Obsolescence

The story is: one of my co-workers’ phone has died this morning. After a day of calls, she has founded that she should introduce her phone in water and say that it had felt down into the sink, so they can give her a new phone, instead of trying to fix it. Apparently fixing it would cost them more so they tell you how to trick the insurance. How crazy is that!

On one hand we have the programmed obsolescence on many devices; and on the other, the companies themselves suggesting how to avoid fixing them.

How much waste and useful (and expensive) materials we need to throw away? When is the system going to collapse?

I really think that the system, all of it, the economic, political or social side,…is not working at all. It’s philosophy is wrong.

You cannot design things thinking how long they are going to last and make them to break in a determined point. Or just produce waste and not be responsible of it. Or exploit other countries resources, destroying their environment and coming back to your country without responsibility.

 

Plastic in our Food

I have already talked about the plastic islands in our oceans, but I have not addressed the issue that we could be eating plastic. This project is going to research how the waste in the oceans’ water goes into the food chain until we eat that waste, mainly plastic particles but also toxic chemicals and components.

The plastic that we use in everyday objects arrives somehow to the rivers and then to the seas and oceans. These plastic objects degrade there and when they are just particles are eaten (many times they are eaten before becoming particles producing the death of many birds, turtles and other animals) or drank by animals.

I would like to think that this polluted food is very democratic, but I guess that the most polluted  fishes would not finish eaten by wealthy people.

The new approach of this new study is about studying the plastic journey in order to develop new ‘plastic’ products that could be nutritious to the sea life and at the end of the chain for us, instead that very toxic and dangerous.

Hope this cradle to cradle approach has success because I really think that this is the philosophy that we should have.

Yellow Pages

It is interesting how the connection of ideas flows sometimes. I was looking this article about a beautiful tree-house and I could not image where the article was taking me.

Image from inhabitat.com

Apparently Yellow Pages, only in USA, prints 500 million of directories a year and it has been estimated that these directories account up to a 5% of total landfill waste. That is crazy!

Some of us are so concerned about the construction waste and the consumption of energy in poorly designed buildings; but how easy would be to cut that 5% of waste? Or save the 9 million of trees harvested? Or all the clean water used along the production process?

Moreover, who really use those ‘books’? We have google now. I would propose that maybe older people keep receiving them, but after having asked for the new copy. I do not think that the majority of us use them any more, so let the people decide if they want them or not, and if they do, they just need to call and order a copy for free.

I believe that this would be a easy and quick solution but some people could argue: what would happen with all the jobs liked to that industry?

That is another story…Being sustainable is not easy!

Maybe a cradle to cradle thinking could help. Yellow pages as compost for our veggie patches?

Waverton Peninsula Reserve

Last weekend we went to take a walk to the Waverton Peninsula Reserve. This place was an oil storage facility owned by the company BP until 2002 when they shut it down and reconverted it into a park. This park connects with the other side of the peninsula where a coal loader has been closed down and abandoned.

Where the big oil deposits were

New landscape

All this area is within the Waverton Peninsula Strategic Masterplan, but so far only the park has been done.

Coal loader wharf now abandoned

 

Coal loaded area with not present use

During the walk I was thinking in the lecture we had weeks ago about contaminated sites and how industrial areas that have been absorbed by the city have to be decontaminated. These areas, because their industrial past use, have high quantities of very toxic materials and products. Usually all the complex, from the soil to the building roof, is contaminated (depending on the industry type) and needs to be cleaned before any further use can be implemented there.

When these kind of areas are reconverted in green areas or parks it is possible to use plants to absorb this harmful materials naturally and transform them into common vegetable material.

The problem arises when the site has to be built and there is not time for a natural absorption. Then, usually, the entire site is dug and the soil is disposed in a landfill.

This is the worst solution at many levels: bad for the site because this solution is very aggressive with it; bad for the landfill because usually the soil is not cleaned before the disposal.

Some history of the place.

Great views from these industrial facilities

*All the pictures owned by the author.

