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Repair your electric woodworking tools! No need to waste money on new tools. Many more parts available in our store.

https://shop.tittlesntattles.org/parts/557-makita-electric-planer-rotorarmature.html

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After some hard work we managed to get some more electronic devices for recycling!

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After a lot of canvassing we finally received electronic devices for recycling! More devices to arrive which will help keep landfills free from e-waste!

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Plastic, the loathing and the recycling thereof

Introduction In recent years people are more and more into detesting plastic and moving away from it and this (in a big part) is due to the harmful effects plastic has on the environment. This abhorrent feeling is aimed at all kinds of plastic like bottles, food containers, Styrofoam, straws etc. The harm plastic cause is done to landfills, ultimately harming the environment by releasing toxins into the soil. Let’s look further at all this plastic and the hatred aimed towards it The good People have wizened-up to the fact that plastic is bad for the environment. This is due to the fact that plastic is not really bio-degradable which means that most pieces of plastic from the mid to late 1900’s are still around today! Unlike some other materials turning into compost and ultimately completing the ecological cycle, plastic doesn’t exactly do this and that’s in addition to taking up huge amounts of space! Burning plastic is not a good idea as it releases toxic gases, which in turn destroys the ozone layer and as a result we are more exposed to the harmful effects of the sun’s rays. This means more people developing all sorts of skin cancer raising the mortality rates across the world. So reducing and ultimately replacing plastic is definitely a move in the right direction, but let’s look at this a little deeper. The bad Plastic is in more things than we realise! Let’s break this down into more understandable terms. Firstly, poly forms part of the plastic molecular structure from which plastic is derived. What I mean by “plastic molecular structure” is that poly is short for polymer. From this polymer molecule it gets changed to form different types of plastic. (Please bear in mind this is a very simple, almost dumbed down explanation) This means polyurethane, polyethylene, polyvinyl, poly are all forms of different types of plastic. So the paint that you use: if it shows poly as one of the ingredients on the container it has a derivative of plastic. PVA wood glue is polyvinyl acetate — that’s right Poly! So there’s a derivative of plastic from the poly molecular structure. Those are just two examples of the not so obvious plastic content found in products. Keep in mind though that this expands to other products we use as well which might not be that obvious to be related to plastic. This excludes examples of obvious plastic products we use and are familiar with. For instance, the plastic water pipes used around houses to direct rain water away and potable water into the house are (most of the time) plastic! The containers we are left with after eating that healthy yogurt or drinking that anti-oxidant smoothie is (most likely) plastic or has some plastic element to it. Not to mention the straw you used to get the delicious tasting smoothie into your mouth. Now let’s look at the flip-side of this same coin! Realistically speaking plastic is in almost everything we use and see around us today! But is suddenly banning all things plastic really the way forward? Is getting rid of plastic all at once really a viable option, not to mention sustainable? If plastic is suddenly banned from everyday life and replaced with alternatives, will these alternatives be any better? For instance, way back it was discovered that CFC gas in fridges destroys the ozone layer when released. This was, consequently, replaced with alternatives called HFC and HCFC gases in order to reduce this damage from CFC gas. Great! All’s well that ends well –right? Hmmmm not exactly if you read these….. HFC refrigerants and climate change & HCFC and climate change So the question (if plastic is suddenly banned) is: How much time was put into research of the replacement product to ensure we don’t perpetuate the situation or (God forbid) start a new trend that is equal or more harmful to the environment? The second point of just outright banning plastic is that we are looking at a huge amount of money in everyday circulation which will suddenly be wiped out! It is estimated that the plastic industry is in the region of 1.1 trillion dollars in 2016 and is reported to grow in the years to come! “Yeah? And? So what?” You might be thinking. “It’s only money!” Good points, but let’s put that into perspective! If we suddenly ban all things plastic that means factories producing chemicals to make plastic will shut their doors. Manufacturers of plastic products will shut theirs and shops selling these plastic products will shut theirs (or hugely reduce their variation of products on sale) and so on and so on. That might not sound so bad, but it is. All these places suddenly shutting their doors will mean that there will be huge amounts of people out of work and as we already know that if you have no work you have no money. With no money in your pocket you will