Customer service

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by

In an opinion piece on food trash, published by the  Stockholm Consumer Cooperative Society, some interesting facts about wasted food are presented. The figures are based on a Swedish study, implying that it is relevant in other western consumer cultures. 50% of the overfeeding of lake- and seawater in Sweden is created by the food industry. At the same time, 40-50% of the global total amount of produced food is wasted. Spooky connection.

According to the piece, what is needed is regulation that improves people’s ability to refrain from throwing out so much that was supposed to be eaten. The solution, according to the writer, is in more efficient cooling, packaging and logistics, to name a few examples.

While these are all excellent ideas, I would hazard a guess that regulation holds little power against changing people’s mindset on what’s foul and what’s edible. The food industry obviously has an interest in selling more food, i.e. their incentive to inform customers that they indeed can eat a “wasted” tomato is small. If they had a change of heart for the greater good, I’d be happier buying their food.

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Weekly compactor: blogroll edition

Monday, July 26, 2010 by

This week in the garblogoshpere:

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Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste

Monday, July 26, 2010 by

This intriguing CALL FOR ACADEMIC TRASH is making its way around the internets…

Greetings,

We are inviting academic editorial contributors to a new reference work on consumption and waste, or the social science of garbage.

Archaeologists and anthropologists have long studied artifacts of refuse from the distant past as a portal into ancient civilizations, but examining what we throw away today tells a story in real time and becomes an important and useful tool for academic study. Trash is studied by behavioral scientists who use data compiled from the exploration of dumpsters to better understand our modern society and culture. Why does the average American household send 470 pounds of uneaten food to the garbage can on an annual basis? How do different societies around the world cope with their garbage in these troubled environmental times? How does our trash give insight into our attitudes about gender, class, religion, and art? The Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste explores the topic across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and ranges further to include business, consumerism, environmentalism, and marketing. Each article ranges from 600 to 3,000 words. We are now making assignments due October 1, 2010.

This comprehensive project will be published by SAGE Reference and will be marketed to academic and public libraries as a print and digital product available to students via the library’s electronic services. The General Editor, who will be reviewing each submission to the project, is Dr. William Rathje, emeritus University of Arizona, the top scholar in the field.

If you are interested in contributing to this cutting-edge reference, it is a unique opportunity to contribute to the contemporary literature, redefining sociological issues in today’s terms. Moreover, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. SAGE Publications offers an honorarium ranging from SAGE book credits for smaller articles up to a free set of the printed product or access to the online product for contributions totaling 10,000 words or more.

The list of available articles is already prepared, and as a next step we will e-mail you the Article List (Excel file) from which you can select topics that best fit your expertise and interests. Additionally, Style and Submission Guidelines will be provided that detail article specifications.

If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with the Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage, please contact me by the e-mail information below. Please provide a brief summary of your academic/publishing credentials in related issues.

Thanks very much.

Joseph K. Golson

consumption@golsonmedia.com

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Posted in Intellectual Trash | 4 Comments »

Rant of the month

Sunday, July 25, 2010 by

Apparently, someone came up with the idea to turn the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into an “eco island“. Blogger Anders Sandberg has a fabulous and well-informed rant on why that is a rather stupid idea. Recommended reading.

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Posted in Intellectual Trash | 2 Comments »

Trafigura fined (another) € 1m

Sunday, July 25, 2010 by

In July 2006 the vessel Probo Koala, owned by international oil company Trafigura, dumped tonnes of hazardous trash outside Abidjan, the Ivory Coast. The cargo, made up of among other highly dangerous substances lye and oil production waste, was supposed to be exported from the Netherlands to the Ivory Coast, but as the port authorities in Abidjan deemed the cargo too dangerous to be allowed ashore, it was simply washed out into sea. Some 30,000 people fell ill and 17 died in the aftermath.

A court in the Netherlands has now fined Trafigura € 1 million (roughly US$ 1,3 million) for illegal exporting and dumping of toxic trash. The fine was about half of what prosecutors had called for, but they have stated that they see the ruling as a victory. In earlier settlements, Trafigura has paid £100 million (roughly US$ 154 million) to the Ivorian government and £30 million (roughly US$46 million).

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The Beat Waste Start-Up Challenge

Thursday, July 22, 2010 by

The Beat Waste Start-Up Challenge is offerin a 25k prize for the best idea—in the form of an elevator pitch—to reduce waste in an innovative way. Check out the finalists here. Rooting through now for future posts, there are some great ideas here. Which is your favorite?

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Replayland

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 by

Just discovered the nifty site Replayground, the trash biz of designer Tiffany Threadgould who packages instructions and base materials for DIY upcycling kits as gifts for kids and families. She also leads corporate events and community workshops on upcycling. As regular readers are probably aware, I am quite skeptical of trash for sale. What I like about this venture though is the DIY section of the website. Free ideas! And some good ones at that. Also, redefining corporate skills and teambuilding events as an opportunity to discuss waste is ingenius.

Check out the Replayground blog for more free project ideas, some shared through adorable videos like this one.

Thanks for the tip, Aaron!

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Posted in Trash Politics | 2 Comments »

Lixo extraordinário (Waste Land)

Sunday, July 18, 2010 by

Attention New Yorkers: As part of its annual festival Premiere Brazil! MoMA will be screening a film called Lixo extraordinário (Waste Land) next Saturday, July 24 @ 2:00 p.m.in theater 1. Thanks for the tip, Shanti!

