Passing on

Not in the funereal sense, as in passing on a link, about passing stuff on…

http://www.commonresource.net/van

Common Resource are offering a van for only the cost of the driver and fuel for freecycle members shifting bulky items. Their words…

The fabulous Freecyle van is now available to transport
goods exchanged through freecycle around Camden and neighbouring boroughs!!

 

The Van is provided by Common Resource, who support Hackney Freecyle, they are not charging for the use of the van – users only pay for the cost of the driver and fuel (max £25 per hour, with shared bookings much less – book via the web-site).

 

Wooden handlebars

Not yet in production, but www.fastboyfenders.com say they have a waiting list.

Why mine for metal when you can use a sustainable resource, no more cold handlebars in the winter, and they are beautiful to boot.

Sign my name…

As part of a research project, designer Nadine Jarvis has prototyped (well, I assume mocked up given the content) a beautiful way to dispose of human remains. I would do it.

From http://www.nadinejarvis.com/projects/carbon_copies

 

Carbon Copies

Pencils made from the carbon of human cremains. 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash – a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind.

 

Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be removed at a time, it is then sharpened back into the box causing the sharpenings to occupy the space of the used pencils. Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings – a new ash, transforming it into an urn. The window acts as a timeline, showing you the amount of pencils left as time goes by.

 

The Birds, Bats and Bees

Phillips de Pury are to auction prototypes for bird, bat and bee houses, each created by a renown designer or artist. Above is Gavin Turk’s Radiator Hive, 2008, Abandoned radiator and wood. 

http://www.phillipsdepury.com/auctions/online-catalog.aspx?sn=UK050408

The official blurb…

“Commissioned by Phillips de Pury & Company and Adventure Ecology, internationally renowned artists, designers and architect s have created bird/bat/bee houses out of the company’s cardboard, crates, invitations and catalogues. These handmade prototypes will be sold at auction on June 27 in London at Phillips de Pury & Company, the proceeds of which will benefit the Sculpt the Future Foundation.”

“The displacement of birds, bat s and bees from their natural habit at in the UK is extremely harmful not only to the animals and insects but also to the sensitive ecological system. Bats, which make up a third of the UK’s mammal population, play a key ecological role as a primary predator, eating thousands of insects each night. Of the 16 species of bat in this country, two are endangered and nine are threatened.”

The artists: Tomoko Azumi, David Austen, Jurgen Bey, Martino Gamper, David Harrison, Stuart Haygarth, Henry Krokatsis, Max Lamb, Peter Marigold, Charles Mason, Mark McGowan, Alex Metcalf, Luis Berrios Negron, Tom Price, Rolf Sachs, Peter Saville, Sir Paul Smith, Michael Sodeau, Raw Edges, Marcus Tremonto, Gavin Turk, Christopher Williams, Michael Young

“Each artist has been given specifications for each species’ living requirements, which the designs must comply with in order to be successful habitats.”

“The three most appropriate designs for manufacturing will be chosen by Adventure Ecology and Phillips de Pury & Company. These will be distributed through high-end premium retailers and museums. The proceeds of the sales will be donated to protect natural habitats.”

if I were a rich man, diddie diddie diddie deee etc

A successful tiptoe for 2008

A pleasant surprise for the start of 2008. Last year inspired by Michael Moore’s call to get involved and write letters, I emailed Ocado to request they implement an ethical/fairtrade category, rather than having to hunt for product. I got a reply saying thank you very much etc etc. Placing an order this week I saw that in their redesign there is now a Fairtrade section. I can’t imagine it’s down to my single email, but it goes to show that consumer action can make a difference. So thank you Ocado. Guess it’s time to wipe the festive dust from the keyboard and see wether they can add ethical goods to it.

Freecycle (or) Socks, socks, will there be socks

Crimbo is almost upon us. Which means presents. Joy!

But spare a thought for the ugly present, it’s not just for Christmas. Or for the unwanted one. Or all those things around us needed anymore, but not suitable for the rubbish bin. I too have a collection of items not used anymore, or have room for, but someone would cherish.

www.freecycle.org

Freecycle is an online organisation helping redistribute unwanted presents and objects out staying their welcome. The main site guides you finding a local group, so everything is reachable, never further than a bike ride away. Once a member you can offer, or receive the myriad items circulated, as long as no money passes hands.

A long bearded wise man would join now, ready to freely give of that aftershave, that is received each year.

This post’s sleeve has a dual reference, answers on a virtual postcard.

