Green (Living) Review

Why I have now, more or less, turned against e-bikes

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

A couple of years ago I got a G-tech e-bike for review and, as I explained in my previous article I have been very happy with it, until now, where I find it almost an impossibility to get hold of a new battery (the original no longer is holding its charge properly and is about to expire). Then there is the fact that, if one would be able to get a new battery it amounts to about a third of the price of a new bike, a price for which one can get a fairly good ordinary Dutch bike, for instance.

But the costs of a new battery (and the problem I am experiencing getting a new one) is but one reason, and the difficulties often experienced in maintenance, even simple tasks, such as repairing a puncture in the wheel that has the motor, another.

In the meantime I have been able to get a replacement battery for the MKI version of the Gtech bike but I am now on my second replacement battery from Gtech; the first one went back because it just was worse in holding charge than the original, six-years-old one that was not longer working properly as to charge and even the second one, after initially performing well as to range no longer is doing so and the range is diminishing by every new charge, it would appear.

The other, probably main reason, however, is the battery – no, not the financial costs of obtaining a new one – for the environmental and human impact the mining of the necessary metals and minerals require for the making of those batteries has. Cobalt, an important component, is being mined in the Congo, often by children, many of them kept as slaves, and lithium mining in South America equally so aside from the fact that the waste of those mining operations, with lithium very much in the forefront, poisons the environment and people. Furthermore at the end of its life the battery falls under hazardous waste and has to be treated almost like nuclear waste.

The same goes, as far as the battery is concerned, though there would be other issues as well, for (other) electric vehicles, be they scooters and bikes of the motorbike kind, cars, vans, and more. While there maybe no pollution, often referred to as (CO2) emissions those vehicles, and especially those batteries, are not environmentally friendly. Rather the opposite. Aside from that there is also the electrical energy required for charging all those batteries. Instead of the vehicle having and exhaust the chimneys of the electricity generating plants become the exhaust for all of them.

While it is, as far as e-bikes are concerned, generally reckoned that the battery will last, properly maintained and such, around three years holding full charge, I have heard of batteries failing after only a year or a little more. Not very good when one considers that those batteries seem to be all around the 300 GBP mark and more. As I said earlier, for that amount of money one can purchase a good quality Dutch bicycle, or a Danish one, if you like; a bicycle that will last almost for ever as long as it is reasonably looked after and is easy to maintain.

Yes, going up inclines with such an “ordinary” bicycle, especially with no gears or but the traditional three, requires a great deal more muscle power (the easier option is pushing it up said inclines; hence the term push bike in English colloquialism) than an e-bike (virtually no muscle power needed in that case) but you get more exercise that way and you have no range restriction and do not need to recharge a battery afterwards bar your own batteries, maybe.

The environmental costs of the manufacture of an ordinary bicycle are also while not zero a great deal lower than an e-bike when taking into account the battery and the proper disposal of the hazardous waste which the battery becomes after the end of its life, but the use of an ordinary bicycle is, if you do not consider the food the rider needs, has a very low to almost zero environmental cost and impact and no emissions.

An e-bike, in the other hands, does have emissions even though not not via an exhaust on the bike it is through the charging of the battery which causes emissions at the power generating plant rather, and while all that is still much lower that the impact of an electric car or van it still is there.

Back to basics is more often than not the better approach and that one more than one level.

The municipal recycling sham

...or maybe we should call it the municipal recycling shame

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Many of us, households and businesses alike, nicely separate our recyclables for collection, to the extent even of removing labels and washing tin cans and glass jars, but do those recyclables really go for recycling?

My observations are leading me to believe that in a great many cases it is all but a sham because general waste trucks often collect also the recyclables from clearly marked bins and add it to their contents, destined for the landfill, and also the recycling trucks have been seen, rather regularly, dumping their content at landfill sites.

While we, as consumers, whether that be households or businesses, are trying to do our part the municipalities and their contractors, where contractors are being used, just put the stuff with the general waste that ends up in landfill.

This is not how it is supposed to work and neither, but that is not really the story here, should our recyclables go into containers to be shipped to places such as Mexico, many of which have no recycling infrastructure, and, as in the cases recorded in Mexico, being carted from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast where the contents then was literally tipped into the sea. Is it any wonder we have the large plastic garbage patches in the oceans?

