Golf cart-style vehicles are helping to make our waterfront an even better place to be.
Wastewatch patrol members taking out the trash
The new Wastewatch patrol is collecting waste from the area’s bars, restaurants and businesses, increasing the recycling of rubbish, lengthening the life of our landfills and saving the city money. The patrols will stop at all participating businesses, which will mean fewer vehicles moving about on the waterfront.
Wastewatch will also reduce the space used by businesses for waste storage, so you’ll have a clearer run when you’re cruising the waterfront on your Crocodile Bike.
Switzerland: Airline Emirates has produced shopping bags made from mega posters used for the company’s promotional purposes. The 20-metre-high eye-catchers had been covering the façade of the terminal building at Zurich airport since 2007.
According to the airline, 10 jobless people spent 16 days transforming the PVC posters into 600 bags. ‘With this project we can contribute to society,’ says Jörg Müller, regional manager for Emirates Switzerland.
Emirates claims to be an active recycler on board its airplanes too. For instance, left-over newspapers and magazines are being collected for recycling. Another success story is glass recycling which increased rapidly after Emirates’ catering department began collecting used bottles. Between 2010 and 2013, the airline recycled in total more than 423 tonnes of materials.
Deforestation along the Jari River, a northern tributary of the Amazon river, Brazil. Photo / Getty Images
A global campaign to make “ecocide” a crime under international law is to be launched tomorrow in an attempt to outlaw the worst kinds of environmental destruction.
A grassroots movement called End Ecocide on Earth is seeking to have the wholesale destruction of ecosystems ranked alongside offences such as genocide and war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) would then be able to prosecute companies over major pollution incidents, such as the oil spills that have contaminated large areas of the Niger Delta region for half a century.
The campaign, which will be launched at a conference on ecocide in Brussels, is the latest in a long-running drive dating back to the 1970s to create tougher global environmental safeguards.
Although it was one of the five core crimes covered by the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, ecocide mysteriously vanished from negotiations at the United Nations. An academic who has studied the process said he had been unable to find out why, but suspects that lobbying by the nuclear industry may have been influential.
The End Ecocide in Europe campaign has gathered more than 170,000 signatures in support of creating a law in the European Union. The petition is to be presented to the European Parliament in the hope that MEPs will back the idea and persuade the European Commission to issue a directive.
Prisca Merz, one of the founders of the campaign, said that the plan is to build a truly global grassroots movement to put pressure on world leaders. “The destruction of the planet is proceeding at such a fast pace … soon we won’t have clean air or clean water any more and our children will not have a healthy environment to live in,” she said.
“I look at where we will be in 50 years and it’s quite a disastrous outlook. We need to act fast. That’s the beauty of this law. It is just one law, but the impact it will have on the way we do business will be enormous,” she added.
In addition to the Niger Delta oil spills, Ms Merz said the law could potentially be used to punish companies over pollution caused by oil extraction at Canada’s tar sands and incidents such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The campaigners are looking for a signatory to the Rome Statute – the UK and most EU countries are – to put forward the idea of an international law. They would then need to convince two-thirds of the signatories – more than 80 states – to have it included in the treaty.
Dr Damien Short, an academic who has studied the statute, said an ecocide law had been “seriously considered” by the UN and was included in a draft of the Rome Statute. However, he said his research hit a number of “dead ends”, one of which was the reasons behind the demise of the ecocide law.
“The only little bit we picked up was that the nuclear lobby had a hand in it,” said Dr Short, who will speak at the Brussels meeting. “With the UN, you’re never really fully aware of why decisions were made.”
The Niger Delta is one of the most polluted places on Earth: oil spills there have been a fact of life for about 50 years. A UN Environment Programme report in 2011 found that public health in parts of Ogoniland was “severely threatened” by contaminated drinking water. In one area, an 8cm layer of refined oil was found floating on groundwater that served a number of water wells. Shell is currently being sued in the UK courts by thousands of local people from the Niger Delta over some of the spills that have contaminated the region.
A spokesman for Shell said the company took spills “very seriously”, but said most in the Niger Delta were the result of “criminal activity”. “There are laws in Nigeria which are designed to deal with that,” he said.
Today we got the awesome news: After a three-month campaign supported by more than a million people worldwide, LEGO has announced it will not renew its contract with Arctic destroyer Shell.
This is fantastic news for LEGO fans and Arctic defenders everywhere. And it’s a huge blow to Shell’s strategy of partnering with beloved brands to clean up its dirty image as an Arctic oil driller.
So how did we win this victory for the Arctic? Let’s take a look back at the top five moments of our campaign:
1. The most viral video in Greenpeace history
A hot tub, a Game of Thrones character, a very sad polar bear, and the most depressing version of the most upbeat song you’ve ever heard. With massive media attention and almost six million views, the video was briefly taken down from YouTube due to a “copyright” claim, but was reposted after 18 hours of massive public outcry.
