Clik here to view.
In search of the biodegradeable shoe
I have reached the end of the line with my footwear. I can see daylight through the heel of my trainers, and when I went to London in the rain last week, I realised my favourite work shoes are no...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How much food can one household buy?
I was in the library last week, and found myself browsing the periodicals. Out of curiosity I picked up The Grocer, Britain’s leading magazine for food retailers. Wow. What another world. I definitely...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The top ten littered brands in the UK
Keep Britain Tidy have announced the results of the litter league of shame, the top ten most littered brands in the country. Drum roll please: 1. McDonald’s 2. Cadbury 3. Greggs 4. Wrigley 5....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let’s hear it for the uglies
Here’s a little sample of the carrot crop out of my back garden – aren’t they magnificent? Okay, I’ve not prepared the ground properly and left my carrots to dodge the pebbles on their way south. And I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Feeding the five thousand
Two years ago anti-waste campaigners fed 5,000 people in London from food that was otherwise going to be thrown away. On friday they’re repeating the stunt – and you’re invited. If you can get down to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building of the week: a really rubbish bridge
In another life, I could happily have been an architect. I even looked into it at one point when choosing a university course, until I realised how long it takes to qualify and decidedly to focus on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Switzerland out to tidy up space
In 2009, Switzerland launched its first satellite. Called the SwissCube, it’s function was to train people in the building, launch and use of satellites, and was run as a university project. Now the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 facts about your clothing footprint
Okay, ‘clothing footprint’ is an awkward term, but it’s a useful catch-all for the land, water, chemicals, resources and emissions embodied in our clothing. It includes growing the fibres,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reinventing the toilet for the 21st century
Toilets that don't need sewers and use no water? No problem.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dive! – living off America’s waste
About ten years ago I visited some friends in Wheaton, Illinois who lived very well out of the dumpsters. There were seven or eight of them living in one house, and they would divide up and decide who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Building of the week – THTKB
On a normal building site, 20% of the materials are wasted. It means that for every five houses built, the equivalent of a whole other house is thrown away. In 2008 the TV series Grand Design set out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The indestructible football
When we lived in Madagascar, keeping us in footballs was an ongoing challenge for my dad. You couldn’t really buy quality balls, so we went through a cheap and badly stitched ball every few weeks....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Guerilla composting with the Urban Farming Guys
Every year when the leaves fall off the trees, I find myself walking past a big pile of bagged up leaves and thinking I should take some home. Inevitably, I always come across the council’s efforts on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The changing culture of disposability
In the past, most things that you owned were built to last. Household goods were expensive, and you looked after what you had, repairing things and maintaining them. In the early 20th century, new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Food waste in developing countries
The issue of food waste was in the news last week, after a report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers showed that up to 50% of the world’s food is wasted. We usually look at this from our own...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waste and the definition of affluence
Yesterday’s post about waste was from a developing world point of view, but I read an interesting counterpoint last night. It’s from Mark Burch, writing on the idea of Sufficiency for the Simplicity...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Saving the dark
I’d heard of nature reserves, marine reserves, and national strategic oil reserves. Dark reserves are a new one to me, but Britain got its second this month. Brecon Beacons National Park, in Wales, has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ecover’s recovered sea plastic packaging
I’ve written in the past about the continent-sized mass of floating plastic debris that circles in the Pacific ocean. There’s one in the Atlantic too, and three others. Each of them marks a confluence...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scotland investigates landfill mining
One of the signs of resource depletion is the development of unconventional alternative sources. As prices rise, more exotic forms of extraction become economically viable. In the case of oil, it’s now...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The People’s Design Lab
I’ve shared a few different sustainable design projects recently, the most recent being three different ways to make a toaster. There’s a real movement underway for ways to re-design things to design...
View Article
