Monday, August 26, 2013
Govt strategies make boring reading - but to make change one has to begin at the beginning, as the King said in Alice in Wonderland
Here is the Waste Strategy for Ballarat, the city where I live. I know it looks boring but what I would like to know is - do you think it does the trick? Does it help people to REALLY know how and what to recycle?
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Tackling food waste
Dear Waste Wielders,
Sometimes it would be great to have a jet aircraft or time machine at one's beck and call. And if I had some marvellous free transport near at hand, I would be off to New York City for this event. Food, food waste, composting etc are topics of great interest to me.
It appears that a star-studded cast has been assembled for this foodtank event.
I live in Ballarat - and I would love to have such an event with speakers of this calibre speaking here. Locally, if such an event were to take place in Ballarat, we might have some speakers to touch on the topics of the waste associated with the destruction of fruit trees because the processor won't give producers contracts; the waste if low supermarket prices drive dairy farmers from their farms or into other forms of food production.
There are three things that keeps us alive - clean air, clean water, fresh food. While we are working to alert the world to Climate Change and renewable energy, we ignore at our peril this trinity of basics. Included in this short list are the background issues - good, sound, productive soil; regulation of any interference or possible interference with the cleanliness and freshness of our air, water and food; the maintenance of fair livelihoods.
So can we have a big think and discussion about this?
Blessings from Miss Eagle ~~~
A very special evening discussion bringing together the New York City food movement for food waste awareness week. Hosted by Food Tank: The Food Think Tank
Sept 19th 5:30PM to 7:30PM EST
The Snapple Theater, 1627 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019
Musical Guest:
Speakers:
and many more to be announced soon!
Drinks and light snacks included!
$25 donation. Limited tickets available, purchase now.
If you have any questions, please call 202-590-1037 or email danielle@foodtank.org.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
UN World Water Day 22 March 2013 - a reminder about water waste and what might be done
I know that many parts of the east coast of Australia have been too darn wet this year and for a while. Places like Bundaberg in Queensland are still suffering dreadfully from the effects of flood. Victoria is no longer either in flood nor is it experiencing drought. Vic only came out of a twelve year drought a couple of years ago. The people of Victoria learned not to waste water - even those living in Melbourne. While things are not as bad they were, there are indicators that we have drifted away somewhat from our water thrift. The comments below from Danielle Nierenberg will, I hope, serve to remind us about water waste as we come up to UN World Water Day on 22 March.
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Opportunities for keeping stormwater run0ff on site at Mt Evelyn
Not exactly the sort of architecture you would see or want at Mt Evelyn
but you get the drift of what is possible.
An Australian-first
initiative that encourages residents to use more of their stormwater
runoff at home is being proposed for parts of Mount Evelyn.
The
two year pilot, developed by Yarra Ranges Council and Melbourne Water,
aims to dramatically reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and
pollution entering the Little Stringybark Creek..
Yarra
Ranges Council has proposed an Environmental Significance Overlay to
apply to new developments in the Little Stringybark Creek catchment
which create additional hard surfaces, such as roofs or paving, that are
greater than 10 square metres.
Planning
approval will be conditional on the proponents finding options to
capture and treat more of their stormwater runoff onsite.
The
pilot program will encourage residents to capture their stormwater at
home and use it to flush their toilets, water their gardens and for
other non-drinking purposes around the home. It is a practical example
of how Integrated Water Cycle Management can be tailored to suit the
needs of local communities.
Throughout
the trial, all stormwater capture and treatment systems will be awarded
a stormwater retention score. Calculated by Melbourne Water, the score
will be based on the ability to treat and capture stormwater on site,
with a minimum score needed for new developments to proceed.
Treatment
options such as raingardens or rainwater tanks that go beyond the
minimum requirements may be eligible for partial or full reimbursement
by Melbourne Water. Households may also be eligible for Victorian
Government rebates through the Living Victoria Water Rebate Program.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
From unmentionable human stuff to pellets of useful fertiliser
The Minister for Water,
the Honourable Peter Walsh, MLA, has officially opened the $77 million
biosolids thermal drying facility at the Black Rock environmental
precinct in Connewarre. The ribbon-cutting completed a project that has
been more than 10 years in the making.
Every
day of the year, the Black Rock Water Reclamation Plant treats around
50 million litres of domestic and commercial sewage from the greater
Geelong region and creates almost 140 tonnes of biosolids. Biosolids
are nutrient-rich and make valuable fertiliser, but must be first dried
and turned into pellets.