Lixo extraordinário (Waste Land)

Check out the provocative description:

2010. Great Britain/Brazil. Directed by Lucy Walker. Co-directed by João Jardim, Karen Harley. This documentary follows celebrated contemporary artist Vik Muniz on an emotional journey to the world’s largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho, outside Rio de Janeiro, and explores his three-year collaboration with the catadores, who inhabit the “trash city” picking recyclables. It tells an immensely powerful story of people at the end of their rope, using art as a means to “recycle” their own lives. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 90 min.

And here’s a trailer off of YouTube:

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Posted in Artistic Trash | 2 Comments »

Edmonton Composting Facility

Sunday, July 18, 2010 by

Just catching up on the third installment of City Room’s “Ask a Garbologist” feature from last week. In particular, I was selfishly pleased to see my own question answered—what are some model policies from other cities that New York could learn from?

Dr. Nagle’s response:

New York’s garbage footprint would shrink significantly if we could build a large-scale composting facility like this state-of-the-art example in Edmonton, Canada. That city, like so many, once consigned all its household waste to landfills, but now 60 percent of it is recycled or composted.

Edmonton’s plant, which takes up about 60 acres, is the largest in North America. The city proper has a population of about 750,000; the larger metropolitan region has approximately one million. A similar facility in New York would have to be a whole lot bigger if we intended it to serve the entire city. Unlike Edmonton, we are not surrounded by open space, so an immediate problem would be finding a place to put it. Edmontonians claim that their facility emits no odors (and no odours, either), a fact verified by a friend who toured it a couple of years ago. Even a stink-free plant in New York would bump up against NIMBY issues, but if we had the political will, the patience and the right spirit, I bet we could build something similar.

Edmonton Composting Facility

Thanks, Robin, for taking the time! And thanks, City Room for the trashtastic feature! Readers if you’re just tuning in, I highly recommend sifting through all three installments of answers from a garbologist. Each is riddled with interesting facts and handy references to trashy resources.

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Posted in Trash Politics | 2 Comments »

Empire of Scrounge

Friday, July 16, 2010 by

In part II of garbologist Dr. Robin Nagle‘s entertaining and informative answers to the public’s burning questions about garbage (posted today over at City Room), she reccomends Jeff Ferrell‘s book and blog “Empire of Scrounge.” In Googling, I see that the subtitle of the book is “Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging.” Sounds like our cup of tea. Has anyone read it? Blog link here.

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Ask a Garbologist

Thursday, July 15, 2010 by

The fabulous Dr. Robin Nagle, Anthropologist in Residence for the Department of Sanitation of New York, is taking trashy questions over at City Room. I posted one about waste policies. Got burning quesitons of your own? Here’s your chance to ask an expert!

Dr. Robin Nagle

For more on the woman behind such a cool job title, check out the Trashtastic Tuesday Q&A she granted everydaytrash.com back in 2008.

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Posted in Garblogging, TRA$H, Trash Politics | 1 Comment »

World Cup upcycling

Monday, June 28, 2010 by

Hello from Bloemfontain,  stop #2 on my World Cup tour of South Africa. I had the amazing opportunity to see Brazil and Portugal play in the group rounds. The brand new stadium where that game took place was BEAUTIFUL. However, after reading about Greece and other host countries of large sporting events going broke building stadiums…and after driving from posh Durban through South Africa’s poor neighbor Lesotho to my next game in Bloemfontein, all these new venues started to seem excessive. So it was with great joy that my friends and I discovered that our knock-out round tickets to see Germany blow England away was in a spruced up EXISTING stadium.

Bloemfontein aka Manguang stadium

See for yourself, it was a lovely place to watch and EXCITING match.

Germany v. England in the round of 16

Fans (it was Germany's day)

After seeing a nil-nil game in the opening round, I was dying for goals…and got five (well, six but one was unjustly thrown out) for an end score of 4-1 to take Germany to the quarterfinals (next stop: Capetown to see the Germans and Argentines take their age-old rivalry to the pitch).

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Cute Canadian campaign

Friday, June 18, 2010 by

Checkout Vancouver, BC’s “Watch Your Waste” campaign, complete with short, informative videos from Vancouver residents on how the cut back on the trash in various ways from composting doggie-do to using reusable coffee mugs.

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Les Balayeurs

Friday, June 18, 2010 by

There are many days when I wake up wishing I lived in Paris, especially when I see things like Facebook updates from artist Douglas Brodoff announcing a new expo of his paintings on display in the 2nd. It’s called “Les Balayeurs,” which means “The Sweepers.” You may recall from past posts that Douglas has an ongoing series featuring the green-clad garbage men of Paris. Another interesting fact about Douglas is that he is trained as a professional clown. Perhaps that’s why the children and trashmen visiting in this photo appear to be so charmed by him and his work: he’s clearly an expert with a crowd!

Douglas Brodoff with French kids and trashmen

This and other photos of the expo made my day. And made me seriously evaluate how long it’s been since I’ve visited one of my favorites cities.

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Posted in Artistic Trash | 2 Comments »

What’d I miss?

Friday, June 18, 2010 by

Apologies, trashies. I didn’t mean to go so long without sharing neat garbage-related stuff with you. It’s been a wee bit hectic lately: I’m changing jobs, I spent a week in Burkina Faso with limited internet access and I’m gearing up to go see a few games of the World Cup in South Africa next week. I share all that not to brag about my awesome summer, but to offer piddly excuses for slow updates of late. Oh, and Victor moved back to Sweden, where he’s been busy with his dream job. Anyway, hiatus ends now. I missed you! Post updates in the comments if there’s important waste news I’ve overlooked in the interim. xoxo Leila

Posted in Garblogging, Trash Politics | 2 Comments »

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