Hard News: The Greening
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But more exciting still is the increasing use of construction methods such as walls made of polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of gyprock - cheap, mostly made of recyclables, easy to assemble, ready insulated...
I hope the recycled plastic isn't going to degrade in any way that would result in nasty gases permeating the house...
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Plastic lumber is, err, plastic that's made to look like lumber,
Oh, nice.
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Sue,
I know of this craft fair
where
- one person makes jewellery out of all those milk bottles
- another person who makes handbags out of fused plastic bags and old records -
What makes me a bit suspicious about the point of recycling is the apparently low amount of stuff out there for sale that is made from recycled materials. For example toilet paper - surely this is an ideal thing to make from recycled paper, yet there aren't that many brands that don't source their paper from fresh trees (albeit some are "sustainably" grown, whatever that means). I seem to recall years ago that some Coke bottles (the 1.5l ones) were partially made from recycled PET, but otherwise I'm struggling to think of anything obviously made from recycled stuff, and marketed as such.
If we are serious about recycling then I reckon we need to create demand by buying things that are made from recycled materials. At least as long as we have this stupid capitalist system anyway ;-)
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Oh and while we are talking about secondary uses for plastic bags, Kyle I do not recommend using plastic bags to stuff a STATUE that then gets used as an effigy and burnt on the steps of Parliament, because SOMEONE didn't bring the effigy, resulting in a whole heap of people inhaling toxic gases and having to get some medical attention.
But I digress.
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But more exciting still is the increasing use of construction methods such as walls made of polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of gyprock - cheap, mostly made of recyclables, easy to assemble, ready insulated ...
Hey, what could go wrong?
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I thought that supermarket plastic bags were already biodegradable.
"Biodegradable" in the sense that they eventually break down into smaller pieces of plastic as the links between polymer chains break. But at the end of it, you're still left with a pile of plastic, and nothing eats it or breaks it down.
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Hey, what could go wrong?
There's been some place in Upper Hutt way (a team building type place - can't think of the word right now) for several years, it's made of polystyrene. You'd never know.
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(albeit some are "sustainably" grown, whatever that means)
It means its grown in a plantation which is then replanted, like most of the ones in NZ, rather than being made from clearcutting the rainforest in Indonesia.
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"Biodegradable" in the sense that they eventually break down into smaller pieces of plastic as the links between polymer chains break. But at the end of it, you're still left with a pile of plastic, and nothing eats it or breaks it down.
I use these doggy doo bags (actually they're nappy bags, but they're exactly the same as doggy doo bags, but blue instead of green, and they're half the price - they say they're "biodegradeable", do you think they really are? (real question, I have no idea).
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Oh and while we are talking about secondary uses for plastic bags, Kyle I do not recommend using plastic bags to stuff a STATUE that then gets used as an effigy and burnt on the steps of Parliament, because SOMEONE didn't bring the effigy, resulting in a whole heap of people inhaling toxic gases and having to get some medical attention.
It was plastic bags? I thought it was stuffed with newspaper. Whatever it was, it smouldered more than it burnt, but the fire extinguisher probably didn't help much.
And I had nothing to do with the effigy, I just happened to get photographed by the NZ Herald shoving my student loan paperwork into the (not really burning) fire. I thought Auckland brought it along.
It's on my clipcard of 'media things to get done as a student politician'. Morning Report, check. TV1 and TV3 news, check. International newspaper, photo in NZ daily outside your home town, check. If I'd ever been interviewed by Paul Holmes I would have had the complete set (umm, "bingo?").
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Consuming less is the ultimate green move, but you can't sell that.
Substitute a kite surfer for a jet-ski, a projector for a plasma or a station wagon for an SUV.
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The SOMEONE who didn't bring the effigy was indeed your own fair campus. Auckland's responsibility was the aforementioned statue, which was never meant to be burnt, and thus did not really burn very well at all. Took us hours and hours that statue! Twelve years this week and I'm still bitter.
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walls made of polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of gyprock - cheap, mostly made of recyclables, easy to assemble, ready insulated ...
Hey, what could go wrong?
It's pretty flammable, and produces toxic fumes when it burns. That's not so good. Ask that cold store up in Tamahere...
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In Africa beer and soft drinks are sold in glass bottles. The bottles cost more than the contents, so the people selling them won't let them out of their sight.
Bottle recycling is something where government could do a lot and individuals can do very little. If there were a mandatory 50c deposit on all bottles, then they'd have to collect and reuse them. But then people would whinge about the nanny state putting up the price of beer. Etc.
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walls made of polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of gyprock
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Hey, what could go wrong?
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It's pretty flammable, and produces toxic fumes when it burns. That's not so good. Ask that cold store up in Tamahere...As if it wasn't enough that fire loadings in dwellings have increased so much in the last few decades that house fires now burn in the vicinity of 850-900 degrees C, courtesy of all the synthetic materials in furniture and carpets, let's make the walls out of stuff that burns with great gusto when it's not doing a splendid job as an insulator and raising the internal temperatures even higher.
Yup, sounds like a fucking genius idea to me!
