everydaytrash

It’s that time of year again, time to honor the creativity of trash to fashion contestants in New Zealand. Thanks to a heads up from reader, Shaun, I see that the Waitakere City Council has posted the 2006 winners of their trashtastic annual competition.

  Apologies for the unannounced hiatus.  Nonprofiteering can wear a girl out and since my boss recently quit and my closest colleague is headed for parental leave next week, the number of meetings I must attend has increased exponentially.  Anyway, I hope you forgive me and continue to check back for updates on the world of waste.  In the meantime, I highly recommend the book Rats.  If you haven’t come across it before, it’s the humorously and laboriously recounted true story of the year Robert Sullivan spent watching rats in the financial district come out at night to eat garbage.  His attention to detail and to irony are unfailing and the chapters are Subway-sized.  I’m packing it in my bag today as I rush back to work. 

Post a comment if you’ve read it.  I’d love to know what you think.  I know I’ve mentioned the book before, but this time I’ve actually read it.  I meant to pick it at the Brooklyn Book Fest, but held out to put it on my Christmas list.  We’ll have to see if the author is available for an everyday trash interview. 

The good blogger of The Goode Life has thrown a green list on the pile, also by category. My favorite is the frenemy, that middle ground aquaintance.

AND

Fabulously Green adds some fabulous pampering items.

  Oooh, Treehugger has broken out their green gift guide by category…For the Foodie, For the Bookworm, etc.  See also their shout out to goodgifts.org.

It seems that Katie over at Green Girls Global has a side gig compiling a guide to green suppliers for those planning weddings.  It’s a young and growing initiative that may just be the catalyst to stopping my bitching and moaning about bridesmaid dresses and gift registries. 

Looks like our developed world friends across the Atlantic are holding a little conference on paper this week.  I look  forward to any documents that might come out of such exciting sessions as:

• The burning issue: Wood for energy or for paper?
• Giving guidance or causing confusion – How far should ‘green’ public procurement go? Or
• Mind the gap: Where do industry and policy makers stand on waste?

  Apparently the BBC has a show in which a waste expert travels the countryside helping families reduce their waste and cut back on expensive electric and water bills by saving energy.  It’s called No Waste Like Home and involves a host called Penney, whose green tips are also cataglogged on the accompanying Web site.  What I like best about this idea is that it frames trash in terms of everyday people and the cost/benefits of reducing their footprints  If only all progressives were as practical as the BBC.  They should totally remake this in the US.

Waste News comments on what the midterms mean in terms of trash: 

New Senate committee leadership picture starts to take shape
By Bruce Geiselman

Nov. 20 — Senate Democrats have named their leadership for the Environment and Public Works Committee and its subcommittees beginning next year. However, a struggle may lie ahead among Republicans, who will become the minority party.

The Senate Democratic Caucus named Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., as the new chairman of the environment committee.

However, John Warner, R-Va., said he wants to become the committee´s ranking member instead of outgoing committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla. Warner issued a statement saying he is the senior Republican on the panel, having served on the committee since January 1987.

“As the senior Republican on the Senate EPW Committee, I intend to submit my name for election as the ranking minority member of that panel,” Warner said. “I will do so in recognition of established Senate Republican conference rules and precedents.”

Warner had been chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, but will have to relinquish his leadership role on the committee because of a six-year term limit established by Republican rules. That may have prompted his decision to seek a leadership role on the environment committee.

Meanwhile, Inhofe intends to fight for the right to head up the Republicans on the environment committee. “I have been a long friend of John Warner,” Inhofe said. “However, I think he has a misunderstanding of the rules. I intend to retain my leadership position in the 110th Congress, returning as the ranking member of the EPW committee.”

Warner is viewed as more moderate on environmental and climate change issues than Inhofe, who has argued that global warming is a hoax.

Boxer has said that as committee chairman, she intends to make global warming legislation one of her top priorities.

Republicans on the environment committee will vote to select the ranking member, but the full Republican Conference must ratify their decision.

While the Republicans have yet to select their committee leader, Boxer has named the chairs of the various subcommittees.

►Boxer will serve as chairman of the Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, Children´s Health Protection and Nuclear Safety.

►Max Baucus, D-Mont., will chair the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

►Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., will chair the Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection.

►Tom Carper, D-Del., will chair the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Nuclear Plant Security and Community Development.

►Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., will chair the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health.

►Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., will chair the Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security and Water Quality.

Entire contents copyright 2006 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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(Note the clip art).

Though I have never managed to time a trip to Ouagadougou with the famous Fespaco film festival, I was lucky enough last week the attend the final day of the Salon International de L Artisanat de Ouagadougou (SIAO). SIAO is a biennial crafts fair that gathers artisans from all over Africa to display and sell their wares in huge convention center rooms. You buy a ticket to enter the fair grounds and have to pay extra to visit the air conditioned rooms. My friend Ouermi bought himself some stylish Ivorian dress shirts and I picked up a woven scarf for my mother and a small wooden puzzle in the shape of a baobab tree that I’m saving to give as a baby gift. Then we sat down and for a couple of dollars worth of local currency split a dozen small kebabs, a plate of fried plantains and two very large beers. It was a lot like visiting a state fair, what with the cultural displays and food on a stick.  Next we climbed the displays of local huts set up to show the range of dwellings found around the country. Finally, we walked the line of exhibit booths promoting environmental groups, microcredit projects, local remedies for such problems as premature ejaculation and painful menstrual cycles. It was there that I noticed some of the machines on display: a moped rigged as a bush ambulance, folding bins for carrying water and the pictured bike-pump designed for the easy drawing of clean water from the ground. Such a simple way to save energy! All in all, an educational day.

P.S. I just linked flickr to everyday trash, so click on the photo for more visuals of the fest.