Author Topic: The environment.  (Read 1473 times)

The environment.
« on: 08 July, 2020, 05:46:17 pm »
I'd like to think most people are concerned about the environment. It's the sheer hypocrisy that's getting my back up. I'm a builder, I deliver many types of projects for the domestic customer, mainly home extensions. Typically excavate 20 tonnes of soil carted away import 15 tonnes of concrete. And if one adds in bricks , blocks timber, roof tiles plasterboard etc etc. Then the customer books a return flight to Florida for  family of four on Jumbo jet. Then nods sagely about concern for the environment and point scores by explaining how religiously he recycles cardboard and plastic.its this educated , well read, wealthy group that pollutes the most and is also able to articulate his concern. Prince Charles sharing a platform, gurning over Greta Thundberg. Rant over.

ian

Re: The environment.
« Reply #1 on: 08 July, 2020, 06:19:56 pm »
You'd not get all that on a flight to Florida. The excess baggage fee would be extortionate.

Re: The environment.
« Reply #2 on: 08 July, 2020, 08:43:08 pm »
I'd like to think most people are concerned about the environment. It's the sheer hypocrisy that's getting my back up. I'm a builder, I deliver many types of projects for the domestic customer, mainly home extensions. Typically excavate 20 tonnes of soil carted away import 15 tonnes of concrete. And if one adds in bricks , blocks timber, roof tiles plasterboard etc etc. Then the customer books a return flight to Florida for  family of four on Jumbo jet. Then nods sagely about concern for the environment and point scores by explaining how religiously he recycles cardboard and plastic.its this educated , well read, wealthy group that pollutes the most and is also able to articulate his concern. Prince Charles sharing a platform, gurning over Greta Thundberg. Rant over.

POBI.  It's over there ->
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: The environment.
« Reply #3 on: 09 July, 2020, 12:21:51 pm »
We have just had an extension built but we couldn't afford to go on holiday and we don't fly on holiday anyway. I couldn't believe the waste and especially the packaging - all polystyrene - that comes with a new kitchen. There's large amounts of MDF now 'stored' in our loft because I couldn't bring myself to drive it to the tip. You could probably build another set of kitchen cupboards with it.

An additional piece of upstand was required so I approved it's purchase but no one said it came in 2m lengths. Approximately 20cm was used and the rest is in our loft. I'm cutting it into short pieces for use as model aeroplane bases but if I hadn't it would have gone straight in the skip.

Roger Mussons wheel building e-book shows how to make a truing stand so that's a bit more MDF used. Anyone want any?
Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: The environment.
« Reply #4 on: 09 July, 2020, 12:26:15 pm »
We still have the offcuts from our 'new' kitchen work surface in the garage, from when we refurbished 12 years ago. I'm sure they will come in handy one day (actually, I've long been intending to instal one piece in the utility room but we'd need to get an electrician in to move some plugs first).

Last time I flew anywhere was to Belfast in 2018, and that was for work rather than holiday.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: The environment.
« Reply #5 on: 09 July, 2020, 12:30:23 pm »
I'd like to think most people are concerned about the environment. It's the sheer hypocrisy that's getting my back up. I'm a builder, I deliver many types of projects for the domestic customer, mainly home extensions. Typically excavate 20 tonnes of soil carted away import 15 tonnes of concrete. And if one adds in bricks , blocks timber, roof tiles plasterboard etc etc. Then the customer books a return flight to Florida for  family of four on Jumbo jet. Then nods sagely about concern for the environment and point scores by explaining how religiously he recycles cardboard and plastic.its this educated , well read, wealthy group that pollutes the most and is also able to articulate his concern. Prince Charles sharing a platform, gurning over Greta Thundberg. Rant over.

