Janet Kaiser on sun 14 nov 04
I am happy to say that we do not quite have the same one-way
system for large-scale packaging that you seem to have in the
USA! Although the UK is way behind countries like Germany where
all one-way plastic packaging should be/is kept separate and
either put into a public recycling container or collected from
businesses/homes once per month, unnecessary plastic packaging
(i.e. drink bottles) is banned and a whole industry is built on
multiple re-use (not least because a deposit has been paid or tax
levied on environmentally unfriendly packaging solutions). Even
so, we do not seem to have foodstuffs produced and distributed to
restaurants and food outlets in the same huge quantities spoken
of to date, so containers are a lot smaller and therefore not as
useful as glaze containers. This is speaking from a rural area
where the nearest "local" McDonalds is an hour by car down the
road and there is no commercial production of anything, but I
admit that I have not checked out the in-house bakeries at Tesco
or Morrisons/Safeway (the only supermarkets "down our way").
Paint tubs are the only "free" large lidded containers generally
available around here and they need an awful lot of cleaning up,
unless you are happy to leave the remains of the paint they
contained on/in them. I suppose that is "technically" not a
problem because it is not about to come off in a glaze, but could
possibly upset some house proud potters? You also first have to
catch a tame painter-decorator, before training them to behave
conscientiously every time they empty a suitable tub... This can
be a very long-term project, because years of using them as waste
containers on the job has numbed their sensibility to wider
horizons and other uses!
Since suffering from an "affliction" where single-handedly
hoisting a heavy weight (i.e. anything over a couple of
kilograms) with just one handle is not a good idea (specially
those thin wire handles), I have turned to other alternatives
whenever possible... I am now forever watching out for containers
with TWO handles, preferably placed either side and each wide
enough so as not to dig into sore fingers or put too much
pressure onto joints. Some of the oddments now in use inside and
outdoors are:
+ beer maker's fermenting tub (with liquid-proof and airtight
lid)
+ rectangular plastic storage container with clip-on lid
+ old-fashioned style plastic dustbins with lids (some are
surprisingly air-tight ) although these are becoming rare with
the introduction of wheelie-bins.
+ water butt with lid... Now I imagine that would be particularly
good for mixing up a large quantity of glaze and even has a tap
to pour a small ( well mixed!) quantity of glaze into a smaller
bucket in a totally controlled manner!
Both bins and butts (OK...OK... Stop sniggering! Read "barrels"
you people who have found a new meaning for the word! :o) are
sometimes made of recycled plastic and are available at a
subsidised rate from some councils and other local authorities.
This is a recent development as part of the drive to reduce waste
/ landfill nationwide plus water conservation measures,
specifically in the SE where hose-pipe banns are common.
"Specialist" containers which one can only "access" through
personal contacts in catering, laundry, cleaning and other
service industries depend very much on your locality as well as
the extent you can enthuse people to co-operate with you. It is
worth considering that it is far, far harder to find "free"
anything in the UK compared to the USA/Canada. For example, our
local carpet stores never give away their old samples as the
designs go out of production... They are sold as "door mats" even
though they have the two holes in them which fixed them into a
book! Even hotel rooms are pretty "empty" over here... No shower
caps, shampoo, shoe shiner, etc. just a single teeny guest soap,
if you are lucky!
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser -- were winter is approaching. First snow and frost
forecast overnight, although there were moths flying against the
window last night, spring bulbs are well above ground already,
there is blossom on some trees in the village and I have insect
bites round my "hot spots"! (I wonder why do they always make a
b-line to flesh nearest to elastic?) Another "false" season
thanks to global warming...
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