UK still lags EU/US in innovation

[Ed P]

In the annual Bloomberg Index of Innovation the UK still languishes behind much of the EU and US in 17th position. This underscores our continuing failure as a nation to give more attention to encouraging and educating Science and Technology graduates. We still give too much time and attention to the unproductive Law and Classics sectors, and fail to encourage R&D or adopt new technologies in our industries.

[Richard]

The Bloomberg lot have hated us because we have turned our backs on their pet love affair subject. The conclusion will have been written and the fact marshalled to met the ending in that order. Our major issue has for too long been the devotion of available funds to lost industrial causes while preventing the development of new vibrant developments. There was a discussion on the radio yesterday complaining that the cheap to run arts students were paying the same fees as the students on the more expensive STEM subjects. Thus providing a subsidy to those students/subjects. Academia loves pointless arguments that go nowhere as it helps to preserve their status quo.

Sadly we develop ideas but manufacturing the goods needs investment and people prepared to get their hands dirty making things, even if it is the on time buildings to house the production facilities. Too many would rather subsidise the dying high cost rump of industries than train, or retrain, clean up and move forward to something newer and better.

I even hear the clamour is for glass bottles, electric floats and an army of milk persons to cut the plastic waste. That should be good for increased CO2 production, I wonder where the glass bottles would be blown?

[The Duke]

We should go back to the old pop man bottle deposit method.

Talking of plastics, did anyone get a tub of roses this Xmas. 1. They have changed the chocolate, they are not made of dairy milk chocolate anymore, but my biggest gripe was, (and this isn’t just roses) the once tinfoil wrapped sweets are now individually wrapped In plastic.

So we the consumer are told stop using plastic, but producers are using more and more each year.

We are getting that much plastic to recycle now we are having to half fill our black bin with the stuff. So we are thinking of installing a log burner in the kitchen to dispose of it. Hardly a clean solution.

But a good excuse to get one.

 

[Richard]

Some plastics used to be lethal when burnt, I do not know what the current crop are like but I fear that if the fumes do not get you, a sudden almost explosive rush of fire might do harm. Plastics also have a habit of melting and sticking to everything in a horrid hardening mass.

I agree that the spread of single use plastics does appear out of control. We did get some chocolates and yes there was a lot of plastic used, cartons that should be useful but in fact just go straight through to recycling and as for the wrappers and packing parts – I agree.

You might need to check the calorific values of fuels you can use, anything that burns too hot or too cold can cause trouble and damage to the device.

[The Duke]

Stop being a killjoy, Richard. I wanna make fire lol. I’d thought of the melting mess at the end, id have its my own burn tray, i have a few old mess tins that would work fine.

If often thought of making a plastic shredder out of an old electric plane. Quite a few on Instructables, the only thing that stopped me is my 16-year-old lad is in charge of recycling and he would end up cutting his figures off. But we need some type of solution that’s for sure.

[Richard]

I agree, better solutions are needed, though shredded, mixed plastic might not be the best idea. Sorting it out would be hell.

Kill joy, Moi, no not really. Plastic fires can give off such health cures as Cyanide and Phosgene the WW1 poison gas. They were and probably still are what made building fires ‘unhealthy’.

A more limited range of easily sorted plastics would be good, I keep hearing that biodegradable stuff will be here shortly I have heard that for years. How will Joe or Belinda Soap be able to tell the compostable from the recyclable stuff? They often don’t even know that soiled nappies don’t count as recyclable.

[The Duke]

I’d just shred the stuff that’s allowed in the blue bin, the council or whoever can sort it out or ditch it.

As to the off-gassing, that’s why I’d want a log burner over an open coal fire. Though the FiL has an open fire and burns all kinds in it, and cos it has a proper draft all hours up and out.

My fires have all been capped off way before we moved in, so should be relatively cheap too uncap and maybe reline if needed. All the neighbours have solid fuel fires, and they burn all kinds. You can smell it as soon as the cold nights come in.

Probably not the best for the environment but maybe the blue bin wagon should come weekly instead of fortnightly, then we wouldn’t have the issue.

Also that much goes I’m the blue bin the black one only gets half full over a fortnight before we bung the excess plastics in them.

We also have a green bin, bit my back garden is all of about 10 x 12 foot, so as long as i cut it weekly, the tips jist get mulched back in. If i forget i send it the inlaws to compost. I refuse to pay the £25 yearly fee for the green bin man.

For years we got away with bags, cos of our location, bit that changed about 2 years ago. Bags was good as everything went in. The only issue was foxes and badgers. We use to keep a couple of pint glasses full of water on the bedroom windowsill for when we heard the rustling.

