Waste Not

Rivers of
garbage
run down to
a sea
drowning
in plastic bags


It's an island you could walk on,
but not if you're a fish.
An island you could
place in an engine
and drive
around the world

but first you have to smash through
the barriers
of discarding what you see,
to discover
what you want

and how to get there

For who are we to
mine for gold in
uranium
mine for uranium
in rock

Everything we need
runs through our fingers.
All we have to do is
reach out
and take what is ours
to protect
what is not

A.J. Ponder

Some more links to go with the ones I put up a couple of weeks ago on "Working Towards Waste Not", where I posted a video of Bill Gates drinking - shock! horror! water!! And there are a few more links about recycling waste including companies "mining" gold and other precious metals in sewerage.

Gold and uranium mining. Believe it or not gold and uranium are often mined hand in hand, although not so long ago, uranium, was usually left in the tailings. So maybe someone should have asked Bill Gates if he'd rather drink recycled sewerage or uranium? http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/dec/05/nuclear-greenpolitics. 
 
Turning plastic bags into diesel fuel?  When? And yes, maybe we shouldn't be using them at all, but it's a bit late for that so... http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0212bags_oil_brajendrakumarsharma.html

Have a great week,
A.J.

P.S.  I'm not sure I can manage to live waste free like these people, but it's a great goal, and one we should be working toward as a community :)
http://www.zerowaste.co.nz/
http://www.recycle.co.nz/problemsize.php
http://www.rubbishfree.co.nz/ 

And lastly...This...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/01/hawaii-plastic-bag-ban_n_7702382.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010   (if you're not sure why they've done it, scroll down for the surfer)

This week - working toward Waste Not

This week, I'm working on a new piece - Waste Not - although I admit several other titles did jump to mind. WastE NotE being one of them. Too much. Yes, obviously. But you know...too much waste is kind of the problem.

There have certainly been some interesting advances, discoveries when it comes to recycling.

People are looking at obtaining gold and precious metals from sewerage, and of course drinking water is a precious resource that many cities have been recycling for years.


Turning food waste into glass is newish, although banana skins and sugar cane have long had the fiber within used as a strengthening agent instead of fiberglass because of the weight savings. And to be honest to me it seems an interesting experiment, but possibly not the best use possible for food scraps.

It's interesting that waste and energy are two of our biggest problems, so it will be equally interesting to see how (and if) the advances in each field will compliment the other. It seems some countries are even importing waste for that purpose!

The video? Bill Gates swigging down some recycled water  :)

So yes, apologies, but poems at this time of the year are slow...

(Links)
Gold/precious metals: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/23/gold-in-faeces-worth-millions-save-environment
Glass: http://ceramics.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Cover-Story_Aug14.pdf
Water etc: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/20/turning-human-waste-into-drinking-water
Energy: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/14/norway-waste-energy