Green Group discussion

Wind turbine blades. I have been recommending their use in roadmaking at the end of their useful life.

Belgium:

"several hundred thousand tons in North-Western Europe that will reach the end of their life by 2030, 2040.
...

"fibers will reinforce the properties of the concrete, especially in bending," says Stéphane Neirynck, director of the Centre. This is interesting for specific applications, such as highway barriers where a certain flexibility of the concrete is needed to absorb a car impact. With this process we increase the properties of the concrete by about twenty percent." According to the center, in total, 90% of the wind turbine blade could be recycled."

https://www.rtbf.be/article/recycler-...

Decluttering involves a lot of recycling (or just gifting) or dumping. The easiest way is to keep doing a bit at a time, but some category of clutter builds in a corner.

Then downsizing has to happen, or space is needed for a growing family, or in extreme cases the clutter can become a health hazard.

Parting with items that hold family memories is the worst. Author
Kelly Brakenhoff is downsizing and I was one of the readers who sent her tips - I suggested photographing dresses and kids' artwork, so the originals could be recycled.



"The home decluttering saga continues.

I've found some interesting things along the way, like nearly every single planner/calendar I've owned since high school (not sure what I thought was so exciting about those).

But, the real gem was the original cover of the first comic strip my younger sister and I made when I was 8 and she was 6. We were quite a team! It wasn't great (we clearly needed an editor and some colored pencils), but it put us on the path for our iconic Duke the Deaf Dog series so that's something to be proud of...right?

I'm trying to make ruthless decisions about what stays and what goes, so my beloved college typewriter got the boot - even though it was advanced for its time because you could backspace and correct errors in a sentence without having to rip out the paper and start over. However, I couldn't part with my childhood souvenir spoon collection from all the different tourist stops we visited on family vacations. I mean, they spark joy AND fit into a zip lock bag - how could I?

Marie Kondo would be so proud.

Quite a few folks wrote back to me last month with advice for how to save memories without actually keeping all the papers and items - you are lifesavers!

Here's a few tips that might help you if you're going through the same angst soon.
Sandra T. says to remember to write captions and dates on items I save so future generations will know who and what they are looking at.
Karla F. said I could take photos of the papers and artwork and make small albums from them, sorting them by child.
Xndr reminded me to put a note before photographing with the year of school and age. And to upload them to a service like Shutterfly to save them in a smaller scrapbook.
Joan S. gave similar advice about taking photos, but she's very organized about it! "Put the pics on a flash drive or upload to a photo frame. Takes up a lot less room. I'm in the process of scanning in years of pics, some of them are from when I was a baby, so they are over 70 years old. I set up folders on my computer for each family I have pics of and after scanning I put them in the appropriate folder. Once they are all in folders with added dates and backed them up to an external drive, I will get rid of the pics."
Vic Q. had the idea to take some videos explaining the history of some of the items you are parting with. I did this immediately after reading the suggestion!
Many thanks to everyone! And good luck to anyone downsizing like me. It's so hard, but necessary."

Kelly will probably be able to write a new book about decluttering.
Here are more decluttering books I have enjoyed and found useful, plus the Marie Kondo book referenced.

I read this nice, cheerful can-do article about donating shoes. And I could see some downsides. Obviously, I'm in favour of the principle; kids grow fast and grow out of shoes before they wear out. So why not donate them to a poorer country, where kids may not have shoes. Hookworm is a parasite which can enter through the soles of the feet; and walking with shoes on is easier and faster, so kids may be better able to go to school. Also, if you do not have anything much, new shoes are a source of pride and joy.

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2023...

"Next he set out to collect 5,000 pairs, but ended up with 15,000 pairs in 2020 to send to charity partners in South Africa to distribute to children who needed them.

Now Mr McHugh and In My Shoes have their sights set on collecting even more shoes and are asking schools to come on board, register on the website, and help them gather as many pairs as possible to give them a second life on the feet of children in communities from Cape Town to Lesotho.
...

"Thousands of custom designed boxes by Smurfit Kappa are at the ready to carry the donated shoes which will be collected by UPS from national schools across Ireland."

Okay, that is the first issue. Smurfit Kappa plants non-native trees in Colombia. The eucalyptus and pine trees drink all the water and are not good for biodiversity, being toxic. Local people claim their land and water are being taken, and are camping out in protest on the forested land, and claim they are getting intimidated by Smurfit Kappa's hired people. The trees are pulped for cardboard box materials and the boxes are brought where needed, generally, the rest of the world.

https://actions.eko.org/a/smurfit-kap...
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/na...
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/fsc...


Another issue is that the donated shoes are now not available in Irish charity shops for the families feeling the strain of rising costs of living. (The price of a 2kg - 4lb - bag of standard dry cat food has jumped from €6 to €9.65, literally in the space of days.)

