Jump to content
MadInventor

Environmental Impact of our hobby.

Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, Stefan(2) said:

Not a quote ninja..  :)

 

Definitely not,

but learning slowly ;)

11 hours ago, Stefan(2) said:

My point was,  that , yes, while we do produce -to much- garbage ( well.. i got to keep a job to ;p )

The issue is that a lot of recycle effort is done for a piece-of-mind,  as the recycle proces itself ( minus some specific goods )

usually is a bigger load on the environment then simply using it as landfill and make a ski-hill out of it.

I was sort of aware of this, having a documentary where a journalist had been to a country where the UK had been sending collected recyclables, and he found a load of it in landfill, envelopes with peoples addresses on in the UK, etc, but it interesting to hear it directly from someone in the industry. Personally I think it's still better to try and recycle waste or burn it, rather just burying it. If we bury stuff it's just leaving the problem for future generations to deal with. At least if you're burning the waste at an incineration plant, they're hopefully using the heat for running steam turbines to generate electricity, so at least recovering some energy from it and thereby it's a bit more fossil fuel that hasn't been burned for a while. After all, plastic is just another oil based product, burning it is not that different from burning oil for central heating, and it stops it getting into the environment, and eventually our food chain. 

20 hours ago, Uranium said:

the most i really think about is why brands don't just package things in cardboard boxes anymore. are plastic bags cheaper to make? there should be a good reason why tamiya went from cardboard packaging to plastic bags. it'd certainly be a lot better if cardboard was used, because at least you can recycle it.

I think it's because plastic is cheaper, and lighter for freight purposes.

11 hours ago, nbTMM said:

The same argument could be made for standardising parts in internal combustion powered vehicles. To some degree it does already happen with multiple models and even car makers sharing the same engine and chassis designs. Ultimately logistics and marketing gets in the way and there is the necessity to design bespoke parts. 

With regards to standardising electric motors in 1:1 cars, even that idea has been turned on it's head recently as Tesla used a totally different brushless motor architecture (reluctance motor) in the Model 3 vs the previous models (Model S, Model X) which used induction motors. They claim that the different design requirements meant that an induction motor wasn't suitable for the Model 3.

Didn't know that about tesla. I'm not that up-to-date with the technology. Do you know what the difference is between the technologies, and what the benefits of the reluctance motor are ?

Thanks to all of you for contributing to the thread. It's good to know that other people are thinking about this as well, especially @Jonathon Gillham discussing it with his son. I think if you look at the hobby as a whole we're probably fairly low impact, certainly when compared with other past-times.

1. Most of the models built will have an extraordinarily long lifespan in comparison with most 'toys', or even RTR RC cars. (I suspect a lot of these get a couple of years worth of use at most before ending up in boot sales, charity shops, or bins because they cannot be repaired). The ability to be able to repair the models, the fact that they have interchangeable parts between models, and the buoyant prices of second hand vehicles means that lifespans of a lot of them will end up being at least 10 years, if not decades.

2. Some of the models have been around a very long time, such as clod buster, which has given end users long term spares support to keep the models running. I think the clod buster is actually too large to fit in a UK wheelie bin, which would mean a trip to the local skip to dispose of it. ;)

3.   The hobby has intangible benefits. For my own experience, I've learnt how to use an airbrush, soldering iron, and a multimeter as part of the hobby, as I'm sure many others have. This gives you a fighting chance of being able to repair simple electrical items, that someone without that knowledge would have chucked as unrepairable. I've also brought nimh cells back to life in things such as portable power drills with my ansmann battery charger, if I hadn't spent the £50 on the intelligent charger for the Lipos, the power drill would have been binned due to a knackered battery.

So what would you alter to reduce the impact on the environment and why?

For me I think it would be:

Paper bags for internal packaging rather than plastic bags.

Roller bearings as standard in all kits. I'm paying for the manufacture and shipping of parts I don't want, then I've got to pay more shipping and packaging on the roller bearings. The added cost to the kit and weight for shipping would be minimal. It's a small difference but a step in the right direction.

Try to lay out sprue designs a little more sensibly. look at the thunder shot series and the notorious A5 part. We shouldn't have to buy a whole set of gearboxes to get one small part that's a weak point in the design....

