This is the remote control to my television at home. It could really do with a clean.

The thing is, it hasn’t been working. Immediately I thought of the batteries. After taking the batteries out of winnie the pooh and placing them into the remote I hit the button and guess what? It still wasn’t working.

As it turns out, I placed one of the four AAA’s in the wrong way around, but, for a split second, I had that horrible contemporary wirlpool of thought that goes something like this:

“the remotes broken now what on earth am I going to do? How am I going to get it fixed? What’s inside it? Can It be opened? If I try to open it I’ll have no warranty! I ‘ve got no warranty anyway, it’s about four years old! Geez is that old? I don’t think so! It shouldn’t break after just four years, should it? But four years isn’t a lot these days when it comes to electrical ‘stuff’! Who could I take it to? How much would it cost? Would they be able to fix it? Would it be worth it? It’d be cheaper to get a new one……WHAT’LL I DO WITH THE OLD ONE? HELP!!!!!

e-waste, don’t get me started!

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I saw this ad in the paper the other day. I know what they’re on about.

There on about this…

Why beat around the bush. The owl is beautiful. No denying that. But at the end of the day, most people don’t really feel the connection between themselves, their behaviours and the owls, or any other wild life for that matter (city folk that is).

The advert is trying to raise awareness toward a very real and serious problem. The bins above are disgusting. One strong gust of wind and we have crap blowing all the way down the street and invariably into drains that lead to waterways and the bay.

SOLUTION: If you can’t close the lid of your bin you are creating too much waste and it will not be taken away.

PROBLEM: If this law was introduced people would scrounge around late at night looking for bins with room enough for a little bit more…you get the picture!

You gotta love people!!

comments please

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wasteman

Here’s a page from a young childs reader.

Try and explain to a child that the truck can’t possibly run over a ‘rubbish’ bin because there’s actually no such thing as ‘rubbish’

For starters…I can see a fish bone in the bin. A fish bone is not rubbish! Fish bones can be ground into the best plant food ever! …and so on and so on…

Children can get the wrong messages from such an early age. It’s a real challenge!

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wasteman

I have a theory that is often tested and often proven to be right. Let me know what you think.

The theory goes like this:

Any hole, any space, any void in a public place, will eventually be filled up with ‘rubbish’.

Here is a trailer, chained to a pole and left in the street. I saw it this morning and sure enough, once again the theory is proven to be right. The longer this trailer is left in the street the more it will be filled with ‘rubbish’. Look! It’s started already!…I love this theory!

Perhaps I’ll keep an eye on this trailer for you and take more photographs as the days wear on…stay tuned…The any hole, anywhere theory!

Here’s one I quite like. It’s well labeled. And that’s great!

One small critisism would be the distance between the arrow head and the actual half flush button. You can see here this distance has given some turkey the opportunity to stick a fruit label right in a very strategic spot.

It’s difficult to see in the photo however there does exist a simple distinguishing graphic between the two buttons – also a plus for this system.

I’m going to give this button a 7.5 out of ten.

What would you give it?

The dual flush toilet first became a part of our lives back in the early 1990′s –  and why not!

I mean, it’s pretty obvious, that little Mandy Brown, who’s just struggled to finish half a bowl of fruit loops would probably not require the same volume of water to flush her ‘business’ as big uncle Joe, who earlier in the day, managed to put down a meat pie, three potato cakes, three dimmies and six rings. Yep! The dual flush toilet was a needed and well received invention.

What intrigues me most about dual flush toilets however, is the multitude of responses to the design of the button mechanism. You can tell by the multitude of different buttons that it has been the job of some design professionals somewhere to come up with a ‘good looking’ or perhaps ‘interesting’ solution.

If you ask me, I don’t reckon it has to look that interesting. I just reckon it has to work! Water is too valuable a resource to get all ‘groovy’ over. Some of the ‘groovy’ looking half flush/full flush buttons really get up my nose as they are more concerned with not spoiling the overall look of the toilet than they are with actually saving water. 

Throughout this category of the wasteman site I will be on the look out for dual flush toilet button mechanisms. I’ll find them, photograph them, load them up onto the site and give a little commentary as to whether I think they work well or not. Somewhere I’m also going to have a go at designing a ‘dunny button’ myself – so stay tuned.

Please feel free at any time to comment or even better, why not try sending in some pictures of ‘dunny buttons’ that you come across in your daily days.

First up is one of the worst I’ve found…

For starters, both full flush and half flush are operated by pushing. I think this is a mistake. I would make half flush a push and full flush a pull. I say this because I believe when it comes to hitting a button, the more natural response is to push. Therefore it is better to have the smaller water volume (half flush) utilizing a pushing motion – yes or no?

Secondly, the only graphic that distinguishes full flush from half flush is a slightly longer engraved line. Very ‘groovy’! very ‘slick’! But not very clever! In a room not particularly well lit, or in a situation when the flusher is in a bit of a hurry (most of the time), this button could so easily be misused. 

I’m going to give this button a 2.5 out of ten.

What would you give it?

Finally, I just can’t believe I actually spend time thinking about stuff like this. Oh well, can’t help it. I’m the wasteman!

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