Let’s bring re-usable beer cases to North America
Last weekend I drove my friend to the liquor store to pick up some beer. As he was removing the case from the cooler, an all too familiar situation occured: the bottom of the case broke apart and beer went cascading everywhere, an unpleasant situation, and an easily avoidable one.
In Europe, beer is sold almost exclusively in plastic crates. Crates usually contain 16 x 500mL bottles for a perfect 8L, but there are other sizes too. They’re stackable, re-usable, very difficult to break, and all around better for the end user. The only two downsides are that they are slightly heavier than cardboard and breweries can’t brand them differently for each promotion they put on. There are, however, some dead simple ways to solve the latter, such as using a plastic wrapped seal during promotions.
According to Wikipedia, Canadians drink 2,183,000,000 litres of beer every year. Assuming 70% of that is in bottles, that works out to nearly 180 million cases. I couldn’t find stats on the inputs required to produce one case, but overall we’re probably looking at a significant energy saving.
For each case of beer purchased a deposit is paid on the case as well as on the bottles. In Germany it is around €3 ($4.20). I couldn’t find any life-cycle data on cases, but from personal experience I know that many cases from long ago are still in circulation in Germany.
While doing some research for this, I found a neat building made from beer cases. Try doing that with cardboard.
I think that this idea is past-due in North America. Beer spillage, ripped cardboard cases, and the general wastefulness of single-use containers should be things of the past. How do we convince beer companies that this is the right way to do things?
Grab things, make noise with them, record
Nothing in the recording below resembles the structure expected in western music: precise timing and tuning, a coherent sound. It’s just me making noise with things close by. Including my phone receiving a kik message. Enjoy.
It’s time for options for residential waste removal
Residential waste removal in Canada currently comes in three flavours: one, two, or three stream. You either have the ability to compost and/or recycle, or you don’t. One is required to pay a flat fee for whatever one’s city offers. The concept of composting is also far from universal – the major centres, such as Toronto and Ottawa, have barely implemented it, if at all. Saint John lacks curbside recycling, instead requiring residents to lug recyclables to far-off centralized depots, located in mall parking lots.
It’s time for fundamental change in how waste removal is handled across our country. I believe that we are near the limit for incremental improvements to the quality of service we receive, and our landfills are filling up almost as quickly as ever. No matter one’s opinion on environmental and social implications of landfills, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just get rid of them forever?
When I lived in Germany I became accustomed to a vastly different system, one which inspired PEI to become the first province to implement three-stream waste removal in the early 1990s (province-wide rollout came later, but PEI was the first province or state in North America to go jurisdiction-wide). In Germany, all houses and businesses are required to compost. Recycling is done in neighbourhood bins, similar to those in Saint John, but located every few blocks, no more three or four minute walk from anywhere I lived, and always on the way to the park – perfect when walking the dog or going for a stroll.
The fundamental difference in the German system is that of providing options to the consumer. Carts came in two sizes and had a variety of lid colours. A family of six or more (or a smaller, but more wasteful one) could opt for the full sized bins, the same size as are used in Nova Scotia for composting and PEI for both compost and waste. Small families, single people, retirees, or very environmentally conscious families could pick a half-sized bin, similar to the compost bins used in Ontario. Another layer of choice was added to each bin: weekly or bi-weekly pickup. Pricing varied according to bin size and collection frequency. The lid colour was the cue for collection frequency. This allows retirees or environmentally-friendly individuals to save money, and bringing the system close to charging the true cost of waste removal.
The reality of this structure is that it’s not too far from our current system in many cities. Some municipalities provide weekly collection, which means there would be little change in their overall plan, though trucks may be able to cover longer routes, depending on operational requirements.
Critics of such a pricing scheme would argue that it hurts families. This fear is not entirely correct, as consumption has more to do with income than family size – a large family who monitors consumption could very well end up with no waste, or so little that only a small, bi-weekly bin will be required. The inverse is also true, as I am familiar with many two-person households who fill both the black and green carts on a bi-weekly basis.
The other principal criticism of such schemes is that people will purchase the smallest bin in order to save money, then dump trash illegally. I believe that our police do a reasonably good job of finding and stopping illegal waste sites, so I find this to be a minor concern at worst.
Another idea that should be implemented at the same time is the ability for houses to opt for single-cart waste removal. Rather than having a compost cart and a waste cart, houses who choose to do their own composting should be allowed to opt out of compost collection. Garbage crews already audit bins to ensure only the correct products are in each, so fraud should be difficult.
Through a series of reforms, we could achieve such a system, providing options for small households who generate little waste. The lower prices will provide a financial incentive to houses to make the effort to curb their waste-generating consumption. Simply put, the time has come for subsidized waste removal to end.
Refinishing my bed frame
When I first moved in to a place of my “own” (rented with roommates), my parents were kind enough to purchase a mattress and box spring, figuring that getting a good quality mattress would pay dividends in terms of health and well-being. This mattress was purchased during a promotion that included a cheap metal frame on which to place the bed. For approximately three years, this frame endured a few different conditions, namely a basement apartment that was a tad too humid, rendering it somewhat rusty. Finally, upon arriving in Saint John, I vowed I would restore the frame to a rust free state. Today was the day I finally got around to the project.
I picked up some red Tremclad paint from my parents’ basement, as red was the only colour they had. This included spray-on primer and brush-on paint. I also scavenged for some 100-grit sandpaper, as they had nothing more coarse. I used the sandpaper to remove the rust from the frame, which was a long, slow task given that it was the wrong tool for the job. Eventually, I finished that and went outside to the parking lot to apply the primer, which ran out less than 1/3 the way through the job, so off I went to Kent building supplies way out in the east end.
This is where the project took a turn for the worst: since my parents bought that paint years ago, Tremclad had improved their products by going primer-free. Since I was looking for something similar to the primer I’d started with, I opted for the spray can of red paint. Getting home, I started painting, but there was a light wind, and it didn’t work very well & a fair bit of paint was consumed, making an awful mess of everything. Why I didn’t stick to my original plan and use brush on paint is beyond me.
Oh well, here’s a look at the finished product, one of the few red bed frames you’ll ever see. Having completed it, I realize I have possibly freed myself from the Wedge Family Curse: a renowned inability to finish any projects.