The problem the industrialized nations are currently faced with concerning waste for recycling is that many developing nations such as China, Vietnam, India and others have shut their ports to imports of our waste for reprocessing. And, as most of those nations, the industrialized developed ones, are not prepared to do the dirty work in their own countries the stuff either gets shipped to other countries where it is just dumped, often into the sea.

When it comes to plastic recyclables, be it bottles or others, we are, whether this is the UK or any other country, wasting a valuable resource by sending the stuff to somewhere to be reprocessed, or destroyed (dumped) rather than having our own national facilities where such materials are reprocessed back into polymers for the plastics industry.

When it comes to glass, even when collected by recycling trucks and, actually, sent to recycling it is not recycling but downcycling because no one can tell me that from the mixed glass – because nowadays all the stuff that we may have separated by color is tossed into one vat – new bottles or jars or whatever are being made. The truth is that this glass gets ground down to make road aggregate. In other words it is being made into almost nothing more than sand.

While, as indicated above, aside from the fact that we should, actually, get rid of plastic bottles and other plastic packaging as much as possible, plastic waste should be recycled at home and unbroken glass bottles and even jars should be returned to whence the came to be sterilized and then reused. Only glass which has been broken should ever go to recycling and, then again, the recycling should be done properly and at home. With “at home” is meant in the home country and not in our individual homes, obviously.

When it comes to drinks bottles, glass ones, be it lemonade, beer, wine, or whatever else, they should come, to give a financial incentive for the bottles to go back into the reuse stream, with a small deposit that is refundable upon return, the way things once were. It is not rocket science, even though the governments, in the UK especially, try to pretend. It does not need to have pilot projects and studies as to whether it would work. We had this system, and many other countries did too, and it worked and works. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Alas in the UK and the USA everything is geared towards profit for some, even in this field, and hence they want the recyclable for nothing and then try to sell the stuff to reprocessors. If, however, there is not enough money to be made from the sale of the “raw material” then they rather have it go into landfill than for recycling. This way the demand from the reprocessors increases as then will the price. We can safely file that under greenwash than actual concern for reducing and recycling waste.

The repair economy

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I know this may sound a little strange and I am not talking about repairing the economy, for we need to change it not repair it, because it is not broken; it was designed that way.

The repair economy is something that we once, actually, had in the form of little workshops that were geared to repairing this and that, from shoes and clothes to radios, TVs, bicycles, and much more.

In the German Democratic Republic, that some people called and still insist in calling East Germany, or communist East Germany even, literally a whole sector of the economy was geared to repair. Not because things broke down easily for lack of quality – rather the opposite, things were designed to last – but because things were repairable and repair was a great deal cheaper than buying new. It was thus also, though repair shops and such were no officially counted as part of the economy, in other countries, including Britain, the USA, and elsewhere.

Nowadays, however, most of those repair shops – at least in the UK – are no longer with the exception of the high street shoe repair places who can just about glue a heel or a sole on but that is about all. Ask them to resew an upper to a leather midsole and they are utterly confused and lost (“I don't have a machine for that,” I was told).

But you will very rarely, if indeed, find the little shop where there will be a guy sitting there with a soldering iron fixing electrical goods, because most of those goods today either cannot be repaired, as they have been designed not to be repairable, or it is more expensive to have them repaired than to buy the same product new again. When a spare part for a computer printer, for instance, costs itself more than a new printer then we really have to question on what principle the economy is working. That is how we register economic growth. Oh, but I am digressing.

We must get back, though, to products that are made to last, that can be repaired and to the repair economy, the small and not so small businesses that specialize in repair. In addition to that we need the small makers back as well, but that is a different story.

But the way this is being promoted by some at the present, much like the so-called circular economy, is not going to deliver the real needs of this kind of economy because all too often the need for products that are made to truly last in the way they were once made is still not properly part of the equation. We must rethink our approach on many level and travel back to the future, so to speak.

We are still, in most talk about any kind of economy, fixated way too much on growth. Growth, the way our economy promoted it, an infinite one, is simply not possible on a finite Planet. Even the majority of proponent of a so-called “green economy” still keep incessantly talking about growth, about growing the economy.

By now we have exhausted and almost exhausted our non-renewable resources, and not just coal, oil and gas, but also metals, though the latter we can reclaim by proper recycling processes, and we are now hell for leather doing the same for rare earth and rare earth metals, be it cobalt, lithium and others for the batteries and other components for cellphones, e-vehicles, etc. and the extraction of at least cobalt and lithium causes environmental and human disasters.