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Yup, sounds like a fucking genius idea to me!
Almost enough to make those wood ads slightly less irritating.
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Sorry, I should have clarified that when I said they're making walls out of polystyrene clad gyprock I wasn't referring to walls of dwellings, but walls round your yard (ya know, bigger than fences, as seen out front of ever self-respecting McMansion).
Okay look I'll give up 'coz I can't even assemble that furniture that comes with the pictures and the allen key and instead refer you here. It's an espisode of "Better Homes and Gardens". Scroll down to "Don't fence me in" and click the links.
As far as that sort of fencing goes, both the plastic lumber and the polystyrene don't look too bad. Saves trees, saves work, indeed what could go wrong.
While they're not building plastic houses in Australia (yet) there have been a few modular construction systems demonstrated on the ABC's New Inventors show, which features all sorts of "green" inventions (look for the "Channel Panel", "Quench Shower", "Southern Reflector", "Solid State Lighting" (very relevant when the government is spruiking fluorescents), "Wheelie Bin".
The plastic wall framing that someone's invented is the Panelform though I don't know whether they're making houses out of it.
And since I'm busy acting as an unpaid PR person for the ad-free goodness that is the ABC, and completely off topic, allow me to alert you to a new comedy that's set in the office of a PM that's obsessed with spin and glib "solutions". I could tell you the name but I won't spoil the fun - I'll let you gasp at the (presumably unintended) irony.
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I've been in the UK for the past few weeks and have been hugely impressed with the way that people are taking on recycling, turning off appliances at the wall and all that gubbins that is easy to do but seemingly kiwis don't.
And these are not my "greenie" friends - far from it.
But "Green consumerism" - isn't that a contradiction in terms? Been seeing a lot of people with just one product for dishwash, laundry and other uses - instead of a myriad of bottles in the cupboard there's only one. We should be buying LESS not just keep on buying stuff but making sure it's green.
etc.
but on the subject of "greening the media" very interested to see your discussion on this Russell - the international media take on this issue in a far more meaningful way than anything I've seen in NZ. Senior environment and science reporters who know their shit, for example (rather than have the round thrown at the latest cadet)... a lot more and deeper analysis....
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I'm trying to get hold of a dude who knows how to build with cob, he's apparently as old as the historic ones around the place. I might cheat a bit and have steel reinforcing and a concrete floor - but a house of mud, straw, and a bit of poo sounds like hog hevan to me.
As we have no bottle recycling in the Sth Island at all - some goes into the roads. We really do need to place the price of packaging onto the initial product to reduce waste.
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Maori TV have "Think Green" on at 10:30pm tonight
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I gather that when there was a project to cut back on single-use plastic bags in Ireland, bin-liner sales jumped 400%.
I'd believe that. What I noticed when I was in Ireland a few years ago was that there was far less plastic bag litter than in England - we saw one stray plastic bag in over a week there.
And paid 5 cents tax for the bag to put the pint of milk, loaf of soda bread, and cheese in to carry back to our rented cottage. That bag remained with us for the rest of the week.
I somehow missed the hoo-ha over the Trelise Cooper Shopping bag, but I like the idea. I also like these, especially the Baggu.
Owning one might help me remember to take the recyclables shopping. That said, the current store of plastic bags maintains equilibrium due to the need for kitchen bin liners and the requirement to put newspapers and paper in shopping bags for recycling.
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What, when it is at home, is plastic lumber? And textiles - I think I was right about the polar fleece.
Yes you are right. The first polar fleece made out of recycled plastic was by Dyersburg in 1993.
It takes 26 plastic bottles to make one of Robyn’s vests according to the Christchurch recycling centre.
There’s a wonderful ethical story about Malden Mills the inventors of polar fleece too.
The factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, run by third generation owner and devout Jew Aaron Feuerstein was burnt to the ground in a howling winter gale in 1995. Feuerstein kept his 3000 staff on full pay until the factory was rebuilt - six months later.
And in what goes around comes around – in 2001 his creditors banded together to keep the factory going when it ran into trouble because of cheap imports.
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Oh, and for those of you who want to join together, my friend Josh has just started a campaign with the aim of having no plastic bags in New Zealand.
The url is www.noplasticbags.org.nz.
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And paid 5 cents tax for the bag to put the pint of milk, loaf of soda bread, and cheese in to carry back to our rented cottage. That bag remained with us for the rest of the week.
Gasp... a market solution! I certainly know that since Border started charging five or ten cents for a bag, I'm a hell of a lot more likely to just say "forget it, I can just tuck it all under my arm". Surely, it also has benefits for retailers too -- a chain, or even a large store, must drop a bomb on plastic bags. And in a highly competitive industry where the margins aren't exactly lavish, every penny has got to count.
I don't know about anyone else, but you certainly become a damn sight more conscious about making effective use of a rubbish bag at a dollar and change a pop. I'm quite surprised to realise I'm getting quite bloody minded about avoiding over-packaged stuff (especially if it's not recyclable), giving compostable scraps to the neighbour etc. Just to prolong the life of a pack of five trash sacks.
Is this what the economists call a perverse incentive?
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