The
biosolids drying facility was built by the Plenary Group and will be
operated by the Water Infrastructure Group. The $77 million project was
delivered within the Partnerships Victoria framework, an initiative of
the Victorian Government.
Water Minister Peter Walsh with Plenary Group Associate Director Carl Retschko
officially open the biosolids drying facility.
Further reading
New York to begin municipal food waste collection for compost
Mayor Bloomberg announces compost program for Staten Island during State of the City speech
In a pilot program starting in Staten Island, homeowners will receive two sealed-top bins, a large one for curbside collection and a smaller one for their kitchens, and New York will pick up the scraps once a week, using composting to turn them into fertilizer for parks. The plan could be expanded to the rest of New York City.
Comments (12)The way New Yorkers clean up after dinner would change forever if Mayor Bloomberg gets his way.
Instead of slopping their leftovers into the trash, homeowners will be tossing eggshells, chicken bones and other scraps into compost bins in the city’s first food recycling program, which was formally announced in Bloomberg’s State of the City address Thursday.
Starting with a pilot program on Staten Island, homeowners will receive sealed-top bins — large ones for curbside collection and smaller ones that can be kept in their kitchens — and the city will pick up the scraps once a week and use composting to turn them into fertilizer for parks, said city recycling czar Ron Gonen.
The city picked Staten Island for the pilot because it has so many single-family homes, but hopes to eventually expand the program citywide — where tiny kitchens and apartment buildings faced with sorting waste into a fourth category could be a tougher sell.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Bring A Bag Campaigns have to become widely implemented as entry to public events
Pictures on this post are by Ian Hall.
Ian holds the copyright of these photographs.
They are published here with his permission.
On Saturday night, Ian Hall and I were in Melbourne's eastern suburbs for a friend's wedding. After the reception, somewhere about midnight, we went to bed setting the alarm for 3am. You see, Gleaners, we wanted to get into the city to catch White Night which was operating from 7pm to 7am.
No vehicular traffic was entering the Melbourne CBD but trams were running all night. We drove in and parked in the university precinct and caught the No. 19 (North Coburg) tram into the CBD. Even though the crowd numbers at that hour were well down on the quoted 300,000, the transformed city was a wonder to see. Familiar buildings were transformed beyond what our daily imagination could have conjured up. Creativity was released. Music, performers, artists, craftspeople, puppeteers.
However, there was something very thoughtless and unattractive on what was left behind - massive quantities of rubbish and detritus.
The sort of demographic which flocked to White Night, I think, would have responded positively to a poll asking their attitude to matters environmental. I am sure the majority of people would have been enthusiasts expressing great love and concern for their environment. The major flaw is that love and concern was not demonstrated on the streets of the Melbourne CBD on Saturday night 23 February 2013.
I don't want to hold only the individuals comprising the crowd accountable. The council of the City of Melbourne did not have its collective thinking cap on. Did any of the leadership of the City of Melbourne consider the ramifications of 300,000 people coming to town - and a lot of them staying for at least 12 hours?!
Not to worry - that international corporate, SPOTLESS, was there to pick up the pieces.
I suspect this rubbish might have remained unsorted and unrecycled and may well have been dumped into landfill.
A possible solution?
- What if all those who came into the CBD had to pass through checkpoints - entry only if you could produce two bags - one for recyclables and one for other stuff?
- What if large bin points were strategically located for people to dump their rubbish thoughtfully before they went home?
- What if the police - who, when we saw them, were standing around bored stiff - were empowered to issue on the spot fines for littering?
- And what if Spotless were only needed to pick up the dump bins regularly and take them to a spot at which they could be thoughtfully recycled or otherwise disposed?
- What if these massive CBD crowd scenes were to become admired gatherings for their environmental care?
Every item, no matter how small, that we waste, throw away, dispose of goes somewhere on our planet. Waste does not dissolve or get eliminated simply because we cannot see it and have left where it used to be clean.
Above all waste costs. It costs at the front end where there seems to be little awareness of whether packaging is necessary or kept to a minimum. When we purchase a product the waste is included in the price. At the back end, the cost of cleaning, recycling, disposing, and even dumping has a price. The price is included in the rates charges of local authorities which finds its way back into front end product costs.
Shocking costs are often inflicted on individuals and families where it hurts the most - on their bodies through illness, and on the biggest financial investment of most families - their houses and lands. These, the worst costs, are often delayed like a time bomb. Cranbourne residents were greatly shocked, inconvenienced, and out of pocket when their local municipality allowed their homes to be built on landfill.