We need to make a serious u-turn and we must make it now and return to the ways of old combined with the knowledge and technology that we have today to produce again in a sustainable way making things that last and that can be repaired, either by simple DIY-tinkering by user or, well, tinkerer, or in small workshops dedicated to undertake such repairs. The latter then creating a repair service economy or sector of the economy. Like with less waste production though using glass bottles and jars, for instance, and having refundable deposits on such containers or though collection of recyclables, only they were not called that then, by the rag-and-bone man, we have been there before and we must go there again.

Corona Max Forged Branch & Stem Pruner – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I know that this review comes rather late but better late than never, as they say.

The Corona Max Forged ClassicCUT Pruner is crafted from forged steel for the professional or demanding gardener. Its strength and durability means everyday use isn't a problem. If you need to get the job done day in and day out, you can depend on this pruner.

Professional-grade tool with resharpenable, replaceable high-carbon steel blades

High-precision pivot bolt and locking nut keep blade and hook aligned

Fully-forged steel construction through to tips, for maximum strength and lasting sharpness

Non-slip grips for greater control and comfort

Lifetime warranty

Cuts up to 1.25cm

For smaller hands

Product code: BP3130BB

Packaging is great as only cardboard, though with a plastic window, and thus, more or less, fully recyclable. In fact remove plastic and throw rest onto compost heap.

Blades are extremely sharp, and I do mean the extremely. Alas, the edge of the review sample did have a serious burr on the outside of the cutting blade which means that the final polishing was not done well. This burr, had I not discovered it and removed it, could have caused damage to the cutting edge.

This is a pruner designed for somewhat smaller hands and it does feel a little strange, at first, to someone with larger hands. However, it really cuts extremely well and the catch, very different to many on the market today, is extremely positive and you know it is locked when it is.

Those pruners are extremely well constructed and the blade comes very sharp, right from the box. Alas, the sample from the Garden Press Event 2020, supplied by Burgon & Ball, as already mentioned, had a serious burr on the cutting edge that could have caused damage to the blade. Nothing, however, that a little steeling did not solve. I sincerely hope that that, however, was just an exception and it is not also the case with other blades. Someone not spotting it might have damaged the blade. In other words could we improve quality control at factory end please. Extremely sharp the blade was, nevertheless, despite the burr (now rectified).

The criticism as to the quality control regarding the burr aside this is an extremely well made pair of pruners and I really like it and it has, by now, become my favorite pair of secateurs to take into the garden.

We cannot just consume our way into a more sustainable world

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Let's talk about consumption (for starters).

The modern world we live in demands, due to its capitalist ways, that we consume on a huge scale, whether that be products, clothes, stuff – but where does it end? Only this kind of consumption in today's capitalist society keeps the economy actually growing and maybe even going.

But we cannot consume our way into a more sustainable world; it just is not going to work. Anyone who claims and believes that either is in greenwash marketing or has fallen for the ploys of the “green” marketeers, the greenwashers, as I shall be calling them here.

The only way to go is for us all change to the way we consume products and only buy things that we can take care of and that will be kept for years. But there comes the problem and that is that such products are few and far between in today's society and world. They still exist but they are not cheap and they are few and far between.

The greenest and most environmentally product is the one that you already have even though it may have a lower score on the ratings than the latest one. Why? Because you have already got it and it will take many years, in fact, before the environmental benefits of the "better performing" new one will actually make themselves felt as it has cost the Planet a great deal in its manufacture. Something that is often not considered and which the greenwashers will not tell you. they want you to buy their gear.

As an example, to offset the CO2 caused by manufacturing, a washing machine's optimal lifetime is 17-23 years. Most people keep theirs for only 11.5 years. In many cases the machine actually fails well before that time – can you say built-in obsolescence? – and hence more CO2 is being produced for the new machine. We need washing machines, refrigerators, and other products that do not have to be replaced but which can be repaired and we, as “consumers”, can vote for such products with our pocketbooks or debit or credit cards.

In a way this is the same with the electric bicycle for instance where a new battery will be required about every two to four years and I very much doubt that the CO2 caused in the manufacture of the battery will have been offset by that time. So what is the best bicycle ten if not an e-bike? Any good old-fashioned pedal bicycle and the sturdier made the better.

Now let us look, for a moment, at cars. Your current older car of whatever make, if you have a car (I don't), may have higher emissions than the newer ones but, and here comes the big but, before you break even, so to speak, as far as CO2 is concerned, the new car may have to be driven for many, many years. You old car has, maybe, already cleared its original CO2 output caused by manufacture.

