of financial incentives to recycle. In addition to that they have forced most local authorities to go from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collection, which has led to a large increase in fly tipping.

He said the party is working with the Local Government Association, the Mayor of London and Tory local authorities such as those in Windsor and Maidenhead to develop plans for how the scheme will work in the UK.

Reacting to the speech, which covered a number of environmental topics, Stephen Hale, director of Green Alliance, said: "There is much to do to flesh this out in order to develop an approach that delivers.

"But it was heartening to hear his commitment to more work in many areas, so that a Conservative government would be ready, as Osborne put it, to 'drive forward the environmental agenda from day one.'"

Sure, Mr. Hale, there is probably lots to flesh out in what Mr. Osborne has said but let's not knock it and start the “cannot do” approach, yet again. We can do, like other countries can do and we should and indeed must do. It can be done for other countries, and in that kind of recycling it would appear that America is the leader, show that it can be done.

For years I have been advocating the “reverse vending machines” that are in operation in many US towns and cities for aluminium cans and also, so I understand for bottles, but no one seems to be listening in this country for no one, as yet, has even suggested this.

Even here in Mr. Osborne's suggestion it is again an government led and controlled approach, so it would seem, rather than having something that is much more at the bottom and may be even via more private enterprises, as many of those schemes are indeed in the USA.

Last month, Defra launched an informal consultation on household waste incentive schemes.

The Chartered Institution for Waste Management has consistently called for pilot schemes to be used to test the effectiveness of financial incentives.

CEO Steve Lee said: "The possible use of incentive charges has caused great debate and media interest over several years, but until these schemes are piloted we are only guessing how effective, how costly and how practicable they will be."

All those consultations are often, I would suggest, not necessary at all and are but a waste of money. Money for the boys, obviously, and Quangos want paying. What is needed are not more studies and consultations, like the ones from which the government recently seems to have had the results back, where it was discovered, at great costs, I should think, that canals and inland waterways can be used to carry freight (our ancestors in the 17th century already knew that; they built the canals after all) and that one can burn (waste) wood. The latter was a fact well known, so I understand, to early man, probably even the Neanderthals. Why it was not known, it would appear, to those people in government beats me.

What do we need “pilot schemes” for? If this thing works – and it does – in other countries then all we have to do is to learn from them and copy their approach and make it fit the UK. There does not have to be much doctoring on the system. I have seen some of the systems of “reverse vending”, for instance, in operation some years back and they are simple and they work.

On the other hand, what is wrong with simply bringing back a “deposit” scheme for bottles and extending this to drinks cans, glass jars and such. If not operated by shops then all that is needed are local “recycling centers”. Not rocket science, it it.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

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TERBERG ONE PASS FOOD WASTE AND RECYCLING SOLUTION

NEWS RELEASE - Sunday, 15 June 2008



2008 brings about a new innovation to be introduced into Terberg’s current family of recycling collection body solutions, the Kerbsider® Combi TD, a unique solution that facilitates the collection of food waste and recyclables from the kerbside in one pass. The concept has been created by close working with their customers to aid the design and manufacture of a concept that suits and fits with their operational requirements but affords the familiarity of working with an evolution of the Terberg Kerbsider® range.

The Kerbsider® Combi TD offers exceptional quality, robust build and safety features that come as standard with all Terberg products together with some new introductions, the control system is canBUS based to offer easy diagnostics and configuration changes and both the Kerbsider® body and Combi TD unit are offered with underbody weighing.

Efficient kerbside recycling is offered via the Kerbsider® body but the vehicle also has a leak-proof Combi TD unit that sits between the cab and Kerbsider® body.

The Combi TD unit has been developed specifically for the collection of food/kitchen waste and is therefore constructed from aluminum which assists with payloads and guards against corrosive organic fluids. The Combi TD is fully sealed and is designed to collect loose or bagged food waste in accordance with the requirements of the ABP EC regulation no. 1774/2002. The Combi TD container is mounted into a robust steel frame and is specially designed such that it rotates to discharge its load through its roof opening, this allows tipping into a number of containers including ‘roll-on, roll-off’ skips.

Loading the vehicle could not be easier, various options are available to suit the required operation which include the Kerbsider®-style lifter fitted as shown which can handle wheeled bins up to 240L as well as loose waste, other lifter options include a TLL360 and TLL1280 bin lift version, both available with removable, lightweight aluminium pannier options to give trough loading functionality when required.