2. Children play to protest
LEGO’s youngest fans took matters into their own hands–literally. Dozens of children built giant Arctic animals out of LEGO on the doorstep of Shell’s London HQ, in playful protest of their favorite toy’s partnership with the oil company planning to drill the Arctic.
3. Rise of the LEGOlution
From Hong Kong to Paris to Buenos Aires, miniature LEGO people held small but furious protests against their LEGO bosses’ partnership with Shell. Many recreated famous protests at international landmarks, and the LEGOlution soon spread across the world.
4. Party in LEGOland
Tiny LEGO climbers held a daring protest at a Shell gas station in Legoland in Billund, Denmark.
5. 1 million people speak out
After just three months, over one million people worldwide had emailed LEGO to ask it to end its inappropriate deal with Shell, showing the incredible strength and unstoppable power of our global movement.
We’re super happy LEGO has finally decided to do the right thing. It’s a massive victory for the million people globally who called on LEGO to stop helping Shell look like a responsible and caring company – rather than a driller intent on exploiting the melting Arctic for more oil.
To maintain respectability in the face of growing opposition to Arctic drilling, Shell needs to surround itself with decent and much loved brands – museums, art galleries, music festivals, sports events. LEGO’s announcement is an important step towards blowing Shell’s cover.
But now that LEGO has quit Shell it’s time for Shell to quit the Arctic. The oil giant recently announced its plans to drill in the Alaskan Arctic in 2015. Meanwhile the Arctic sea ice cover reached one of its lowest points on record this year. Time is running out to save the Arctic, and the time for urgent action is now.
Tire swing For use in Driven Magazine 4th October. Photo / Getty Images/iStockphoto
At some point we’ve all been there. Our much-loved vehicle starts to die. Whether it starts to rust away, something rather important breaks or we just can’t afford to maintain it, the result is often an ugly mess sitting in the driveway.
In the midst of experiencing the above, I realised that more can be had from your broken car than just a couple of hundred bucks from the broken car collector. You can recycle car parts into useful and sometimes incredibly cool stuff.
ENGINE COFFEE TABLE An engine can make a base for a coffee table.
If you happen to have a busted engine lying around, why not make it into a coffee table?
We’ve all admired Top Gear’s V12 coffee table as seen on the popular BBC show’s set.
Trying to buy one will cost you an arm and a leg, but you can make something similar if you happen to have a broken car with a V6 or V8 sitting around. At its simplest, all you need to do is disassemble the engine, give it a thorough clean (you want to be able to eat off it after all), make a base and table top, and then connect it all together. I am in the process of making one out of a Subaru flat four.
DIY RACING SIMULATOR
If you’re into your racing sims such as Gran Turismo or Forza, you’ll know how expensive the full racing sim set-up can be. But you can make your own from lower spec controller sets and used car seats. Most modern cars have excellent bucket seats as standard, and some older Japanese cars came from the factory with some that are incredibly close to being race seats in their own right – think Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evolution seats as an example. You can find them on Trade Me and at wreckers’ yards for a reasonable sum.
Add these to a wooden base, add a steering wheel/pedal box controller combo to suit your gaming needs and you’re sorted for less than half the price of a full-blown sim kit.
If you need to accommodate more than one person you can make a couch from used back seats. Units fitted with a fold-out centre and cup holders would be our pick as they can be made into excellent versatile couches with little effort.
TYRES Tyres used as pots at South Auckland’s Drury Tyres. Picture / Mathieu Day
Happen to have a few old tyres lying about? There’s a multitude of options to repurpose your old rubber. The best part of repurposing old tyres is the most sophisticated tool you’ll need is a hacksaw to cut through the inner canvas and wire just below the rubber surface.
You can use them as handy planter boxes, or cut them up and make anything from edging to interesting garden sculptures.
Tyres also make great swings for the kids, as seen in almost every family movie from the 80s and 90s.
HALF-CUT BARBECUE Small old car front ends make excellent barbecue stands.
Did someone write off your car from one end? Cut the good half off and make a barbecue.
Not for the faint-hearted, the task of chopping a car apart and building a barbecue into the engine bay is one of the more extreme ways of keeping your much-loved auto in your life. Apart from needing to think of how you’ll manoeuvre a large barbecue into your garden (Driven recommends swivel wheels fixed to the bottom), you’ll also need to think of disposing of wiring and other non-essential equipment. It also will take up more space than your average barbie. That said, it would make a great feature in a car-themed garden.
Smaller cars such as Minis, Morris Minors and VW Beetles that are beyond returning to the road can make some cool garden additions with a little help.
SEATBELTS
Seatbelts are made to be durable, and using some weaving skills you can make bags, cushion covers and even replacement canvas for your favourite deck chair.
