As we had about a foot or so of snow falling down on Brooklyn, I’ve been enjoying studying how my new home city deals with snow. First impression, not surprising, is that it melts away, seemingly before it has time to shift from white to exhaust pipe brown. Second impression, a tad more surprising, is that the necessary remowal of snow from streets is being carried out by trash trucks. Three questions pop up in my head:
Why?
What are refuse collectors going to use to collect trash while there’s snow on our streets?
What happens to the system of picking up trash bags from the pavement when the pavements of our streets are covered in three feet of plowed snow?
Figures from the Swedish governmental institution tasked with keeping track of all possible statistics, Statistics Sweden, show that refuse collecting/recycling is the most common profession among people who divorce. In 2007 (the latest year for which we have complete statistics), over 7% of Swedish married refuse collectors/recyclers divorced.
Not much analysis has been presented with this news, but it is noted that among the top ten, nine professions are blue-collar jobs, with pilots and captains as the only white-collar profession (claiming the runner-up spot).
What we all crave to know of course is what it is about trash work that puts such hard strain on marriages. If anyone knows, do share!
The report goes in to some depth analysis of electronic & electric tra$h, highlighting facts such as the annual turnover of the UK market; UK£2 million (US$ 3,3 million), using the example to paint an overview. Most intriguing conclusion is that actors in the legal market claim that contractors offering free recycling of toxic electronic products probably also operate illegally, as profiting otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
Further, the report gives an image of the incentives of entering the illegal market: Tra$h fat cats buy (for example) an old TV, with the promise that their company will recycle it and sell the parts for profit, but instead sells it in a developing country. Buying the unit will cost US$4 or so, and sell for US$8.
Last but not least, the people behind the report call for more research in order to cast light over these shadowed activities. We most certainly agree to that. Increased efforts of recycling must not be the source of growing international crime (and with that, increased numbers of non-recycled electronics and electrics spewing out toxins once their capacity to entertain finally stops).
The Swedish Government seems to want to make an example, as the Cabinet later today will initiate drafting of a new law that would make it easier to send illegal exporters of electric and electronic tra$h, which we know is a global and profitable business, to court. The new law is also supposed to make it easier for law enforcement to press charges against individuals in the tra$h business for attempted smuggling (right now, the tra$h must leave Sweden for things to become illegal, making it a lot more complicated process for authorities to engage in).
While there will be a while before we see actual proposed legislation, I applaud this, but think that we should also recognize that this is a symptom that cooperation between police forces of involved countries should be strengthened. We can’t just add new legislation to cure an inefficient collaborative environment. International Trash Police Summit now, please!
Reading this ambitious book review of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, written by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, I can’t help but to share the insight that it seems that the more egalitarian a society (be it a nation-state or a state within a nation), the more trash gets recycled by its people. Adding this to the list of the many trashtastic outcomes of redistribution of wealth.
In August, we asked ourselves what in the world would happen to 750,000 clunker$ that were expected to be the outcome of the Cash for Clunkers programme (or as it’s actually called, the Car Allowance Rebate System; CARS), i.e. the old cars that americans have been allowed to trade in for a cash bonus, with the condition that the car would be subject to recycling, when buying a new car. A couple of months down the line, the New York Times alert us that all is not well:
Under the program, the cars are required to be crushed or shredded within six months of the date the vehicle is transferred from the dealership. Recyclers say the deadline, even a few months away, will be hard as they try to remove spare parts like transmissions, front and rear axles, starters and alternators.
Clearly, there are consequences that were not really thought of, although how on earth you can do policy implementation analysis this poor is beyond my wits. It seems as if deadlines will now be extended, but it proves that just because you have a great political idea that people agree with (not that CARS is one of them, but that’s another discussion), it doesn’t mean that things will automatically fall into place. Or in short, a society with less waste requires excellent civil servants in order to be sustainable. Municipal architects of the world, please report.
If you walk down Valencia (which incidentally is a must when visiting San Francisco), you should stop by Casa Bonampak, at #1051, and take a look at these beauties. Best upcycled bags I ever saw, with bonus that they were made in a Salvadorian cooperative. Shop ’til you drop.
Having lived in the US for six months now, I’ve learned that one of the big things people do here is debt, which for many leads to bankruptcy. It seems that the turn has come to the advocacy agency National Recycling Coalition (NRC, the major umbrella for people in trash and recycling), which must be in financial peril I guess, reading a report from Waste & Recycling News.