Available in three different volume configurations, 2.5, 3 and 3.6 cubic metres, the product has been designed with flexibility in mind to assist with the rigors of today’s recycling collection demands. A typical expected food waste payload for the 2.5 cubic metre version of the Combi TD unit shown is 1750Kgs.

Terberg Matec UK Ltd. now offer one of the widest ranges of BioWaste collection solutions in the UK, providing solutions for private and public organizations wishing to collect food/kitchen and ABP materials. For more information check out the website at http://www.terberg.co.uk
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People Turn To Recycling For Extra Money

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

One economist said the economy is gasping for air, but has yet to collapse.

While the debate continues about whether or not the USA (and the UK) are in a recession many are already struggling and trying to find new ways to make a few extra bucks.

Many people say they are having a hard time paying bills and putting food on the table and some say they are recycling for the extra money which also helps the environment.

More and more people are recycling in a time when the economy is slow, which can be seen by the amount of people that visit recycling centers in the various cities and towns, small towns even, in the United States.

There everything can be sold back for recycling, even squashed up soda and beer cans, as long as they are made of aluminium, glass bottles, metal of all kinds, and much more.

“In this day in time with gas prices being so high, four dollars a gallon for gas and groceries being at an all time high milk eggs meat...you got to do what you got to do to survive,” remayked the manager of one recycling center.

He also stated that on average he gets seventy to a hundred customers a day and some days even more. People are bringing in household items like old Christmas tree stands and toasters to recycle for extra cash.

Someone from a different region reported that last month he took his six month inventory of cans over to the scrapping place and that he had to wait for 2 hours just to get in the door. He added that he could remember just a year ago driving in and being the only person there. Now, all one can say to that is that times are definitely changing, once again.

Recycling, in the USA, is good for the pocketbook as well as for the environment. Shame that we have not cottoned on to this as yet in Britain.

I am sure that no council would have to force people to recycle by various taxes and threats but that they would have queues of miles by people wanting to sell back to them the various recyclables and, like in the USA, I am sure that there would be many kids that would go out, trash bag in hand (and maybe even litter picker), and collect those soda and beer cans that maybe, just maybe, still end up in the litter or just thrown into road or the countryside.

In the USA is is often common for most customers to walk away from the recycling centers with more than one hundred dollars in their pocket.

I am sure it is time that other countries took a leaf out of that book and applied the same, Britain for starters.

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008

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You can't get money for old rope...

...betcha you can.

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The saying always was “you can't get money for old rope” but, apparently, this has all changed now with recycling being chic and the latest in fashion and must have accessories for wear and home.

A company recently was noticed on the Internet selling just that, namely recycled old rope with wooden beads as a belt or necklace, and it was advertised thus “Made with wooden beads on a thick jute cord it can be worn as a belt or necklace. $70”. I mean this is $70 for a length of old jute cord and some wooden beads – probably – it will be claimed – recycled in Southern Africa or thereabouts.

While I am the first to say yes to all things green and all things recycled this is a little too much money to pay for in my liking. Who is getting the income from this “beltlace”? I am certain it is not the people in some Third Wold – oops, sorry – Developing Country who recycle those into this piece of fashion accessory.

I have seen the wire sculptures, for instance, that are made predominately by children and young people in Southern Africa and that fetch a small fortune in the “ethical” stores in Europe and North America but I could bet my bottom dollar that very little money of the sales of those goods ever gets back to those that make them.

With the world as it is today, with Internet and such communications, I am sure it would be possible that some ethical publications (those of Tatchipen Media are only too open for that) to advertise (recycled) goods produced by co-ops and even individuals, and to enable those producers to sell their goods direct rather than through middlemen who, in the end, are always the ones who reap the profits.

The problem with the “Beltlace” and such “ethical” and “green” goods and products is that they are NOT ethical in the way the rip the buyer off and, more often than not, the producers get very little by way of return. While the couple of bucks, if that, they they get per item made, which indeed in their country may be a small fortune, it is not, at least not in my book, very ethical to rip both the makers and the buyers off by charging such exorbitant prices for what is but old rope.

The same, also, is true for other such goods and please, let no one start me off about the useless so-called green products of which the Eco-Button (see my product review) is but one example.

© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008

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Champagne Cork Peg Board (Practical Recycling)

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In my opinion, but then most of your regular readers will know that already, practical recycling, that is to say, turning items of “trash”, whether discarded by yourself or by others, into usable goods, must come well before the commercial recycling.