 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, MadInventor said:

You're fortunate in this. As far as I know, we have no faiclities to recycle soft plastics in the UK

 

Large supermarkets in use UK often have plastic bag recycling receptacles. 

12 hours ago, MadInventor said:

it would be good to perhaps have some recycling information embossed into the sprue body to indicate what sort of plastic it is

 

Tamiya does this already. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As has been mentioned, the act of restoration itself is not inconsiderable, as helping to reduce waste. It probably does a great service in waste prevention each year.

And some years ago, I remember reading on this forum, stories from people who had found Tamiya cars at rubbish tips. 

While the packing from kits is obviously the most common form of waste, people who dispose of the entire car itself must be worse in terms of sheer volume and weight of plastics. 

Below is one thread example, but I am sure there was a bigger one all about kerbside finds and dump finds ... which blew my tiny brain at the time. :blink:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7967-rubbish-tip-find/ 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

all i know is all my recycle's go in the large blue container, what about the waste of many products packaging?, seems more goes into their packaging than the quality or quantity of the goods that are inside nowadays. You do not want me to get started, i'd fill volumes of pages of the stupidity that man kind has come up with to add another job title for their bed buddies position and still cry unfair so they can line their pockets with your hard earned dollars.

WARNING: I'am Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer!:lol:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Be careful what Ye greenies wish for... <_<

Lots of yabbering that "paper is more green than plastic" but then look at the simple "paper" takeaway coffee cup... it's thin card that's plastic coated to make it waterproof... which stops it rotting for 100s of years & it's more complicated to recycle than a PET drink bottle. 

On a different front... in the 1990s Mercedes tried to go-green and introduce  biodegradable wiring insulation... :wacko::blink:

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, Tamiyabigstuff said:

Google 'Termites CO2' - put things into perspective...

Sifting past the tinfoil hat sceptics with inflated numbers we find this:
https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgc-systems/pmwiki2/uploads/Site/sanderson_1997.pdf

2%

meanwhile, atmospheric CO2 has increased more than 33% in the past 100 years. Something tells me termites aren't to blame for climate change. I don't know if increasing greenhouse gases are solely to blame for climate change or if humans are 100% to blame for either. What is undeniable is that climate change is real, and humans are definitely responsible for exponentially increased gas emissions and hard waste in the past 100+ years. It would be a good thing to at least try to eliminate our potential contribution to the problem.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Berry the waist ( non chemical / non toxic ) is actually not even bad.

 

I tell you why :)

 

Did you know, that many landfill sites actually get dug up these days ?

The ( now old ) landfill gets burned , for a very specific reason.

 

Years ago, they would not separate the metals  ( ferro and non ferro ) out of the garbage..   the only thing they did, was drive the garbage truck on top

of the hill..  dump it.. compress it ( those big spike wheel loaders ) ,

 

Well,  these days those ferro and non ferro metals are sought after and what they do , is.. indeed..  dig it up... send it to the burn site ,

then process the burned materials to pick out the metals .

 

Trick is.. in those days, they dumped EVERYTHING.. so also the chemicals , low ( and even high ) radioactive waist , oil... oil filters.. ect ect..

And, now we load all that stuff in a truck.. and burn it anyway .   The left overs ( ashes ) gets now isolated , and used as filler under roads and

used in concrete..   as it is to toxic to use as landfill..

( sound barriers next to highways or living area's is also a very popular way to get rid of the ash )

 

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

well done, you got more than 15 views. Good points well made

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
14 hours ago, Tamiyabigstuff said:

Google 'Termites CO2' - put things into perspective...

Respecting the environment and using energy efficiently, etc... just common sense.

Recycling & reusing also great ideas but what really grinds my gears is the amount of waste products we send to places like China for recycling in huge ships which burn the lowest grade, most polluting fuel oil available. 

 

Did you know that heavy oil ( the fuel that drives that huge engine's ) , is mixed up with liquid chemical waist ..

As its a profitable way to get rid of it, and out of national waters there is basicly no -law- to stop you doing so.

 

There is a reason those ships in harbors and shipping lanes close to a coast are ( by law ) these days to run on clean diesel .

( its not everywhere yet, but there working on that..  making quite some shipping company's unhappy. )     Not really about the cost of the diesel..