In many cases your old model, whether car or whatever, is the greener one because it has already been manufactured and used for some time.

It is part of reuse, to be honest, even though it is not a proper case of reuse but a case of continued use. All too often people throw away their current, still perfectly good this or that simple because a new, or claimed to be greener, version is available.

Buying “green” products to replace perfectly good existing products, regardless of what they may be, is not being green and buying such products we are beginning to fall for greensumption and greensumption is also consumption though maybe, but only maybe, of products that are slightly better on the environment than the old version.

We must get away from consumption, or better over-consumption, because there will always be products that we have to “consume” because they are truly consumables, instead of changing from one kind of consumption to another.

As already indicated we must vote with our pocketbooks and cards to force producers to make goods that have a long lifespan and can be kept going by being repairable, ideally even by the user him- or herself, instead of the way they are presently where most products cannot be repaired or otherwise fixed in any way, shape or form.

While there are still some such products available most nowadays are not and yes, products that are made to last and are repairable do cost somewhat more to buy initially but such cost can be recouped, so to speak, sometimes several times over the lifetime of the product that can be kept going than over those that break after a year or even five and have to be bought new again and again.

There was a time when one would save up to buy such products, if necessary, but today we want instant gratification and because of that products are made – in the Far East mostly nowadays – to make them as cheap as possible but it is neither cheap for us, the consumer, in the long run, and definitely not for the Planet. Those products impact heavily on the environment as new ones have to be made all the time, have to be shipped more than halfway across the world, followed by how to dispose of the broken products or those simply tossed out because people can afford to buy the latest version (with more bells and whistles) simply because they are relatively “cheap”.

The solution for the great bicycle shortage – buy vintage

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Long live old bicycles

Bikes are an incredible way to commute, exercise, and enjoy the outdoors. If you're in the market for a new two-wheeled rig, try the used bike market!

That brand-new 2021 model may be hard to come by these days, but the used bike market has endless inventory. Here is why old bikes rule.

As if we haven't endured enough in the past year or so, due to the “academician”, we are currently living through what may heretofore be known as The Great Bicycle Shortage of 2021, which means complete bicycles, as well as parts, have been hard to come by and that also due to the fact that during the “pandemic” many people have gone back to using bicycles to get about rather than public transport. On top of that there are tons of bikes and parts still stuck, at the time of writing at the end of June 2021, in containers on the MS Ever Given, the ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal and was, until recently, impounded by the Egyptian authorities.

While not all supplies of bikes and components have dried up supply is lagging behind and to a great extent the rather stretched supply chain has to be blamed for this. So, depending on what you are after, the current supply disruption may mean that new upgrade you have been waiting for could be back-ordered for quite a while.

But is that really such a bad thing? New bike stuff is only new for an instant, and while it may be thrilling to throw a leg over the latest in cutting-edge technology, it is only a matter of time before the novelty and excitement wears off. Meanwhile, the bicycle itself has been around for like a century and a half, which means this lack of new stuff could be the perfect excuse to explore the fascinating, enlightening, and at times highly pretentious world of owning and riding vintage bikes.

Of course, to truly appreciate old bikes, you do have to adjust your expectations.

If you are are going to delve into the realm of old bicycles for the first time, you may be surprised that much of what is called “new” in cycling is not really new at all and has been around for almost as bicycles have been.

Take the whole gravel thing, for instance. Believe it or not, people have been riding bicycles on irregular surfaces for a really long time, and in fact the original bicycle, or the forerunner of the bicycle, the Draisine, invented by a forester named Drais, was to replace the horse, because there was a lack of them in his days due to a certain natural calamity, and to be used in forests.

Of course, to truly appreciate old bikes, you do have to adjust your expectations. Will the cantilever brakes on that 1990 Stumpjumper offer you the effortless one-finger stopping power of today's hydraulic systems? No. But so what? You are riding a vintage bike! Take a little time to appreciate the nuances of period-correct stoppers. Sure, some of those “nuances” may include squealing, grinding, and the occasional bout of fork judder

Plus, once you understand how they work, you can eliminate most of those issues, and you will even find that when properly set up, those old brakes can work pretty quite well, though you may not stop as instantly as with the hydraulic systems or even disc brakes. Anyway, if you cannot appreciate the purposeful spread-eagle stance of a pair of vintage cantilevers then just swap them out for V-brakes, which will easily and cheaply solve 95 percent of your problems.