Transporting shoes halfway around the world from Asia to Ireland uses a lot of energy. Then the shoes, having been used, are transported a quarter way around the world to South Africa. That uses more energy, and container ships pollute air and water.

https://europe.oceana.org/shipping-po....

Most problematic, perhaps, is that importing and distributing free shoes undercuts any shoe-making enterprise getting off the ground. As long as there is learned dependence there is no change. I have remarked on a previous occasion that it's astonishing how a continent with a vast market has not been able to get to grips with shoe making and distribution.

Maybe some of the kids who have been helped, will be inspired to start shoemaking enterprises. I really hope they do.

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/h....

The Next Factory of the World: How Chinese Investment Is Reshaping Africa


Saving Africa


The Weekenders: Travels in the Heart of Africa


Under the Big Tree: Extraordinary Stories from the Movement to End Neglected Tropical Diseases

We have reached a point where it is probably not possible to do anything on a massive scale that does not negatively impact someone somewhere.

Thanks to The Register for this one.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/2...

"Under the new post-guarantee period rule, companies that produce goods the EU defines as subject to repairability requirements (eg, appliances, commercial computer hardware, and soon cellphones and tablets) are obliged to repair such items for five to 10 years after purchase if a customer demands so, and the repair is possible.

OEMs will also need to inform consumers about which products they are liable to repair, and consumers will be able to request a new Repair Information Form from anyone doing a repair that makes pricing and fees more transparent.

The post-guarantee period repair rule also establishes the creation of an online "repair matchmaking platform" for EU consumers, and calls for the creation of a European repair standard that will "help consumers identify repairers who commit to a higher quality."

"Repair is key to ending the model of 'take, make, break, and throw away' that is so harmful to our planet, our health and our economy," said Frans Timmermans, EVP for the European Green Deal, which aims to make the whole of EU carbon neutral by 2050.

On that note, the EC proposed a set of anti-greenwashing laws alongside passing its right to repair rule yesterday that would make it illegal to make any green claims about a product without evidence."

I may have mentioned this one previously. Repurposing a seized ship into a diving reef.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0527/138...

"A ship that was used to smuggle millions of cigarettes almost ten years ago has finally been moved out of Dublin Port after racking up fees there of around €7,000 every month.

The Revenue Commissioners, along with local campaigners, now want the vessel to be scuttled and used a diving wreck off the West coast, but the necessary licence has yet to be granted."

https://www.theguardian.com/global-de...

Waste clothing dumped in Ghana where about 40% is resold and the rest ends up as rubbish on beaches etc.

Quite a bit of the clothing is actually plastic. Every business is important no matter where it is on the economic scale. Its time for simply having a degree to mean that one automatically gets more money to end.

Many businesses that have high percentages of higher education graduates are also responsible for a lot of the pollution being generated. Something that they take no responsibility for.


Another group that contributes to pollution and waste and takes no responsibility are the shareholders.

Sometimes, dumping (even accidentally) is the lesser of two evils. See this woeful tale of a dropped phone and a drainage of a reservoir in a thirsty agri region.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/0...

"Electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar power generators all require components such as lithium, magnesium, copper and nickel – but WEEE Ireland has said Europe is importing the vast bulk of these.

According to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Ireland’s annual report published today, consumers in Ireland recycled a record amount of e-waste items last year - 40,804 tonnes or just over 10kg per person.

A total of 19.5 million appliances were recovered in 2022, including 113,000 fridges, 225,000 TVs and monitors and 2.2m lighting items.

However, it said Ireland fell short of Europe’s 65% takeback target for overall e-waste, measured against new appliance sales which surged by an average 25kg per person last year, up from 22kg in 2021."

https://www.rte.ie/news/environment/2...

https://www.rte.ie/news/leinster/2023...

"A new park is set to open this autumn in Co Kildare at the site of an illegally operated waste dump, which has cost more than €61.5 million in public money to remediate.

Despite its high price tag, it is hoped that what was once a mountain of untreated waste, has now been contained and will become a popular public amenity.
...
"The transformation of the dump has come at a huge cost to the taxpayer and in this case, the EPA said it is unfortunate that the polluter has not paid the full price.

Joe Boland, the former Director of Services for Kildare County Council, which now runs the site has until recently been overseeing its transformation.

He said its first priority was to deal with the environmental risk: "It has been very challenging to deliver this.

"This is an environmental project first and foremost and the challenges here were to deal with all the environmental risks, particularly around gas management, odour management, effluent or leachate as it's called, particularly as we have the River Morell, which is very close to this site."

Mr Boland said interweaving the design of a park into the site whilst being aware of the environmental risks had been at the heart of the project, which he now hopes will give something back to the local community.

"There is no question that this site owes a debt to the local community," he explained.

He said the site is now probably one of the most analysed on the island of Ireland.

From an environmental, scientific and engineering perspective, he said Kildare County Council has carried out regular and detailed assessments to try to make sure there is no ongoing threat from what lies beneath."