But in those area's there regular checks of the heavy fuel,  and mixed in chemicals are detected .  ( and.. there are laws against THAT )..

 

Btw, China actually buys in a lot of recycle waist for the simple reason they need the materials for there production.   ( for.. us ) ...

And, as they bring us products.. the return shipping of the containers is dead-cheap / borderline free.

Nifty side is, the rules regarding recycling are very "flex" over there..  so , while here we must use filters and are not allowed to dump the waist-of-the-waist-process..

They can just -dump- it..

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 5/4/2019 at 10:15 AM, MadInventor said:

You're fortunate in this. As far as I know, we have no faiclities to recycle soft plastics in the UK

 

Our local sainsburys can take plastic food trays and lower quality plastics than are collected at the road side (which it pretty much exclusively bottles). Not sure about soft plastics though. Worth doing a bit of research. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It’s not just this hobby that uses plastic so FYI not taking offense to anything said,, my statement is this,  I agree we use an outrageous amount of plastic everyday and me and my family has made a conscience effort on conservation so that being said I have built over 50 kits in my lifetime and threw none away,, if it’s plastic recycle it.. as far as I’m concerned this world is in a lot better shape and has came a long way definitely since the 70’s.  Don’t throw those away mate recycle.. now back to building..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, MadInventor said:

Hasn't China refused to take any more plastic from 'The West' ?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html

 

Correct ( partial ) , they still accept it, however it must be -clean- and, not by the old ways.. have other products mixed inside.

In short,  they stop accepting the polluted plastics , metals, big bags ect .

And most collection points are not suitable to clean it before bailing / packing / selling it.   

 

And, manual ( and machine ) sorting is possible, however hilarious expensive due work hours and the rare equipment required for this task.

 

If you would invent / build a machine, that perfectly segregates plastics ( basically, anything non-magnetic   ..)

You could be a very very wealthy person in a very short time.    ( sensor / camera systems already work, but there to slow and inaccurate , most segregation at this time

is still a manual job..  long conveyer belts with people doing it by the eye. )

A job done in most European country's by people out of low wage country's  , as "native" people simply refuse to do this work, even when unemployed. 

 

But.. this swinging very far from the topic now ;p

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is an interesting thread. Our hobby seems to have a big impact on the environment but on a global scale well...…...

Most important is to avoid plastic (and other waste) in the first place. That is something that will help everyday. So, for example, take your own shoppingbag and don't accept plastic bags in every shop. (In my country you have to pay for your plastic bag.) If you can't avoid plastic packaging due to safety requirements (food etc.) seperate all your waste materials after use. At home we have bins for: plastic, paper, chemicals, glass, green material and general waste. (A lot of bins, I know)  All are collected seperately. You will be amazed the difference this will make for the environment. In this way we all contribute to a greener world and let us enjoy our hobby.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think we all know why, cost / profit

Will replacing the plastic bushes in kits increase sales , nope i doubt it, but it will save a couple of quid, I think the esc removal from kits will be the standard sooner rather than later in the, narrow profit margin , competitive , internet world we live in.

I'm guessing the many plastic bags in kits, means that the parts have came from many sources,( my recent Yokomo YZ-2T build had a stupid amount), and only meet when the kits are boxed, so I'm not sure what other options could be realistically used? Paper packets could get ripped easily and not easy to check the contents for a human packer, if you used biodegradable packaging, what life span? 

I like the plastic bags Schumacher give you with the tyres, tough and reusable, I think everyone I know stores there wheels/tyres in those bags, I store spares in some too, so is the answer to use better quality, longer lasting bags? 

Everything has a drawback, electric cars need charged, either by 'dirty' generation like coal or biomass plants, even clean solar panels rely on dangerous chemicals and energy to produce them, and (I've read- ) even then are only around 20% efficient and are only efficient for 10yrs+ , (still produce electricity after then, but less and less year after year). Then there's the lithium in batteries,  which is mined and travelled around the world for processing etc. I believe the most environmentally friendly car on the road, is a classic Land Rover, with reported 75% of them produced, still in use.

With the onset of better quality, home 3D printing, are we going to consume more or less plastic? , if we need a new wishbone, can we just buy a file online and print it out at home? No packaging , no transport costs? 