Once you immerse yourself in the old stuff, you may find that the newest and latest no longer calls to you the way it once did. You might even start to find it a little, shall I say boring. An old bike will take you back in time, while also giving you the thrill of bringing a little of the past back into the present. In addition to all that you give life, and sometimes an old bike may need some TLC, back to a long-neglected bicycle but, more importantly, you keep it from the scrap yard or the landfill.

Surviving a societal collapse

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Why is it that almost everyone that one meets or otherwise encounters, who expects a societal collapse, appears to be obsessed with and by and focused on weapons?

Do you have seeds? Do you know how to grow a garden for food and how to farm? Do you know how to filter water to make it potable?

Where are your crafters? Who can blacksmith, work leather, sew and work wood and do carpentry? Who knows medicine and herbal lore and can identify edible (wild) plats?

We won't survive a collapse by killing each other. In fact we will need each other in order to survive. There is no such thing as self-sufficiency proper. Self-reliance maybe and yes but self-sufficiency no.

We will only survive with benevolent skilled communities working together. Not by fighting and killing each other. There is no way that any of us can survive on their own, not in the long run, because in the event of a societal collapse we will need to be able to make things that we need and none of us can do all that on our own.

Surviving just on eating small game that cane be gotten by snare and even larger animals that are shot with rifles is not going to work, especially not when it comes to low-fat animals such as rabbits and squirrels. Even the Neanderthals did not just live on meat. They probably ate more in the way of edible plants than they actually ate meat.

But there are so many other things that none of us will be able to procure or produce on our own. You cannot know how to do everything and even if you know you may not be able to physically do it. We will need other people with who we can trade and barter for the things that we cannot produce and make for those that they cannot.

What happens when the lone “survivor” gets sick or injured? No man is an island. We will only survive with benevolent skilled communities, as said already, working together, sharing skills, resources and also trade with each other and other such communities. Not by fighting and killing each other and, as far as firearms are concerned with collapse of society there will not be, for long, any ammunition available. Well, OK, we then simply kill each other with wooden clubs (sarcasm out).

Once the ammo runs out hunting will also become somewhat difficult for the survivalist, unless they have muzzle loading muskets, flints and are able to make their own powder because with such muskets it is possible, as they are smooth bore, to also shoot pebbles instead of lead balls.

Growing food, livestock keeping, and other cannot be done on the move and will require a settled communities.

Let's kick carbon

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Well, this is the latest slogan of the renewable energy companies and the advocates of wind and solar and, don't get me wrong, I am all for this but, and now comes the but, we have a problem with both the turbines and the panels and that is the “end of life” solutions, for which there seem to be none.

The blades of the huge turbines cannot be recycled are are actually classed as hazardous waste, much like nuclear minus the radiation and there are issues with dealing with the “end of life” disposal of PV panels as well, it would appear.

That aside, let us start at the beginning. Those turbines and panels don't just grow naturally. They are manufactured from components that are also manufactured and the raw materials which are mined or whatever. All those processes create carbon emissions and I seriously have to ask whether those are being negated over the short lifespan that those turbines and panels actually have. The same goes for batteries for EVs, though that is a separate issue.

The lifespan of one of those big wind turbines is no more than 20 years after which it has to be dismantled, at a huge financial as well as environmental cost, and they still talk about “kicking carbon”. Small turbines that power a property, as long as we could consider changing the voltage and current kind that we are working with, are cheap to make – they can even be home-constructed (from trash components no less) – and can be maintained cheaply and have a much greater lifespan.

In order to really and truly kick carbon emissions and using “green” electricity we need to change the voltage, first and foremost, that we are using. We need to use that kind that can be produced by PVs on roofs and small wind turbines and that is nominal 13.5V DC and not 220/240V AC (or 110V AC as may be the case in the USA) and put 12 Volt DC circuits into our homes, offices and small workshops. Lighting can be easily and efficiently today with LEDs (yes, the also have a carbon cost attached to manufacture) and low voltage and even most of our electronics today need less than 12 Volt DC even. Even refrigerators and freezers are available in 12 V DC – generally for RV and yacht use.

And we have to change our energy, as in electricity, use. But the aim, by governments, is to go almost all electric, be that in the home, in transportation, everywhere. It would appear, however, that no one has actually worked out how that is supposed to work with the grid often already overstretched with just the few electric electric vehicles being plugged in to charge of an evening.