not be able to eat nor will you be able to feed any dependents. This equates to famine of Biblical proportions! That’s not even considering the trillions of dollars suddenly cut out of the world economy and the effects that will have on things like the housing market, the car industry, the farmers who produce crops for people to eat — to name but a few. Then we need to keep other products in mind! Composition C — is an explosive. More accurately, this is a family of related US-specified plastic explosives! That’s right- PLASTIC explosives. So suddenly not being able to have the construction industry blow holes into mountains for trains, cars & buses to travel, we’re left with flying & hiking only as it could be fatal to try and build a road along the sides of the mountains. Not to mention how long this process will take compared to using explosives. Next up on the list is rubber-based products. Car tyres, rubber sole shoes are only 2 products. The list of rubber products goes on, but you get the idea. The ugly Now that we have covered the hate and the financial impacts of trying to rid the world from plastic, let’s look at this in today’s day and age and what is happening. Let’s focus on recycling. Unfortunately not all is well in the land of recycling and as a result we seem to be fighting a losing battle!  Exposed: How Amazon destroys millions of new items it can’t sell with everything from TVs to kitchen equipment, books and nappies dumped in landfill sites Now before you redirect your hate towards Amazon, please keep reading…. There are companies who have been “caught” for not living up to their agreements. These are companies who are “claiming” to be helping in that they recycle waste, but it turned out not all of them live up to that motto: We asked 3 companies to recycle Canadian plastic and secretly tracked it. Fortunately, this is not exactly true for all of these companies named in the above linked article, but it’s still bad enough. Of course, it is easy to say these companies need to step up to the table by doing more, but is it really that simple? So, part of combating pollution and in trying to do their bit for nature, some grocery shops have started banning single use plastic bags. This resulted in a new phenomenon: Bag ban has unwanted result & Countdown shopping baskets ‘gone for a walk’ as people take them home. This shows that it’s not a simple, clear-cut one size fits all solution when it comes to banning plastic! In NZ there is an organisation called ACC. ACC is an abbreviation for Accident Compensation Corporation and (in short) they provide cover for injuries sustained. However it’s been discovered that they have some answers to provide based on their fossil fuel investments: questioned over billion-dollar fossil fuel investments As most people know, plastic is interlinked with fossil fuels (over 99%) in that fossil fuels are used to produce the very plastic we use which, in turn, results in the very same pollution crises we are facing. Now we need to look at the companies behind plastic manufacturers: How Fossil Fuel Companies Are Killing Plastic Recycling They are most certainly not helping much with what we are trying do, however (as said earlier) it’s not that simple to just tell them to stop producing fossil fuel for plastic manufacturing! Even if they do stop producing fossil fuel for plastic manufacturing, most of the existing plastic taking up space in landfills works out to cost a significant amount to be trucked from one landfill to another: 100 tonnes of recycling trucked out of district Even though people might question the trucking of this plastic waste between landfills, it is a big eye opener to look at the shipping cost involved in conveying plastic. All the above does not even include the electronics industry and the waste they produce when creating new electronic devices! And now for the first time, recycled plastic has become more expensive It’s easy to start lashing out at these companies to do better, however another thing to keep in mind is the ethics behind it all. This is not just recycling, but also creating new products to help make the planet a better place! The ethics of electric vehicle batteries All this is just one side of the equation. Then we haven’t even covered fridge gases released when recycling old fridges and not to mention building waste! Let alone the latest craze of “fast fashion” filling up landfills or enforcing greenhouse gas emission bills on the farming industry: Farmers’ greenhouse gas emissions bill will lead to higher food prices Technically these do not constitute towards plastic pollution, but it still exacerbates the problems we are facing. And more countries are refusing to accept plastic: China stopped accepting plastic & Indonesia vows to send back contaminated plastic waste to New Zealand Granted some readers might think that with China, one might convince them to accept the plastic, but it looks like this time around China is at least stepping up to the plate by sticking to their ban On top of all these mentioned issues, there’s yet another challenge — Recyclers face ‘mountains’ of abandoned bikes Even though it could be said that this is not so bad as most of the bike parts can be recycled, the problems are 1) the space these bicycles take up while waiting to be recycled. 2) the potential hazards it causes to nature while waiting to be stripped and recycled. 3) the consideration of how much new waste is created (like the paint stripped off the frames etc.)