Recycling

Before I came to Australia I had the idea that this country was a kind of southern Scandinavia, but now I see that I was wrong. I thought in Spain we were behind the recycling trend and I was wrong again.

Here you put every plastic, metal and glass container in the same bin, and I am not sure about what happens after they are collected. In Spain we have a bin for plastic and metal (generally, but in many places they collect plastic and metal in different bins) and another one for glass; plus two different ones for paper and general waste (organic). As a consequence every house should have, at least, four different bins: containers, glass, paper and organic.

I was wondering what would happen if we apply in the ‘cradle to cradle’ theory.

We would have on one hand a series of materials that could be recycled or reused as a resource. Should they be separated in different bins? Should we disassembly the products at home or should be a business taking charge of it?

On the other hand we would have compostable materials and organic waste. I suppose that in a big city not every household can have a compost place so then every building or every neighbourhood or the whole city should have it instead?

Finally, should the council charge us for the garbage collection when they can make money from our waste? Should it be free? Or, moreover, should the companies pay us for these resources?

The Circular Economy

I dream sometimes with a world where every thing can be recycled or reused it. With a place where being green is not a lifestyle but the most normal and common thing.

I really like the idea of products that can be disassembled and which parts can be reused or became some kind of nutrient for the soil and help to produce healthy vegetables. (Like here)

I’m becoming somehow paranoid with all the toxic products that are in contact with our skin, that we breath or we eat or drink every day without notice. I’m really worried about what they can do to me, to us.

Garbage Island

These videos really impacted me.

How are we going to deal with all the garbage that we are producing? And what are going to be the consecuences of all the waste that we are generating?

The consumerism that the american lifestyle is selling us will end because fortunately there is a limit in the quantity of waste that we can generate as well there is a limit in resources.

But I ask myself, will be this end too ugly too live through it? How much harmfull our waste will be?

Poo2Loo

Behind this bizarre video there is a great UNICEF campaign in India supporting poo-free streets. Here their web and Facebook. In addition, UNICEF has an international campaign to provide toilets not only in India. Here.

2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to a safe and clean toilet. In India, half of the population has to do it in streets and surroundings. This is not only a huge health issue,  but a security issue as well. Every year, thousands of girls (women and children) are raped, and sometimes murdered after, when they were going to the ´toilet´. Here one of the latest cases.

In developed countries the sustainability is now focused on how to consume or need less energy, and sometimes materials, but in other countries there are bigger issues, issues that involve health and security. Big developing countries, such as India or Brazil, where big cities are growing rapidly but where simple actions can have a life-changing result should be the main objective of international programs.

If we want a sustainable and democratic world we should start being democratic with the people living in it.

 

Image from facebook.com/poo2loo

Climate Change

Some people argue that Climate Change does not exist, they are called Climate Deniers and there are some interesting webs that list the most famous or important of them. Here and here for instance.

The problem is that these deniers are generally supported by big companies and industry lobbies that are directly related to great CO2 emissions. So it is in their convenience to misinform the general public.

Even if this influential and powerful group of people is trying to present studies and data to prove their beliefs, the reality is that all the new studies presented by the IPCC or the US Global Change Research Program, for instance, found that the Earth is warmer than before and that this will produce consequences in the global climate.

Global Change has released their findings in a report last month and some of their graphs just talk by themselves:

Global Temperatures and CO2 Concentration

Natural & Human influences on Climate Change

Past & Projected change in Global Sea Level Rise (1ft=33cm/4ft=1.20m approx)

Past & Projected Sea Ice Decline (RCP=Representative Concentration Pathways)

Acidification of Oceans

Its projected changes with a rapid emissions reduction:

Global Temperatures

Annual Precipitation

Its projected changes if the emissions increase in the actual trend:

Global Temperature

Annual Precipitation

I think that the findings are scary because I do not trust in a big change in a short-term and the consequences will transform our world, our life. We are going to live in a changing world full of challenges.

*All graphs and images from nca2014.globalchange.gov/report