This is the ultimate example of how the profit is not a profit at all, but is actually the funds needed to clean up the mess a product or operation makes while it is manufactured and or used. It is true for any item, but in this case it was disposing of material for an unrealistic price and the money everyone saved should have been collected and used to clean up the site.

One person did get jail time, Robert, though it took a long time to get the case in court. Does not look like he had to hand in the money he made illegally. So the tax payer in general has had to cover the remediation.

This writer on Medium, Amanda Claypool, tells us that what goes into the recycling bin in her area does not get recycled in most cases. She thinks 'recycling' which means something could be recycled but is not, is killing the planet.
Some writers on Medium are paid per read. So the headline may be clickbaity.

https://medium.com/@amandaclaypool/st...

It is true. Not everything put in a recycle bin ends up being recycled. Several reputable sites have been running variations of the situation since 2019, some earlier.

"An NPR investigative report found in 2020 that industry officials misled the public about the recyclability of plastic even though their own reports showed they knew as early as the 1970s and 1980s that plastic could not be economically recycled."

The petroleum industry had stated they would be buying back 100 percent of the plastic produced by 2040, but there is no such plan in place, except on paper. They have no idea how to do it.

For some plastic items the recycle rate is around 5 percent. There are a number of reasons for that.

One solution, of “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR), based establishes that producers bear responsibility for the environmental costs associated with a product, throughout its life cycle.

The manufacturer joins the EPR group and agrees to pay a fee that goes towards the disposal of the product. Some countries already have this set up.

This looks good on paper but could just become another trash to landfill scheme as the money is paid to the government which then has to decide how to use it. If a local recycler can't process the recycled material, it will still go to the landfills, or be burned as part of the trash to cash energy programs that have been set up to make money while keeping stuff out of the landfill.

Many communities are not able to properly sort the collected recycled material, let alone clean it. Two important steps that go towards insuring money will be paid out for the material.

Supposedly the items on the EPR list that is covered in a region is collected and disposed of by some agency that is not listed in the articles.

China stopped taking in recycled material from other countries in 2018 because it was dirty, improperly sorted and had garbage in it. Before then, it was just packed up, and sold to a company that sold it to China, where it ended up not being recycled.

Since the advent of AI, the recycling industry is claiming that AI powered sorters will be able to replace people and do the job 100 percent.

Where the money will come from to buy these things is not known.

There are no actual on the ground processes explained, nor is there an accurate money trail to show how the money is collected, and then spent.

The articles just say the manufacturer is responsible for the accounting and that the items are diverted from the initial recycle to trash stream. What happens to the stuff at a later date?

Because of places where EPR is practiced, all the tires are literally being collected or will be, what happens to them after they are collected?

"Using shredding and cryogenic grinding to turn the tires into a number of substances, like synthetic turf, playground floors, and road bank."

Its being put back into the environment, which is the same thing as burying it under the carpet, except in this case, it is being made into the carpet and disposed of right in front of us.

Using used plastic is almost never a good idea. It has to be broken down into its basic components and then it will be safe to reuse.

All those people wearing all those sandals made of recycled plastic are doing the same function as the air force prisoners did in The Great Escape movie, distributing the tunnel dirt hidden in their pants on the ground as they walked around. The plastic is chipping off their sandals into the ground where it lies in plain sight, if your eyesight was good enough to see it. Then what happens to the sandals. That is now twice used plastic, which is worse than once used plastic.

The Canadian Recycling industry paints a different picture than what the official words promise:

https://www.recyclingtoday.com/articl...

Typical article by reputable site about how recycled stuff goes to the landfill or is burned to keep it out of the landfill.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/113113... articles started

One US state has enacted what appears to be a general purpose EPR, while other states are setting it up piecemeal, that is one item at a time. For example, thermostats containing mercury, paint, mattresses, electronics, gas cylinders, and tires are the only things covered in one state. A law is passed for each item, which has taken 10 years so far.

Here is an oversight on Canada's EPR program.

https://gowlingwlg.com/en/insights-re...

Here is the EPR website.
https://epr.sustainablepackaging.org/

Thank you for this, Robert.

The EU has voted to enforce swappable, recycling of and recycled, phone / tablet / laptop batteries. The changing will have to be able to be done by a lay person. Using no complex tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-k-...

"The changing will have to be able to be done by a lay person. Using no complex tools."

That's the way batteries use to be.

I'm only on my third mobile phone, second smartphone. My first smartphone had a replaceable battery. I don't know yet about my current one.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/2...

"Apple has endorsed, with caveats, California's proposed Right to Repair law after spending years opposing DIY fixes."

Its about time. Other industries, like the farm tractors, have/had the same repair option problems. John Deere just recently relented and let farmers choose their own repair services instead of being restricted to only John Deere repair centers. That battle had been going on for several years.

