The wasteman is currently on a holiday near the mighty Murray river.
It’d be a lovely spot were it not for the power boats screaming up and down all day long. You wouldn’t want to be a fish in the river around this time of year.
Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that the internet connection here is nowhere near as fast as the boats and so  it’s difficult to post. But don’t worry. The wasteman is here for the long haul – so don’t go away. We’ve got a big job to do!

wm

If your new to this site, i have been trying to convince a local Melbourne primary school that they could try to adopt my TWO BIN system for the bin stations in and around the playground. Unfortunately there hasn’t been a lot of support thus far. They just keep going down their path which I have tried to explain is the wrong way to go.

Without going into a whole lot of detail, just take a quick look at the bin station above. The stencil work went up just the other day – to my horror!

Will someone please tell me how much glass these people expect to find in the hands of primary school children playing in the playground during lunch time or recess??(see the recycling stencil – ‘glass’).

Oh well, onward we will go. Slowly but surely. Perhaps one day they will realise that the TWO BIN (food/other) system can work in a primary school playground. Until such time you’ll find me over by the ‘chook’ shed bashing my poor head against the wall.

over&over
wasteman

You may be wondering what this image has to do with wasteman.Well…
I’ve been saying it for years and maybe someone’s started listening.

wasteman says…
“Why abuse people for doing the wrong thing when you can praise  them for doing something right!”
I never agreed with the ‘bloody idiot” campaign. This is much better.

wasteman

Am I imagining things, or is hard waste getting a little out of control.
You can’t walk down the street anymore without having to pass by someone elses half busted up junk. Yes I must admit that occasionally one can find a little hidden treasure, but let’s be honest…most of it is crap…or is it? Take a look below…

I walked past this load of ‘hard waste’ earlier today. What on earth is going on? Let’s not bother with the salvos anymore. Let’s just throw it out in the street! Let’s not worry about those less fortunate who may benefit from some of these goods. Let’s not worry about the natural resources that went into producing this stuff. Let’s not worry about anything. Let’s just chuck it out in the street. Who can be bothered dealing with this stuff?
shame
shame
shame

Let’s have a little look at what we have here in the photo above:

1. Iron
2. cutlery
3. crockery
4. dish racks
5. tooth brush holder
6. Drinking glasses
7. suitcase
and more…
There’s enough here to set up your own apartment. Good stuff!
The bulk of what we place out on the ‘nature strip’ for hard waste collection is sent directly to landfill (if it hasn’t already half blown down the street).
I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it until the cows have no home – we all have too much. The current way of life on this planet is non sustainable.
So what to do about it? Do less!

wasteman

You may remember I was talking recently about sending packaging back to the manufacturer – see the Gillette post 

Spotted another perfect example in the post office the other day.
When the glue sticks are all sold, why can’t we send the blue plastic base display (shown in this photo) back to the manufacturer. It just seems crazy to throw away something that could so easily be re used. 

I’d bet my house that this base piece will be thrown once the glue sticks are sold – and to those of you who think  I’m going on about something that’s really not that important – you’re wrong! 
over&over
wm

Apologies for having been away for a while, I’ve been moving home! What an experience this is. There is a lot to be learnt by moving home, but by far the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt is probably the same one that everyone else learns…We all accumulate far too much ‘stuff’. Frightening really.
So what to do? How to combat this phenomenon? Simple really. Be very careful about what you bring into your home. Ask yourself seriously, “do we really need it”. From now on I intend to do just that. Wish me luck. By the way, I used to think that washing dishes was a tough job. Try being a removalist.

over&over
wasteman