Interconnectedness and new life in a country garden

Two of the great lessons of the universe are interconnectedness with other humans, other species, and the planet itself; and care for each other, the species around us, and the planet that sustains us.  Waste, neglect, and thoughtlessness work against these universal themes.

The story of Mrs Gray's Garden is a simple one. It's basic appeal is one of interconnection in an Australian regional city, Wodonga - which, with its Twin City, Albury, straddles the Victorian-New South Wales Border and the mighty Murray River.  It shows how resources lying dormant, neglected or wasted can be reclaimed and put into service.  Mrs Gray's Garden, it is hoped, will become just one of many which will thoughtfully establish interconnectedness and contribute to the needs and the well-being of the communities in which they are situated. 

The problematic poser: who should pay for e-waste disposal

THE ARTICLE BELOW IS FROM SMART PLANET

Who should pay for e-waste disposal?

By Vanessa Ko | December 7, 2011, 2:22 AM PST

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HONG KONG — Hong Kong will soon have a facility designated for dismantling and recycling electronic products such as televisions, refrigerators and computers.

A tax will be added to the price tags of electronic products to help pay for e-waste disposal. Based on a similar tax in other cities, the cost of home appliances is expected to go up by $12 to $30.

The question now is whether consumers should pay for all of the recycling costs. Some argue that retailers and manufacturers should pay for part of it to hold accountable all involved parties.

The current proposal places the recycling fee at the retail level, and it is likely that retailers will simply charge the extra cost to consumers. This type of legislation “is not really the spirit of producer responsibility” as intended by the legislation, said Edwin Lau, general affairs director of Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong.

Lau said in over 30 jurisdictions around the world, the e-waste fee is charged to the importer, as electronic products are frequently manufactured overseas.

“Of course producers have the responsibility to contribute a small part of their earning to the annual operation cost of the e-waste recycling plant that will have our e-waste properly dismantled and recycled and reused,” Lau said.

In California, there is a $10 fee added to the price of electronic products with viewable screens, but retailers may choose to pay the fee on behalf of the consumer to make its prices more competitive. Several other U.S. states charge e-waste recycling fees to manufacturers.

Right now, about 80% of Hong Kong’s e-waste is exported to other cities and countries. Many of these areas are poor and use polluting processes that are harmful to the workers’ health. “It’s not environmentally responsible,” Lau said, “and it’s not ethical.”

Photo: Vanessa Ko

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About Vanessa Ko

Vanessa Ko is a Hong Kong correspondent for SmartPlanet.

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Contamination: of lives, and of regulatory and tax systems

Picture from The Age story

Case study one, believed to be Leigh Street, was particularly concerning.

''Twenty-two residential properties surrounding the former quarry site are contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [by-products of fuel burning], benzo(a)pyrene [a carcinogen found in coal tar and exhaust fumes], lead and other metals due to the quarry infill material,'' the report found.

The report said that the ''Maribyrnong City Council and the EPA have demonstrated poor due diligence and a poor duty of care'' to the residents at the site.

The report outlined a tangled bureaucratic mess for dealing with contaminated sites.

''No one entity is accountable for oversight of the effectiveness of the regulatory framework in operation.

''Further, responsibility for managing the high-risk sites has been neither clearly defined nor accepted by any entity,'' Mr Pearson found.

He called for a ''systematic and co-ordinated review of the entire regulatory framework''.

The Environment Protection Authority said it accepted the report's recommendations in full.

Maribyrnong City Council chief executive Vince Haining said within the 32 square kilometres of the municipality there were 89 former quarry sites that contain residential and industrial waste.

He said council did not ''possess the financial means'' to immediately investigate and remediate potentially contaminated sites across the municipally.