Also, i just had a look for plastic shredders, they are expensive , probably why i looked down the diy route. However screw fix have a small garden tree limb shredder for £125. I may well look into that the next time i have a rubbish breakdown.

 

As i write this the wife said, the next council down, Conwy, is moving to a monthly pick up. FFS!

[Bob Williams]

We are lucky in having a recycling centre only about 3½ miles away. Our Council has just asked us to go from £25 to £40 for Green bin collections that have changed from fortnightly to monthly. I shall ask them to perform a biologically impossible act and take the green stuff myself. Now that we have gone to a low maintenance garden, there will not be much green waste anyway.

We have Grey bins for recycling and Black for Domestic waste. I find that I never fill the black bin more than ¼ full, with a black bag in the bin, that I tie up on collection day. This has two benefits: I am in the refuse collector’s good books, as they can just chuck the bag into the truck, and I don’t have to clean out the bin. Or get maggots in the bottom of the bin. I also wash out all the recycling tins, etc., cut up and fold up the cardboard. It’s all about keeping the BinMen happy and they always put my bins back properly where they should go.

Steve, this should put you off burning plastic:      http://tinyurl.com/ptao3ap

” Dioxins are the most toxic to the human organisms. They are carcinogenic and a hormone disruptor and persistent,
and they accumulate in our body-fat and thus mothers give it directly to their babies via the placenta. Dioxins also settle on crops and in our waterways where they eventually wind up in our food, accumulate in our bodies and are passed on to our children. “

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

After the wife mentioned the monthly service that may be coming to my district to we decided the £125 screwfix shall limb chipper may be a must.

Looks like it clips on a standard sizes plastic storage box. So is small to.

 

[Richard]

Bob, yes dioxins are pretty nasty and can persist though I understand they can also be treated fairly easily with quick lime. Just sprinkle the down wind area with an inch of two of quick lime and the plastics burner should be good to go, on second thoughts that might not be such a good idea. Industrial units use filters and scrubbers with the required materials built into them.

I guess we are lucky our council collectors are pretty good and we have a fortnightly green collection that can take not only garden stuffs but also food wastes. They actually prefer food waste in that bin as it gets composted rather than burred but in summer they are happy for the black bin to contains food stuffs rather than have it hang about. The Civic Amenity, also known as the tip is across the valley from us and less than a mile and a half away. It is useful for bulky stuff, though the scrap dealer – sorry metals recycler is on the same rout and nearer. They pay you for anything worth recycling. A couple of old taps and pipes were worth £8.50 in my pocket, there could have been more if I realised where they were sooner.

Garden shredders are great for turning waste into mulch or even rapidly usable compost, though the mower was as good on hedges clippings and easier than a brush.

[JayCeeDee]

We have a slightly different system:-

Blue bins for recycling, fortnightly collection, they are usually full up after the fortnight.

Black bins for general rubbish, alternate fortnightly collection.

Green bins for garden waste – just gone up to £47.50, but this is essential for us with a 5000 sq ft garden – fortnightly collection.

Kitchen/food waste – brown kerbside caddy ( 30 litre ) and grey kitchen caddy ( 9 litre ) – weekly collection.

Red sack for paper and card, fortnightly collection with blue recycle bins.

Like most here, our black bins are normally only half full. No plans to change as yet.

[Ed P]

A simple solution — just make all Supermarkets responsible for the collection and recycling of all their packaging. They would soon find a way of eliminating it. Administer through a three monthly check of a basket of purchases (this already exists) then charge them on the difficulty of recycling their associated crud. Even the ones (Waitrose) who claim to be squeaky clean use mixed materials packaging (paper+plastic) or tetra paks which is almost impossible to recycle.

Charge 10p on all cans bottles etc then provide recycling points where the containers can be turned into cash. Norway has had this for years. link

Wellington in New Zealand had this for beverage cans and the recycling yard was full of kids and deadbeats turning trash into cash (they had a machine into which cans were fed and dispensed 5c in return.)

[PlaneMan]

Iceland (The supermarket, not the country) have vowed to replace all plastic on their own brand stuff within 5 years.

Ed, Denmark also has recycling points where you get paid for recycling, I know bottles/jars and cans are accepted, not sure about other stuff.

My waste (actual landfill) is pretty much all food packaging, I have about 1/2 a bin bag full (less when compressed) every fortnight in my black wheelie bin. Stupid thing is the ‘waste operatives’ (bin men to you and me) aren’t allowed to touch anything that isn’t in the black bin so they have to lean into the bin to remove the bag as it’s easier to just chuck the bag in the back of the wagon than drag the bin around.  My recycling is usually about 3/4 of a green bag (same size as a bin bag) weekly. Food waste gets put into the outside caddy when the bag gets a bit full, it’s mostly tea bags and egg shells. The caddy gets manhandled to the kerb about once a fortnight but could go every week.

