Be Zero Waste - Join Brixton (2011)

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A documentary of 10 minutes duration by Chocolate Films that can be viewed in full online. Directed by Ben Clough and produced Rachel Wang for Lambeth Council.

This short documentary produced by Chocolate Films features local Brixton residents on their journey to a zero-waste lifestyle. Participants were trained in film making and how to use lighting, camera, and sound kits. They also share their tips on being zero waste by demonstrating easy ways to recycle and reuse.

It is a film that belongs up there with others that were made on the subject of stuff and waste and green living and being just ten minutes in duration it is not much time that one has to spend watching it.

Everyone is down to earth and very much to the point and the film is very well made and presented.

© 2011

Think reuse and repurpose always first

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Recycling is, indeed the final option and solution. Once you head for the recycling bin you have lost.

All the time we hear “recycle”, “recycle”, “recycle”, as if that would be the “3Rs” of waste management. But reuse is before recycle on the list and we must think reuse and, as said, and thus really we might need a fourth “R”, repurpose before recycle, if reuse is not a possible option.

The fact that recycle is the final solution and that once you head for the recycling bin you have lost the battle already really.

Many things that people toss, thoughtlessly often, for we have been so conditioned to only one “R” really, namely, recycle, into the recycling bin could continue life elsewhere as something else.

A clean tin can, lid cut out, makes for a great pencil pin or receptacle for cutlery, etc. It only belongs into the recycling stream if you (or others) have no other and further use for it.

The same goes for glass jars (and even some types of bottles) and for many other things as well.

If you use blank index cards why not make your own from cereal packs and such? Use a paper trimmer, aka guillotine, and cut them 3”x5” (or whatever size you use) and you save money and do the Planet some good too.

Green business and visiting cards too can be created using this method of upcycling packaging card stock and a rubber stamp. They work well and are a great conversation piece. All my index cards and business/visitor cards are upcycled from waste packaging material and such like waste card stock.

Our ancestors, our great-grandparents and our grandparents, in many cases even our parents, were masters in reusing and repurposing and the majority of them looked at each and every item of waste – often – several times before ever tossing it out.

The Australian Bushmen, the often called squatters, used as many items of waste as possible from which to fashion everything that they needed. There are some great examples in some books and – probably – on the Internet on those things that they made.

Many of us could use their examples and from them get ideas as to what we can use this or that item of waste for that we come across on a daily basis at home, at work, or even laying about in the street.

If we all put our minds into gear I am sure that there would be very little that actually would have to go into the recycling stream and even less into landfill.

© 2011

Something Found and Something Made

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Reusable finds and recycling DIY (with those items found or others)

Ever since childhood this has been a part of me; the taking home with me of things found (that have been lost or even discarded by others) that might be useful in themselves as they are or if broken that could be repaired or that could be made into something else. I just hate seeing things go to waste and into the waste stream that do not have to.

If one but has one's eyes open without even specifically looking for items in dumpsters, for instance, one will be amazed how much useful stuff is being lost or thrown out.

I certainly am amazed at a more or less daily basis, even though, by now, I should have really gotten used to it and it should no longer really surprise me at my age, I guess, but it still does.

Time and again I still am being surprised as to what the ordinary punter will throw into a park's litter bin, for instance.

Only the other day I found two brand new Duracell AAA batteries, still in their package of originally four, thrown away. Whoever dumped them obviously only needed two batteries at the time but bought a 4-pack, as that is often the only way to purchase them, and then could not be bothered to take the other two with him. Why, one can only ask in amazement.

I do not really complain as this gave me two more batteries and two new ones that I do not have to pay for. Just the fact of them having been tossed is what got to me.

In my experience keeping the eyes wide open is definitely advantageous at times for people are careless with their stuff and even money and they also often throw stuff simply away because it was cheap or because they go t a new one.

As a society, but then who am I telling that, we are, in the developed world, wasteful in the extreme.

To me, I have to say, finding stuff and reusing, repurposing, repairing and converting it, has a great thrill attached and that thrill has never gone ever since childhood.

When I was growing up money was at a premium and toys were not something that there was ever much money for. The toys that we had when I was a boy were either homemade by ourselves or one of our Elders or “rescued” from found items or from the dump.

I guess that that childhood of mine is responsible for still looking at waste in the same way as then; a resource from which to make things and this also applies to things that are left lying about the streets and countryside.

A great number of my tolls such as spanners and such came to me as finds from the side of the roads, including some expensive Snap-On wrenches and sockets. Thus, I have found, that open eyes can save money.