He said the council was working closely with the EPA and environmental consultants to investigate and remediate sites mentioned in the Auditor-General's report.

~~~~~

I want to draw attention to four facts:

•  that this pollution, contamination, call it what you will is from waste, by-products of a form of resource extraction and production.  
• that the cost of cleaning up this site and the cost of healthcare for those affected by this contamination will be borne by the ratepayers of the Maribyrnong City Council and the taxpayers of Victoria through the Victorian Government.  
• that there is unlikely to have been any realistic cost extracted by either the Maribyrnong City Council or the Victorian Government from the business using the site to cover such contingencies
• that there was insufficient regulation and/or monitoring to prevent this and there is no direct indication that effective regulation and/or monitoring is already in place or will be put in place to prevent such an occurrence again.

People gain prestige when they rise to elected office at whatever level of government.  People who manage government instrumentalities are well-educated and, again, acquire prestige from their appointments.  The people who have lived in these properties either suffer from afflictions obtained through the contamination or live in fear of adverse health states further down the track.  

What I am pointing out is that some people are all glory and frequently abdicate their responsibilities.  Some people are casualties and some are tax fodder.  Our society has to come to the stage where adverse affects and costs are effectively recognised and accounted for in an up-front manner.  The burden is falling adversely on people who should not be paying the price while the damages, wasters, incurrers are getting away, it would appear, scot free.

Cooking Oil to Fuel Western Water Vehicles

Water may be its core business, but now Western Water has turned its attention to a different liquid – biodiesel fuel. The water authority has installed a new 13,000 litre biodiesel tank at the Sunbury depot, to help reduce its carbon emissions.

"Using biodiesel for all our fleet vehicles will reduce carbon emissions by more than 140 tonnes a year,” Western Water’s Managing Director, John Wilkinson, says. “The biodiesel is produced from local waste products such as used cooking oil and tallow, which would otherwise go to landfill,” he says. “This means we are not only reducing carbon emissions from our fleet, we are also putting a waste resource to good use.”

The $25,000 tank is the largest of three now installed by Western Water, with tanks already in place at depots in Gisborne and Melton. The move is part of Western Water’s Climate Change Strategy, which sets a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2017-18.

“We have already reduced our emissions by almost 30 per cent since 2004-05, and are now aiming to hit 50 per cent by the middle of next year,” Mr Wilkinson says. “Other measures have included retro-fitting energy efficient technology at offices, depots and recycled water plants, and converting to green power,” he says.

“At the Melton Recycled Water Plant, we are capturing biogas produced in the water recycling process to generate 100 per cent renewable electricity.”

BTW, pop over here to read a warning to Sunbury and Macedon Ranges residents on the need for more water saving.

All about Coffee and Tea AND Fair Trade and Growing Your Own

Dear Fellow Gleaners,

While this post has come from the newsletter of a company, I am not promoting nor am I benefitting from this company. I do, however, like to share good stuff and that can come from anywhere.  I hope you find this as enjoyable and informative to read as I have.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The tale of how coffee was discovered is an intriguing one, apparently about 1,000 years ago in the hills of Ethiopia a goat herder found that his goats would keep him awake at night after they had been feasting on the red coffee berries.  The story goes that the goat herder shared his discovery with a local monastery and it was the monks who first brewed the beans into a hot drink. The beans were traded into Yemen where coffee culture flourished and the Arabian Peninsula became a hotbed for cafes, known as kaveh kanes.  Coffee was introduced into Europe in the 1600's and cafes quickly became popular social meeting places just as they are today. 
Coffee is vital to as many as 25 million small farmers who grow and sell the beans for a living, however as many as 500 million people are employed by the coffee industry worldwide. Coffee is the world's second most valuable commodity - oil being the first, so coffee has become more popular than ever before, coffee shops, internet cafes and the expansion of fashionable eateries that specialize in coffee see us consume 400 billion cups of coffeeevery year, there is however one drink that is more popular than coffee and that is tea.

 After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. It is drunk as a hot drink that is enjoyed for its cooling and slightly bitter flavour. Camellia sinensis is a tree that will grow to 16m if left undisturbed; however it is usually pruned to waist height to make harvesting easy, the name sinensis means "native to China".  There are six different types of tea that are processed from the tea plant, white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, black tea, pu-erh, the difference between them is way the leaves are processed.  The most unusual type of tea is possibly Monkey Picked Tea; the story goes that Monks trained monkeys to gather the tips from the top of wild trees, today Monkey Picked Tea refers to the best quality Oolong tea available, it is not however picked by monkeys.  