Apparently, a vote to file for Chapter 7 has been temporarily suspended, while developing a reorganization plan and negotiating with creditors. Consolidation plans and ideas for restructuring however, seem to have been going on for some while, but without success. Just a month ago, a membership vote rejected the plans to merge with Keep America Beautiful (KAB). Two weeks later, KAB announced that they had hired three former executives from NRC.
What lies behind all this we don’t really know, but if anyone does know, feel free to tip us of, in open or behind the curtains…
So Laurapalooza yesterday was a big hit. I burned my face in the New Jersey sun again, but not as much as last time. Our flip flop hippo was item of the day, and we got pix with a president (coming soon). Also realized that people in Pennington have the cutest kids in the world. Many of them run around. Some are excellent trashion models:
Ever thought of why people keep alarming there are too many people on the planet, creating too much trash, but never discuss what happens when we ourselves become trash, in that crude, horrible form of corpses? Swedish marine biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak has, and she is up to something. Actually, she has been for many years, but I just recently learned about it from the September issue of the Swedish magazine Filter (who refuse to publish articles online).
Wiigh-Mäsak started pondering sometime in the late 90’s on the bad logic that we don’t really smoothly return to earth and become shadow and dust, but rather rot in coffins and at long length make it out of the coffins in the form of harmful liquids tainting the soil and subsoil water, or are disbanded all over the atmosphere in cremation. While I personally like the idea of being sent of in particles too small to see, one must admit she has a case.
Wiigh-Mäsak’s sollution, soon to be rolled out by her enterprise Promessa Organic Inc., is to freeze-dry corpses with liquid nitrogen, and then bury them in coffins made of corn starch, just a foot below ground. She further suggests a tree or bush to be planted above the coffin, as primary beneficiary of the soon-to-be-mould corpse and coffin. This new method obviously sparks questions on ethics (“liquid nitrogen” has a rather unethical ring to it, no?), questions to which Wiigh-Mäsak gave this reply, to Filter:
I would like to show [the Swedish IRS] a twenty year old grave. After that, we could discuss ethics.
By now, you surely know all about the super hip Trash Track. For our UK readers, there are possibilities of getting your very own refuse involved! New Scientist are currently accepting applications for UK trash to be tracked, closing September 30th. As there’s only one spot open, make sure to carefully craft that 75 word motivation on what you would like to tag and why. And do let us know what you submit!
Back from the motherland, thinking “honestly, what are they thinking?”
Background: Swedish Public Radio are reporting today on food waste. Previously, this discusson has been focusing mainly on households (who throw out about 11 pounds of edible food every week). Today our lovely radio turned the attention to supermarkets: Annualy, supermarkets in Sweden (population 9 million) throw away 110 000 us short tonnes of perfectly edible food. Value US$ 292 million. Food giants are saying that they only do what customers want them to do, and that putting “old” food on sale is bad for their corporate image.
Again: What are they thinking? (I’m thinking I should resaddle and head into the food business. There’s obviously lots of tra$h to collect.)
For those of you who now feel guilty, check out Love Food Hate Waste, a nice little UK resource on how to at least avoid this in your home. They have recepies!
Via Unconsumption, found this well produced news piece from CBS 60 Minutes on global tra$h. Among other interesting details, I recommend it for the tracing of high-lead monitors from supposedly super ethical US recycling company Executive Recycling, via the Hong Kong harbour, the Hong Kong mayor and into gangster tra$h land, where the local industry has transformed the community to the most carcinogenic in the world.
As the piece concludes however, Executive Recycling are not the only ones in this dirty business. Apparently, the feds are on the case. Tra$h Cops, gotta love them!
Earlier this week the everydaytrash.com team was invited to a screening of “No Impact Man,” a documentary about journalist Colin Beavan, a.k.a. No Impact Man, his spouse Michelle Conlin, their cute-overload daughter Isabella and the family dog Frankie. Behind the documentary are directors Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, and producer Eden Wurmfeld.
For several years now, Beavan has been updating the world on his No Impact Project—his endeavor to spend one year wasting as little energy and as few resources as possible—via his blog, No Impact Man. The documentary follows Beavan, Conlin, daughter and dog over the course of the project, from November 2006 to November 2007. Throughout four phrases, the family gives up more and more, starting with taking non man-powered transport of any kind, buying anything new (including toilet paper), eating meat, using the elevator. Finally, they shut off the power in their apartment and attempt to live without electricity.