Often items tossed into litter bins can either be upcycled, repurposed or repaired be be of use (again) and I have found new radios that were thrown away simply for the fact that the batteries had run out, and the same with flashlights and such.

Other things get thrown because people simply cannot see other uses for them such as, for instance, the plastic dishes, with lids on them, from Chinese or Indian take-out places. Nowadays those have replaced, in most cases, the tin foil dishes of before.

Apparently folks do not realize that they could use those plastic boxes at home for storing leftovers or other things.

While, once they have been in a little bin, I will not use them for food they are great in drawers of desks and such to keep things neat and tidy. Even if the lid is damaged or missing the container still can find uses.

Other finds can be use to make decorative art, of various kinds, or used in other ways to make things, such as found nails and screws, for instance, or bits of (fence) wire.

The frugal person with an eye for things and an imagination can find uses for many of the things that get lost or thrown into litter bins or just tossed tot he side of the road, into roadside ditches and such.

If we do not pick those things up for reuse in one way or the other they will, invariably, end up in the municipal landfill.

So save the Earth and your money buy reusing found items.

© 2010

Rescued Paper Notebooks

by Michael Smith

This is a little DIY project of what to do with all those letters and photocopies and such that are just one side used.

If you work in an office or otherwise come across one side used only letter paper regularly – I also tend to get that spam post a lot with a covering letter that is blank on the other and also here are still press releases given out to us who write that are printed on dead trees – then you can, by use of a paper cutter, turn those pages easily into rescued paper notebooks.

Obviously you can just make notepads with those pages or print other stuff on the back of them and, with the right printing template, you can make them into all sorts of useful pages.

This is, I know, certainly not new. Many offices that I know used to do that years ago, printing phone message pads from old one side used only pages. Somewhere along the line, however, it got forgotten. What happened? The truth is Affluenza happened.

I make A6 Notebooks from those rescued pages of paper that I use in my work as a writer and journalist. Very handy as they fit into a jacket pocket with ease. I must say that I have also seen such kind of rescued paper notebooks for sale at about $15 to $20 each.

Using a guillotine (paper trimmer, I believe those things are called in the States) you can cut the paper into more or less exact sized pages in this or that format that may suit you. As we, nowadays, use the A standard, as in A4, which is our standard letter size here, for paper, which originated in the Germany DIN standard and was adopted by the then Common Market, now the European Union, and is in use in most of not in fact all of Europe, I cut the paper down to the common notebook size of A6. Once I have enough pages together I just staple them and thus make them into a notebook. About 20-25 sheets is about the maximum for a stapler, unless one uses a professional one.

Another way of making rather snazzy notebooks is to, instead of using staples, punch two holes at the margin and then, placing an popsicle stick on either side in such a manner that it is possible to tie the book together using the sticks as a backing, so to speak. This was the recycling is even more pronounced. Notebooks like that sell for even more when done by green “designers”.

So, go and make your own designer rescued paper notebook and save some trees and some money.

© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
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Need a beer glass? Pull out a Frankfurter jar.

Let’s, maybe, start a fashion trend

by Michael Smith

In the old poor student days of the 1960s and 1970s this was the way things were done. Glass jars of this kind, and smaller ones even, were got out and used for serving drinks, as many of them did not have the money to buy glasses and such. Then there were the old Hippies did this too and it was trendy in those circles for sure. They did it because they were making a statement; the same statement, in a way that we should be making today.

Why buy when you can reuse. After all, you paid for that glass jar when you bought those sausages. When we talk about recycling, recycled goods, etc., why do we never, it would seem, in the main, think about the simple act of reusing?

Students, the poor, and the Hippies used to do this many a times in years gone by. For the latter, as I said, it was a statement, for the former two groups it was done for reasons of necessity. Maybe it needs to be made a fashion and I am rather serious here. Why not just directly reuse such items? This could be the start of a fashion and a trend and why not.

The same could be done with the smaller jars whence mustard, for instance, comes in. They make great “green” Whisky tumblers. Just add Malt and soda or ice, or just have it neat without anything added – the way I like it – and cheers. Frankfurter jars are great for beers and ales, as well as the alcoholic and non-alcoholic “long drinks”, as well as for the likes of Coke (Yuck! But some like the stuff), while the smaller ones are great for, well, other drinks.

With the use of a “frosting kit” or such designs too could be etched into the jars and voila, even more fashionable still.

By by re-using the right kind of jars in lieu of glasses all the costs and impact of making new glasses, even from those jars by reworking and recycling, or by factory recycling, could be avoided.