Then again this kind of recycling also can make for the creation of, hopefully, saleable items, thereby becoming commercial, but not in the way of the commercial grand scale recycling of the reclaiming secondary raw materials is.

Champagne Cork Peg Board (Coat Rack).

This is a project that happened to result out of the fact that I once worked in a catering establishment where such corks were in abundance and they ended up thrown away after events and functions and, thinking that there might be a use for them though which I did not know at the particular time, I took a number of them with me to see what might come to mind some day.

One day then, without much thinking about it, a peg board come coat rack came to mind as I wanted to make one for some reason and I remembered the champagne corks. Having a board to hand it took but a few minutes, literally, to have a working peg board/coat rack to go onto the wall.

Ingredients:


• A number of champagne corks (real cork or pressed cork)
• Equal number of long wood screws (normal slot is better than Phillips)
• A nice wooden plank as a back board (this could be salvaged skirting, floorboard or from a pallet)

First of prepare the back board. This may mean, if need and you wish to do so, sanding and oiling (using vegetable oil), after having drilled the two holes that will be used as to wherewith to affix the board to the wall by means of screws. The rest, then, is a simple as ABC. Screw screw into cork slowly and precise into the previously marked peg locations and once they have all been screwed in – voila – one peg board or coat rack.

Apart from the screws (unless they be salvaged too – and this is possible) there should be no financial layout for this project. However, properly promoted, this could be something that a livelihood project could make.

Idea & Design © Michael Smith (Veshengro), 2001-2008

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Practical Recycling – something important that we all can do

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Before, and I know I have said that many times already, we even think of recycling, even practical recycling, that is to say making something “new” out of an item of “trash” we must think “reduce” and before that even “reduce”.

However, practical recycling should be something that should be thought about before we even go and put something into the recycling bin to be then going through a process of reprocessing and such.

Such practical recycling can be a possible source of income for the unwaged – the jobless – and kids even.

This kind of works has, in time past, always been a source – and the stress here is firmly on the letter “a” – source of income for Gypsy families.

Entire (Community) Livelihood Projects and Programs have been and are being set up around direct practical recycling, making goods for sale from discarded materials and items.

When we speak here of “practical recycling” we are not talking about gathering recyclables for resale to reprocessors and such nor of reprocessing recyclables into secondary raw materials but we are talking about using the refuse from which to make useful goods, for personal use, as gifts, or even, and especially so, for sale, like done by livelihood projects in a variety of countries.

While the majority of such livelihood projects are found in the developing world, that part of the world that, until not so long ago, was called the “Third World”, I can see no reason why something like that could not also work say in the UK, the USA, or such.

When, for instance, it comes to recycling advertising tarpaulin banners and such those too can be found in our countries and I am almost certain that here they go landfill site route and are not recycled.

Therefore, while there may not be such an ample supply of such tarps as there may be in the Philippines where Trashe Bolsas operates and maybe not of the same or similar large sizes, it would still be possible to work projects around reworking such tarps as are found in countries such as the UK into new goods, like it is done by Trashe Bolsas, but possibly smaller items, such as belt pouches, cellphone pouches, business card wallets, etc. The list, I am sure, is limited only by our imagination.

This is, I am sure, also one of many otherwise discarded materials that can be reworked in such and similar ways and manners and again it is only our imagination or lack of same that may restrict as to what can be reworked and how.

I am certain that, if we all look at trash in a different way and with different eyes as the majority of the population does then we could get a number of little industries started making goods that people will want to buy. Firstly, they want to buy those goods because of the fact that they are recycled and that they come from a self-help group but they should also want to do so because, especially, those goods are of high quality and are made locally.

© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008

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Uses for Found Orphaned Socks

Often, on my walks, I do find the odd orphaned sock of a small and not so small child and I have often wondered as to what to do with them, as I always thought it a shame to waste them, as a resource and then, one day it just dawned on me... USB stick and cell phone/MP3-player socks, obviously.
Now I have a use for them and you have an idea as to what to do with them too, if you find some.

The smallest ones, those that tend to be lost by babies in their pushchairs are turned into covers – not much to do about it – for USB Flash Drives, aka USB Sticks, and the bigger ones, from older babies and toddlers, make great ones for cell phones and also for iPods and other MP3 players. Why buy a so-called USB or cell phone sock when you can have them for free and do something for the environment at the same time.
So, happy sock hunting...

