This is what I found when I opened an envelope recently from VISY (printed on the inside!).
It reads: ENVIROMAIL made from 100% post consumer waste.
Obviously I’m pleased to see that a company is prepared to use recycled material and help to ‘close the loop’ as we say.
Why aren’t all envelopes made this way?
I believe there still exists a perception that brown envelopes are for hippies. What we need is for some more up market ‘white is good and pure companies’ to  start using brown envelopes. Perhaps we could begin with the major banks. These companies send out millions of white envelopes each month. Would anyone really care if the bank statement arrived in a brown envelope?
Poor old envelopes. They just get sliced open and thrown away quicker than you can say ‘compost’.

Then again, the statements could arrive online!

wm

These days placing things out on the ‘nature’ strip is fast becoming a normal way of getting rid of ‘stuff’. Mattresses for example are fast becoming a common ‘un’sight. What I object to is when we cant even be bothered to remove the perfectly good roller casters. To me that’s just laziness. There has to be a place they can go. I checked out the casters on the mattress above and they were absolutely perfect.
I’m sorry. It’s still far too easy to just throw stuff away, but it’ll get harder, you can be sure of that!

over&over
wm

I went to a bbq the other day. This is the only photo I took from the party. Sad I know, but true!

Anyway, the point is, this small private home had THREE 240 litre bins. I couldn’t believe it. I really like the idea of a separate bin specifically for organics (green lid), but if this household manages to even get close to filling these bins each week,  then they are quite simply producing too much waste.

You know what we say…the bigger the bin, the more waste we are likely to generate!

How many bins do you have in your home? What size are they? What configuration?

Please. Are these people serious? How is buying one of these printed plastic bags going to save the planet? . Please tell me people aren’t stupid enough to fall for this garbage. I’m terribly sorry but this campaign seems ridiculous.
comments please…

wasteman
over&over

ps I’ve called sustainability victoria to find some answers to the paint problem…I’m just waiting to hear back.

This would have to be one of the simplest toys I have ever seen. Great fun, and best of all NBR (no batteries required).
This toy is a simple propellor that is operated by twirling the axel within the palms of your hands and then letting it fly as you release the grip. Great fun and ridiculously simple!

Don’t forget we are on the lookout for the best NBR products. By all means send in photos. I look forward to seeing them.
wasteman

As far as the ‘paint back‘ scheme is concerned (see previous post), it no longer exists because it worked too well. I believe the scheme was only ever trialled in one Bunnings store and by the sound of things, they just became inundated.
When quizzed, anyone who sells paint these days will tell you to contact your local council when it comes to paint recycling.
So my quest will continue as I investigate the options provided by some local councils. To be perfectly honest, I’m getting a feeling that old paint is a problem that no one really want’s to know about.  Let’s see…

over&over
wasteman

We’ve all done it. Spent a fortune down at the local paint shop, donned the overalls and turned the drab old living room into a sparkling new oasis.

Then it’s clean up time…

What on earth are we supposed to do with all the old paint? This is a problem about as serious as it gets!
I’ve done a little bit of research and discovered a program called ‘paintback’ : a collaborative product life cycle partnership between Bunnings, BluScope steel,Chemsal, the steel can recycling council and Eco recycle Victoria.
From what I can gather the program was a huge success with the consumers. They took to it like a duck to water, dropping off  tones of old paint cans for re processing.
One problem…
I headed straight to the Bunnings website, typed ‘paint back’ into the search bar and got nowhere.

I’ve got a funny feeling that the paintback program doesn’t exist anymore. I will be making some enquiries and reporting back…stay tuned…in the mean time, your local council may be able to help with paint disposal.

over&over

wasteman

I’ve touched on this issue before. There are certain products (and product groups) that feel the need to cover their packaging with messages to inform the consumer that they are trying to to be green. Toilet paper is a good example of a product group that has environmental messages plastered all over the packaging. Products in this category compete for our attention by trying to be perceived as the ‘greenest’ choice on the shelf. 
Alternatively, some products/product groups don’t need to be anywhere near as environmentally vigilant by pure virtue of the category itself. It would seem a little strange for example to find handbags or luggage products having to compete on environmental grounds. 

Have a look at the messages strewn across this Mcdonalds take away coffee cup. 

“sustainably sourced”,   ” rain forest alliance certified”.

Why do you feel this particular company feels it necessary to print such messages across the front of this product? Are they seriously committed to helping the environment or, are they responding to a growing consumer awareness around the effects that certain products have upon our fragile world? I wonder…

wasteman
over&over 
ps: this is not a Mcdonalds bashing excercise.

I worked out that if you have kids, and you bath them every night, then over the course of one year you will use around 14000 liters of water. This is based on using around 40litres per bath which is about right.
so…
Bathing the kids every second day will save around 7000 litres per year.
Is it ok to bath children every second day? 

wasteman