Some jars, obviously, lend themselves to such a re-purpose operation much more easily than others. For beer the best are the slim Frankfurter jars and for use as Whisky tumbler the ones mentioned before, those from mustards, are best, I am sure even shot glasses can be found and others.

By re-purposing such jars we might just, as said, start a trend and a fashion and I am sure it would not be the worst of trends now, would it.

My view always is on this: why should we send those jars to the recycling center for no reward. At least this is the way it goes in Britain. In America, I know, things are different in most places, and you actually get money for bringing them in. The fact is that you and I, when we bought the product, we also paid for the glass container. Hence my view is that we should, ourselves, think of ways of re-purposing the items, as in the case of such jars for drinking vessels, before we even think of sending them to the recycling centers. Such is my view, at least, anyhow.

Maybe this could be called, the way Tom Szaky does at Terracycle, upcycling rather than recycling and hopefully, by doing so, we could lead for others to follow.

If others indeed follow this could become a fashion, one that is good for the Planet as it would keep a great deal of stuff out of the waste stream and this has to be good.

This kind of upcycling principle here can also be employed for other items of waste as well, such as tin cans by way of an example. While those would not, necessarily, become drinking vessels they can, however, became most interesting and useful pencil bins and such like for desks and elsewhere. And that is just the standard tin cans. More on that, however, in another article.

© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
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How are the Rs”, as in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, working out for us?

by Michael Smith

First of all as far as I am concerned there should be at least one more “R” namely that or “re-purpose” or “rework”, that is to say making things from the trash that otherwise would be destined for the recycling bin or, the gods forbid, the landfill. In addition to that “R” another one or two more might be considered too, and we will come to one more further on.

When it comes to “recycling” anyway now we are in trouble in the developed world. China is no longer buying as much of the recyclable materials from the our waste stream these days. There is no need for them to make products because we are not buying them at the moment. This is resulting in recyclable waste backing up at the recycle broker 's locations in the USA, the UK, and elsewhere in the developed world who rely on sending their recyclables to China. In the UK brokers have already asked for exception from safety rules and such so that they can store the materials in locations that might otherwise never have been approved for this purpose.

But let's face it, there is only that much that the brokers will be willing to store anywhere, especially as stage is costly too. Therefore, if this keeps up, when they run out of space and reserves, those waste brokers will likely send into the landfill everything that you and I have been striving to recycle.

Hence, my usual message: think reuse, then re-purpose and rework before even sending it into the recycling stream.

What also gets to me in this is why do we send the recyclables thousands of miles away to China broken up (where this term might be appropriate) and then to be reprocessed. I really have a problem with the fact that the material is shipped across the globe to China (and other places) instead of being processed and reprocessed at home.

So how is that message of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” working out for us now? For reasons of the economic downturn we reduced consumption, which I personally think is a good idea, but that now has caused the “Recycle” to be in trouble.

The problem here is that we, or better the powers that be and industry, have turned recyclables into a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder and such and sent abroad to be reprocessed rather than too be used here, at a local level.

When the economy is in full spate it is normally the environment and social equity that suffer and this seems to get worse still when the economy does a downturn toward recession and depression. Now, because we have reduced no one is buying and no one needs to make much and therefore all that stuff than can be recycled and that we do send to recycling piles up in yards and warehouses and, obviously, it cannot stay there indefinitely.

The fact is that we may, indeed be headed foe a depression rather than a simple recession and it that is the case then we are in trouble and the recyclables will end up in the landfill again, as all those glass bottles did some years ago when the bottom fell out of the marked for recyclable glass for a while.

The Boy Scouts used to go from door to door every year collecting the old phone books for recycling. Paper that they could sell for the association to the recyclers but, again, the bottom fell out of that market a while back too and those collections never resumed. And this all was years back.

Then, it would appear, all went up again in the market of secondary raw materials, as this was called in the old German Democratic Republic, and money was being made, mostly though by the brokers and resellers rather than by those that collected the materials.

Meantime we have been told to “reduce” as the first “R” in the collection and we have done so, primarily now because of the economy and the downturn of the same and now, because we have reduced, as I have already said, the market for recyclables has taken a downturn and everyone ends up sitting on mountains of the stuff. In the end, unless the market is going to go up very soon, and this is something that I am beginning to doubt, we will end up with much of the recyclables going into landfill for lack of another outlet. Therefore, on that level incineration in CHP plants should be considered so that, at least, we can reap the benefit of heat and power from it.

On the other hand, as I have said already, and not just here, we must look at recycling and recyclables from a different angle and perspective and look at making the things into resalable items at home rather than shipping the stuff all the way to Asia and elsewhere for processing into the base materials again from which to make new plastic, or whatever.