Textiles again. Many can be recycled. My old shirts get cut up for floor cloths. When they are too raggy to use, they help light the fire.

https://www.ecowatch.com/textile-recy...

"Donating is certainly a viable option for suitable clothing that is still usable in its current form. However, clothing donation isn’t a silver bullet for our textile waste problem. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, charities that receive clothing donations will often ship a high percentage of it overseas. About 700,000 tons of used clothing gets shipped to other countries each year, and while these resources can be useful, there is also evidence that it harms local economies. For example, an imported secondhand clothing item can cost as much as 95% less than a clothing item produced in Kenya, which makes it hard for local businesses to compete. Goodwill, for one, is only able to sell about 30% of clothing donated in their thrift stores and through e-commerce. The remainder is sent to outlets, then sold in bulk, where a percentage is exported. Clothing that is unsuitable for wearing is also unsellable, but it might be recyclable.

How Does Textile Recycling Work?
When brought to a fabric recycler, individual textile items will be evaluated for their usefulness. Sometimes, they will be sold as clothing, or sold to be manufactured into other products. According to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association, recycled fabrics are often used to make rags/wiping cloths that are needed in many industries, like construction, manufacturing, and custodial work. Or, the fabric is sold to recycling facilities to be dismantled."

The "recycled" textiles sent (dumped) to Africa can end up in landfills. This means that countries are taking advantage of the situation and filling other countries landfills with their garbage.

https://www.just-style.com/news/green...

A post from Zero Waste Alliance Ireland about a new Irish law which imposes unequal levies on dumping with incineration and dumping with landfill. The post claims it is all still dumping, not recycling.

https://www.zwai.ie/2023/09/new-waste...

Seriously misleading is an understatement.

The Luas is an electric light rail tram used in Dublin. The carriages were imported (from Netherlands if I recall correctly) before the line had opened, and were stored in sheds until ready. Decades later, the trams are showing wear and tear. A factor is that Ireland does not have the engineering works needed to make more or carry out major repairs.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023...

"The operators of light rail networks in other countries strongly advised Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) against any attempt to prolong the life of forty Luas trams that have been in service for over twenty years.

TII were told that so-called "life extension" programmes for the vehicles sometimes ended up costing over double what was anticipated.

A review examining the future of the forty original trams from the Luas network said they already had a "very low level of reliability" and that significant investment would be required to bring them back to perfect condition.

It said the 'design life' of the trams was thought to have been 30 years but that in other cities where similar vehicles were in use, they had given around 25 years of useful service.

The report said that while ‘life-extending’ the trams might initially appear a good option with potential savings of €20 million, problems of reliability were likely to continue even after they were modernised.

It said "soundings" had been taken from other countries that operate light rail networks with all but two advising against any life-extension programme "if at all possible".

Transport operators in Boston and Melbourne said they had modernised some of their fleet, but only because they had left it too late to order replacement trams and they effectively had no alternative."

Recycling coal station fly ash, to make concrete and reduce the need for quarrying.

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/10...

We've seen vast bicycle junkyards before, mainly in China. A new clip shows a spread of unused bikes in Shenzen.

From LinkedIn.

Tamma Carel (PIEMA, FIIRSM, MSc, BSc

"One of the reporters mentioned - "This is a hidden spot I've found in Shenzhen. The government doesn't really want us, or the big companies, to know about this. That's why all the bike-sharing graveyards are hidden."
This is INSANE - The smaller piles have about 40,000 or 50,000 bikes. And the larger ones have over 200,000 bikes. Over 70 brands were competing for dominance, including many small companies.

🚲 Bicycle Life Cycle Impact:

1. Materials: Steel production for frames emits about 1.7 tons of CO2 per ton of steel.

2. Manufacturing: The bicycle manufacturing process consumes approximately 5-10 kWh of energy per kilogram of aluminium.

3. Distribution: Transportation emissions for bicycles are around 5-15 grams of CO2 per ton-kilometer.

4. End of Life: Recycling aluminium saves about 95% of the energy required for primary production.ONLY if it is recycled and not lying in a dump yard

Could they have donated the bikes? Yes.

Why didn't they do it - I don't know."


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tamma-...

Building materials can also be re-used and in this case, a historic stone frontage was saved.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1221/142...

"A 93-year-old woman says it will mean "everything" if her late husband's dream of restoring the building blocks of the original Abbey Theatre is finally realised.

In 1961, Dáithí Hanly, the Dublin city architect at the time, salvaged 720 granite blocks of the facade of the old theatre just as it was being demolished.

He was horrified that the remnants of the theatre of Yeats, Synge and O'Casey, which had been damaged by fire ten years earlier, were about to be dumped.

Mr Hanly arranged for the stones to be brought to his home in Dalkey, where they have been kept in the garden ever since."

