Environomics

A couple of years ago I had a white iPhone 4S. I loved that thing. It was compact, durable, great on battery and very functional. After about 18 months of reasonable use, I upgraded the software as soon as Apple told me to. It was one of those things that pops up on your phone and you…

Energy Cannot be Created or Destroyed

There’s been a lot of focus of late on two areas of the climate debate: reducing household energy consumption and increasing generation from renewable sources. This is only half the battle, though, because a vast proportion of the energy we use is actually in the manufacture and transport of our stuff. Recent PhD work at…

Recycling: Environmental Saviour or Guilt Assuager?

If you’re anything like me you get this warm, fuzzy feeling when you take out your recyclables. We’ve come a long way from the mid ‘90s both here in Australia and world-wide which is when recycling became cheaper than landfill disposal (source). Here in Australia we do a pretty good job, with around 60% of…

Composting

Let’s talk about Waste. We produce a lot of it here in Australia yet it doesn’t get as much press as other forms of waste such as emissions from energy or transport. On average each Australian produces more than two tonnes of waste every year. Around half of that is recycled (depending on which state…

Washing the Greenwash

Have you ever been guilted by an environmentalist friend for using a disposable coffee cup or for picking up plastic bags at the supermarket? Here’s where we find out whether that guilt is justified. Sustainability is a big thing – never more so than now. It’s a hotly debated topic with concerns for environmental impact,…