NZ Whaling Activist

The NZ Whaling activist, Peter Bethune, that was arrested during the last Sea Shepherd season in the southern Ocean has been deported from Japan after being given a suspended suspense for illegally boarding a Japanese whaling boat (as reported by ABC website).

An interesting outcome. I actually suspected that he would get the 'book thrown at him'. Really more like it was swept under the carpet. In the end he only served a total of 4 months in a Japanese prison. Pin It

Final product....pumpkins

Well despite the overload of vines that I had in my veggie patch and felt like a weight on my shoulders. The finished product, that is the pumpkins, were tasty and looked pretty damn fantastic too (if I do say so myself).

Here is one of said pumpkins....



My remaining vines have three fruit still ripening. The vines themselves are looking a little scrappy, so I suspect I will be having some form of pumpkin for dinner in the next few weeks. Yum yum! Pin It

Climate Smart Home Inspection...energy efficient light bulbs

Just thought I would post that I am not too impressed with the couple of energy efficient light bulbs that my Climate Smart Home inspector put into the few light bulb fittings in my house that weren't already this format. The one in the hallway that he put in seems to take 'forever' to illuminate. So much so that I actually generally double take back to the light switch because I don't think I have actually turned it on. However, the light starts to glow just as I re-reach for the light switch and reminds me that it wasn't me it was just the light bulb taking forever to glow.

Not sure whether this is the brand/type etc of energy efficient light bulb that they have put in, but none of my other ones in my house have this delay. It is just bugging me a bit. Pin It

Is investing in residential solar power worth it?

Presently we have a gas hot water system and because this isn't an electricity consuming appliance I haven't really entered into the whole debate as to whether it would be better (both financially and/or environmentally) to invest in solar power/hot water. However, today a plumber informed me that my gas hot water system is soon to crumble and die, so I thought now is the time to start to think about it.

My primary concern is that if I invest what to me is a significant amount of money into this residential solar technology, will I still have to 'pay' for electricity. I understand that I would still get an electricity bill because my solar panels will just in effect be feeding into the grid and not actually providing me the electricity directly. However will the amount of energy I pump into the grid offset the amount that I take from the grid, given the loading times and different tariffs for those times. That is, I will be generating most power during the day and taking most power during the mornings and evenings, so my generated solar power would in effect have to be greater than the amount I take from the grid to negate the difference in tariff rate.

Anyone, know whether it is financially appropriate to think solar for the investment you have to make or am I better off investing in a new on-demand gas hot water system?

I guess my thoughts are I have happy to some degree to make a significant outlay to purchase a solar electricity system but don't also want to still be slugged with a significant electricity bill each quarter. Pin It

Animals in your backyard

Do you know what native animals visit your back yard? I have a small to medium sized block in the northern suburbs of Brisbane and I am amazed at the number of species that do frequent my backyard throughout the year.

Here is an initial list of species that I know have visited my backyard over the last five years:

• Australian magpie
• Southern boobook
• Little wattlebird
• Silvereyes
• Brown honeyeater
• Scaly-breasted lorikeet
• Rainbow lorikeet
• Green tree frog
• Laughing kookaburra
• Torresian crow (a lot of them)
• Australian white ibis
• Azure kingfisher
• Black-faced cuckoo-shrike
• Blue-faced honeyeater
• Crested pigeon
• Figbird
• Magpie-lark
• Noisy miner
• Pied butcherbird
• Spangled drongo
• Sulphur-crested cockatoo
• Pheasant coucal
• White-faced heron
• Eastern reef egret
• Willie wagtail
• Blue-tongued lizard

Nasty pest species that come and visit my backyard all too often:

• Common myna
• Cane toad
• Feral pigeon (or rock dove)
• Spotted dove

Pin It

Recycling numbers...what do they mean?

Many of the plastics and products that we all have in our kitchen and around the house have the chasing arrow recyclable symbols with numbers on them. But what do they mean?

Well, I have looked into it and here is an explanation:

1 (PETE) -Poly(ethylene terephthalate) - soft drink bottles, etc
2 (HDPE) - High-density Polyethylene - containers for milk, laundry powders, softeners, etc
3 (V) - Poly(vinyl cloride) - pipes, shower curtains, baby bottle nipples, etc
4 (LDPE)- Low-density Polyethylene - plastic wrap, plastic bags, etc
5 (PP)- Polypropylene - nappies, plastic containers
6 (PS) - Polystyrene - disposable cutlery, cups, meat trays, etc.
7 (Other) - other - who know what this is?

What can you truly recycle in your weekly recycling bin picked up by your local Council?

Apparently according to Choice magazine, most Council accepts products marked as either 1 or 2. Choice also indicates that quite often all the rest of the recyclable plastics (3-7) are bundled together and reproceesed overseas.

What can't be recycled:
The following are some unacceptable recyclables, even though they’re made of recyclable plastic.

• A high-density polyethylene (HDPE) container if it has carried a hazardous substance.
• Plastic shopping bags, low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging film, small bits of polystyrene packaging. This lightweight packaging is likely to get blown out and contaminate the paper stream in the MRF, unless the facility is fully automated and uses optical laser sorting technology.
• Plastic bottle lids. They’re generally made of different plastic from the container and may fall through the holes in the sorting cylinder (trommel), or create air pressure in a closed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle when it’s compressed, so that when the bottles pop open, the bales can fall apart. However, because they’re a valuable source of recyclable plastic, some MRF operators now advise recycling plastic lids, as optical sorters can deal with the different plastics issue – so follow your council’s advice.

http://www.choice.com.au/Life-Stage/Green-living/Recycle%20and%20re-use/Plastic-recycling/Page/Which%20plastics%20can%20be%20recycled.aspx

More information about your local Council's situation can be found at:

http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/

Pin It

Don't tie up your garbage bags!

A friend of mine has currently been spending a lot of time at the refuse transfer stations around Brisbane for reasons that remain a little foggy. But despite his new odour (just kidding) he has some insight into what happens to our 'normal' rubbish after it is collected by the rubbish truck each week.

Upon taking our rubbish from our wheelie bins it goes to a transfer station where our rubbish is sorted. Seriously! I just didn't think that would ever happen. All the stuff that goes into our bins I thought that it would all be taken immediately to a large hole in the ground, compacted and then covered over. But no! It is sorted into products that can be reclaimed, recycled, composted, etc. I find this amazing!

The moral of the story is thus, don't tie up the plastic bags you put your household waste before you place them into your wheelie bins! Why you ask? This is because if your garbage bag is tied, then the products in the plastic bag are generally less likely to be sorted into their appropriate waste streams (recycling, reclaiming, composting or landfill) and just end up going straight to that landfill stream. So if you leave your bags untied the contents can escape and be appropriately sorted. Pin It