Susanna Reid Makes A Confession
Susanna Reid on BBC Breakfast this morning confessed that she has a shopping trolley. I didn’t realise she was either obese or over sixty!
But she did say it was full of plastic bags!
How To Get A Free Plastic Carrier
I know they are still free in most of the UK, but sometimes I get a plastic bag from the supermarket, as they fit my waste bin well.
Today, when I got my copy of The Times, it was raining hard and I asked for a plastic carrier to keep it dry.
A Free Bag To Keep My Paper Dry
It worked well and I was able to get an unsoiled dry paper home.
How Much Useless Advertising Do We Receive?
My Sunday Times is always full of junk. This picture shows this weeks offering.
How Much Useless Advertising Do We Receive?
How much of this is actually read? And how much ends up in landfill?
In my case, it was even more pointless, as I’ve just installed Sky.
Going Back With Recycling
Most councils use large trucks to collect rubbish and do the recycling. But I was surprised to see this truck outside my house this morning.
Going Back With Recycling
Today, is recycling day and I suspect it was doing a bit of specialist work, before the main collection later in the morning.
Years ago, there used to be a lot more smaller refuse collection vehicles, made by companies like Shelvoke and Drewry. Wood Green used an innovative solution to the collection of rubbish around the High Road, where moving the trucks into the back of the shops was very difficult. They used to use a single Shire horse and a series of trailers for the rubbish. When they retired the horses, they started using Scammel Mechanical Horses. This extract from Wikipedia, explains the logic behind these innovative vehicles.
The London and North Eastern Railway had approached Napier’s, the quality car and aero-engine makers for an answer to the problem of replacing horses for local haulage purposes, while retaining the flexibility of changing the wagons and the manoeuvrability of the horse and wagon.
You do wonder if this concept is one that will be reinvented and put forward as a wonderful new idea. Imagine say on a large leisure site like the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where for a large event, you might get tens of thousands of visitors. You could have a series of trailers, that had sections for the various types of rubbish and small electric tugs could move them to and from a central collection point, where they were automatically emptied. Hopefully modern technology could be used to make the trailers able to withstand a small bomb and thus get round one of the problems with traditional litter bins.
How To Recycle A Roof
This story on the BBC, tells how the old station roof at London Bridge station, is going to be given to the Vale of Rheidol railway in Wales to help build their new museum.
It wasn’t many years ago, when this structure would have been reduced to scrap, so Network Rail are to be congratulated. Hopefully, the new museum in Aberystwyth will bring tourists to the town and create some new businesses and jobs.
I think too, that this story illustrates how intelligent recycling might be slightly more expensive, but properly done, it can save lots of money elsewhere. The new museum in Wales is reported to be costing ten million, but how much more would it cost without the recycled roof.
Two Days Junk Mail From Virgin Media
They may have been inefficient at fixing my phone problems in the past, but they certainly know how to get junk mail through my door.
Two Days Junk Mail From Virgin Media
I’ve also read, that they still haven’t concluded a deal with BT so that their TV customers can get the matches BT has the rights to.
Most of the junk mail was addressed to that person, who doesn’t live here, the Mr. D.E.A.R. Householder.
Anything, marked without my name is instantly put into the green sack for recycling. Perhaps I should hang one outside for the postman!
The Strange Lady
The litter bins on the platform, are large three hole ones, so that passengers can sort their rubbish for recycling.
A Typical DB Litter Bin
One of the strangest things I saw, was an reasonably well-dressed elderly lady ferreting through one of these litter bins and removing any glass bottles, which she then put in her bag. Whilst we waited at the station, she came back a couple of times, after someone else put a bottle in the bin.
Spittelau
In Vienna if there is one place I had to see, it is Spittelau.
You walk out of the station of the same name and it’s there, only a kilometre or so from the centre of Vienna.
When you first see it, you think it is some weird work of art or even a chemical plant designed by a benign Devil.
It’s actually a waste incineration plant, which provides district heating and to be fair it’s more beautiful than SELCHP.
The world needs a lot more Spittelaus. As they often do, the Japanese are copying the ideas in Osaka.
It is a superb example that shows the close relationship between art, engineering and architecture.
Can you imagine the fuss, if they decided to build a plant like this at say Silvertown in East London? On the other hand, the plant shows that refuse incinerators can be good neighbours.
Every large city should have it’s Spittelau!
Hackney’s New Recycling System
I used to like the old system, where I put out two green boxes on a Thursday. You seemed to know where you were and I separated glass and plastic bottles into one box and paper in the other.
Since they have gone to green sacks, I have not had anything collected, as I’m not sure how it is collected. I do have three green sacks full of rubbish in the garage, but as I’m not here next week, when will they be collected? At least being clean recyclables, they don’t smell!
More Bins Are Appearing On The Underground
I took this picture today at Green Park station.
More Bins Are Appearing On The Underground
I know there are sound reasons for not having bins on the London Underground, but litter also causes its own problem. I also found this article about recycling on the Underground.
So we may be getting there!
The Anonymous Widower 