Unorganic lies - To Go

The massive drop in the oil price is making life very difficult for the waste recycling business and will no doubt result on more calls to do away with the hassle of recycling.

The TV satire programme I mentioned yesterday tried to break the news gently to the Germans, who thought they were the environment and minimal packaging champions of Europe, that they use / throw away more packaging than anyone else. Then went on to detail the use of difficult to recycle as plastic coated, Coffee-to-go cups.

Alone in Germany - 2.8 billion cups thrown away p.a. (2,800,000,000) that's 320,000 an hour. Leave aside all those properly disposed of in hedges, on fields, in woods etc etc, just think about the shear bulk that lands in rubbish bins in the cities - no wonder they are always full. Still at least we give employment to the forestry industry who have to cut down the 43,000 trees we need, makes the 11,000 tons of plastic look small. The 1,5 billion litres of water and enough energy to supply a town of 100,000 with electricity for a year to make the cups, are negligible.

Enough of this environmental rubbish. Got home after the dog walk to find the latest issue of Germany Which? magazine in the postbox - see yesterdays Blip where I cancelled my 16 y.o. subscription. It was full of the usual nonsense:
1) Native Extra Virgin Oil, The oil for all of us organic, green and even vegan people. "If I am prepared to pour 20€/litre oil in my Porsche Cayenne then why not in my own body" - that's me, a righteous, better than thou preacher. Test result from 26 European oils costing up to 40€/litre: 13 defective, 3 adequate, 9 satisfactory and 1 good! Not one single bottle was properly labelled, some illegal, several had high levels of mineral oil and several not from the claimed country of origin. Naturally the most expensive oil got the worst rating.
2) Well if we can't be healthy vegans then at least vegetarian. Test of 4 jackets with imitation fur head hoods and 1 wool hat with imitation fur pom-pom. All labels declared items to be 100% textile and confirmed verbally by the sales staff - Result: All were made of real animal fur/hair/skin.
3)OK OK have thrown away my vegetarian badge and put on my woolly hat with raccoon fur pom-pom and set off for the butcher but picking up the Porsche keys lying on the test magazine and spot the last item, the hat I'm wearing, declared as raccoon turns out to be raccoon dog which is not related to the raccoon but is a member of the Canidae family - dogs, wolves, foxes.

Turn on the TV to see some carnival comedy nonsense to take my mind off all the bad news but sadly it started up on the last channel from last night - Sky News. And who was on the screen spurting out seditious nonsense about Cologne? Yes our Nigel....no no not Nogbad Nigel but our trusty EU representative, fighting with typical British understatement, diplomacy, for the rights of the underdog and for the well being of the UK, Europe and the World. I guess he donated today's wage cheque to some worthy charity housing fugitive orphan kids. I personally understand many of the fears, I certainly agree with many of the suggestions to try and get control of a totally out of control situation but all the OTT political wrangling for one's own benefit is making the situation impossible. We have to get to grips with the problem at source and put out the fire - then the smoke will go of it's own accord and we can prepare ourselves properly for the next crisis which is brewing somewhere in the world. Nigel should consider who was part of the cause of the crisis when he gets his Land Rover "Discovery" tanked up with Iraqi oil and stop being the last "Defender" of the realm.

(Bye bye Defender - I spent most of my youth in one - it was the only vehicle my Dad had for years. A SWB with 3 seats up front and the two transverse rows of back benches were made of metal without any cushioning. I think my first ever journey from the hospital to home was in the LR. It may have been something called a jitney (not jeepney as in Philipinnes) in Trinidad a  sort of  Willys Jeep modified pickup, a predecessor of the LR)

The Blip is of the dogs sitting on a bench made of recycled plastic. Had never seen one before. Very good, warm to the touch, quickly dried off of the few remaining drops of yesterdays rain and very sturdy and I cleaned it with a tissue when the dogs got off and I picked up a dog poo bag someone had lost. Boy this green thing cabe be catching. I think I need to think about trading in the wheels for a Morris Minor 1000 Traveller - are they now equipped with recycled wood effect frame or is that an extra option?