This is why the environment needs to be prioritised at a policy level, rather than left to individuals to polish around the edges.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: The environment.
« Reply #6 on: 09 July, 2020, 12:45:50 pm »
I'd like to think most people are concerned about the environment. It's the sheer hypocrisy that's getting my back up. I'm a builder, I deliver many types of projects for the domestic customer, mainly home extensions. Typically excavate 20 tonnes of soil carted away import 15 tonnes of concrete. And if one adds in bricks , blocks timber, roof tiles plasterboard etc etc. Then the customer books a return flight to Florida for  family of four on Jumbo jet. Then nods sagely about concern for the environment and point scores by explaining how religiously he recycles cardboard and plastic.its this educated , well read, wealthy group that pollutes the most and is also able to articulate his concern. Prince Charles sharing a platform, gurning over Greta Thundberg. Rant over.

This is why the environment needs to be prioritised at a policy level, rather than left to individuals to polish around the edges.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ian

Re: The environment.
« Reply #7 on: 09 July, 2020, 01:02:18 pm »
We still have the offcuts from our 'new' kitchen work surface in the garage, from when we refurbished 12 years ago. I'm sure they will come in handy one day (actually, I've long been intending to instal one piece in the utility room but we'd need to get an electrician in to move some plugs first).

Last time I flew anywhere was to Belfast in 2018, and that was for work rather than holiday.

I've flown everywhere other than Antarctica, so I'm pretty much up there with Hitler's more evil cousin on the villain-o-meter. But I'm often found in the kitchen clutching a piece of random packaging, deep in contemplation over it's precise fate.

I might by an electric car one day though, so I'm good.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The environment.
« Reply #8 on: 09 July, 2020, 01:07:01 pm »
We still have the offcuts from our 'new' kitchen work surface in the garage, from when we refurbished 12 years ago.

You too, huh?  The Ulster Fry ran a story last year entitled something like "Newry man finally finds a use for 'nice bit of wood' he didn't throw out 35 years ago".
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: The environment.
« Reply #9 on: 09 July, 2020, 01:17:55 pm »
Even better if you didn't actually buy yet another car.   ;)

Where we live is 1870's terraces.   From time to time people renovate their crumbling homes just as we have been slowly doing over the years.  It never ceases to amaze me just how much is simply bunged into skips such as bricks and assorted rubble, plaster, plasterboard, plastic, cardboard and polystyrene packaging, offcuts of planks, cables, worktops, floorboards, guttering, soil pipes, downpipes, offcuts of insulation, etc., etc., etc.

I wondered why builders throw so much away but my builder asked me where he would store all these bits from all his jobs just in case he could use an extra metre of plasterboard or gutter at some unknown distant point in time.

I got to thinking whether there was a business opportunity here for building offcuts.  I mean, I need about 1.5 metres of 15mm copper pipe for a job just now but it doesn't come in such short lengths.

In reality I don't see sufficient demand, unfortunately.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: The environment.
« Reply #10 on: 09 July, 2020, 01:21:59 pm »
We still have the offcuts from our 'new' kitchen work surface in the garage, from when we refurbished 12 years ago.

You too, huh?  The Ulster Fry ran a story last year entitled something like "Newry man finally finds a use for 'nice bit of wood' he didn't throw out 35 years ago".

I've also got a fair bit of wood left over from when we had the exterior cladding done around the same time. Never quite worked out what it would be good for. It's featheredge board, so of limited use for anything other than fences or cladding, but it's decent quality pine so I'm not chucking it.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: The environment.
« Reply #11 on: 09 July, 2020, 01:23:15 pm »
I mean, I need about 1.5 metres of 15mm copper pipe for a job just now but it doesn't come in such short lengths.

Quite possible I have something that fits that description in the garage too. I'll have a look later...

We sold some old copper piping to a local architectural salvage yard a while back. Might be worth seeing if you have such a business in your area?
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: The environment.
« Reply #12 on: 09 July, 2020, 02:51:24 pm »
Well, the car is 12 years old, and we won't buy a new one until it blows up (plus the MiL is always trying to give us another car but we only need the one). Ironically, it's seeing more use now than ever, owing to coronavirus. It stumbled over its 12,000-mile hurdle at the weekend. It has Christmas tree needles in the footwell going back to 2006. The VW Golf that predated that ran to 18 years and was still going, but overheated if it sat at the lights for too long, so we'd often be found trundling through west London, heads out like dogs, the heater turned up full.