Retailers and stores in general report that consumers are buying what they need rather than what they want. In this way the credit crunch and the downturn are having a very healthy benefit.

There is also lately the voice of Common Sense heard calling from the far side of WWII. “Hey! How many of those do you need anyway? Eh? You just bought one last year and the year before. Give one to somebody who needs it.”

Maybe we must add yet another “R”into the equation, the “R” for Relate; in other words to give it away to someone in need.

Maybe we should open up to the idea that while we could keep this or that of which we have too many, someone else might actually need it. Reduce, Reuse, Re-purpose, Rework, Recycle, Relate. It just might be what we need, though not necessarily in that order.

Some suggestions for the other “R” for Relate:

You could place items by the curb for a day or two with a “FREE” sign on it. Though suggest you check with your local authority and housing association and other relevant places as to whether this is OK and acceptable.

You could also offer items on www.freecycle.org or on places such as Greenopolis' Free N Exchange

Call your church or any church, or synagogue or temple, to ask if someone needs what you like to give away

Listen to people talking and you may hear that someone says they need such an item as the one you wish to part with

Donate it to a charity or a Goodwill Store. In the UK we are quite fortunate to have all those many Charity Shops in our neighborhoods, often, and who are also willing to come and pick things up in many instance.

© M Smith (Veshengro), March 2009
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Local Councils in England ask people re-reuse and recycle this festive season

No, not recycling the festive season itself...

by Michael Smith

Households in the county of Kent, the neighbor to my own county, produced 22,000 tonnes of waste over the Christmas and New Year period last year.

Now the Green Party in Kent, as well as Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, have issued the challenge to their respective residents urging them to have a greener and less wasteful festive season.

Dr Hazel Dawe, the party’s chair, said: “We want everyone to re-use packaging, re-heat appropriate foods, redistribute usable goods to charity shops or use them as presents.

‘Reclaim unwanted furniture for secondhand use, rot down all kitchen waste into compost, recycle what cannot be re-used and above all re-educate the whole household about redeeming the maximum benefit from the money we all spend at Christmas time.”

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has urged Londoners to make a concerted effort to recycle this Christmas, saying that "we need to stop thinking of rubbish as 'waste' - it is in fact a resource."

"This is a time when we produce acres of extra waste," the Mayor told the London Waste and Recycling Board.

Last year in the county of Kent only 23 per cent of the waste, 5,000 tonnes, produced in the county last Christmas and New Year was recycled – despite the fact that 80 per cent of household rubbish is recyclable. The rest ended up being sent to landfill.

Nationally, the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Management estimates that this Christmas the country will create three million tonnes of rubbish – enough to fill 400,000 double-decker buses.

Kent County Council is keen for people in the county to have a green Christmas and is launching a new campaign working with the national Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to encourage people to recycle small electrical items at their local recycling center rather than throwing them in their dustbins.

A spokesman said: “Radio adverts will start on Boxing Day in time for the sales. The main message is ‘Bring It, Don’t Bin It’.”

Computers 4 Africa, a charity based in Maidstone, takes people’s unwanted PCs and laptops and sends them to schoolchildren in Africa, which has the lowest ratio of computers to people in the world.

While this is a nice gesture I am sure there are also deserving children in this country that cpuld benefit from having such a PC or laptop given to him or her – especially with a safe operating system – and a free one to boot – installed upon the system, such as Linux Ubunbtu.

The wrapping paper used for the country’s gifts is equal to 50,000 trees, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and is enough to giftwrap the island of Guernsey.

Christmas trees can also be recycled alongside your festive greetings cards. The charity Action for Sustainable Living estimates that around six million Christmas trees are bought each year in the UK, but only 750,000 (12.5 per cent) of them are recycled.

The best idea is when it comes to a real Christmas tree is to buy one that is potted, use it for the festive season and then either plant it in the garden or have it planted in a wood or a park. Obviously, if you have a garden of your own you can plant it there and use it again next year. Beware, however, those things grow.

Dr Dawe had some wise words for this Christmas, which is set against the gloomy backdrop of the credit crunch.

She added: “The eight ‘Rs’ – re-use, re-heat, redistribute, reclaim, rot down, recycle, reeducate and redeem – will help to keep household debts under control at the most challenging time of year.

“By all means, have a happy Christmas and New Year – but remember, now is the season of waste, not just good cheer, and why waste money if a little thought will make it go further?”

Alas, Dr Dawe forgot a couple of “Rs”, namely repurpose and rework. She also omitted the most important one of the “Rs” and that is “reduce”.