It is only the fresh new tip of the tea plant that are picked, the leaves are then wilted and bruised to promote oxidation, they then go through fermentation, fixation, sweltering, rolling, shaping, drying, aging and curing before they are packaged for the pot.  Tea bags were invented in 1907 by a merchant who wanted to distribute samples of his product; they did not take off until 1953, when Tetley launched the tea bag. Black tea is the most popular of the different types of tea and there is a culture that surrounds the brewing and serving of this well-known favourite beverage.  Black tea is usually brewed at around 99°C, since the temperature of boiling water drops with increasing altitude it is very difficult to brew black tea in high mountainous regions.  Experienced drinkers of tea insist that the tea should not be stirred while it is brewing, this does not strengthen the brew but only releases tannins in the same way that the tea bag should not be squeezed, if a stronger brew is desired use more leaf in the pot. 

 

Fair Trade & Growing Your Own

As consumers become more aware of where our money goes we face economic and social decisions every time we spend our hard earned money.  Both tea and coffee are industries that are controlled by big business that exploit local communities and their farming land, we do however have a choice to support fair trade companies such as Trade Winds , by choosing a fair trade product  you will ensure that your money is going back to support a farming community and that the farmers are being paid a fair price for their product and labour.

The other option is to grow your own tea and coffee.
Here is a link to our blog describing how to produce tea at home
http://blog.daleysfruit.com.au/2011/11/tea-production-home.html

A quick and easy technique for making coffee from your home grown beans can be found in the 2009 Rare Fruit Review.

Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery
Phone: (02) 66 321 441 

Turn it off! Pull the plug! Stop light pollution! Stop energy waste

Light from Sunday Paper on Vimeo.

Recycling opportunity for quality, used children's clothing

It’s time for another clothing drive to help children in Palestine and the refugee camps in Jordan.  This time, there will be two drives to make it easier for people living on one side of Melbourne’s great metropolitan sprawl to the other.  People wanting to donate from interstate should contact Moammar Mashni   at <info@olivekids.org.au>  or on his mobile 0419 999 773.

So many people have been generous since Olive Kids began this initiative and we hope that as our festive season draws closer, you will also remember how little joy Palestinian children have in their lives and that even the smallest gift can light up those sad faces.  Please consider giving a NEW toy along with any used clothing, or even separately.  They may well bring much comfort to those children in Gaza who are still suffering from the terrifying sounds and effects of Israel’s aerial attacks and artillery fire that continue spasmodically without so much as a mention in our media. 
Sonja Karkar
Editor
http://australiansforpalestine.com

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ford Australia: Doing its bit and sending a strong and positive message

The paint sludge from Ford’s Broadmeadows plant is being used by Dandenong-based waste specialist Geocycle, which uses the sludge as an alternative source of fuel in its cement making process.

Geocycle has recycled around 10 tonnes of paint sludge each month since the program commenced in August.

Paint sludge is a by-product of the vehicle painting process at the Broadmeadows assembly plant. Before the Geocycle partnership was formed, Ford sent all the sludge offsite for processing and disposal in landfill.

Ford Australia says it will halve the amount of sludge it sends to landfill when the recycling program is fully implemented. Australia’s second-largest vehicle manufacturer currently recycles 56 per cent of the solid waste produced at its Broadmeadows facility.

Ford Australia president and CEO Bob Graziano explained the Geocycle program was another environmental initiative by Ford, following last year’s $20 million upgrade of the Geelong Iron Casting Plant to make it more efficient.

“Ford around the world is committed to initiatives aimed at providing a better environment for consumers,” Mr Graziano said.
“Ford Australia is part of that process and we continue to seek out solutions with companies like Geocycle to minimise our impact on the environment.”

Taken from here 

Ford's efforts at the Geelong Iron Casting Plant deserve a very honourable mention on the sustainability and recycling front.  Here's what they are doing:

• An electricity efficiency gain of more than 5,100 kW hours a day, obtained by reducing furnace idle times;

• Increased use of recycled stormwater to 77,000 litres a week, or 3.7 million litres a year – around 20 per cent of all water used at the Plant will be from recycled stormwater, up from the current 5 per cent;

• Increased use of recycled shredded metal, increasing from 32 per cent to 70 per cent – 67 tonnes of metal a day will be recycled, or almost 15,000 tonnes a year; and

• Sand reclamation to increase to almost 100 per cent by selling around 138 tonnes of surplus sand each week for cement production, reducing sand landfill requirements to zero.

Acquisition and Disposal: the twin peaks of waste, dumping and disposal

Picture from here

This is the BIG QUESTION!

Has your local council satisfactorily resolved 

the Hard Rubbish/Hard Waste on the Footpath issue, yet?

CARA, the Collingwood and Abbotsford Residents Association don't think that Yarra City Council has. 

Yarra City Council is home to many environmentally conscious citizens and they display this consciousness with some success at the ballot box. I am sure the Council would consider itself pro-active.