They know far well that with renewables, as in sun and wind, and maybe, just maybe, water, they cannot provide for the need and demand and hence they are advocating nuclear as a “green” option. Methinks they have forgotten something and that is the aftercare of nuclear, whether in the disposal of the waste or in the decommissioning of the plants. And then there are the possibilities of accidents or even, the gods forbid, an attack on such facilities.

Nuclear fusion is still very much in its infancy, despite the fact that good results have been achieved in some tests some years ago. However, so far no one really wants to go the fusion route, and that not only as regards to the problem of cooling. The main “problem”, so to speak, is that there will be no material falling on that can be weaponized.

We have to change the way we do things in order to truly “kick carbon” but neither governments, nor industry, as well as most individuals, are not prepared to do that.

We need to look more towards small wind and small solar – on every building – so that every building becomes a small power plant, rather than looking at ever bigger solar and wind farms and ever bigger turbines.

The main stumbling block for small wind and small solar on every home are the vested interests of the energy companies. Couldn't have households and small businesses being – more or less – independent from the energy producers, couldn't we now. And where would the income be for government from this as well? It can all be done but the will is simply not there. Lots of talk and lots of complicated solutions being suggested rather than finding easy solutions which often stare us in the face.

In a disposable society, to repair is to rebel

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In this kind of disposable society, in which we happen to live at present, to repair, and to reuse, is to rebel. And this is a rebellion in which everyone, regardless of age and gender can partake.

Reuse is the first part of this rebellion really before we even get to repair but reuse, much like repair, has fallen very much out of vogue in favor of buying new “because the old product is recyclable”. Ouch!

The latest smartphone may have more “bells and whistles” than your old one but have you even made use of the “bells and whistles” on your current one? More than likely not. So what is the point of replacing something that works perfectly well for everything that you need just because there is a new model out or someone you know has the latest model.

But there is so much more to reuse (and repair) that just the above example. It starts very low down on the scale already with say reusing glass jars in which you buy produce. Instead of throwing those into the recycling bin reuse them as storage jars; saves buying recycled glass ones, as I mentioned in previous articles, at a high costs. After all you have paid for those jars in which those pickles or whatever came in. While there will come a time that you will have no other choice to throw some of them into the recycling but until then, well, reuse them.

In addition to reusing pickle jars – generally somewhat larger in size – there are smaller jars that can serve well as drinking vessels. It has now become fashionable for the hipsters to actually use canning jars and such as drinking vessels. Something that once was the domain of the poor.

When it comes to repair there are some things that can be fairly easily repaired and maintained, such as bicycles for instance, especially the older kind without too many gears or none at all. However, being able to fix a flat tire should be in the realm of most. Alas, it would appear that it no longer is and not only do people no bring their bike to get fixed then but some go as far as getting rid off the old one by disposing of it – often not in the right places – and buying new.

People seem to do the same with even expensive kitchen knives that have gotten blunt having no idea as to how to put a good edge back onto them and, alas, the knife grinders that once were about no longer are because people, rather than paying say a third of the cost of a new knife having it sharpened, rather go an buy a new one and tossing the blunt one. Throwing away has become such a convenience for some and the saying that some people have more money than sense must today be slightly rephrased into having – apparently – too much money and absolutely no sense.

On the other hand, alas, today far too many things – the great majority of mass-produced products, in fact – have obsolescence built in so that after a year or a couple they suffer a catastrophic breakdown. And, having been designed to be – more or less – non-repairable (or repair is multiple times the price of new) we have to purchase a new product of the same kind. Shoes and boots, also, are, unless seriously expensive, no longer repairable in any way. Even if you happen to have a boot, for instance, where, as I had, the upper comes away from (and yes this boot had one) the leather midsole most so-called shoe-menders of cobblers are no longer capable of carrying out such a simple repair (because they don't have a machine to do it, as I was told). Actually no machine needed; only two bent needles and some leather-worker thread. Alas, I was unable to get hold of such needles at the time and the boots were disposed off.

Repair, as well as reuse, for that matter, can be learned, and both are a true act rebellion in the capitalist society that most of live in. The latter generally only requires a change of mindset and a little imagination and lateral thinking while the former actually requires the acquisition of some knowledge and skills. But it is not rocket science or brain surgery and with the Internet at our disposal there many good tutorials can be found.