Technology does fix some things but not all things. Recycling ability is being extended constantly - but it costs. Local Authorities, by and large, have not given up on dumping in landfill - and those cheap take-your-frig-away services when you buy a new refrigerator are often a guarantee of your frig with all its gases and chemicals being tipped into a landfill somewhere to become a hazard on time delay.
We have to ask our local council and our state and federal governments to become care-fully focussed on waste at every level and every part of our daily lives.
- What is the waste policy of your local council?
- What councillors on your local authority are interested in development and what councillors will lend a sympathetic ear to a conversation on waste, its cost, its disposal?
- Where is your waste currently going? Waste disposal does not end at the local council's Transfer Station.
- If your local council is currently using landfill, what are its plans for closing all landfill and finding other methods for waste disposal?
- How is your local council transferring its waste disposal costs to business, government, and landholders in your local authority area?
- If you live in a local authority with significant rural land holdings and an agricultural/pastoral economy, what are the local landholders doing? They frequently have their own landfill in which all sorts of things can end up. Yet with the constant expansion of our cities and suburbs, that land often ends up in the hands of the developers to become suburban housing and business development. Again, another slowly ticking hazardous bomb that we can't get our heads around because we are under the illusion that we have plenty of space to place things out of sight and out of mind.
In all these considerations, we must consider the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the land that grows our food. In short, a cavalier attitude to waste in which we chuck without thought can affect the basic elements of life on this plant - air, water, food. We must become forces of stimulation and collaboration for those who govern us and who take on community responsibility. We cannot force business and government to take on responsible, thought-full and care-full policies if we fail to take our own individual responsibility.
All this requires more thoughtful conversation
matched by thoughtful actions
than we are managing at the moment.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
The Klean-Up Kid in his Akubra is on to it
The picture and story are taken from
from Ballarat's daily newspaper The Courier.
Please take a few minutes to dip into our great newspaper.
YOUNG, budding wildlife warrior Ashley Straga has launched a campaign to help save the ducks at Lake Esmond – and the five-year-old has called on some big names to help.
Ashley has met Clean Up Australia chairman and founder Ian Kiernan and City of Ballarat mayor John Burt to register his own Clean Up Australia Day site.
He was equipped with an Akubra, just like Kiernan’s, and an official T-shirt for his mission.
Summer trips to the lake sparked Ashley’s concern when he noticed increased picnic rubbish and cans lying about that could harm nearby ducks.
So he asked his mum to join the Clean Up Australia Day campaign. Ashley’s mum Sarah Straga was proud of her son, but this latest venture had not come as a surprise.
“I accredit it all to Steve Irwin. He never did the Wiggles or Play School. It’s all been Steve Irwin documentaries,” Ms Straga said. He doesn’t know how to tie shoe laces but he can do a top-jaw rope on a crocodile.
“He picks up rubbish on his own accord and makes me lug it around wherever we go. I don’t mind. I encourage the initiative.”
Ms Straga hoped to join a clean-up group but when finding Lake Esmond was not a registered site, took on the job of site manager.
Family, friends and Ashley’s new school community at St James Parish Primary School have all pitched in to help, working the clean-up in with the school’s sustainability programs.
For all the clean-up work Ashley does in the community, Ms Straga still has to make sure he remembers to clean his room.Ashley says he wants to be like Steve Irwin and will visit the Irwins’ Australia Zoo for his birthday later this year.
An estimated 3.029 tonnes of rubbish were collected on Clean Up Australia Day in Victoria last year.
Monday, February 18, 2013
STOP THE TOSS - STOP WASTING FOOD - FEED THE WORLD
Waste is a world wide issue.
Food waste is arguably THE major waste issue.
Not only does wasting food waste human energy, water, and nutrients,
it can cost human lives.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wasted junk can be music to our ears
The ABC here in Oz on New Year's Night played the wonderful doco, Scrapheap Orchestra. This was a wonderful program about the top instrument makers in Britain who were commissioned to make musical instruments from junkyard scrap with the aim of having the professional musicians of the BBC Concert Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on the scrap instruments at the 2011 BBC Proms.
Needless to say there were dramas. There was professional pouting from some instrument makers and some musicians. As well, there was the high drama of whether the whole scenario would meet the exacting standards of the Prom management. At one stage, the whole project seemed to be at risk. There would be no appearance at the Proms. But, in the end, with tweaking here and re-arranging there, all was well and the project in all its glory and humour made it to the stage at the Proms to the great delight of all present.
Following on all this, to-day has arrived this delightful video on a similar theme. You can find it here.
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