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), March 2008

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Practical Recycling & Reuse – Part I

Spoon rests and such for the kitchen from plastic fish trays

In the British Isles when buying prepackaged wet fish the product invariably comes on plastic trays, mostly clear plastic material – the grade of which I do not know, e.g. whether it is PET or PP or whatever – and, with most people, I am certain, those trays end up in the garbage or, if lucky, then in the plastics recycling bin.

But, as we have spoken about before: we must think reuse before thinking recycling.

Those trays, some shallow, some deeper, make great spoon rests for the cook in the kitchen and save money in the process and the environment at the same time. OK, fine, the comes a day when, finally, such tray comes to the end of its life and will go to the great recycling bin in the sky, so to speak, but before that we can still get some use out of it.

In addition to this there are other uses too, such as as trays in drawers – no, not in female underwear.

In addition to the use in the kitchen those plastic trays also make useful trays for pens and such items on a desk. While this may not, as yet, at this moment in time, be a fashion statement on an office desk, we never know whether we might end up setting a trend, and in time it might just be that, once people's concern for the environment increases more and more, it might just catch on and become rather fashionable to have such kind of trays on one's desk whence to put one's pens and such items.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008

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Before Recycle Must Come Reuse

Think Reuse First!

Before we even think of taking stuff to the recycling stations, and I am talking here primarily the likes of packaging, whether cardboard, plastic, glass, or what-have-you, we must consider if and how each and every item could be reused, either by ourselves or someone else.

It still takes a considerable about of energy, aside from the CO2 emissions from transporting the stuff from the recycling stations to the processing plants, to recycle paper and cardboard into new, or plastic (PET) bottles into, say, fiber for the making of polar fleeces, for example. Therefore we must think “reuse” before we think “recycle”.

So, therefore, to begin with before going to the recycle bin always think reuse and practical rework, and I am sure that, with a little bit of thought, many items need not end up even in the recycling bin.

Reuse and rework beats recycling any day in regards to environmental friendliness.

I am also certain that manufacturers could design packaging – for it is mostly packaging material that we are, as I said already, talking about here in this context of reusing before recycling – already with a reuse in mind and we, as customers and consumers, should and indeed must challenge them to do just that. It should be possible, of that I am sure, to design a second life into an article pf packaging from the very beginning. Pasta sauce, for instance, could come in properly reusable Mason Jars, as an example and other packaging too could be second life designed. It has worked in the past with, say Avon toiletries, where the containers were later reusable as mugs and tankards, and other items and also become highly collectable. Even boxes made from strong cardboard could have a second life design on them, even if this might mean that people have to do a little work to them even.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008

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Weekly rubbish collections 'withdrawn from 18 million people'

Welcome to diseases & to vermin on the streets. No, not the two-legged kind... What the h*11 is the govt thinking?

Weekly rubbish collections have now been withdrawn from 18 million people, so it was claimed recently.

This number, based on latest Government figures, prompted fresh criticism of the impact of fortnightly bin collections on public health.

At least 155 councils, out of 350, have so far adopted "alternate week" collections, environment minister Joan Ruddock has disclosed to Mps.

That is up from 140 last April, causing shadow local government minister Eric Pickles to warn of the "slow death" of weekly collections.

He also accused Gordon Brown of "bullying" councils into the new rubbish collection cycle after ministerial answers showed that savings from the schemes could be counted towards annual efficiency targets.

All it is is targets, efficiency targets, and targets again with this government. Nothing else seems to count.

There has been a storm of protest over the rubbish collection changes, which see recyclables collected one week and other waste the next.

Ministers insist that rubbish is still collected weekly, but MPs have warned the scheme is unsuitable for many areas and there is no proof it increases recycling.

The cross-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee also raised concern about the public health implications of leaving rubbish in the street for up to 14 days.

Mr Pickles said today: "It is increasingly difficult for families to dispose of their rubbish responsibly - in turn leading to more fly-tipping, harming the local environment.

"We are witnessing the slow death of weekly collections.”

While people may indeed genuinely want to improve recycling and go green, Labour's approach of forcing rubbish cuts is not the answer, as it threatens to harm the local environment and is bad for public health. Nor is penalizing those that do not recycle, often because they cannot take their recyclables to the recycling centers for a variety of reason, not the least being the lack of transport, an answer. Instead the government should find a way of encouraging people to recycle by giving them financial incentives to do so, as it is the case in many areas of the United States where the recycling centers pay for material brought to them.