? Also keep in mind that there could be parts that might not be recyclable which begs the question: What will happen to these parts? I guess it’s safe to say that these bicycle recycling efforts should be commended, although there is also another glimmer of hope: McDonald’s to recycle used cups and turn them into cup holders. This is some good news, although this makes reference to McDonalds only and not other fast-food places. As also stated in the article, this is only a trial for now. Great idea and good on them for trying, as doing a little is better than doing nothing at all in our fight against plastic & pollution, but for how long will this last and what is the long term plan? In addition to McDonald’s efforts, Ireland has also stepped up to the plate with the first reverse vending machine that allows people to recycle plastic bottles in return for 10c vouchers This article raises a few questions though! Who pays for the 10c that people get back? This has to be levied somewhere which means that once again the people are paying extra for this. Then we need to look at how many bottles make it to the vending machine compared to how many bottles are thrown away? What ultimately happens to the vending machine bottles? At some point these bottles have to reach end of life from all the recycling (like everything else in this world) and this makes me wonder if there is a proper process in place to get rid of the old unusable plastic? I mean get rid of the old unusable plastic in an environmentally friendly manner. These questions are only asked around the plastic bottles. We also need to ask questions around the vending machines. For instance, how much waste is created when producing these machines and (more importantly) when the vending machine reaches end of life, how much of the parts are recyclable? And those parts that are not recyclable, how much damage do they cause to the environment? Last but most certainly not least, we have a knight in shining armour: 4Ocean These guys are doing tremendous work whereby they remove plastic waste (most of it from oceans)! It is definitely worth visiting their website and giving them huge amounts of support. They have removed tonnes of plastic waste from our beautiful oceans. This is not just cleaning up the oceans so we can enjoy swimming and surfing, but it in turn also helps the creatures who have to live in these polluted oceans. So many of these creatures are dying from getting plastic stuck in their mouths or stomachs which means that these situations takes us closer to watching more species becoming extinct! In conclusion From the looks of it, not only has the human race dug itself into a deep, “plastic” hole, it has done so in a catch-22 way. What do I mean by that? As I said above: to suddenly ban all things plastic will not be such a great idea due to the greater effects it will have on different industries and markets. To continue like we’ve done is not an option either! We will just hasten the harmful effects of plastic on the environment ultimately destroying our beautiful planet and in turn destroy ourselves! That’s the catch 22 part. The hole we’re in is that we’ve gone in this devastating direction for so long that to suddenly replace plastic with something similar yet more bio-degradable will require a significant amount of research and development to ensure we are 1) not creating a product more harmful to the planet 2) not taking too long with this R&D that by the time we have something going it is too late One suggestion to help save the planet is to cut ourselves off from all the things this world has to offer, in other words have a more vicarious existence. Now that might be a suggestion albeit not a good one, because this is going completely against the nature of humans. The point is that if there is a river, humans would want to cross it, if there is a mountain, humans would want to climb it i.e. conquer & overcome challenges. Another suggestion is investing millions into reducing plastic waste Who will ultimately fund this, I have no idea! So with all the above in mind I guess the lesson is to re-program our mindsets to be more aware of what we use and where/how we can re-use something to stop it from going to the landfill. In doing so, we can prolong the life of these items and keep them out of landfills for a longer period. Of course this is not a solution nor is it a long term solution, but at least this can be used as a first step towards becoming more aware of our usage, waste & our environment. Just to quickly clarify my point: Instead of chucking that plastic bottle or lolly wrapper out the car window just so you can feel good about driving in a clean car, think twice and try to hang on to that plastic waste until you can put it into a recycling bin if you’re not able to re-use it somewhere else. Throwing it out the window, you’re just soothing your mind by shifting your responsibility onto someone else. That someone else is not necessarily a local council’s cleaner who can pick that plastic up before it gets blown away by the wind and ends up in a stream or some open land. In short — think before you pollute! Read the full article

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Completed another pyrography art work project!

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Maori art work ❤️

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Pyrography art work in progress 💋