Dumping municipal waste, and dumping and dumping again, just causes more problems on an even more massive scale than could have been expected. This has some really unpleasant consequences for householders and schools in California. Storm Hilary added to the mix in new ways.
Note that the heat in the smouldering thirty aces has warped the PVC pipes collecting methane.

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-uncontr...

Updates on the state of play in recycling or dumping, provided by this article on electronics and in the comments. Mostly UK but comments from US, Australia, Austria etc.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/0...

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024...

"Mr Walsh of the IWMA said underlying costs have been rising for waste collection companies, in particular labour and fuel costs.

But he believes there is strong competition in the Irish market.

"We're the only country in the world where every bin is weighed. We're the only country in the world that can tell our customers what their weights are and we can charge by weight or we can charge by lift.

"We just need to get the message out there about how important it is to segregate our waste, but we're quite advanced in Ireland," he added

How much choice you have will depend on where you're living.
...
"Ms Whitmore said she believed the system should come under the fundamental services that the State provides.

Solidarity-PBP TD Bríd Smith said that the privatisation of waste has been "disastrous" for the environment, workers and householders, and also called for its renationalisation.

She condemned Panda Recycling's decision to charge for organic waste despite its "enormous" profits.

Panda "is the biggest waste provider in the country", Ms Smith said.

"You're disincentivising people" from recycling, she added, during heated exchanges with the Tánaiste."

Turns out sometimes what is designated as pretty much e-waste by a large manufacturer, gets turned into a product, not necessarily a good one. This article refers to flashdrive storage, there will be other items treated the same way. The buyer does not know.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/0...

""Even with high-quality memory chips, the effort that manufacturers have to put into error correction mechanisms in the controller is enormous. It is not surprising that data loss occurs with USB sticks containing decommissioned chips," Heinicke states.

He posted a few tips for flash users. If you frequently write and delete data on USB sticks, such as when using them as backup devices, for example, you should use several sticks in rotation.

If flash media is to be used to store anything for an extended period, use high-quality storage hardware, and keep it somewhere cool, as high temperatures may accelerate data loss.

Flash storage should be accessed annually or semi-annually, as this allows the error correction mechanisms to internally copy "fading" data, and devices should not be filled to capacity – leaving unallocated space allows the internal data maintenance and error correction mechanisms to function longer. "

Thanks, good to know

Article in German about Bavaria which tries to retain and re-use its waste products. For instance, a toothpaste tube and cap made entirely from aluminium, a monomaterial rather than combined materials that are hard to separate.

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/...

In this case an entire dockyard grain silo was looked at for repurposing. That can't be done, and the article explains why, but a 3-D rendition is being prepared and some of the equipment is being stored to get placed in the new buildings on the site.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024...

"A six-month project to demolish the giant R & H Hall grain silos on Cork's docklands has begun, kickstarting a €350 million regeneration plan for the historic area.

The 31 metre high concrete silos have been a feature of the city's skyline for 90 years.

Conservation work on the building has been described as ground-breaking in terms of industrial archaeological monitoring, with laser scanning and photogrammetry used to produce a 3D survey of the building.

R & H Hall was founded in Cork in 1839 and is one of Ireland's biggest importers and suppliers of animal feed ingredients for feed manufacturers. The company was bought by the IAWS group in 1990."

Here's one you don't think about....

https://www.teagasc.ie/about/research...

"It has been reported that for each species of shellfish harvested, around 10 million tonnes of waste are generated annually and dumped, mostly into open fields or nearby water bodies, leading to ecological issues such as awful smell, soil contamination, and water pollution.

However, these vast quantities of waste may present an interesting opportunity to solve an ongoing issue in the packaging sector. Researchers at Teagasc are enthusiastically involved in the IMPRESS project, a European Union research project chiefly focused on building a waste-sustainable, aquatic food value chain.

The researchers are currently focused on extracting targeted compounds from crustacean shells and raising biopolymers from the shell waste, explains Rifna Jerome, a post-doctoral fellow at Teagasc Ashtown’s food research centre: “Imagine taking this apparent waste matter — shells, once simply discarded as mere leftovers from the ocean ecosystem — and transforming it into a highly valued resource. Shell waste has a potential place at the cutting edge of biopolymer applications. This research will not only valorise shell waste, but marks a fascinating next step in the quest to develop robust, eco-friendly substitutes for polymers – materials which themselves raise numerous environmental concerns."

E-waste again. Printers. HP which was Hewlett Packard, tells me:

"One way to meet sustainability goals is to move towards carbon neutrality. To help you achieve that, HP offers simple and cost-effective services for organisations like yours to deliver a greener future without business disruption. Below are two case studies of companies who are doing just that in partnership with us.
Renault Group strengthens decarbonization commitment.

By using HP Device Recovery Service, the company’s end-of-use devices are securely collected, sanitized, and restored or responsibly recycled by HP. Through these efforts, Renault Group’s accelerating its sustainability goals and contributing towards the circular economy.

https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocu...