UTE TRAYS
It’s become more common to see wellside ute trays becoming trailers these days.
Conversions are towed behind all sorts of vehicles, often mimicking the ute that is towing them. Not only does a trailer made out of an old wellside ute tray look good, you get the same functionality as an aluminum trailer, only it looks much more stylish.
Unless you are a welding whizz, this is probably a job for a professional, as it will need to then be registered and warranted for New Zealand roads. Alternatively, an old ute tray can be made into anything from shelving to benches.
• Since cars have literally thousands of parts, the only limit to what you can repurpose is your imagination. Show us your creations at Facebook.com/DrivenNZor Instagram.com/driven_nz
United States: California’s governor Jerry Brown has signed America’s first state-wide ban on single-use plastic shopping bags, thus following the lead of more than 100 Californian cities and counties. Under the law, funding will be provided for California-based plastic bag companies to develop ‘sturdier, reusable options’.
The ‘landmark legislation’ will take effect at larger stores in July 2015 and will be expanded to smaller businesses in 2016. It covers plastic bags at grocery stores, chemists, convenience stores and off licences. Exempt from the law are: plastic bags provided at grocery stores for produce and meat; and non-food retailers such as those selling clothing and electronics.
California’s waste stream is estimated to attract 14 billion single-use shopping bags each year, of which some 3% were recycled in 2009. From the global perspective, consumers are said to use 2 million plastic shopping bags per minute.
‘This bill is a step in the right direction,’ Brown declares. ‘It reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself. We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last.’
But that’s not how it will play out if bag manufacturers have their say. The American Progressive Bag Alliance, for example, has broadcast plans to seek a voter referendum to overturn the law. The group has three months to collect the 500 000 valid signatures required to place a referendum on the November 2016 ballot.
Global: The recycling industry last week won the right to play a full part in a Basel Convention group designated to discuss cross-border transport rules for non-functional, used electrical and electronic equipment that is not normally considered waste.
At the ninth meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG-9) in Geneva, BIR’s environmental & technical director Ross Bartley demanded that the recycling industry was put on an equal footing with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in those discussions.
The text for parity was then negotiated by the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industry’s associate counsel, director of government and international affairs, Eric Harris. Regarding these rules, the OEWG agreed in Geneva on a two-step approach: on the one hand, all countries agree on the list of seven conditions to be met for export; or alternatively, conditions are set on a country-by-country basis.
More work on this agreement will be undertaken before the next Basel Conference of the Parties (COP), set for 2015 in Switzerland. The OEWG considers scientific and technical issues in preparation for the COP gatherings. ‘Discussions in this forum are very important for the recycling industries as these provide the groundwork for COP decisions that have wide-ranging effects as countries implement and enforce the UN-EP Basel Convention Controls on Transboundary Movements of Wastes and used equipment,’ Bartley states.
In Geneva, the OEWG’s Technical Group discussed the specific technical guidelines for wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with 11 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including PCBs, PBBs and PBDEs. Proposals were made to set the low threshold level of POPs in materials, which will affect what materials recyclers may in future recycle given that, above this threshold, POPs in materials will have to be irreversibly transformed or destroyed.
In addition, the OEWG’s Legal Clarity Group proposed a glossary of terms which could have far-reaching consequences in the writing of new Basel Convention guidelines, as well as in the revision of existing ones. ‘When tested against the range of wastes listed in the Basel Convention, it was clear more work was required to get a quality document,’ says Bartley. ‘It was decided to continue the work of providing definitions for certain terms and explanations for others.’
A truckload of household rubbish was tipped at the foot of Auckland Town Hall yesterday to show not all residents are doing their bit to cut the amount of household refuse being buried in a landfill.
Auckland Council arranged for the contents of 35 recycling bins to go on display in Aotea Square to back up its claims that 10 per cent of material put in recycling bins is rubbish.
Councillor George Wood said the public airing in Aotea Square showed that many people did not know what should be put out for recycling. Mixed rubbish and material for recycling went to the dump and was costing the council more than $1 million a year in charges, said Mr Wood, who is chairman of the regional strategy and policy committee.
It has approved an education campaign to try to stop plastic bags, meat trays, food waste, clothing and batteries being mixed with glass, plastics, paper and cans, which can be processed.
Many thought polystyrene meat trays were recyclable, when they were not.
Solid waste manager Ian Stupple said the council planned to spread “pay as you throw” across the region over the next few years.
Under the plan, all residents would pay per lift according to the volume of the refuse receptacle used, while the cost of collecting true recyclable items and organic waste would come out of council rates.
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As part of its 10-year budget, Auckland Council is funding a new region-wide inorganic collection service that will mean Auckland can reuse and recycle as many items as possible. From September, the new inorganic service will be annual and will need to be booked in advance. Items will be collected from within your property. How […]