As Mayor Johnsaon said, waste is not something to be thrown away, it is a resource, and one for a variety of uses.

We have to come to look at so-called waste and rubbish or refuse in a new light, whether domestic or commercial. Much of it can be made into new of some sort or another and not just by commercial recycling. Craft recycling is a great way to go and much of the refuse that is about could find its way back to people to be used as something else, be this waste leather, waste wood, PET bottles, or whatever else.

If you are looking for recipes suggestions to try with your leftover turkey, stuffing and party food try the Love Food Hate Waste campaign’s website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

© M Smith (Veshengro), December 2008
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Reuse and re-purpose – better than recycle

by Michael Smith

Reuse and re-purposing must always be the first step. Recycling should only be the final option.

While the slogan may indeed be “reduce, reuse, recycle” the thought in everyone's mind is only the third “R”, in the majority of cases. They all think first and foremost about “recycle” and not about reducing and reusing. Why? Because they just cannot think any other way, it would seem. They do not, as yet, have the proper developed “green mindset”. Reusing and re-purposing are much more important than recycling as they can reduce the produced waste to a great degree and also the amount that have to go to recycling.

The best case in point here would be that of glass bottles and glass jars. Instead of going off to be broken and ground down and then to be reprocessed into new glass bottles and jars – or even stuff of much less usable value – bottles and jars should be returnable again for reuse, like it used to be with bottles not so long ago when they had a deposit on them. The same could be done with all glass containers as glass can be reused ad infinitum. Collecting bottles and jars and then sterilizing them and refilling them must be a lot more energy efficient than destroying them and reprocessing them into new glass articles, mainly again bottles and jars. To me this is the wrong way round.

Only when the bottle or jar, in the end, actually suffers and accident and breaks should the glass then, finally, go the “recycle” route to be reprocessed and not before. We waste the already made product and resource by breaking them up to be reprocessed when we could use them as they are. It is not rocket science and it has been done before. Mind you, I guess that the British government would have to commission a study on this matter first which would cost millions before we could even as much as think about doing it again. Unless, of course, industry will take the lead.

Glass bottles and jars can be cleaned and then reused ad infinitum, as said already, without any effect on the produce inside the bottle or jar. Although I have not conducted a scientific study on the costing I am sure that it would be cheaper to reuse the bottles and jars – even if one would pay the consumer to return them by having a deposit of 20p on them or such, or even just 10p – than to collect the bottles for breaking up and reprocessing into new. The energy cost compared with the other cost, plus the environmental footprint must be a lot higher than that of the old way, that of deposit and return.

Years ago we had, in most countries, deposit on lemonade, soda and beer bottles. Why not introduce this system again and also do the same for glass jars. Most jars are universal ones anyway and they could be all reused. This is neither, as previously said, rocket science nor will it require a multi-million Pound feasibility study. It is feasible for it has been done before. All it needs is the will, political and commercial, to set it up.

I know that with regards to most of my readers here I am preaching to the choir in this matter but... there is always the chance, however, small, that someone who can do something reads this.

Aside from the afore deposit and reuse of glass jars there is the old way of using them ourselves.

Many readers, I am sure, remember their granddad or dad have a collection of glass jars in the workshop or garage with nuts, bolts, nails and all the other things that “might come in handy some day”. I still use jars for the same kind of purpose or, when they are about, plastic containers for this.

In reality though I would rather see those jars go back to be refilled and that too could be rather simply done if stores would be set up who would sell goods loose again and where the consumer would go with his jars and containers to be filled up.

Neal's Yard in Covent Garden, London, was set up like that many years back when one could go there with one's own jars and such to have them filled with peanut butter and other goods.

The only things that, as far as bottles and jars are concerned, that cannot be reused by the companies, are the lids.

After reuse comes re-purpose, as I said, and that we have covered also already as far as using them as containers for other things. Jars too make good storage containers for in the refrigerator for leftover foods and sauces. Do not attempt to freeze them though.

With the help of some or the other bottle cutting device bottles and jars, until such as time that they can be returned for reuse, can be re-purposed by making them into usable and saleable items, from drinking glasses to vases and more.

The lids from beer bottles and such, with the addition of a little magnet, make great little fridge magnets and there are many other ideas, I am sure, that readers can come up with. Anyone wishing to do so is welcome to share them here with the readers too.

Aside from glass jars and bottles there are many other items too that could and should be looked at first and foremost with the view of how can they be reused or re-purposed before they are tossed into the appropriate recycling bin.