Cosmetic Company leader does an IT clean-up

When this leading cosmetics company moved office, HP supported their IT clean-up operation leading to 309 assets being collected, 75% being reconditioned and 25% recycled. ​
“Together with HP, we were able to carry out this IT clean-up operation simply and quickly, without having to worry about the details of government e-waste regulations,” says the corporate CTO.

https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocu...
During the Cleaning Days collection period, employees could bring
IT assets to a specific room with areas divided into four categories:
functional IT (desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets), working displays
(screens, monitors, televisions), network peripherals (routers, connectors,
network repeaters, electrical cords) and unusable devices. "

I'm told that in five to seven years, mercury in dental fillings will be phased out in Ireland. This is not being called a human health issue, it's called an environmental issue to stop mercury getting into soil and water.
I have refused mercury fillings for over 20 years. A white filling costs more but you are buying peace of mind.

Google says;
"On 14 July, the European Commission adopted a proposal to revise the Mercury Regulation, to introduce a total phase-out of the use of dental amalgam and prohibit the manufacture and export of dental amalgam from the EU from 1 January 2025 - 5 years earlier than expected."

Use of mercury-based dental fillings to be phased out

The Irish Times
https://www.irishtimes.com › news › health › use-of-mer...
mercury in dental fillings phased out from www.irishtimes.com
25 Jun 2018 — Dentists will no longer use amalgam on teeth of children under 15 and pregnant women.

The end of the toxic tooth filling era in the EU

EEB - The European Environmental Bureau
https://eeb.org › the-end-of-the-toxic-tooth-filling-era-in...
8 Feb 2024 — The EU has finally decided to tackle the largest remaining EU mercury application: dental amalgam, where mercury makes up 50% of its composition ...

EU Commission Bans Use of Dental Amalgam from 2025

Dentistry Today
https://www.dentistrytoday.com › eu-commission-bans-...
mercury in dental fillings phased out from www.dentistrytoday.com
14 Jul 2023 — The European Commission has published draft legislation to phase out dental amalgam in 2025. The revision of the EU Mercury Regulation has ...

Advice and explanations about your existing fillings here:
https://www.dentist.ie/your-oral-heal...

Historical buildings can be repurposed or demolished. Thanks to Iona McDuff for alerting me to this item. The small mansion was saved through community efforts and will benefit the community.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy6...

"The £5.3m award from the National Heritage Memorial Fund means the building now can be purchased and stabilised.

Mavisbank was a summer residence for John Clerk of Penicuik, a leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and a signatory to the 1707 Act of Union whose travels throughout Europe inspired the design.

The building is the first example in Scotland of the Palladian style of architecture, which drew on the designs of 16th-Century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio

In Victorian times it became a ground breaking mental hospital which offered a more compassionate approach to mental illness through activities like gardening.

But after the asylum closed, Mavisbank endured decades of neglect in the 20th Century. At one point in the 1950s the forecourt was used to store old cars."

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/04...

"While the intentions and initial impacts of energy labels are positive, consumers still require considerable energy and financial knowledge to understand label information. When people are faced with highly complex decisions like these which require significant knowledge and skills, they apply mental shortcuts. One such shortcut is where consumers fixate on the colourful, saliant energy rating within energy labels, ignoring other useful information.

This leads to ineffective decision making, where opportunities to enhance the energy efficiency of home appliances by replacing them with better rated new appliances is seen as more environmentally friendly than repairing current appliances."

In general, the consumer is being blamed in the article for changing an appliance rather than repairing it. But the improvements in manufacture have been so great every couple of years, that a repaired item may break with a different part quickly whereas a new item will last a decade or more.
Also, more expensive brands, which last longer, are the ones which use less energy / water/ repairs, in my experience. Cheap brands have often been described as breaking down just after guarantee expiry.

https://rte.social.ebu.io/GZN1MT4V1D

"The UN is concerned about the "increasingly serious" ecological impact of digitization. Digital waste has risen by 30% between 2010 and 2022, according to estimates published on Wednesday by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.

Two years ago, the figure was 10.5 million tonnes, according to the report. The issue of digital waste affects developing countries disproportionately, it says. Only a quarter of digital waste is collected in wealthy countries, and even less in developing countries.

"The digital economy is driving global economic growth, but it's also having an environmental impact," UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan told reporters.
...

"The ecological consequences of artificial intelligence (AI), "an intense energy consumer" according to Rebeca Grynspan, and of crypto-currencies worries her. The 13 major data center operators have more than doubled their energy consumption in just a few years. And the energy consumption of all this activity, equivalent two years ago to that of more than 40 million American households, is set to double by 2026.

In addition to optimizing resources and investing in renewable energies, the UN agency is calling for more regulations and international collaboration to ensure equitable access to digital technologies. A Global Digital Pact is due to be approved by the UN in a few months' time."