Like most of us on here, I'm a car guy, I'm in the UK, have had a few V8 engined cars, built engines, (grenaded engines / gearboxes too!?! 🙄) but with my involvement in RC, interested in the new electric tech coming along, offering really good torque and numbers not to be sniffed at (the other , driverless tech that seems to be going hand in hand doesn't interest me in the slightest though).

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, Stefan(2) said:

 

Correct ( partial ) , they still accept it, however it must be -clean- and, not by the old ways.. have other products mixed inside.

In short,  they stop accepting the polluted plastics , metals, big bags ect .

And most collection points are not suitable to clean it before bailing / packing / selling it.   

 

And, manual ( and machine ) sorting is possible, however hilarious expensive due work hours and the rare equipment required for this task.

 

If you would invent / build a machine, that perfectly segregates plastics ( basically, anything non-magnetic   ..)

You could be a very very wealthy person in a very short time.    ( sensor / camera systems already work, but there to slow and inaccurate , most segregation at this time

is still a manual job..  long conveyer belts with people doing it by the eye. )

A job done in most European country's by people out of low wage country's  , as "native" people simply refuse to do this work, even when unemployed. 

 

But.. this swinging very far from the topic now ;p

 

 

 

@Stefan(2), I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to contribute to this thread, it's proving very educational / interesting for me personally, and it must be starting to feel like a job interview for you, but I'm learning a lot from it. Thanks.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Very interesting topic! Sorry, I just read the original post, not the whole thread.

I've been trying to do my best to enjoy my hobby to the fullest but without excessive polluting. All of the little clear plastic baggies from kits I keep and throw away once every while at work or a recyclingcenter in a designated clear soft plastic recyclingbin. That way it can be re-used most efficiently as a new resource.

I also rarely ever throw parts out, even when broken. I either re purpose them or give them away to friends or newbies who can use it.

Since I'm working at a 3D printing firm (Shapeways) it's been much easier for me to fix broken parts or incomplete kits (or even household items) by printing parts. I think this local production or parts is great. Minimal transport, minimal stock production.

Besides that I've been trying to be more conscious in my daily live. I've started a mostly vegan diet and try to reduce the amount of waste from my house as much as possible. Hopefully that way I can reduce my footprint as much as possible without punishing myself by cutting out my super fun hobbies :)

The only thing I really regret about our RC hobby is the massive influx of AliExpress and other cheap Chinese clone products. The quality is usually rubbish but people keep buying it because its cheap. It's not only hurting the environment, but it's also hurting our hobby as a whole. Original manufacturers who put in all the time, money and effort to R&D a product are losing their market to the cheap clones who, on the surface, offer the same product for less than half the price. It's been a sad development that has directly been the cause of some of my favourite RC drifting brands to quit :(

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, MadInventor said:

@Stefan(2), I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to contribute to this thread, it's proving very educational / interesting for me personally, and it must be starting to feel like a job interview for you, but I'm learning a lot from it. Thanks.

Ah no problem , its actually sometimes good i think to hear from "a other side" 

( and not what the adds and sweet speakers tell you )

 

Not to mention, some of this stuff..  said at my work sites.. i would probably get canned real fast.  

( all have a intrest in keeping it a bit in the dark  / shady parts of ....   life ) 

 

But ... serieus .. forget the "envoiremental print" our hobby makes.. its -nil-

 

You want to do something ?

- Do not have children

- Do not eat meat

- Do not use product what contains ammonia

- Do not use fertilizers ( chemical one's ,  cow **** is fine )

- Do not use products that need aluminium , copper or ... well.. any metal at all.

- Do not fly in airplanes , or use anything that is moved by a container ship

Now...

Then do that with a entire continent .

 

... then your "doing something"..

While i sound sour now...  what "we speak about now" is 0.00000001% work..

 

of course , i am also a bit colored,  as due my work.. i see what goes wrong :)

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I once told my wife, "Nah, human and dog wastes won't be a big deal. It's biodegradable, and the ocean is huge!"  

I forgot that I don't live alone.  There are almost 8 billion humans thinking the same thing.  