Our garage is full of bits of pipe and various offcuts, I presume some are from when we got this place refurbished, but some probably date back to the last owner. There's also a pile of Ikea furniture that we meant to get rid of but haven't gotten around to it (yeah, after moving it at great expense, we decided it 'didn't go' with the new decor – to be honest, for once she was right – and had to go reacquire). Our kitchen guy turned the worktop offcuts into chopping boards.

I can't do anything useful with stuff, I don't have those skills, I top out with changing a fuse. I had to pay a man to change the lightbulbs in the bathroom.* I do have draws of electronic exotica. One exciting day,  I'll save the world with a Palm Pilot.

*to be fair, that's because the fittings turned out to be glued in, so the entire bloody ceiling had to be repainted.

Re: The environment.
« Reply #13 on: 09 July, 2020, 03:19:17 pm »
Lots of people cant get rid of stuff because they keep thinking about what it cost them ,rather than what it is worth to others.
I am looking for a wooden gate to do a job . I keep looking at ebay and there's one on offer near me.
Trouble is the seller wants £150 and I have to collect it .
I can buy a new one and have it delivered for £120. If I compromise and buy a steel one it would be £80.
So to me, that second hand gate is worth £40 or £50. that seller is going to be looking at his gate for a long time and it will deteriorate meaning its worth less.

Ebay, Freecycle and local FB page can cope with most things so get rid unless you have endless storage options.

Builders are philistines of the highest order. No concept of recycling etc. When most peoples houses are earning more than the occupants the spending on renovations always include a good mark up for waste disposal costs. One builder that I knew well had a blue fit when I told him that I would dispose of top and subsoil myself. I am convinced he was getting a backhander from the skip operators. 

ian

Re: The environment.
« Reply #14 on: 09 July, 2020, 03:35:55 pm »
We generally give stuff away, which is often more difficult than it seems. Someone was going to take the Ikea stuff but their house purchase fell through, and we have yet (six years later) to get around to arranging a different home. Then a friend-of-a-friend was going to take it, but they couldn't get a van, and then someone else wanted it but decided after much dithering that they didn't like the colour. It's probably a bit stinky by now. Our bad, it's one of those things we were going to do, but never got around to it, in the hope it would passively evaporate into someone else's possession – but it's not like we need the space, so there's not really any pressure. Every six months or so I'll look at it and think: yes, I really should get rid of that. I'm sure we tried to pass it off to a charity once, but they didn't collect or wanted us to re-flatpack it.

Re: The environment.
« Reply #15 on: 09 July, 2020, 05:16:37 pm »
The simple truth is that we have harnessed the labour of people in far-flung parts of the world to make stuff for us very cheaply.  That's cheaply for us not for them.  They have to work just as hard as our ancestors did to acquire the goods we now take for granted and sling onto the tip with little regard for its real cost, either on the people who make it or for the planet that is plundered for the raw materials.  They also have to endure the pollution that our ancestors accepted as their lot.  It's no coincidence that posh people lived in the West End of London:

Quote
Noxious-smelling factories and mills were deliberately located downwind from the City of London from the mid-19th century. It's said that a Thames lighterman was able to tell where his barge was on Barking Creek by the smell in the air, like roasted malt from a brewery or chemicals from a soap factory. There were bitumen, asphalt, paint and chemical works, fertilizer, rubber and soap factories, gasworks, power stations, iron foundries, breweries, timber mills and jute works. Just upriver Becton Sewage works

It used to be said if you fell in the Thames you wouldn't live long enough to drown.

It was the same in every populated part of the country.  It is not surprising we find it very easy to live with the consequences of our disposable lifestyles these days.
Move Faster and Bake Things