I went to an Australian Conservation Foundation event the other night featuring Professor Ian Lowe. He was a very good speaker, clear and plain. His main comment about how to address climate change was that we need to be more energy efficient. This brought to mind many things. My local council is having an exhibition with an environmental theme, and I had the idea to create an installation from my 22-year-old (and looking it) kettle and my not-quite-as-old hot water bottle. They go together anyway, and they both bit the dust around the same time. The kettle looked bad (like it had been on endless camping trips where it sat over an open fire) but the main reason I disposed of it thoughtfully was because it began to leak from the bottom so was no longer functional. The hot water bottle's rubber disintegrated when I filled it up one night, also rendering it useless. I gave the kettle to a friend to recycle the metal. The hot water bottle I kept with the public installation in mind, thinking to title it 'Letting things get old' (although the friend suggested I should call it 'Letting things get very dirty').
My mother, who was 10 when the Great Depression started (1929), hated old things, wanted everything to be new. At the time I was a hippy engrossed in old clothes, the older the better - 1940s, 30s, 20s. I even got my mother to make one of my grandmother's dresses 2 or 3 sizes smaller, and still wear it now. I have a vest of my grandfather's which I never wear but cannot part with (it has a darned hole - really).
Well all this gets round to asking why do we dispose of things so unthoughtfully? Partly because they probably don't last as long anyway (I can put this to the test with the new kettle which is the same brand), as we all know by now that it is not in capitalism's favour to make things that last. And partly because we don't appreciate old things, right down to people. But that would get me on to a whole other subject. I intend to explore the energy efficiency concept further, but one aspect is production (and over production).
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6 comments:
Have you still got your old hot water bottle? ...and if so what will you do with it?
I'm still looking for an environmentally friendly way of dealing with mine.
Jill
It is sitting in the kitchen and I am tossing up whether to take a silly photo of it. Probably will and may post it on this blog, but it won't be very aesthetic! Will explore what can be done with it that is recyclable. Have proved that rubber rots but whether it can be recycled is another matter. Wanted to put my dear old kettle in the garden with a plant in it but it only had one opening (the spout) so wasn't practicable.
Like you I also think we dispose of things far too thoughtlessly. I hate throwing old things away especially if I’ve had them for a long time and become attached to them. I have two old hot water bottles in one of my cupboards which are unusable but, hopefully, waiting to take their place one day in some recycling scheme, if such a scheme ever becomes available. Sadly, rubber seems to be one material which is difficult to recycle. Tell me if you think this sounds daft, but I hate the thought of just throwing them in the bin - it seems such a waste.
Aesthetic or not, I like the idea of the photo. A fitting memento of an old faithful friend, I would say.
Jill
Photo coming soon, promise!
just-lilly, ou may be interested in reading about a new initiative for recycling old tyres in Australia http://www.csiro.au/news/Recycling-tyres.html
Hi Andrea.
Thanks for the link to this interesting article. Any new project designed to reduce waste is encouraging.
I hate waste and I’m on a personal mission to reduce my own waste as close as possible to zero but rubber is one area I have a problem with. Here in the UK we still have a long way to go when it comes to household recycling. I think I might resuscitate my dormant blog page, get on my soapbox and try to generate some discussion on the subject of domestic rubber recycling!
Jill
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