Generally speaking, Councils - and I can only speak from my Melbourne experience - have gone from something like twice-yearly general hard waste collections - put it on the footpath and they will come, between the stipulated dates. - to a "book it, put it on the footpath with a sticker, between the stipulated dates" system.  Councils have gone from a general zonal system to an individualised site specific system complete with mailout and printed sticker

This picture from here

I'm not sure how Councils expect this way of doing things to be cheaper and effective -

and there's a Councillor at Yarra who says it's certainly not cheaper.

Picture from here

To be fair, Councils are between a rock and a hard place on this issue....

1. It makes sense to give householders regular opportunities to relieve themselves of large items of waste.  No system at all means back to the bad old days and ways - fridges in creeks, mattresses under bridges and so on.
2. Under the zonal general pick-up system, Councils believed gleaners were an issue leaving footpaths messier than just the original site.
3. Councils believed gleaners should be deterred and brought in new laws accordingly. Word soon spread (on my advice not justifiable in law) that once hard waste is on the footpath it is then Council property and for gleaners to remove it means that they are stealing and major fines are attached!

Here let me declare my interest.  Miss Eagle is a gleaner and there are few circumstances in which she doesn't glean.  In the long, long ago, before Councils had heard of hard waste on footpaths, I would seek out auction sales, garage sales, second hand shops.  In fact, my first port of call is the hard rubbish on the footpath.  I do admit once that 'Booked' sign goes up, I really do think twice about taking stuff. Some householders are getting too clever by half and tie up items for disposal with rope in such an in-and-out zig-zaggy way that it can be a bit difficult to remove a likely piece.

There are the householders at the other end of the continuum.  They put out big mobs of stuff on the footpath, don't put a 'Booked' sticker on it - or may long after the event. There it is open to everyone and open to rain, hail or shine. Perhaps they think they are being generous to gleaners - and that may be. 

However, all rubbish is not equal. 

Some is grotty, horrible stuff which should be in plastic bags in a rubbish bin.

The reason this blog came into existence is because I am thoroughly cheesed off by what I have seen in my gleaning.  As I have already said, grot is put out which should be in a plastic bag and put in the standard rubbish pick up.  Some is recyclable and could go in the blue (or whatever your recycling colour is) bin.  Above all, so many in my neighbourhood are only five minutes or less away from the Salvos and Vinnies and don't seem to be bothered to take appropriate stuff there.

I don't want to appear an ungrateful gleaner but a few facts have to be remembered at the gleaning end:

1. Just as all rubbish is not equal, all gleaners are not.
2. Some gleaners break and pull things apart and generally make a mess as they fossick and glean.
3. Some, like me, are the opposite. We try to place things back as they were. We deliberately set out NOT to make a mess.
4. Where the householder is around, permission is asked.
5. People glean for different things. I once met a man with a ute and a disability collecting metal to sell to a scrap-metal dealer.  This was to eke out his disability pension.  I glean houshold and gardening items.  I have been renovating furniture for forty years.  I have a good eye for making useful, even beautiful, what others reject.  This gift has been passed on to my children and my daughter has passed it on to her partner.  What I seek the metal collector will pass by and vice versa.
6. There are professionals. My daughter met last year the owner of a well-known antique shop in a well-heeled suburb as he was gleaning too. He explained that the second hand section accessed by a separate entrance at the rear of the antique shop had seen his business through many a lean year.  And why not? Small business faces continual pressures and hardships that Wall Street and Reserve Banks don't recognize nor do they understand.   

So how does all this get sorted out?

Firstly, we have to realise that rubbish will always be with us and will never be entirely eliminated. Aboriginal midden heaps of great antiquity are still with us and some are  protected by government.

Picture from here

Secondly, we have to realise that gleaners will always be with us and will never be entirely eliminated. I jokingly say that we gleaners are the third oldest profession - after the first two unmentionable ones. We are mentioned in the bible. 

Picture from here 

It is suggested that most gleaners are women. I would modify this statement because in very poor populations across the word, the gleaners are often children.

 Picture from here

So we have two irresistible forces. We have rubbish - far too much of it.  We have gleaners - but probably not in sufficient numbers to spirit the waste off Melbourne's footpaths.

We have health factors to consider.

I think that, to deal effectively and cheaply with disposal of rubbish, we have to focus on the diminution of rubbish and waste.  We are already making inroads at the household level so that we can say with a degree of certainty that there is a good level of understanding about recycling.  This comes at the disposal end.  What we lack is a satisfactory level of understanding about acquisition.  

Acquisition is a behaviour that dares not speak its name.

Acquisition provides a lot of business.

Acquisition provides a lot of jobs.

Public education programs are needed so that people consider acquisition and its impact. 

 More stuff,more storage, more storage, more outgoings, 

more outgoings, more credit, more credit more interest, 

more interest less savings, less savings less superannuation....

PLEASE CONSIDER!

Picture from here