Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Use of plastic in the garden.  (Read 6397 times)

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #15 on: May 11, 2019, 05:05:37 am »
Recycling sounds nice and cozy and even when it is far better than making a new batch of that product there are often environmental considerations that are conveniently overlooked (or could have been avoided).
Glass recycling apparently often gets sent abroad since the manual labour of sorting glass is cheaper there - if we ignore the impact of transport.
Paper recycling means getting rid of the inks and binders and huge water usage - part solvable by avoiding glossy multipage brochures and vibrant colour printing.
Plastics aren't always as inert as folk think and can adsorb substances and leach substances.
The real answer is to reduce the usage of all these things and just stop buying stuff we really don't need and make what we do need last.

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #16 on: May 11, 2019, 07:05:49 am »
We've just about finished tidying our vegetable garden and have been surprised by the amount of plastic bits in the soil. Essentially these are string, cling film and plant labels. The compost heap contained the same, plus three kitchen knives. We've also discovered a 'dump' behind the barn, which dates back to the 80's, so was the product of the pre-rennovation French owners. That has bottle tops, water bottles, tablet blister packs, bags and all manner of other plastic stuff- the cans have rusted away but not the stainless razor blades. Going  to take a long time to clear it out as at some time it was buried in soil.

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2019, 07:33:17 am »
I’ve kinda believed what I’ve been fed: small changes everyone can make will add up, recycling and technology will do the rest.  But I think problems are more fundamental; we’re used to having so much stuff and food and things and services.

I would grow our own veg, but am mostly limited by time and our expectation of availability.
I read that Scottish widows was set up to ensure church ministers wives would have a reasonable life should their husbands pass away before them. This is what insurance should be about: providing a safety net. But now it’s an industry and customers who shout the loudest get the best deal and companies entice you with offers. Those who don’t shout or switch feel fleeced.  Couldn’t a computer program work out the statically necessary quote and do away with all the rest? Get these people doing something useful instead?

Shops with rafts of mostly plastic kids toys, others full pet gimmicks. It all seems so useless and futile.
I have hundreds of trees to plant, but no time to do it without taking time off work which I can’t afford either.
Garden centres full plants: is it wrong to suggest we go back to the ‘Dug for Victory’ (or no dig if preferred?)
All these sad obese people, every day knowing they should try to eat less and better but tempted beyond control and using more resources, spending their money.  The poor soil, mental health, the oceans...
...I’m feeling so despondent about it now. I overheard to two women talking yesterday, they felt the same. Story after story, both gone vegan; pollution from feedlots in America, Teflon, the oceans, plastic, whales, overpopulation...  One was almost crying and I knew there was nothing I could add.





pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #18 on: May 11, 2019, 10:38:32 am »
Even sadder are silly situations such as here. I usually have a vast excess of apples and some other fruits but nowhere local to give it away 'cos everyone else has enough and no central collection point because no-one would trust the donors not to have boobytrapped the fruit. I managed to give away most of my tomato and cucumber surplus last year to workers at the local gym but must have dumped several cwt of apples and stopped growing my usual excesses of veggies. It'd be no sweat to stick in an extra 50 or 100 runnerbeans fr'instance but I'd just be throwing it away.This winter i severely pruned all my orchard apple trees (as opposed to my espaliers) to open up the orchard and frankly to reduce the chuck-away. They were too tall for easy picking and even if I could give them away modern folk are too fussy about fallers. We've become spoilt and self-centred and greedy.

The sheer fact that soemone came up with the idea of monetising water in bottles really says it all. When we were kids there were fountains and troughs everywhere, the corona lorry delivered to viallges and we got a few pennis back on the empties - washed and reused was recycling - not crushing and melting.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #19 on: May 11, 2019, 12:44:35 pm »
The Green Gym movement is so obvious but people still prefer to fork out thousands to join the latest and most fashionable indoor gym.  It's THE place to be seen  ::) , ostentatious exercise, bulging muscles, a total waste of food-turned-to-energy, then whooshed out to the atmosphere via the power hungry air conditioning unit.  Our Green Gym is our own smallholding, where all the work and exercise we do is to achieve an end, to produce something, including nearly all the food we eat, which in turn gives us the energy to do the work.  That's not wasteful.  We plant and grow-on loads of trees which help to suck up our stray carbon output, our sheep eat grass so don't emit so much methane as indoor artificially fed ruminants.  Other people's green gyms might be allotments, looking after woodlands, clearing up litter by roadsides and on beaches - all using that energy to do work.  The Green Gym doesn't seem to have been promoted much, and it's often older folk with spare time on their hands who take up the opportunity. 


Don't be despondent Steph Hen - the situation is desperate but I am putting my faith in doing the small things we can, and in the rising power and influence of the young folk today.  Gaia is doing her best to give us all a good shake-up with storms and flooding, earthquakes and mudslides, surely we must all take notice - not everyone in the world can be so stupid as to deny what's happening.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2019, 12:46:42 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #20 on: May 11, 2019, 01:00:56 pm »
There is a new type of plastic made from cornstarch it is genuinely bio degradable but is not suitable for all plastic replacement because of that very reason 
 You can make your own pots but I don't know how long they will last, .see the link
https://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Biodegradable-Plastic/


I'm using my bottomless seed growing tubes , most are now in their ninth or tenth year , in winter I wash & sterilise them & th holding trays for the next seasons sowings .
 All the are made  from solvent weldable 40 mm waste pipe carefully cut to 54 mm lenghts with a roundel of old 10 mm thick gym mat pushed down in to the bottom which has been punched with a 3 mm hole for drainage. I have also cut some 74 mm x 50 dia  tubes for bigger plants .
 Being small and parallel round tube it's a doddle to push the plant upwards with a bit of broom stick or a dedicated pusher to get the plug of plant & root out the smooth bore tube and slip it in a simple pre -made hole .

 They also use far less seed compost that any other plant pots . I think I've got the optimal size too  as the seeds stay in the same pot from being sown till planted out  .


 They will be good for the next 30 or so years if they are kept out of sunlight when not being used .
 The roundels being made of a genuine rubber foam will crumble & decay & can be replaced with a bio degradable PLA plastic printed on my 3D printer when needed ..
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #21 on: May 12, 2019, 07:47:59 am »
I am scared of the corn starch plastic because my son is allergic to corn, even traces and after its been processed into other things.

A question I like to ask people when we're on the topic is "as a percetage how much of what we do now do you think needs to change?" The answers are around 70-90%.

Cloddopper, your pipes sound good. I remembered yesterday that in the past I've used loo rolls and also dcardboard boxes for seeds  and they do alright.

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Use of plastic in the garden.
« Reply #22 on: May 20, 2019, 11:23:00 pm »
There is a simple tool that the you can use to make plant pots out of newspapers.
 My mate Paul made one out of wood .
It consists of a dumpy roller and a cup that you push the loaded roller into ,  it folds the bottom up nicely …
 So long as you ensure that the top edge is below the surface of the  soil when planting  everything will be Ok …… leave it above the ground and it will act like a wick and dry out the soil & the plant in short order .

 There might be one or two on the likes of eBay .

 Don't worry about British news paper the inks do not have heavy metals contents these days and they are not toxic either .

Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

 

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