Clothing made of natural fibres can get ruined by moths. Moths indoors eat keratin, the protein that composes silk, wool, cashmere etc. Moths especially like clothes with residue from wearer contact.
Here's an article about checking, cleaning and choosing which clothes to dump or store safely.
Clothing with holes in it could be placed in a recycling bin and the fabric re-used as industrial rags. But try to get the moth eggs off it first by washing it.

https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/fashion/...

To read the whole article you would need to subscribe but you can take a look at the photo.

https://www.eco-business.com/news/pri...
Resa Boenard spent part of her childhood at Bantar Gebang, Southeast Asia's largest landfill. She worked for her parents' plastic bag recycling business and later launched a non-profit, The Seeds of Bantar Gebang, to help children living in the area. She recently launched an association for female waste collectors, which will train women to become financially independent. Image: Arbie Indonesia
By Robin Hicks

July 22, 2024
Men tend to spend the money they earn from collecting recyclables on coffee and cigarettes. Women spend it on food for the family.

When you dump a whole building, that's a sizeable environmental impact. At present, in Ireland, only a protected structure tends to be kept, and anything else tends to be demolished, and something much bigger replaces it.

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/09...

"Demolition Take Down is a research and engagement initiative aimed at revolutionising Ireland's demolition practices. The Irish construction industry accounts for 6% of the employed population, but generates 48% of all waste produced in Ireland and demolition is part of this business. We seek to uncover the underlying motivations and current challenges behind demolition practices in Ireland. Through explorative research and cross-disciplinary conversations, we aim to spark a shift in attitudes and behaviours within the construction industry.

Our existing buildings represent energy already expended and effort exhausted. To demolish a building and replace it with a new one repeats the environmental impact on the same site. The culture needs to change to one where adaptive reuse is valued over and above demolition and replacement buildings. This project is a call to action for policy makers, decision makers, councils, constriction industry works, clients and the public to take climate action now. Public attitudes are the life and death of a building."

https://www.ecowatch.com/sustainable-...

"A team of researchers has developed a more sustainable and affordable way to recycle metal found in electronic waste.

Researchers used electrothermal chlorination, or flash Joule heating (FJH), and carbochlorination to save several metals from e-waste by heating a material with an electric current. They published their findings in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s4428...

A vast e-waste dumping ground — and those who make a living off it. A photo journalist report that explores the intricacies of the electronic waste situation. Smartphones, connected watches, flat screens, computers and tablets that are thrown away have seen an increase of 82% increase since 2010. They are only part of what is being thrown away. Too much of it is basically single use, like the single use plastic.

At a site called Agbogbloshie, located in Accra, Ghana’s capital, is the world’s largest electronic waste dump. It used to receive 250,000 tons of electronic waste each year.

Electronic waste used to include every kind of electronic waste, from functional to non functional, plus all the loose pieces, from intact to broken or scrap.

Electronic waste is now supposedly separated into functional or non functional. Supposedly only functional electronics is included in the functional electronic waste, but this isn't true.

The developed world's hypocrisy is on full display when it comes to electronic waste, whose volume is continually increasing. The developed world literally can't be bothered to check out all the electronic waste so it gets properly sorted out. At best it gets cherry picked. It's just one facet of the waste that the developed world needs to get rid of without paying any of the costs associated with it's disposal.

We all see the local places that accept old electronic items that are no longer wanted. Stuff that still works gets mixed in with stuff that doesn't work. Some of it gets tested, some of it doesn't. There is just too much of it to test all of it. Only 22 percent of it gets placed into dedicated channels that properly recycle and dispose of it. So we end up with shipments that are properly sorted along with shipments that aren't properly sorted.

It's the same situation that recycled plastic waste faced. Good plastic waste mixed in with garbage. Eventually the main recipient of it said enough was enough and refused all recycled plastic shipments. This left the recycled plastic sitting in the country it was used in, and some of it shipped out to places where it could still be dumped, legally or not, though in limited quantities.

Ghana is still accepting functional e-waste but non functional e-waste is still getting dumped there as well. The same is happening elsewhere, non functional mixed in with functional,

Where the e-waste is dumped, there are people sorting it out, a lot of it by hand. There are also people taking the still working or repairable electronics out of the garbage dumps and putting them back into circulation. The recovered e-waste does provide jobs and does put new money into the local economies. That's the positive side.

But a lot of the e-waste just sits there, building up as mountains of garbage with highly toxic materials that leach out into the local land, rivers and streams. The rivers also take it down to the ocean eventually.

Sorting it out by hand ranges from picking up equipment and parts which can result in cuts, wounds, sometimes a broken bone. Another way of sorting the electronic waste is to pile it up and set it on fire. In the leftover remains and ashes are metal items that can be easily sold as scrap. There are other equally crude methods which seriously impact the health and welfare of local populations.

