The other day I was pumping up the tyres on on a pram I was pushing around. Nothing worse that pushing anything with flat tyres.

Anyway…

The air gun/trigger thing I was using happened to have a hose with a rather nasty slit in it. As a consequence there was more air spewing out into the atmosphere than there was going into my tyre.

This got me thinking…

Where is the air coming from? Is it really free? (I’ve never actually paid for it)…and finally…can there be such a thing as wasting air? Is the air gun/ trigger at the servo with the split hose responsible for wasting air?

please advise…I’d love to know.

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wasteman 

Today I was walking home from school  with my six year old daughter and we saw this pink wheelie bin in a bin. Can you believe it- A BIN IN A BIN!

We brougt it home. How could we resist.

Now my  six year year old daughter is scurrying madly around the house trying to create ‘rubbish’ so she can use her new bin. 

WOOPS. BIG WOOPS!  This was not supposed to happen. I think I’ve created a monster!

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wasteman

Yes it’s true. Today I met with the principle of the primary school I have offered to write a waste management plan for. I’m pretty sure she’s interested because she has invited me back on Friday morning and is wanting to give me one hour of her time. Heavens To betsy! The principle did mention that although there are initiatives in place, there is no one single document or plan to deal with hard waste. Thank heavens for that. I’d pretty much be wasting my time if there was.

The idea is to gather information as to the current situation. What are the policies, strategies, programmes etc that are already in place. One has to be careful here. No matter how daft you might think some of the existing strategies are, they are, none the less, strategies that have been developed by someone in (or connected to) the school who may actually believe in them. Of course there could  be some really good stuff! 

The good news is that the report will no doubt be able to ultilize this background information and I dare say, it will probably constitute a large chunk of the  introductory section.

We shall speak again after Friday.

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wasteman

The Age June 2008                                               A Melbourne street 2008

comments please!

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wasteman

Take a look at this drinking glass. Take a good look. It wasn’t always a drinking glass. It used to be a jar of nutella. It was bought as a jar of nutella. After the nutella was all gone, the packaging took on a second life. It became a drinking glass.

This is not a new idea. I remember Barnes honey used to do excactly the same thing. In fact, they went one step better. Their glasses used to have a handle. Wow! 

Forget recycling…this is about RE-USING! RE USE is higher up the waste pyramid than recycling. Re using is more important than recycling!! I kid you not!

However…

Am I the only one who thinks that this is fantastic?

How come the marketing of this product dosen’t appear mention the fact that once you’ve finished the nutella you have a great little drinking glass? I would of thought in such a competitive ‘spread’ market, and given the environmental benefits, that this ‘re-use’ packaging would have been right up there in the marketing spiel…nup!

The funny thing is, Barnes honey never used to mention it either.

Two words…PLEASE EXPLAIN!

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wasteman

I must admit I did have one little concern when I agreed to prepare this waste management report. I was concerned that people and politics were going to get in the way. 

Yesterday I called the waste contract company to ask them some questions and they told me that they would be happy to help as long as we had permission from the school.

I have written an email to the school asking for permission to gather any relevant information from any relevant source….LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENS NOW!

Will I get the permission I require without any fuss or stress, or as mentioned above, will people and politics get in the way?

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode…

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WASTEMAN

This is the first post with regard to a waste management plan for a primary school. I like the idea of being able to post online because I will be able to continue working from where I left off each time.

The actual title of this project is:

A HARD WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR A PRIMARY SCHOOL.

So I guess the first questions are… what is HARD WASTE and why are we mainly concerned with this type of waste for the purposes of this project?

Hard waste is the waste that you can see and touch. It’s the Big M carton you’ve finished with. It’s the cardboard box the new computer came in. It’s the Gladwrap your mum or dad wrapped your sandwiches in. It’s the old printer cartridge, the tin that the tuna came in, the straw you needed to drink with for some unknown reason. It’s yesterdays newspapers. Hard waste is the solid touchable ‘stuff’ you don’t need anymore. Some people refer to it as ‘RUBBISH’…Personally, I don’t believe in rubbish, but that’s a whole other story. It’s the stuff that ends up in the back of garbage trucks. Usually it stinks, but that’s only because there is food (and probably nappies) mixed in with it. 

The reason why this project is concerned mainly with HARD WASTE is because LITTER could be regarded as a form of HARD WASTE and at St Kilda primary there is a big litter problem. Truth is, it was the escalating volume of litter that was the number one instigator for this project.

But like all environmental issues (and litter is certainly one of those) nothing acts in isolation. So if we can look at developing a simple hard waste management plan, I feel confident that through this process we will help to curb the litter problem.

I have said that I would be prepared to write a ‘HARD WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN’ for a Primary School in Melbourne.

This category will continue to present posts that relate specifically to this project. This category will be if you like, a running diary or commentary of the process.

Please feel free at any time to comment or contact me with thoughts, suggestions or ideas. It’s not that I don’t have any of my own, it just wouldn’t hurt to throw some ideas around.

until next time

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wasteman

The other day I visited my local post office. The postman who works behind the counter (a friend of mine) was listening to a radio that was not quite tuned in – ouch!

I don’t know about you, but to me, this is like fingernails down a blackboard.

I left the post office and walked back to my office. I noticed that a skip had been placed out the back of my next door neighbours yard, so, as you do, I had a little peek.

There, staring me right in the face, was the radio/cd player you can see in the photo. I immediately took it over to the post office and handed it to my friend the postman.

“Here”, I said. “Here’s a new radio for you”. He was absolutely thrilled.

I, yet again, was just astounded (but not surprised) by what people just throw away.

Greetings earthlings. Wasteman here.

I come in peace.

Stay tuned..

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