UK: A future leader in landfill mining?

September 1, 2008 5:57 pm in current affairs

I've often toyed with setting a short story in a future where we mine our waste for all the useful things we chuck out without thought. Well the future is here, as the IHT reports:

In Britain alone, experts say landfill sites could offer an estimated 200 million tons of old plastic - worth up to £60 billion, or $111 billion, at current prices - to be recovered and recycled, or converted to liquid fuel.

The report goes on to say that this October London will be hosting the first "global landfill mining" conference. We've made mistakes in the past, been foolish and lazy in how waste has been handled but we've got no excuses now - the technology and knowledge are widespread. Better to not have plastic packaging in the first place, but when we do it's totally crazy to send it to landfill only to dig it up again!

Brighton & Hove is a recycling laggard both in terms of the range of materials we recycle and also in terms of percentage of total waste. We don't need to lecture residents, we need to re-organise our waste system to make recycling the new default, easy thing to do.

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The Clintons deliver

August 28, 2008 11:03 pm in current affairs

Both Hillary and Bill have delivered speeches well beyond what duty required of them. Losing the primary was undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow but it barely showed in Hilary's speech, and Bill once again reminded us of his incredible skills as a political communicator.

Certainly there's plenty of Democratic policy I find too timid, but they're fighting a different election to a very different audience to the one I'm used to here. Bill Clinton's speech is concise, exquisitely timed and summarises positions with a rare clarity and simplicity.

You can watch it in its entirety (not the hatchet edits news sites are showing) on the Convention's own site.

UPDATE: Jon Naughton adds his own thoughts in a similarly complimentary vein citing Dave Winer's praise also (and Mr Winer was there).

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Ocean 'dead zones', another reason to champion organic farming

August 19, 2008 11:22 pm in current affairs

If you aren't already convinced by the arguments for organic farming then the news of ocean 'dead zones' is pretty persuasive...

The International Herald Tribune reports that nitrogen-rich run-off from crop fertilisers is the main culprit in an expanding number of marine dead zones. The number of zones has doubled every decade since the 1960s:

About 400 coastal areas now have periodically or perpetually oxygen-starved bottom waters, many of them growing in size and intensity [...] While the size of dead zones is small relative to the total surface of the oceans, scientists say they account for a significant part of ocean waters that support commercial fish and shellfish species.

The article goes on:

Many dead zones are cyclical, recurring each year in the summer months. But over time, they can permanently kill off entire species within the zone. They have also prevented the rebounding of species that are under protection after overfishing, like the Baltic Sea's cod [...]

Once dead zones recur, "they are very hard to reverse," said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, adding that "they have major consequences for the ability of fish populations to renew themselves."

Organic agriculture can provide excellent yields is better for the health of farmers, consumers and the wider environment... as well as the oceans. We need to stop looking at issues in isolation - artificial fertilisers stay in our ecosystem and have lasting effects. The good news is that organic alternatives are viable, but they taste better too!

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Emissions are going up

August 5, 2008 9:21 am in current affairs

Just in case you were in any doubt, our green house gas emissions are going up [according to two detailed reports]. The increase is 18% between 1992 and 2004 according to one government report.

As my brother-in-law who drives lorries for a logistics company likes to remind me 'everything goes by road' so if the economy grows, so do emissions. Despite claims from ministers, we have not broken the link between economic security and our impact on the climate.

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