Remember the hole in the ozone?  The big hole we saw in the 80's were from freon gas from 50's until 90s.  Did we use gallons and gallons of it?  No, a can of hair spray here, a can in the air conditioner there, etc.  Several aerosol canisters a year per person, could make a hole in the atmosphere.  (they photo shows "healing." Still not complete, I see.)

4HUPUaY.jpg

Now, how about 10 gallons of gasoline a week from the 50's all the way until 2019?  Seems like CO2 from tail pipes would have greater impact than hair sprays. 

I know CO2 and Ozone are different issues. It takes so little freon to make a hole in ozone.  I'm just saying even a can or two per person could have an impact.  Now, Siberian permafrost is releasing methane, and that might be as bad as freon was to ozone.  (Oh, and 1920's or 1800s, arctic ice has record of how warm or cold it was.  Tree rings, pollen records in soil, too show the temperature hundreds of years ago.  Why is Venus hotter than Mercury, even though Venus is twice as far away from the Sun?  Green house gas.  I kinda don't want to steam Earth that much.  

And yes, there were much warmer times.  But we couldn't live when Iceland had crocodiles.  Reptiles love hot weather which is why the earth was mostly occupied by reptiles.  I cannot function well when the air around me is hotter than my body temperature and moisture won't allow sweat to evaporate... humans overheat and die, just like overheating motors.  So... if it's just a warming cycle, should we add more warming gas?  The earth itself will be fine.  When the average temperature becomes 45 Celsius (113F), more than half the humans might die, crocodiles would become 50 feet long.  Dinosaurs would reclaim the Earth again, yay!  Well, call me selfish, but I kinda like humans being on top of the food chain... And I don't think we can devolve into smaller mammals as fast as are changing the climate.  (Smaller mammals can dissipate heat better than we do, which was probably how our ancestors survived. Probably by riverside too, which might explain baby's innate ability to hold breath underwater)

Anyway, I want bio-degradable plastic.  I like paper idea, but wood has to be grown, cut down and made into pulp and bleached.  Tamiya is using plastic bags, because they are literally dirt-cheap.  Probably 3 dozen bags big and small would cost like 1 cent.  Bio-degradable plastic won't require as many trees as wood pulp.  Corn starch is still required, but we are talking about thin films of it.  It will probably cost twice as much as regular plastic (whopping 2 cents), but still cheaper than paper.  

I wish parts were cut from the trees and put in the bags.  No sprues.  This way, some 30% of the plastic would be recycled right at the factory.  At that stage, plastic is clean.  It can be turned into other parts in minutes.  This means more complex sorting machines that costs a lot.  The sales figure would come down.  That's why they are not doing it.  

This is a good thread.  It's simpler to say, "who cares?"  (Or like I said, "meh, no worries, the ocean is huge")   But when you look into stuff, you realize you end up eating fish and chips with micro plastic in them.  I prefer we recycle (even though some 15% becomes small bits to be burnt, still more than half would turn into pellets for lower-grade plastic).  What else can we do, but our best?  

 

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I've just been watching the BBC documentary 'Earth from Space', and have come to the conclusion that basically, we're all stuffed. (I've really got to stop watching stuff like that, it's getting depressing). The impact mankind is having on the world is just eye popping when you see the scale of it. As Stefan says, compared with what else is going on, the impact of the hobby side of our lives is minimal in comparison with our overall impact.

57 minutes ago, Juggular said:

And yes, there were much warmer times.  But we couldn't live when Iceland had crocodiles.  Reptiles love hot weather which is why the earth was mostly occupied by reptiles.  I cannot function well when the air around me is hotter than my body temperature and moisture won't allow sweat to evaporate... humans overheat and die, just like overheating motors.  So... if it's just a warming cycle, should we add more warming gas?  The earth itself will be fine.  When the average temperature becomes 45 Celsius (113F), more than half the humans might die, crocodiles would become 50 feet long.  Dinosaurs would reclaim the Earth again, yay!  Well, call me selfish, but I kinda like humans being on top of the food chain... And I don't think we can devolve into smaller mammals as fast as are changing the climate.  (Smaller mammals can dissipate heat better than we do, which was probably how our ancestors survived. Probably by riverside too, which might explain baby's innate ability to hold breath underwater)

This is a good thread.  It's simpler to say, "who cares?"  (Or like I said, "meh, no worries, the ocean is huge")   But when you look into stuff, you realize you end up eating fish and chips with micro plastic in them.  I prefer we recycle (even though some 15% becomes small bits to be burnt, still more than half would turn into pellets for lower-grade plastic).  What else can we do, but our best?  