Whether this be certain cardboard boxes – and let's face it, we used to make great use of shoe boxes in years gone by and I still do to this very day – or plastic containers of various types and sizes. In everything our first thoughts should be “what can I use it for or how can I re-purpose it” rather than simply “can it be recycled commercially and how and where”. First reuse and re-purpose at home or by means of being a little crafty for sale. Only when there is really no other option then the recycling bin.

I hope I have given everyone some food for thought on a number of levels. Now let's reappraise the way we do things.

© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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The fourth “R” of waste management

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Most people, if not indeed all, by now will be familiar with the commonly quoted three “Rs” of waste management, that is to say “reduce, reuse and recycle”.

However, I think that somewhere there must be added a fourth “R”, namely the “R” of “Rethink”.

We must urgently rethink the waste, amount and type that we produce and we also must rethink our approach to and the way that we use, reuse and recycle it.

Reducing the waste we produce is probably the most important step in waste reduction and -management and this applies, basically, to all waste.

The biggest proportion of all of out waste that we generate, from households and elsewhere, is packaging that has no other use and either has to be recycled – if possible and often it is not – or needs to be deposited in landfill or burned in incineration.

The field of packaging is where Rethink must be applied to start with, and this will have to be on at least two levels.

Level one is to actually rethink packaging (and the need for it) all together and to consider how much packaging is actually needed.

I cannot, for the life of me, see the reason for electric toothbrush replacement heads for a Braun electric toothbrush that are already each individually “wrapped” in their own little blister to then having to be encapsulated in yet another big solid blister pack. I also know that this example given here for Braun toothbrushes is but one example of such bad practice and over packaging.

Then there are the supermarkets with their pre-packed vegetables on those dreaded Styrofoam trays and similar packs and wraps.

No one seems to have died, not to my knowledge at least, from ever purchasing goods loose from grocers, as used to be the case with grocers only a few decades ago. You brought your own packaging, that is to say, your own bags, your own jars and your own small milk churn and such along, where your purchases were decanted into or you bought loose dry goods and those were put loose, like sugar, pulses, rice, etc., into strong Kraft paper bags and those bags were often used again at least once after taking the dry produce home in them and that was more often than not as lunch bags for kids going to school and such.

The jars that you took to the store to be filled and the other containers you washed after you emptied the contents or finished the contents and then you took them back for refilling.

Nowadays to buy loose goods, such as rice, beans, peas and such, and even ordinary vegetables in a store is nigh on to completely impossible and do not even try to buy loose sugar, loose salt, loose flour; no chance in that department whatsoever.

If I go and buy a freshly made sandwich – not that that happens often – at a sandwich bar why, pray, do they insist on sticking it into one of those triangular plastic boxes? Why not put it into a good ol' kraft paper bag with a napkin, as it used to be? Rethink time, methinks.

Where, for hygienic reasons or reasons of protection from knocks, tamper, etc. packaging is unavoidable we must apply the Rethink process here to designing, and I have said this before more than once, I am sure, packaging in such a way that it, immediately, has a second and even third life after the first – already designed in.

Packaging could be designed in such a way that it has instructions printed on it (on the indiside) that would show people what second use is intended for the box or such.

Such kind of re-purposing has been designed into packages before, such as the box of a media center that becomes, with a few moves, a shelf unit upon which the center sits, with room beneath for all the paraphernalia, such as CDs, Videos, etc.

Cardboard, though the above mentioned was not just simple cardboard, can, in fact, be very strong indeed, as long as it does not get exposed to rain and such like.

The next biggest item of waste is paper and especially here from factories, offices and educational establishments. The offices of the governments probably churn out the greatest amount of waste paper, but other organizations and companies are not far behind.

Much of the waste generated here should not need to have all that much thinking applied during the Rethink process, as the solutions are often very simple. Paper often is used – that is to say, printed or written upon – on one side only and is then tossed straightaway into the waste that goes to landfill or, if lucky, the paper recycling plant. Why? If the back is clean then use it for scrap paper, turn it through in-house printing, and with computers there is no excuse in not doing it, into notepads, telephone message pads, and other such things. No excuse not to do. Just Rethink required.

As far as food waste is concerned, with the fact that not only it being expensive but there being many, even in our developed world, that go hungry, there should not be any and we should and must Rethink our use of food and how we purchase and also and especially as to reusing leftover food the next day. For many this may mean actually to learn to cook rather than to rely on ping meals.

