Posted by Greenbang on December 10th, 2008
Is this the ultimate in recycling? Even the adult industry is jumping on the green bandwagon with the environmentally friendly disposal of sex toys.
The project is being led by sex toy manaufacturer Dreamscapes, which has started a way for people to pop their used or broken (there’s an image Greenbang is trying to get out of its head right now) vibrators, dildos, plugs and other sex toys into the post.
At the other end, so to speak, the toys are cleaned (thank goodness) and disassembled. The rubber, silicone, plastic, motorised parts and batteries will be sent to recycling facilities that will process the materials for reuse.
Anyway, if you’re in need of recycling broken sex aids then the website is here.
Posted by Greenbang on November 28th, 2008
Greenbang’s a happy bunny today. Not only is it almost the weekend but the BBC has revealed it is to remake the sci-fi classic The Day of the Triffids.
For those unaware of the Triffids, this tale of man-eating plants scared the hell out of UK telly audiences in the early 1980s.
TV special effects being what they were back then it’s a series that has dated badly, with the terrorising plants looking like a cross between a giant leek and a lily.
What’s all this got to do with renewable energy and clean tech, you may quite rightly be asking yourself? Well The Day of the Triffids, by English sci-fi author John Wyndham, sets out a what was then a futuristic vision of 2011 with the earth’s fossil fuel supply exhausted and a new crop discovered that can be cultivated for biofuel - the Triffid.
The bit about the flesh-eating biofuel crops might be a little far-fetched but the rest of this sci-fi vision from the original 1951 novel is a little too close to the truth for comfort.
ER and Law & Order writer Patrick Harbinson has scripted the Beeb’s latest Triffids adaption, which will be shown in two episodes on the small screen next year.
More from the Beeb here.
Posted by Petah Marian on October 29th, 2008
Ethical singletons of the world rejoice, there is now an online dating destination where you can find your vegan activist life partner.
Ethicalsingles.com has been designed for people who want to help to make a better world find each other.
While Greenbang’s ‘dance card’ is currently full she did sign up just to check out what was on offer and was not disappointed. Naturally the site is geared towards the eco-warrior with menus where you can define your favourite areas of activism, whether you’re interested in astrology or alternative healing and where exactly you sit on the vegetarian – carnivore scale.
On a good note there seemed to be a lot more sensitive souls than on your regular dating site (not that I’d know anything about that).
To explore further check it out here.
Posted by Greenbang on October 27th, 2008
Hi there Greenbangers
Don’t forget that we’re meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday) for the Greenbang Sustainable Technology Group.
These monthly events are a great chance to get into clean tech if you’re new to it, or to meet like-minded folk who are doing some amazing things.
We’re running this one from 6pm to 8pm. Bring business cards and also send us any pics or stories from the night.
The venue: Bar Lvpo
50 Dean St
London W1D 5BQ
You can either RSVP me (dan@greenbang.com) or sign up to the group here…
Posted by Petah Marian on October 15th, 2008
Timed to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair, just next-door at the London Zoo a different kind of exhibition is taking place.
The Recycled Sculpture Show is an exhibition of 21 sculptures that will be auctioned to raise funds to support worldwide animal conservation at ZSL London Zoo.
Pieces include a great white hub-cap shark, ceramic trees made of human ashes and a wooden horse that evokes Damien Hirst without all of that icky formaldehyde.
The exhibition has focused on raising awareness of worldwide animal conservation re-using only wasted resources and salvaged materials in creating animal sculptures.
Providing much thought about recycling and the interdependence of animals and humans, the show will end when the online auction ends on Monday 20th October.
For those interested in seeing the exhibition, you can gain free entry between 3.30pm - 4.30pm by simply texting ART followed by the day you want to visit and your full name to 80876. This offer applies to these dates only. 150 names will be chosen at random per day.
For more information go to www.recycledsculptureshow.co.uk.
Posted by Petah Marian on October 7th, 2008
Bingo is now the most popular leisure activity for women between 20 and 25 years old, according to a recent study. Greenbang wonders how the study arrived at these figures given that her friends in that particular demographic are more likely to be propping up a bar somewhere than listening to a tangerine coloured man (or woman) make cheesy puns about numbers. But hey, the numbers never lie.
Now it’s going all green with the All Bingo Club running environmentally friendly bingo promotions “aimed at helping raise awareness for the environment, while still offering a great time playing bingo!”
The online bingo provider will let players offset their PC’s carbon emissions while playing bingo. For every new player that joins, enough trees will be planted to cancel out the 135kg of CO2 that one PC generates in a year.
The All Bingo Club has even revamped two bingo calls to give them a green feel. Players gaining a full house on “number 3 Plant a tree,” will get a tree planted in their name, and “number 73 Queen Bee” will receive an additional £73 pounds, to raise awareness of the honey bee whose numbers are falling as a result of climate change.
Posted by Petah Marian on September 29th, 2008
If alien explorers came to our earth 100 million years from now, what would they find?
Dr Jan Zalasiewcz, a lecturer in geology at the University of Leicester, has published a book called The Earth After Us, asking that very question.
It takes the perspective of alien explorers arriving on earth, their geologists studying the layers of rock and using the clues to piece together its history over several billion years.
Stumbling upon the period in which humans lived they see a striking signal of climate changes, extinctions and strange movements of wildlife across the planet. Following this trail, the clues in the rocks lead them to the petrified remains of cities and the fossilised bones of those who built them.
Zalasiewicz says:
“Looking to the distant future gives us a warning for the present: our activities have already left a significant footprint on the planet, and not a flattering one. It is not too late to limit it. We would not wish to be dubbed by future explorers the ‘amazingly clever and utterly foolish two-legged ape’.”