 

I just love how you've put your point across here. 'When the average temperature becomes 45 Celsius (113F), more than half the humans might die, crocodiles would become 50 feet long.'

PS, we're not top of the food chain. (Humans plus weapons = top of the food chain). In human vs crocodile hand to tooth combat, my money is always on the crocodile (especially the 50ft long one :) ).

1 hour ago, Juggular said:

This is a good thread.  It's simpler to say, "who cares?"  (Or like I said, "meh, no worries, the ocean is huge")   But when you look into stuff, you realize you end up eating fish and chips with micro plastic in them.  I prefer we recycle (even though some 15% becomes small bits to be burnt, still more than half would turn into pellets for lower-grade plastic).  What else can we do, but our best?  

I totally agree with this. However, it's sometimes difficult to do out best when not given an option. It's difficult for example, to buy some food that isn't wrapped in plastic, and it's only in the last year or so we now have the option of buying 'wonky' vegetables, to help with reducing food waste, as supermarkets only want to sell food that's perfectly formed. So as consumers, we don't always have the choices we would like to take. It also seems fruitless to make changes when you look at the impact that millions of other people are having through their actions, and you're just one person. What chance has anyone got of convincing people that, actually, they don't need that product, when they are constantly being bombarded with advertising and peer pressure from all angles.

Environmental impact can also be a complex issue. Take paper books vs E-books. At first glance it would seem better for the environment to have the E-books rather than paper books, as there are no printing / shipping / manufacturing costs for each individual book. However, if you look at it on a massive scale, I would think it's less resource hungry to print a million books, than it is to manufacture  a million tablets to read those books on (although the tablets can obviously be re-used to read multiple books, but you've still got to make them in the first place). Also, once you've bought a book, it's easy to loan it to friends, or to pass on to another person to read, and then they get to read it for zero environmental impact. I've never used them, but I suspect you can't pass on your electronic copy to someone else easily, unless of course you loan out the tablet. And the tablet takes energy to run, which a book doesn't. So if a book gets read 100 times, and an E-Book gets read 100 times, which uses the least energy overall ? .Plus paper books are good  for carbon capture, and you can't terminate large spiders with a tablet. So which is better ? Who knows. What seems initially simple suddenly looks quite complex.

Or another example, what's worse for the environment, a meat eater who get's through 6 burgers a week who never travels outside their own country, or a vegan who flies abroad on a skiing / scuba diving holiday twice a year ?

Thinking about @Stefan(2)'s list of stuff not to do / use, I think one of the best things to do is to try and consciously ignore adverts (to avoid buying stuff I don't need), the other is not buying stuff just because it's 'a bargain'.  I also try to remember that I don't need stuff to make me happy, because in the long run it doesn't, it's the people I interact with. I bought my son a GF-01 Dump truck for Christmas a couple of years ago, and yes, we've had fun with it and he likes it, but what he enjoys most is trying to beat the daylights out of Dad in a pillow fight, and that's fun that doesn't cost anything :). 

 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, MadInventor said:

it's only in the last year or so we now have the option of buying 'wonky' vegetables, to help with reducing food waste, as supermarkets only want to sell food that's perfectly formed. 

Supermarkets have alot to answer for imo, they are a business right enough, but they want a long shelf life, locally grown loose veg , won't stay ,looking , fresh as long as veg in a nitrogen filled plastic bag, they also choose fruit and veg not only on what is selling,  but also what has a good shelf life, then go about convincing us that is what we want.

Personally ,I think we need to start shopping at the local farm shop again (used to do that all the time, but aupermarkets came along....) they'll grow what is in season, not strawberries in the middle of winter that have travelled half way around the globe!

(Slightly off topic but...) We have been bombarded with, false ,food for years, my sister is celiac,  and used to have a book on what she could and couldn't eat, ice cream 2ltr no problem, same make in 5ltr nope, it's bagged up with flour. She became a food tech, and one of her projects was designing a smell to be injected into a coffee jar just before it's sealed, so you get a fresh smell of coffee the first time you open it! 