In order to reuse food leftovers one must have a little – more than a little at times – ideas of how to create meals from scratch. It can be done, believe me. All those of a slightly older generation will be able to agree with me there, I am sure, that their parents did exactly that; use leftovers from the Sunday roast, for instance, with which to create the dinner for the Monday after. Now, with refrigeration and even freezers this is even easier. The problem today only is that a great majority of people are unable to cook meals from scratch. They cannot even use tinned foods to make things with, let alone working with “raw” foods.

When I was growing up, being of a Romany family, we often did not know where the next meal would come from and it often depended on what could be garnered, hunted or found it other ways. We also knew what was edible and good to eat from the hedgerows and other wild and semi-wild places.

The latter may also stay some people in good stead should food get more expensive than it is already.

Already because of the fact that food prices are rising we should make every bit of food go as far as possible.

While we want to no waste food, I do, like all of us, that there will always be some waste, and not just peelings and tops and tails cut off from vegetables. There will always be something that goes off without us wishing this to happen. Any such waste, peelings and gone off food, should then, however, not be thrown into landfill but should be recycled by composting.

Reuse and Recycling

When we now finally come to reuse and recycling the Rethink process also must be applied here.

Reuse
Too many people don't seem to know what to do with the glass jars, plastic boxes and other packaging materials that come their way.

Having seen the lack of ingenuity in people and the only thing that they can think of is to put it into the recycle bin of the appropriate grade, e.g. glass to glass and plastics to plastics, I think that some could not only do with a period of thinking the Rethink but with some ideas and such being sent their way. This may happen at some state in this here magazine and/or as a PDF publication.

Reuse is not only possible without or with some little adaptations here and there with the glass jar and the plastic container but even including some packaging materials, such as cardboard boxes of various types. The use of the old shoebox for the storing of photos and such is an old one, I know. However, there are many other ways of making use of various size boxes that come one's way, in the home and in the office.

Recycling
On recycling there also needs a Rethink process to be employed so as to get some community involvement in small scale recycling – practical recycling – projects where this or that type of waste, or a number of different kinds, are being recycled by hand and such into new items for sale. Example could be the likes of Trashe Bolsas in the Philippines that make tote bags and others from old advertising tarps.

With the right approach and the right Rethink I am sure that there will be many projects that can be created that could bring money to poor people and to those that would like an independent life, away from factory floor or cube farm.

Such recycling could and should be done by small crafts people and crafts co-operatives, the latter that specifically specialize in recycling.

While there is a place for the large-scale commercial recycling there is a much greater place for community livelihood projects based on recycling things and materials into items for sale on markets and elsewhere. Direct practical recycling should be promoted and given priority over the other kind, as the former uses much less resources than the latter and as, generally, done locally also has a much smaller environmental footprint as far as mileage is concerned.

Now, let's start this Rethink process and add this as a fourth “R” to the already existing “Three Rs” of waste management.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

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

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

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

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

Packaging Waste – What to do with it?

Reduce, reuse, recycle have to be the three watchwords here...

First off would be trying to actually reduce the waste to start with, so that we do not have to take it home with us. As consumers there is little that we can do here. While I have heard of this being possible to do in Germany, for instance, I do not think that stores elsewhere would appreciate any of us taking the whatever we have just bought out of the, often excessive, packaging and leaving said excess in the stores. However, a way must be found to reduce the excessive packaging, especially the hard polycarbonate kind of “bubble pack”. I do not think that those kinds of packages help anyone. What is wrong with a recyclable cardboard box made from recycled cardboard? It is up to producers to reduce this kind of packaging but we, as the consumers, I am sure, could vote with our feet and pocketbooks and if we did so the producers would soon get the message.

Food packaging is, to a degree, a different story and issue. While it is very good advice to buy the basic ingredients for meals from markets and then cook the meals oneself, a notion that I totally agree with, this is not always an option and packaged food, whether tin, pack, jar or bottle, may have to be, especially for anyone wishing to have a stock of supplies for in case of an emergency, than are then rotated as well.

A new store has opened recently, however, in the south of London that encourages the purchase of loose goods, be that sugar, tea, coffee, pulses, and much more, buy having folks bring their own containers and bags. Here, I am sure, folks could make good use of the glass jar, plastic containers, and such, where supermarket bought goods came in, as long as the plastic is “food grade” (see also reusing packaging).

Should there be absolutely no way of avoiding packaging then ensure that you take home, as far as possible, only recyclable packaging, such as glass jars, glass bottles, and tin cans. Glass jars and bottles and tin cans can be recycled via a variety of recycling schemes.

