Printer Horrors (Oct08)
I’ve been having problems with my printer. Actually, it’s been annoying me for quite some time. The gremlin inside it gets particularly difficult when I’m trying to print something off before rushing out of the door to catch a train. Perhaps I should admit to be partly to blame for my problems. Having bought my inkjet printer […]
Recycling Dreamland (Oct08)
Chris Dow at Closed Loop recycling in Dagenham was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He describes the new plant – it won’t be fully operational until December – as a ‘recycling dreamland’. When it’s running at full pelt, this brand new factory will make it possible for a plastic drinks bottle to be chucked away at […]
A Trip to Waste Tip (Jun08)
Dimmer landfill site near Castle Cary in Somerset is unusual. It has a rather beautiful wooden eco-building within it’s boundaries, housing the Carymoor Environmental Centre. School trips for nature talks and wildlife walks are a regular feature – and they do a lot to educate the public on the benefits of recycling. I took my […]
Plastic recycling is not where it should be (May08)
Most plastics can be recycled but that doesn’t mean they are. Recoup have been campaigning for more plastics recycling – particularly of bottles – since the early 1990s. A long time ago I went to open their 100th bottle bank but haven’t really been involved since. So attending their conference this week brought back memories, as well […]
Why do we all hate plastic bags?(Feb08)
“Why do we all hate plastic bags?” I ask in The New Green Consumer Guide. Now, the headlines are screaming about their horrors and the campaign to ban them seems to be endorsed by every living celebrity. You might think the answer is obvious. Plastic bags are produced in their billions, litter the countryside, pollute […]
Bottled Water – Eau No! (Feb08)
“I’ve been drinking bottled water for 30 years and I’ll go on doing it until the day I die” said one caller to the Radio 5 phone-in I was participating in. The debate was supposed to be about whether it is immoral to drink bottled water. Actually, most of the callers were more concerned with […]
Unwanted phone directories 50 times as high as Everest! (Feb08)
I don’t use phone directories any more – I always look up numbers on the internet. But I’ve still got a pile of these weighty tomes in the corner of my office, collecting dust and doing nothing useful. I’ve now discovered that 50 million telephone directories are distributed each year and 17.5 million of these […]
Christmas waste (Jan08)
One of the most striking things about Christmas is the amount of waste we all produce. Waste heat, waste light, waste food and most of all waste packaging. Actually, quite a lot of presents are wasteful too. I wonder what percentage of gifts are actually appreciated and how many of those are useful. I have […]
Battling for recycling (Oct07)
When I agreed to oppose the motion that ‘Recycling is a waste of time’ it didn’t occur to me that most of the audience would be actively hostile to my position. Set up by the Institute of Ideas, the Battle of Ideas was a whole weekend of debates covering topics as diverse as ‘What’s the […]
Waste disposal is not for seagulls (Jun07)
I love the Brighton buses. Every stop has a sign telling you how long it is before your bus arrives. I also rather liked the sound of seagulls when I woke in the morning a stone’s throw from Brighton beach. But I discovered that residents are not so keen. I had thought that bird-related complaints […]