The smoke from the fire is toxic and the people burning the e-waste are not wearing any protective gear. The toxic smoke goes into the atmosphere, and the toxic ashes got scattered wherever the wind or rain carries them. The rainy season in Accra lasts 7 months, from April to October. June is the wettest month, with a greater than 37% chance of rain on any day.

The e-waste dumps are above ground. The rain is slowly washing the remains of the developed world's electronic waste into the environment. The electronic industry needs to redesign the products so they are sustainable, not one use and then throwaway, and not ending up in garbage dumps.

The rain is now also washing the infrastructure of the developed world apart as the infrastructure was not designed to meet the future weather demands. The developed world needs to start redesigning its infrastructure as well as everything else so it's sustainable. And sustainable now has a new added requirement, it must be able to withstand the new weather.


https://www.fondationcarmignac.com/en...

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-an...

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sh...

Recycling clashes with dumping to add to the litter issues, oddly enough. The solution is at hand.

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2024/1...

"Dublin City Council is modifying a number of bins in the city centre to try to prevent scavenging for plastic bottles and cans.

Surrounds which allow people to easily retrieve discarded drink containers are being added as part of a pilot programme.

The surrounds hold about a dozen cans and bottles at the front of the bin and will be attached to 80 of the 600 bins in Dublin city centre.

Since the Deposit Return Scheme began in February, businesses in the capital have reported increased litter levels as people scavenge in public bins and tear open plastic refuse sacks to retrieve discarded drinks containers, which are worth between 15 and 25 cent each when returned to a retailer.

Dublin City Council has launched a pilot programme called Give Take Return to try to put an end to the practice, which is causing littered streets and posing a safety risk.

The surrounds being placed on the bins will allow people to dispose of drinks containers and for those who want to retrieve them, to do so safely."

Africa's population is expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, which would be about 25 percent of the world's population. The current population is 1.3 billion. It has the largest mobile phone network because it works better than the traditional phone system. This has created the world's largest mobile phone commerce system.

A growing fashion industry is expanding throughout Africa as the people sift through all the clothing, apparel, and accessories that are shipped to Africa.

Africa has the largest used goods market in the world. Goods no longer wanted are shipped to Africa officially and unofficially. Appliances, electronics, phones, clothing, plastic items, are all sent to Africa. Some of it is sold immediately, some of it is repaired or refurbished, some of it is stockpiled, while the rest of it becomes trash, and some of it is trash before it is even sent to Africa.

Mountains of used goods that should have been properly disposed of by the original users are shipped to Africa where they end up being burned, buried in land fills, abandoned at makeshift dumping grounds or left to wash out into the ocean.

The use of the used goods is allowing Africa to become a developed collection of countries that will need a lot more power as the majority of people move into the cities from the rural areas. The current infrastructure can only supply a minimal amount of the goods needed to enable Africa to become a major player in the global supply system. The addition of the used goods will enable Africa to achieve that goal. In the meantime the price Africa pays is to take a good amount of the world's garbage and dispose of it however they want to.

Africa will expand its power grids most likely by the cheapest way possible. Coal and natural gas is the immediate solution. This has already been proven to be the case in China and India where the use of coal has managed to increase in the last few years and coal use is heading towards a point where it would stay about the same for awhile before supposedly declining. Europe and the US have decreased their use of coal but this has been offset by the increased use of coal in China and India.

The use of coal is slowly being replaced by natural gas. India has a very small alternative power system because it is too expensive to build. India has plans to add a considerable amount of natural gas powered electricity. China is adding a substantial amount of alternative power, generating more than any other country or group.

But the demand for additional power globally is not met one for one by alternative power. While it can be said that the percentage of the total amount of power being generated by carbon fuel is decreasing, the physical amount of carbon fuels is actually increasing.

As the US and Europe decrease their use of carbon fuels, that decrease is offset by Asia and India. As Asia and India decrease their carbon fuels, Africa's use of carbon fuels will increase because that will be the least expensive way to generate power.

Latin America gets a lot of power from hydroelectric sources which are thought to be able to still deliver power as the climate continues to change. For Africa, the prospect of hydroelectric power is that is will become less reliable/useful as the climate continues to change.

Africa has to take the least expensive paths to urbanization as it has the largest, fastest growing population with the least personal resources. That can be seen by the way the used good market is subsidized by the trash disposal of the unwanted used goods of the global economy. The generation of power will take the same route as it strives to provide enough power for the world's fast growing population. Burning trash for power is probably an option being considered as a lot of trash is being sent to Africa.

The world might have to consider disposing of its own used goods that are only good for trash when Africa is able build a reliable commerce network of new items supplied by manufacturing on the continent as well as importing new goods as the population of Africa shifts from a developing economy to a developed economy.

https://apnews.com/article/ghana-fash...

https://energydigital.com/sustainabil...