Posted by Greenbang on September 29th, 2008
Thanks to Greenbang contributor Rob Ashwell for tipping us off to this great article in the New York Times about the increasing popularity of solar panels - among thieves.
The paper says California police are reporting a spike in thefts of solar panels, with many being sold on to homeowners over the internet. One incident cited involves solar panels being stolen from a toll road in Newport Beach ending up on eBay for $100 each.
People are being advised to engrave some form of ID onto their solar panels in case of theft. Or you could just take the precautions of one resident who lost 16 panels in three seperate burglaries. She told the paper:
“I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow.”
Hmmm, then again maybe it’s better advice to just scratch your driving licence ID onto the panels.
Posted by Greenbang on September 25th, 2008
Harry Hill - the genius behind Harry Hill’s TV Burp - is getting behind Fairtrade nuts. Greenbang went down to Harry town to find out what he’s really up to.
Harry - how farmer-friendly are your nuts?
Well they are 100 per cent Fairtrade and not everyone knows this but Fairtrade standards encompass environmental standards as well as paying a fair price to farmers.
My nuts come from farming groups which are joint owners of the Fairtrade nut company Liberation. Some of Liberation’s farming organisations are working towards organic certification or are already selling organic produce as a secondary crop. However the nature of smallholder systems is that minimal inputs are used. Most of Liberation’s smallholders grow tree nuts which soak up carbon.
The peanuts in Harry’s Nuts come from a plant that is a legume which fixes nitrogen. By including peanuts in their crop rotations the farmers are reducing their dependency on nitrogen fertilisers which are petroleum based. In addition the peanuts for Harry’s Nuts! are all transported by ship.
The Liberation farmers are supported by Comic Relief which has paid for peanut shellers in Malawi and Mozambique. These are of huge value to the farmers because they mean the nuts don’t have to be shelled by hand which is timeconsuming and often painful. The farmers have more time to work their fields.
Why did you want to sell nuts? Aren’t you rich enough?
I wanted to sell these nuts as I thought they might stand a better chance with the added value of my name attatched. I’d been involved loosely with Fairtrade since 2002 and thought it was time to get more involved.
I’m not making any money out of the venture, and no I’m not rich enough either.
Reveal your nuts to Greenbang - give us the pitch…
Dark roasted for extra flavour, tasty salted nuts in a handy 50g bag for almost every occasion, and helping farmers in developing countries get a fair price for their work.
(No more nuts now) What got you involved with this?
I’d visited Ghana for Fairtrade in 2002 and seen Banana and Cocoa farms and as I was especially keen on nuts I wondered wether Fairtrade had any nut plans. They’d just started up Liberation, the UK’s first Fairtrade nut company and so thought it was a good idea too. I then went and visited the farmers in Malawi who cultivate the nuts which confirmed in my mind that it was a good idea.
Are you involved with any other feel-good initiatives?
Not really, I do odd bits and bobs as the requests come in.
Where do you get your shirts made?
A gent called Dometakis in Great Portland St London W1. He makes shirts for a lot of us showbiz types.
You trained as a doctor - what is it about helping people?
I’d been led to believe it was but there was a lot of paperwork and hanging on the telephone trying to find a bed for a sick patient.
The Earth is having a hard time. What should people do to help other than buy nuts?
Turn all appliances off at the mains, oh and try and find a way out of using fossil fuels. I think probably someone’s got to invent something.
Would you like to be patron saint of Greenbang? We’ll give you a Greenbang T-shirt, some jam and a free column whenever you’d like to have a rant.
What’s the catch? How big’s the jam ?
Anything else you’d like to add?
I mentioned the nuts, right…?
Thank you for taking time out.
For more information on Harry’s Nuts! and to get a pub/ off licence/ shop/workplace/cafe near you to stock them please go to www.chooseliberation.com/harry
Posted by Greenbang on September 18th, 2008
There are a lot of ‘green’ products and services out there that we never report on because they’re a bit off the clean tech and business beat.
We get so many emails about ethical soap, treehugger pants and green holiday tours that if we printed them off, we could have quite a bonfire.
However - we’ve decided to stop being such grumpy sods and look a little kinder on these folk.
To be fair, some of these products are great - others, err, not so great, but they are varied in approach to say the least and pushing in the right direction. So we’ve decided to profile some of them. After all - this is all part of green business, innit.
To kick off, this week we’re looking at Sally Broom’s yoursafeplanet.co.uk, which allows “holiday makers to assemble their own one-off ethical holidays, utilising a trusted traveller’s grapevine”.
The line between the terms clean tech, green and ethical seems to be growing further apart. You might also ask what is ethical tourism, but just ride with this a minute would you..
This is what the company says about itself:
“Your Safe Planet saves the traveller both time and money by putting its users in contact via the internet with an extended family of cherry-picked local people who help to plan trips in advance via e-mail and lend as much help as is desired on arrival. They provide the traveller with a unique personal experience, allowing exploration of true local culture at true local prices whilst assisting the conservation of these exceptional cultural environments.”
Greenbang went to the website and was pleasantly surprised. It’s well laid out, easy to navigate, and it looks like people are using it. You as the wannabe traveller pay £45 for unlimited email contact with one of
the site’s expert local guides. They can tell you where to go and avoid, and ensure that local communities benefit in some way from your visit.
The guides have good travel and conservation credentials, so it’s worth checking out. We haven’t got anyone who’s off on a big trip soon (other than the pub tomorrow night), but the next time we do, we’ll be trying this.
We’re guessing it’s early days for Sally, but the business is promoting ethical tourism - as in helping communities not package holiday operators.
And - if you are going to travel, you want to know you’re not going to be riding elephants that were stolen and beaten, or buying souvenirs made by child labour.
This site is going in the right direction. The network could do with being bigger, but that’s just a time thing. We think it’s a good idea.