Whitehall bureaucrats and ministers do not seem to have a clue as to what happens with rubbish, especially organic refuse, in summer, and let us have some real hot and sticky months, and all I can say is “welcome diseases” which won't be all that welcome, and vermin. Already it is reckoned that there are rats all over the place, which indeed is true, and it will be worse when it comes to a hot summer and rotting refuse. And not only will it be rats but it will be flyes, maggots and the gods only know what.

Already it is being reported that fly tipping, the illegal dumping of rubbish, has doubled and trebled in many areas, and here especially those that have gone over to fortnightly rubbish collections and/or those that charge by the bin bag, and many of those that work in Parks and Open Spaces, as well as Countryside Rangers and farmers, report a significant increase of fly-tipping over previous years. This proves that people will not put up with the idiocy of the governments, local and central, and will dump refuse illegally in the countryside where then the councils – or in case of it being dumped on farm land the farmer – will have to foot the bill for clearing up the mess.

Let us get serious and – one – get back to at least weekly rubbish collections, including recyclables and – two – give incentives to people to recycle, financial incentives. Then we must return to the returnable glass bottles with deposit. It is amazing that other countries can have daily refuse collections while in the UK a weekly one seems to be too much for the public purse. However, the answer would be the usual one, I should assume, namely that while this may all work in other countries it could not work in Britain, as Britain is different.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008

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Recycling is blue

MEDWAY Council is stepping up its campaign to get residents to recycle their household waste.

As of January 25, the authority will no longer be providing black bags and will instead be distributing more blue recycling bags.

It is part of the “Think Blue, Not Black” campaign, which also aims to raise awareness about the amount of recyclable rubbish that ends up in landfills.

Nearly 70 per cent of rubbish currently sent to landfill sites could be recycled or composted.

Medway recycles more than 32 per cent of domestic waste, marginally above the national average of 32%, but needs to do more to meet targets to recycle and compost 40% of its waste by the year 2010/2011.

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Reuse, Recycle your Aluminum Foil

If you happen to use aluminum foil in your kitchen please consider cleaning the shiny crinkles in order to use them again. Alternatively, recycle this foil, after cleaning off any baked-on food, fact, and such, together with your aluminum soft drinks cans, if your council has an aluminum recycling facility.

Producing aluminum is very resource intensive. Mining bauxite, in addition to that, is extremely gruelling to the environment.

The good thing is that aluminum is 100% recyclable and can be reworked indefinitely without degrading in quality, while plastics, for instance, diminished in quality each time that it is recycles. Secondary aluminum, therefore, is a highly sought after commodity.

Furthermore, according to the U.S. Department of State's Aluminum Task Force, recycled aluminum takes as little as 5% of the energy needed to make virgin aluminum.

According to the Aluminum Association Americans throw away enough aluminum every 3 months to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet of the United States.

This fact alone, methinks, should encourage us, wherever possible, obviously, to recycle aluminum cans, aluminum foil and other aluminum goods.

Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007

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Funding for Tyre Recycling

A grant of more than £130,000 (over $ 250,000) has been pumped – pardon the pun – into a London-based tyre recycling facility in order to boost the disposal of used tyres in Britain.

The Enhance Capital Fund, which is the support service for green enterprises in London, announced the grant to London Tyre Recycling in the middle of December 2007.

The money will be used for equipment to shred tyres and reprocess them into rubber chips that can be used to manufacture new products such as artificial sports surfaces, landscaping and mulches.

Every day more than 131,00 worn tyres are taken off cars, vans and trucks in the UK adding up to more than 48m tyres per year. The EU Landfill Directive bans most of these from being sent to landfill.

Aside from the above products tyres can be recycled into items that you and I can use at home and in the office; the coasters and especially the mouse mats made from recycled tyres are absolutely brilliant, and that for both the old-style roller mouse and the optical version.

Coasters and mouse mats, made from recycled tyres can be gotten from a number of sources, Banner Business Supplies amongst them.

Personally, I am sure that tyre could also be recycled into car mats for the foot well and into door mats, especially for use outside the door, whether front or back.

Come on folks! Get your thinking caps on. The stuff is too good a resource to be just shredded into chips and used in landscaping and such.

Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007

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