 

 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

But look on the bright side..

A nice good volcano eruption still dumps more co2 / methane and fine dust into the atmosphere even us humans can do in ( i think it was 1 or 2 years ?? )

 

Yes, our climate is changing.. ( im nearing the 40, and remember how the weather was.. and how it is now ) ..

YET .. climate always changing, it is a cyclus .   We had a cold period.. with a bit of luck ( :) )   we get a warmer cycle now.

 

People going to hate me for this..

But.. yes, i think humans like me :) and.. you  :) are in basic aids for this planet..

The correct medication would be some nice sweet virus , couple of disasters to cull the herde by a huge chunk.

Look on the bright side, one king size solar flare of our sun and most of our gear is toast..   It's going to be -smelly- for a while, but

it would clean up the planet really nice.

( yes, this sounds dark )

 But .. we are with to many,  our tech makes us so healthy and extend our lives so long, that the population growth is.. well..  to much for our planet to handle.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
18 hours ago, MadInventor said:

you can't terminate large spiders with a tablet

lol... haven't thought about that.  Yep. That's important. Though, I tend to let spiders outside.  

I like both Kindle and used books.  I got a bunch of Star Wars books on paper.  Since electronic versions don't show age, Amazon sells 20 year old Star Wars books for $8.  I can get a pulp version for $3.50!  But I am inclined to think e-reader is a better choice because it took gasoline to bring the books to me.  I read at night, so I use electricity to read paper version anyway. I recharge the 900mAh batteries in my IKEA book-light every 2-3 weeks.  Kindle paperwhite has a 1600mAh battery inside, it lasts longer than a month.  1600mAh is 5.76 watt. Compared to a household 9-watt LED bulb, that's about 40 minutes worth of juice. But you can read 2 hours a night for a month.  Since I'm past midway point of my 40's, I appreciate being able to enlarge the fonts also.  lol, I sound old... 

E-reader's contribution is stopping the future book print.  Imagine another mega-hit-series like the Harry Potter.  A billion kids would want 5kgs of books delivered to their doors, all around the world.  One e-reader weighs 0.19kg. It might contain as much electronics as a transmitter.  But once you have it, no tree needs dying, and no fuel burned to bring the books to you.  Sort of like actual paper ads in the post vs e-mail advertisements.  

Having said that, I like getting used books.  I like books with a slight crease on the spine; it means that it was read and perhaps liked by somebody.  It's still in good condition for me to keep around. (I also like used RC cars lightly used state)  I get ex-library books too, but some of them are in tatters.  Many people having read it is good, but I don't like it when the front cover is dog-eared.  ('Inferno Squad' is in good condition, 'Twilight Company' is getting up there in its mileage...)  

xRRKDXO.jpg

On the other hand, my wife hates the sound of my fingers rustling through pulp fiction pages.  (So I go around rubbing the paper, just to make her run away--another good use of an actual paper book)

KAsXtjo.jpg 

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Superb and timely thread 👍

I’m admittedly a little passionate about climate change and environmental myopia - because, for me, the alternative is (a) morally unconscionable and (b) how else do I look my kids in the eye ? - so have done the math re doing big things slightly better vs small things well.

Both clearly help but only the inconvenient big stuff turns the dial - making the small stuff a laudable distraction if it’s ever one vs the other ?

So - Tamiya’s supply chain and manufacturing processes are undoubtedly the most significant contaminating factor in our hobby. 

And everyone above is right to point to wasted plastics and current kits doing air miles, with associated high atmosphere weakening. 

But here’s the thing - the number of kits ever sold and impact created is negligible vs other things people choose to overlook because (sorry) it’s easier to feel good recycling banana peel. 

So, by all means lets lobby Tamiya to be better ... and even incentivise them to do that by saying we’d each pay £5 / 10 / 20 more for green recycling and renewable / recyclable materials ?

I’m with you all the way.

But equally let’s look outside our hobby and consider how we all drive, cycle, walk, fly and power our home / workplaces ... because otherwise we’re fiddling whilst Rome burns. 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...