Great news that Ballarat residents will have a green garden waste collection service starting in July this year!Last...
Posted by Belinda Coates on Wednesday, 3 February 2016
Markets & Justice
Freely operating markets yield a just outcome?
White Australia Has A Black History
Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts
Monday, 15 February 2016
An environmental service from Ballarat Council - a green garden waste collection service starts in July.
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
"We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
Moira Jean Sylvia Judd
Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the queue at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.
The woman apologised to the young girl & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You folk didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."
The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:
Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) were not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalise our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.
. . . But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.
Back then we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. . . . But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then we had one radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch. When cooking we blended & stirred by hand coz we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity., , , , But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, & we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, people took the bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..
Oh and we had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest leisure park.
. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . . I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart ass young person. .. ...
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The woman apologised to the young girl & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You folk didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."
The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) were not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalise our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.
. . . But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.
Back then we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. . . . But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then we had one radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch. When cooking we blended & stirred by hand coz we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity., , , , But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, & we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, people took the bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing"..
Oh and we had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest leisure park.
. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . . I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart ass young person. .. ...
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thursday, 23 April 2015
... and when you finish with stuff, what do you do with it?
Reposted with permission from The Gleaner:
What does your shopping list look like? Whether its clothes or groceries or furniture and furnishings, the motto should be Consider Disposition before Acquisition.
In short, as we make a decision to purchase we should be considering what to do with all the stuff we acquire after we have finished with it?
What do we really need?
On the shopping list on the left, all that is necessary is the fruit and vegetables. And as for that category, there can be a great deal of culling if we grow our own.
I am a renter and so have my limitations with gardening. Almost all of it is done in pots - and I have a wide definition of what is a pot. Irrespective of size or what it is made of, it is surprising what can be a pot. In my yard, I have the sort of pots one buys at Bunnings, old saucepans and pots, a watering can, pallets lined with weed matting, storage jars, storage crates, a Woolworths shopping basket, and there are the pots I 'acquire' - from others' throw aways mostly.
I love a good forage among my herbs and veges in preparation for the evening meal. And I don't stop at what is in the pots. You see, I take an interest in edible weeds - particularly dock and plantain.
And if I have fruit and vegetable waste? That's easy - a no brainer, in fact. Things like onion peels and citrus skins and crushed eggshells go in the compost (and I add, through the compost's life span, stuff like lime and blood and bone to my compost). The other stuff - the vegetable peels, skins, cores etc - go into my busy farm of red wriggler worms who convert the stuff into worm poo and worm juice which goes back to the garden.
What does your shopping list look like? Whether its clothes or groceries or furniture and furnishings, the motto should be Consider Disposition before Acquisition. In short, as we make a decision to purchase we should be considering what to do with all the stuff we acquire after we have finished with it?
What do we really need?
On the shopping list on the left, all that is necessary is the fruit and vegetables. And as for that category, there can be a great deal of culling if we grow our own.
I am a renter and so have my limitations with gardening. Almost all of it is done in pots - and I have a wide definition of what is a pot. Irrespective of size or what it is made of, it is surprising what can be a pot. In my yard, I have the sort of pots one buys at Bunnings, old saucepans and pots, a watering can, pallets lined with weed matting, storage jars, storage crates, a Woolworths shopping basket, and there are the pots I 'acquire' - from others' throw aways mostly.
I love a good forage among my herbs and veges in preparation for the evening meal. And I don't stop at what is in the pots. You see, I take an interest in edible weeds - particularly dock and plantain.
And if I have fruit and vegetable waste? That's easy - a no brainer, in fact. Things like onion peels and citrus skins and crushed eggshells go in the compost (and I add, through the compost's life span, stuff like lime and blood and bone to my compost). The other stuff - the vegetable peels, skins, cores etc - go into my busy farm of red wriggler worms who convert the stuff into worm poo and worm juice which goes back to the garden.
This way my food waste becomes beneficial
and part of an on-going cycle of life and death.
Monday, 13 April 2015
Plastic Planet: how we are destroying our planet, its creatures, ourselves with our addiction to plastic
Plastic Planet is on at the Creswick Neighbourhood Centre
on Monday 27 April from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
Car pool meeting place at Ballarat Civic Hall Carpark - 6pm
Donaton $10 to cover venue hire AND delicious vegan meal.
Hosted by
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Monday, 8 December 2014
There is no such thing as "away"!
RT to remind others that there is no such thing as "away".
pic.twitter.com/zTkWPYhBzL
— Shaun Frankson (@ShaunFrankson) November 19, 2014
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Plastic waste as a currency reducing poverty: learn about social enterprise with a triple bottom line business model
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
Think twice about what you do with stuff!!!
Think twice before you trash it! Amazing before and after photo of a shoreline clean up in Sabah, Malaysia. #recycle pic.twitter.com/6urYLlsgqe
— Plastic Bank (@PlasticBank) September 2, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)