Bookcrossing – an outdoor library

It seems work and life have confounded my attempts at keeping a blog going regularly. And as the dark nights draw in I find myself reading more. When I should be writing. So to readdress the balance…

Although ironically these winter long nights also bring with them rain making this post could be a little inappropriate? It’s about recycling books, in a quirky way. I was browsing looking for a way to swap books with like-minded readers via the web and stumbled upon

www.bookcrossing.com

Not exactly swapping, more leaving, dumping, forgetting, but with a twist. The site allows you to enter a book and tag it with a unique number. You then print out a label, stick it on the cover and leave the book behind on a train, park bench, a cafe chair, wherever.

The label clearly states that it’s been left intentionally and should be taken home and read. If the recipient has internet access they are invited to visit the site and update the book’s location. And asks them in turn to leave it somewhere once read for the process to repeat. You can then track a books travels across the world (assuming you leave somewhere airplane bound). What a charming idea: recycling, social websites, networking, the virtual lives of books, all wrapping up in a single site. What’s not to love.

The only challenge is the mental leap to actually get rid of my books. For some reason I find particularly hard to get rid of novels I love, even though they just take up room in my limited living space with very little chance of being read again. Now I know that they might live on as virtual possessions, still out there and connected I have the impetus.

www.bookcrossing.com even makes it life easy for you by allowing the printing out sheets of labels and unique id numbers, which you can assign to books later as you about distributing them in an anti-world-womble way.

Freewheel (and hired)

Vertigo are a co-operative based in Sheffield in negoiation with the City Council to bring Pedicabs to the city centre (let’s hope they dont have to go to Crookes, bloody big hill).

They are asking for support by filling in their questionnaire

http://vert-i-go.co.uk/

Give them a hand, or is that a leg-up?

New leaves and old clothes

No posts for a while as I’ve been in Turkey and therefore subject to the WordPress ban.

Back, and feeling it after a 5 kilometer ‘tree-athlon’ for the Trees For Cities charity through a very nice route in Battersea Park. Although a bit of a struggle after a week of holiday smoking and vodka drinking. Nice cause too, planting trees in London council estates and Nairobi school yards, given I’ve been educated in both cities how could I not take part? And looking forward to the after-party tonight.

Anyone looking for a 5k run can I recommend Mud Runs by the British Heart Foundation, the twist being that the routes are, ready for it… muddy! Leeds Castle sounds great but too far for me to travel. With free bubblebath after to boot. When I say recommend I actually mean heard about, we do the website and I felt guilty last year for not actually taking part so this year will attempt to do two this year to make amends.

Which doesn’t lead me to ‘swishing’. Excuse me for being a little behind the times here with it being a buzzword back in this spring and all. The Treeathlon event also included a ‘fashion swap‘, what the….? A little Googling later and I finally catch up with swishing: a party or event where you bring an items or items of decent clothing that is ‘no longer you, darling’. They get piled in a very chi chi version of a jumble sale, and you leave with a fab retro cheeseplant print surfing shirt (if you’re me). Need more explanation? the Guardian has a good swishing article.

So, recycling without any retail or transportation issues, plus there’s a ready-made taste barrier imposed given that it’s likely to be like-minded people being invited. In the case of the Treeathlon anything left behind gets donated to charity. Swish on dude. Although in the cause of journalistic honesty I have to admit to taking the surf shirt back, as alas I must admit to already a collection of them.

Fancy hosting a Swish? Check out www.swishing.org – swishing made easy.

See you all in the mud in three weeks.

Nike ticks a right box

Maybe it was the bad press over the customised “sweatshop” slogan trainers Jonah Peretti ordered, but whatever the reason you can’t knock a great initiative just because it was started by a company with a bad reputation.

The Reuse-A-Shoe program from Nike is now three years old, but still relatively unknown, nobody I’ve spoken with knew about it, and if it hadn’t of been for researching ethical trainers I wouldn’t have stumbled across it. Which is a shame because it’s rather splendid scheme. Nike take old trainers, pulp, smelt and smote them, and turn them into playgrounds and sports surfaces donated to youth clubs and schools worldwide. Yowsa! Including the surface for the Homeless World Cup, which is a bit of a sore topic since my team lost, but well done Scotland.

The Reuse-A-Shoe link will take you to pages listing the various drop-off points, and London residents can drop them off at Runnersneed outlets as well (thought I was being smart going on about ethical trainers when I purchased a pair, only to have their collection box pointed out to me).

The only downside to this being that it took three years for word to reach me; with two teenage sons in the house I have had more than enough smelly trainers to dispose of.