Being able to repair, wherever possible, not just extends the life of the product but also keeps waste out of even the recycling stream and saves raw materials too. Oh, alas, it is not generally good for the economy which is designed on perpetual growth, a growth that can only be maintained if we keep buying new all the time rather than repair.

The crisis with the Covid pandemic, especially the lockdowns, have shown that most of us have only bought what we really needed and that that has almost lead to a collapse of the economy.

Let's do it, let's be rebels.

Wheels of Fortune

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In Paris, cycling seems to be the new normal, as a result, probably of the “pandemic” and Paris appears not to be alone. Cycling has also seen and increase in London and other places.

As legions of cities worldwide scrambled to enforce lockdowns aimed at keeping the spread of Covid-19 (SARS-Cov-2) at bay, citizens across some of the biggest cities in the world encountered a strange sight. Streets that would usually be teeming with noise and fumes fell blissfully silent, replaced by clean air, the rustling of leaves and an often-piercing symphony of birds.

The blaring of car horns in many places has been replaced by the tinkling of bicycle bells (though some bicycles seem to be lacking those or some cyclists have no idea how to use this strange little device on the handlebars).

For a brief moment, the roads belonged to people. Perhaps emboldened by the sheer number of people taking to walking and cycling or, as is more likely, heeding technical guidance issued by the World Health Organization to prioritize walking and cycling for the sake of social distancing, many cities began fast-tracking plans for walking and cycling. Some cities moved at a remarkable pace. Berlin built 14 miles of cycle lanes virtually overnight. Other cities, such as Paris, followed and created cycleways and Paris has already created around 1000 km of protected cycle lanes in the previous years.

Can this last? Residents appear to be generally receptive to the changes while drivers not necessarily are and especially whenever something like this is being tried in Britain the car lobby and drivers will scream discrimination and that cyclists should not have special privileges, often claiming that the so-called “road tax” is only paid by drivers and cyclist thus get special treatment. That cyclists were here before the cars and that roads were initially not built for cars is something they just cannot accept and they also cannot accept that the tax they are paying is not used for road building and repairs but goes into the general tax pot and is a duty they pay for being allowed to actually drive a car and pollute the air.

A reduction of cars in our towns and cities will be good not just for the air but also will reduce noise pollution and especially permit children – unless parents and governments have different ideas – to once again play outside and even along and on the streets without fear of injury and death. That said it also would need cyclists to learn to stick to the rules and not pretend to be partaking in the Tour de France and racing like the maniacs, as they do often, and ignoring road signs and even traffic lights.

On the other hand the much touted electric bikes are, in my opinion, not the answer due to a number of facts. One of them being the initial cost compared to an ordinary bicycle and the other factors are the cost of replacement batteries (when one can get them) and first and foremost the environmental cost of producing the battery.

I have had the experience, although I did not purchase the e-bike but was allowed to retain it after a review and, yes, I was and am happy with it as it is but, and now comes the but, the battery is now almost failing and it is impossible (at least at the moment) to obtain a replacement (also due to the fact that the manufacturer has change the design of the battery now and the MK2 battery differs from that of the one for the MK1 – though the former is not obtainable either should one want to) the cost for a replacement battery is well over £350, which means well over one third of what is the original purchase cost.

Therefore, instead of replacing the battery, I have opted to purchase an “Elephant Bike” instead at around £30 less. The “Elephant Bike” is a refurbished Royal Mail bicycle and on a buy-one-give-one operation from a company called “Cycle for Good”.

If we really want to get people cycling we must crate the infrastructure for them to do that safely and if we want to consider cycling as a true environmental alternative then we must get away from over-promoting the electric bicycle because the battery is the weak point and the production of those batteries, whether for bike or other vehicles is not without a serious environmental impact. Alone the mining of the rare earths and metals required for those batteries make for an environmental problem close to a catastrophe.

It is the more or less old-fashioned bicycle and its use that needs promoting – and this is where even secondhand and refurbished ones come in – in favor of the electric ones. Electric transportation of all kinds is not the answer and when it comes to cycling – and also the use of scooters – we need to return to the human-powered versions rather than the electrical ones.

First and foremost there is no battery to be replaced every couple of years – at a rather high costs – and then the other benefit of the old-fashioned bicycle is the fact that, in general, repair, maintenance and servicing can be carried out by the user or, in the case of a child, by the user's grown-up carer or friend.

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