If plastic packaging is the only option and there is absolutely no other choice then plastic it has to be. This is often the case (always, is more precise here) the case with washing-up liquid (dish soap) and even the supposedly environmentally friendly “Ecover” is in plastic bottles and even though Ecover bottles all have great removable screw top caps there are no refills available for them, especially not in a “loose” format.

Where there is packaging (waste), whether glass or tin that can go into recycling schemes or plastic that may or may now, even before going down that route think as to whether the packaging (waste) that you are left with can be reused by you or others. If it cannot be reused as it is then thing whether there is a way of reworking it into something you or someone else could use. This will save you money and it will also save further energy for recycling too uses energy.

Often, if you buy prepackaged fish in supermarkets it comes on those plastic “trays”. Those can be used, once washed, as spoon rests in the kitchen, as trays for small items in drawers, or as trays on which to put fish to go into the freezer, like when packages are too big and you want to split them into individual meal portions. Just a few ideas here. More to follow.

One extra word of advice: AVOID THE PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE, that is to say, AVOID BOTTLED WATER. You cannot safely, according to scientific findings, reuse the bottle more than maybe once after you have emptied the original contents. Tap water is perfectly safe to drink and if you do not like the take then use a filter. Then fill with that water stainless steel or aluminium water bottles such as SIGG or Klean Kanteen.

Reusing Waste Packaging

Before consigning any item to the trash can or the recycling bin think of how you may be able to reuse or rework and thereby recycle directly this or that item.

Tin Cans

Tin cans can be turned into a variety of things, and to a variety of uses. On the old farmstead tin cans were used as scoops, as pots for string, as pots for utensils, as ports for pencils and pens on the desk, etc. and that often without even doing anything to them bar cleaning the can after opening and using contents. I have reused and reworked tin cans for and into a variety of uses.

Glass Jars

Glass jars have always been used to store thing in, from nails and screws to buttons and what-have-you. They also make good food savers where to put leftovers for use the next day.

Glass Bottles

Again they can be used to storage of this or that liquid and our forebears always did just that. There is, however, the danger that someone thinks that the poison in the Coke bottle is actually Coke and this could cause rather some problems. It is therefore that the advice is always against this. However, how about using smallish bottles with screw tops for the making of scented cooking oils or herbal vinegars?

Plastic containers with lids

The kind of containers they are and whether they are food grade plastic or not very much dictates their use and reuse. If food grade plastic and suitable in size then those kind of containers, especially with tight fitting lids, make great food savers.

Those that are the wrong size and shape and those that are non-food grade plastic still make great storage boxes and containers. My shelves are full of sweet shop boxes that I “harvest” from a local candy store, which are used for storing small items of stationery such as pens, pencils, etc, that, especially come from trade fairs, as well as other things. With labels added to the boxes I can, theoretically, find most things rather quickly.

Little plastic “pods” (for lack of a better word, such as those from certain mints and chewing gums, make nice pots for paper clips, for rubber bands, for string, etc. on the desk, for instance. They can, obviously, also be “reworked” as those by decorating them up a little and then selling them as paper clip pots, or whatever.

Plastic containers without lids

Those I use for “dividers” in drawers and this is especially handy to keep small items from rattling around and from moving around, making them then difficult to find, in the drawers of desk or wherever.

If no direct reuse is immediately obvious or evident then how about rework. Get crafty and seeing the prices that recycled goods fetch on the markets you may even find yourself some additional income. Always handy that. It is absolutely amazing and mind-blowing the amount in terms of money for which some reworked-recycled goods are being sold for.

With the aid of a “bottle cutter” glass jars and -bottles can be transformed into recycled crafts for sale, such as tumblers, shot glasses, beer glasses, vases, etc. Other materials also can be recycled via crafts and there are ideas around on the Net and elsewhere, I am sure, on this subject. I know, I personally could drone on and on about ideas but you'd all probably fall asleep if I would start listing them all.

Cardboard can be, if it is not too printed up, be recycled into compost, and the same is true for toilet roll inners, the inners from rolls of tin foil, and such like. Cardboard boxes, depending on size and kind, can be used as storage boxes, such as shoe boxes of the “proper” kind, and also other cardboard containers can make useful bits and pieces.

Where reuse is not possible, and/or they have too much print on them, making them therefore unsuitable for composting, but you have a solid fuel stove then use them that way. At least they can then give a little heat and help get the stove running.

The more we can reuse and rework of such packaging waste and make the items saleable the less will have to go into holes in the ground, a.k.a. landfill sites, or having to be burned.

All this above is meant to give you, the reader, some food for thought and those of you that have made their own thoughts about this might like to also share them with the rest of us.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007