The No Impact Project is framed as a family project, but as the movie reveals, there’s no doubt that its really all about Beavan. As Conlin puts it “It’s called No Impact Man,it’s his project, it’s his book and he’s No impact man, but…the project is our family is doing this.”
Without going too much into detail to spoil the movie for those who plan to see it, we can tell you that the documentary is not so much about how to live without causing further damage to the planet (if you already have a flat in a posh condo and have bought all the laptops and bikes you need that is), but about a marriage in which one partner is very driven to embark on something that affects everyone in the family. Here’s the trailer:
And, as there are two of us, please find below two reviews:
Victor:
Why make a documentary about how a family tries to live emissions-free for a year, but not give you the results on screen? The concpiracy theory would be that the team didn’t want to give out spoilers from the coming book. I don’t think so, I rather believe that Gabbert/Schein/Wurmfeld realised that watching people live eco friendly isn’t terribly exciting on screen (the most action-ridden moment being when the family tries and fails to build an Nigerian pot fridge). What is exciting is the struggle with the contemporary context they’ve locked themselves into. In the end, it boils down to how much of a crazy person you are ready to be percieved as. Easier as freelance writer (Beavan) compared to Business Week writer (Conlin). The message we are left with from No Impact Man is that you probably need very supportive friends.
Leila:
As a documentary about a marriage, “No Impact Man” is pretty entertaining. As a lead-by-example environmental statement, it’s a bit muddy. The film skips along, touching lightly on some of the quotidian debates of the green movement: are cloth diapers really better for the environment than disposable? What are the outer limits of eco-chic (yes to reusable shopping bags, no to no toilet paper), without really saying much. If anything, it’s a nice ad for biking and eating locally. The Union Square green market features heavily and the family spends enviable amounts of quality time scooting and biking around town. Conlin’s transformation from a Starbucks-addicted shopaholic to sustainable supermom is the real story. As she whines then copes and decides what she can and can’t live without, we make the same assessments about our own lives. How embarrassing would it be to mooch ice from the neighbor because you are consciously living without a fridge; or if the whole office knew your husband air dried his bottom as an attempt to save the trees?
Remarkably, there is very little trash in “No Impact Man.” Right away, the family stops creating waste, so little time is spent tracking where waste goes when it leaves the 5th Ave co-op and what impact the family is averting. Aside from some arty close-ups of trash bags and a brief cameo by Sustainable South Bronx founder Majora Carter, trash plays a small role in the film.
Anyway, as someone constantly asked “but what should I do about it” I admire the notion of living out one’s own ideals and the attempt to make personal the huge and often eye-glazing topic of lessening our impact on the environment. But there is a difference between personal and personality-driven and I found Beaven’s project off-putting in its self-absorption. Kudos to this family for eating locally, biking everywhere and spending lots of quality time together not watching TV. At one point Beaven says that when people ask what one thing they can do to make a difference, he says volunteer at an environmental organization because the erosion of community is what is killing us all. THAT point should be better underscored on his blog and in the film. A first step might have been calling the film “No Impact Family”.
Coming back to Brooklyn after a ten day temporary relocation to Kuala Lumpur was interesting. The 12-hour difference in time and 26-hour travel kind of killed any sense my body had of sleep and rythm, with the effect that I woke up at 11.30pm Sunday night, and had to do something until it was time to go to work.
After suggestions from anyone else in the world online and willing to advise on my predicament, a walk seemed to be a good idea. And it was. No matter where you are in New York, a 24-hour deli with coffee can be found. Sipping coffee in a park, listening to nocturnal creatures chirping in sync with traffic lights blinking was very nice. But one factor put a smear on this poetic moment: The smell.
I’ve read about it, I’ve heard about it, and now smelled it. August street trash. Walking ten blocks, I found four piles of putrid trash, some by themselves, some still covered by black bags. The smell emitting from these piles seemed to cover the entire neighbourhood, and having just showered felt less of a bliss, as I felt the stench fly to the fibres of my skin, hair and clothes.
Incidentally, the only other people roaming the streets were trash collectors in their big trucks, and as always I’m in awe of these heroes, whom without our society would be impossible, but seeing them tonight, working in this hellish environment, I’m lost for words.
For people who have lived here longer than I have: How long will this go on?
everydaytrash 