Tips On What To Do With Plastic Bags

Plastic bags can take around 20 to 1,000 (I presume that’s a guess) years to degrade, depending on sunlight and air exposure. Most will take a long time as they’re buried under tons of other rubbish at landfills.

But new degradable plastic bags have been introduced by some supermarkets - some are bio-degradable plastics, which contain a small percentage of non oil-based material, such as corn starch; and others are photodegradable plastics, which will break down when exposed to sunlight.

There are concerns over the use of degradable plastics - a photodegradable plastic product will not degrade if it is buried in a landfill site where there is no light, and they may cause greenhouse gas.

However the biggest concern if that if people think they will degrade, we may find more thrown away. So reusing plastic bags is the best idea (as mentioned here). Keep a stash in the boot of your car or even in your handbag or coat pockets so you don’t have to get a new one when you go the supermarket.

If you find you have too many and they’re taking over the cupboard, then there are other things you can do with them:

• Recycle them. Most supermarkets have a ‘bin’ where you can put your excess bags in. Be careful to only put supermarket bags in there as the thicker bags from other retailers are a different sort of plastic and food waste and even reciepts can contaminate them.
• Art. Artists are finding different ways to use them. Like Hannah Greenaway.
• Knit with them. I wrote a story many moons ago about someone making clothes from old carrier bags and now you can get tips on how to do it on the internet. Presumably you can use standard patterns.
• Other ideas include using them as ties for garden plants (although they won’t last forever), using them as bin liners (yes, you’re still throwing them away but at least you’re not buying bin liners as well), and giving them to a local charity shop (or indeed any local shop) - it’ll save them buying bags and saving them money and of course helping the environment too.
• That’s about it for recycling them, but if you want do just learn more about plastic bags, there’s a website just for you.

Heroes Episode Guide - Chapter 6: Better Halves

A quieter episode this week, with Nathan and Matt being ignored altogether, but I still found it interesting. Hiro continues to be my favourite character, the smile on his face when he realises he had a sword in the future is great, as is his struggling to cope with the fact he couldn’t save the guys at the poker game, yet Ando is there to support (and translate) for him.

This episode is all about Niki and how she is coping with her evil side. It’s great that they finally get to meet and the majority of the questions that this episode raised are answered within the show which makes a nice change. It turns out that Niki’s evil half set up her husband, D. L. Hawkins, and slips out in the night to kill the guys that DL was going to see in the morning. The same guys who were playing poker with Hiro and Ando. The way these heroes (or evil vililans maybe?) lives intersect is really interesting.

I felt a bit sorry for Niki as she tried to explain to DL what was happening but her evil side asserts control over her. But we do get to see DL’s powers in action and it makes you wonder what powers Micah might have.

My suspicial that glasses guy/Claire’s dad isn’t necessarily the bad guy gains momentum when although he brings fake biological parents to meet Claire, his reaction to hearing the words “save the cheerleader” shows that maybe he’s not in control of everything. He may just be testing and cataloguing the people with powers as he let Matt go. I’m not sure what the significance of him having another pair of glasses is either, but who he was talking to on the phone is important.

In one of the only predictable things about the programme, Mohinder’s friend in New York, Eden, turns out to be working with glasses guy. Despite Mohinder going back to India, she seems to be using him to find people with powers and they both seem used to dealing with these people, using the term pre-cog to describe Issac. I’m intrigued to see if Eden has powers as she’s tasked to go and collect Issac so I’m not sure how she’s going to do that.

Roll on next week.

Look here for a full review.

Song of the Day - Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies

Pick me up for a slow Monday afternoon, enjoy

Barenaked Ladies (often abbreviated BNL or occasionally BnL) is a Canadian alternative rock band currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan. They formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto. They are best known for their hit singles, “One Week”, “Pinch Me”, “If I Had $1000000″, and “Brian Wilson”, and for their light-hearted, comedic performance style. The band’s trademark at live shows is humorous banter between songs, and improvised raps/songs, both of which are staples at virtually every concert.

Bungee Jump Fun

As a 30th birthday treat for our good friend Rich, and for all you readers, here’s his bungee jump a few years ago, over Victoria Falls in South Africa. Brilliant. Happy Birthday mate.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

An interesting video that discusses whether we’re causing global climate change, or that it happens regardless of what we do. It’s 1 hour and 15 minutes long, so be prepared, but even the first 5 minutes are interesting. A synopsis:

“Are you green? How many flights have you taken in the last year? Feeling guilty about all those unnecessary car journeys? Well, maybe there’s no need to feel bad. According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn’t your fault and there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they’ve got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming.”

Looking at Paper in a Different Light

Art comes in many different forms. Origami is one use of making paper into art, here’s another way. Must have taken ages.

Europe to Ban Old Style Lightbulbs

It has been reported (see here) that the European Union is to ban old style lightbulbs in the next couple of years. Instead you will only be able to buy low energy (or energy saving) lightbulbs.

Incandescent lightbulbs, whilst cheaper than their fluorescent counterparts, use much more electricity and obviously therefore create more carbon dioxide.

Whilst this can only be a good thing, it’s currently difficult to find energy saving versions of some kinds of bulbs, and if you do they can be expensive. A lot more details can be found here.

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