[Ed P]

About four years ago our local council had a £20 offer on something called a Green Johanna hot composter.

Frankly the thing worries me as I think it may actually be a disguised alien monster. In all the time we have had it we have never had a need to empty it despite it being fed a diet of dead foxes, pond fish, a rather ‘high’ duck, autumnal eaves and other assorted compostables. Without any smells or complaints, the contents just get quietly turned into some sort of non-odourous liquid which in turn feeds a large fir tree and associated worms.

If your Council offers you one (and you have space), grab the offer!

The only thing is do not offend SWMBO, I suspect that a Green Johanna could easily eat a human during the course of a summer!

[PlaneMan]

That Green Johanna would be great for mum’s place, they currently have 3 (maybe 4) large compost bins which are in various states of decomposition. They work well but take about 3 years to be fully ready.

[Richard]

PlaneMan wrote:

That Green Johanna would be great for mum’s place, they currently have 3 (maybe 4) large compost bins which are in various states of decomposition. They work well but take about 3 years to be fully ready.

That does sound interesting as you said traditional ways do take a long time. I am not sure I want a third bin chuntering away though if it was that good perhaps the old bin should be replaced. I will have to see what the story is.

[Richard]

PlaneMan wrote:

Iceland (The supermarket, not the country) have vowed to replace all plastic on their own brand stuff within 5 years. Ed, Denmark also has recycling points where you get paid for recycling, I know bottles/jars and cans are accepted, not sure about other stuff. My waste (actual landfill) is pretty much all food packaging, I have about 1/2 a bin bag full (less when compressed) every fortnight in my black wheelie bin. Stupid thing is the ‘waste operatives’ (bin men to you and me) aren’t allowed to touch anything that isn’t in the black bin so they have to lean into the bin to remove the bag as it’s easier to just chuck the bag in the back of the wagon than drag the bin around. My recycling is usually about 3/4 of a green bag (same size as a bin bag) weekly. Food waste gets put into the outside caddy when the bag gets a bit full, it’s mostly tea bags and egg shells. The caddy gets manhandled to the kerb about once a fortnight but could go every week.

Our local supermarket had several different machines for recycling different types and gave a credit, but withdrew them because of the persistent sabotage and vandalism they suffered.

We are lucky , our council takes almost everything plastic; apart from the thin film plastic the rest is apparently accepted if it has a suitable symbol embossed. The recycling bin is already full but will not be collected until next week. The black bin gets two bags usually, one of week 1 and the other for week 2. Garden waste is also part of the recycling week’s collection.

[Bob Williams]

My first home in Lincolnshire was on the Eastern outskirts of Louth. My neighbour was an engineer and one of the bosses at the local Council Waste depot. He told me that, in the first bout of Recycling fever, his Council bosses decided a dedicated waste truck would take glass. This was fine for the first few months, until the glass at the bottom of the truck machine became powdered. This resulted in the streets twinkling in the sun, as they became coated in very finely powdered glass. The odorous brown substance then hit the revolving object and the Council had to stump up for hundreds of streets to be cleared of the stuff. My neighbour also told me that he had informed his Council mandarins that this is exactly what would happen. He was given early retirement as a reward, with a promotion immediately prior to retirement, assuring him of a healthy golden handshake and a bigger pension.

“That was done to keep your conclusions to yourself then?”    –   “Of course: what would you have done in my position?”   –   “The same, mate!”

Having worked at another County Council myself, I recognised the tactics. It’s one direction in which your Council Tax goes. Some would call it Hush Money.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

I have heard of similar stories and possibly used such matters myself.

I knew of one years ago that was a parallel. A person was doing well and earned a promotion to a higher grade. The next available job turned out to require security clearance, which they would fail when certain ‘issues’ came to light, mainly concerning their student life and the ongoing activities of their spouse. They then got a rapid promotion to a safe, secure job elsewhere. All of this was within the space of a small number of weeks. Their rapid rise was somehow kept more or less under wraps to avoid highlighting the whole situation.

[Ed P]

Many Trade Unionists have also crossed onto the other side and become HR Advisors or the like. This seems to be a recognised state of play as it rarely seems to affect their dealings with their old mates. A number of the ones I knew rose up through the Union ranks then got scholarships to Ruskin, paid their dues then crossed over to the other side. These pragmatic Unionists normally got the best deals for their people as well as themselves later on.

[Author]

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