I like a page a day diary, mainly as it tends to function more as a notebook than a diary to me. Often the page a day quota doesn’t work for the things I jot down, so I tend to write on any blank page I can find. This drives my sister crazy, “how do Read More…
Category: waste
The lost – and last – blueberry crop
Peter Thompson is a soft fruit farmer in Blairgowrie. Approximately 80% of his business is in blueberry production, with the remaining 20% in cherries. This year Peter did not harvest his blueberry crop. Spiraling costs and cheaper imports from Peru and South Africa meant that picking the crop would cost Peter far more money than Read More…
Rubbish reflections
On the Thursday 18th August 2022, refuse collection workers in Edinburgh started strike action as negotiations over pay and conditions failed. They were joined by their colleagues in other Scottish local authorities at various points over the next few days, including Glasgow (where strike action began on Wednesday 24th). The Edinburgh strike in particular gained Read More…
Small hands, close to the ground
The story below reflects the way in which two projects I’m currently working on – Waste Stories and a project called Water and Fire – have begun to combine in my mind. Water and Fire is a collaboration between the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow in the UK with the Universities of Cape Town and Read More…
“Vorsprung durch Technik”
I found the detonator at the side of the road to Sandhead, on the Rhinns of Galloway. It had been run over, possibly by one of the big, heavy trucks transporting grass to the farms for silage, but its wires were still attached and some of the inner wadding material was poking out of one Read More…
Nurdelology: a future archaeology of the plastics age
Earlier this year, we started working with the fantastic folk at the Solway Firth Partnership (SFP). This is part of a strand of Waste Stories dedicated to waste in our seas and along our coasts; we’ll add a new section to this site explaining more about this work soon. In March, I went to Port Read More…
Spilt milk
There is no point crying over spilt milk. A saying, that until last week I would have wholeheartedly agreed, with only one exception: breastmilk. In my experience there are often several very good reasons to cry if you spill breastmilk. The first being the misery of having spent an hour pumping to get a measly Read More…
The Smiling Snowman
He was smiling still, the wooden snowman with the broken nose. He wondered: if his nose hadn’t been knocked off, what would he smell? He had some interesting companions in the pile he had recently joined. An old toilet; some pencil crayons – pink, orange, brown and blue; a VHS video tape (he remembered when Read More…
Wash or waste? A microplastics dilemma
Hannah’s recent post about stained clothes is on my mind. It’s Saturday morning and George is out at work, cleaning the pub. I’m wondering what kind of cleaning cloths he’ll bring home today. I know it doesn’t sound like something worth wondering about, but it has become a source of uncertainty for me, and Read More…
For the love of pisgetti!
I grimaced as Noah used his sleeve to wipe the tomato sauce off of his chin for the third time. “Yummm, I love pisgetti mummy! It’s my favourite you know.” “It’s tasty, isn’t it?” I replied smiling, “try to use the cloth rather than your sleeve to clean your face though bud OK?” I’m a Read More…
