Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle

[Birdie Wife]

I persuaded the office where I am based (although I work half in the office, half outside) to get a small bin where we could put anything that could be composted, apple cores from lunch, coffee grinds, tea bags etc. I take it home periodically and put it on the heap. I have some very large veggie beds so need lots of compost to keep them going. We also get recycled, unbleached paper towels for the office bathroom so when people have dried their hands, the towels can go in the compost bin too.

[Lesley Jay]

Peter carpets contain VOC which are a range of chemicals many of which have hazardous properties. There is plenty of information out there.

[Peter]

OK then.

Lesley, where?
Regards, Peter.

[Lesley Jay]

Type 'carpets contain chemicals' in google and lots come up. I risked google just for you Peter!!

[Peter]

That's it blame the innocent for your addiction.

[Peter]

Carpets again.

OK so there are a lot of web sites with that set of words.

The vast majority so far are talking about chemicals used to clean carpets and are from companies trying to sell something, either "safer" chemical to clean with or devices to clean without chemicals.
Nothing like someone trying to sell something eh .

However of the sixty or so I've looked at so far only one has ANY research or proof of what they say.

The rest are all making bald statements with no proof.

Greenpeace is the honourable exception so far and their research paper is "undertaken to investigate whethercertain hazerdous chemicals were present as components in new carpets and if so in what quantities".
They also had http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/Product...3&productid=70 which helps you choose new products.

The main chemicals people seem concernerd with are phalates and formaldehyde, which in the open will evaporate, it is dangerous where it can build up and be inhaled. Also any treatments applied to carpet to prevent insect damage/infestation, dirt sticking to fibres etc.

To be honest I am more worried about painting inside my house, or using those wonderful air freshener devices. Read up on those two substances and you will go back to limewash and natural odours on the spot.

As I previously said, risk must be associated with reality. Any dust in your carpet is probably more than matched by the same dust, from the same sources, being deposited on your vegetable plot by the wind and rain.

Think of all the tyres and brake pads on all those vehicles you see every day, where do you think most of the wear ends up? Together with worn out tarmac it either blows away on the wind or runs away with the rainwater run-off. Those attractive looking ponds by any new road, are there to allow some of those contaminants to settle out, they never seem to be cleaned out mind.

DDT the first and possible biggest environmental contaminant deliberately spread by man is found everywhere, even in the Antartic, I have seen the old film (second world war) of mosquito eradication (aeroplanes dropping clouds of the stuff) people being deloused (hand portable blowers pumping clouds of the stuff into peoples clothing and every nook & cranny of their person).

In fact one of the sellers proves my point with its blurb "Misconception #2:
The only reason to clean carpets is to get out the dirt.
No. As you probably know, outdoor air contains pollens, fungus, bacteria, air pollution, cigarette smoke, car exhaust -- and hundreds of other chemicals. When you and your family members come into your home, you carry those pollens, bacteria and chemicals in your hair and on your skin, clothing and shoes. Not surprisingly, all those chemicals, pollens and bacteria wind up --you guessed it -- in your carpet."

Guess where the outside air dumps some of it outside?
Guess what you were breathing in while outside?

Pollution is a bugger, there is little point in trying to avoid being polluted, lots of point in avoiding polluting. Shutting the windows because the factory down the road is belching out pollutants does not do much good, getting them to stop belching does.

Sorry for banging on, but it really grates when people say something and persuade others about it without citing proof.

[Nicos]

Peter - you are certainly trying to get to the bottom of all this!!

Let me quote Bob Flowerdew from the April 1994 Gardeners' World magazine, page 60 talking about the ingredients of a compost:-

"Old woollen and cotton clothes, bedding and carpets, newspaper and cardboard will compost if well soaked and well mixed in."

Most of us consider him to be one of the most respected organic gardeners around and it would be interesting to know if he still holds this view 12 yrs down the line?? (anyone know?)

I wouldn't choose to use a carpet as I'm one of the allotment 'snobs' having seen the mess foam backed ones leave when rotting down.

I like to think I am nearly 100% organic, but having a plot near a motorway and an airport and being able to smell the fumes from time to time, and being aware that the previous allotment tennant probably used DDT over the years, I still like to think what I am growing is still much healthier than I could ever buy in the shops. !!!

[Peter]

Getting to the bottom of it.

Nicos, too true.

Agree with your other comments, especially about foam-backed.

Urban myth is the category I think this carpet one is heading to and Bristol City for one has according to what I have read in a different mag already acted on it and banned carpet at all its sites for "contaminent" reasons.

Colleague is in a conservation volunteer outfit, and they used to make paths using old tarmac, you know those huge machines that chisel/plane off the top of the road, now they cannot due to the oil based tarmac leaching into the soil, so now they make "board walks". I can understand that in a nature reserve, but does it not leach elsewhere else e.g. outside my house?

Regards, Peter.

[nick the grief]

I agree with your sentiment Peter.

I always tell people to use black plastic as some people are sensitive to stories like the carpet problem/ I personally have carpets on my plot & a good job they are doing but I've done the risk assesment & fgured that my only other course of action would be to spreay with weed killer, so I chose the carpet.

I think we all suffer from nanny state syndrome & eventually it rubs off.

At work they tell us safety is the No1 priority - admirable sentiment- then we get thing posted sayin Only walk on the left hand side of the stairs & hold the hand rail.
We recently had a video that tried to justify the holding on this by showing a picture of a 3 legged dog. Apparently it had fell down a flight of stairs & had to have a leg amputated - Come on please!!! Stairs aren't designed for dogs firstly, and if this is the best justification then I think the world has finally gone mad.

[smallblueplanet]

Maybe so - but of course what tends to happen in a 'backlash' against the nanny state is the 3-legged dog gets thrown out with the bath water!!!

[Nicos]

well, you know , there are the sturdy few of us who rebel!!

I hate what the grey squirrels do to my garden and yet last summer, was up every night , 2 hrly for 2 months feeding orphaned baby squiggs from a local animal rescue centre/hospital !!! Lovely little things,....so long as they don't live in our garden!!.... I think these days, there is so much info on offer , you have to follow what is best for you, but keep your ears peeled for any updates. No idea if what I did was the 'right thing to do' ..but it felt like it was at the time.

As with most things in life....keep an open mind and you can't go far wrong!!

[pigletwillie]

Hi Peter,

we have banned carpets from our allotment site for two reasons, firstly the foam backed stuff breaks up in a year or two but mainly because its an absolute pig to get rid of when we clear plots. It prevents us from ploughing or rotovating the plots for new tenants. Chemicals have nothing to do with it.

The plot I took over being a case in point as even now we find lumps of rubber foam when we dig along with yards and yards of nylon threads from carpet.

Rag backed carpet isnt as bad but is still troublesome.

[essexboyracer]

Old for New

Thanks plot 11 pam for the advice on compost bins from pallets. Our allotment site is fairly flat so not a problem doing the lugging, its whether the pallets will fit in the back of m F-reg Fiesta that is...

[pigletwillie]

At work last night a colleague was putting bags of grass cuttings in the skip. Well I took them out and the grass is now in the lottie compost bins. A neighbour also puts his grass cuttings on our home compost bin which helos as whilst we have a good sized garden we have no lawn and thus no clippings for the compost bin.

[SueA]

Not something you have to hand every day but when I took down an old venetian blind I cut up all the plastic slats & got hundreds of plant labels out of it.Also the cords come in handy to tie plants up etc.