MUNDOMATERIAL

This post is a follow up of A month without plastic. Since I wrote that, Chris Jeavans has been doing quite well for herself. She has learned some of the dynamics of the downsizing movement, which promotes reduction of all consumed items, and she is applying some of its rules. An example of a total-downsizer is this blog: No impact man. In this case plastic is not the only suspect and this New Yorker tries to reduce his enviromental impact to zero. Challenging, to say the least. Some of the key rules of downsizers are as follows: be aware of the impact of what you consumed be determined measure your progress tell others how to do it All these steps taking by downsizers look very much like those taken by a person on diet, food diet I mean. Chris Jeavans has analysed new product types, like shoes, meat packaging and toiletries. But more importantly, she has found a lot of friends. As it turns out, she is not the first doing this at all. There are quite a few bloggers out there that are... 
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Have you been wondering what those swimmers have been wearing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games? Me too! If only because of all the discussions about the fairness of using technology in sports and how many of the new world records are due to the suit and not the swimmer. But what is the technology behind Speedo‘s swimwear and is it really that much of an advantage? What is clear is that with its price tag, not all kids dreaming of becoming olympic swimmers can afford it, especially those from developing countries. But then this debate should be touching almost all sports, not only swimming, because technology is used in many of them, from carbon fibre bikes to running shoes. But let’s take a closer look at our suspect, the Fastskin LZR Racer suit produced by Speedo and then you can decide by yourselves. What is it? Although it is creating a bit of upheaval right now, the LZR Racer is just the last suit in a series that started in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with the S200 swimsuits.... 
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In March 2008 the European Commission adopted Regulation EC 282/2008, setting out the requirements for recycled plastics to be used in food contact applications. The aim of the regulation is to level the field accross Europe, since up to now the legal status of recycled plastics varied from country to country. Also, the lack of specific legislation made it more difficult for recycled plastics to compete with virgin polymers in this type of end market. The EC is just being consequent with what is already established in Directive 94/62/EC, promoting the recycling of packaging waste. However, the recent regulation covers not only food packaging, but also cutlery, dishes, processing machines, containers, etc. Only plastics already used in food contact applications, or complying with food contact requirements, are covered by the Directive. Excluded from it are the following: materials obtained by chemical recycling, which are covered instead by Directive 2002/72/EC on monomers and additives recycled... 
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I’m totally fascinated by a new experiment being done by a BBC reporter, Chris Jeavans: A month without plastic. As the title of her already popular blog suggests, she is going to go without plastic for a whole month. The rules of her experiment are simple: She must not buy or consumed new plastic for a month and she can keep using whatever she had before. To prepare for her experiment and fully realised of its impact, she first collected all the new plastic she consumed for a month. If you want to see a video of it – which I totally recommend – follow this link, with WRAP‘s expert Paul Davidson. He explains to her what plastic is used in each product, how it can be recycled and some of the easy alternatives to reduce plastic usage. To start with, she is getting a huge response in the media and creating a very healthy debate on how we use plastic. Just to see all the plastic an average person uses in a month can be quite a shock to some people. It has to be said... 
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Introduction Today I will discuss how the electronics market is changing its approach to sustainability, forced mainly by legislation. When talking about electronics, many products are included: mobiles, computers, DVD and CD players, etc. A 2007 report of the UN University estimated that the amount of new electrical and electronic equipment, EEE, put in 2005 in the EU27 market was 10.3 million tonnes. The waste generated by electronic and electrical equipment, WEEE, in 2005 was lower, between 8.3 and 9.1 million tonnes. The same report also forecasts that in 2020, WEEE will reach 12.3 million tonnes. The volume of electronic waste generated by Europe and the concerns raised by how this waste is treated have lead, among other factors, to three European directives: WEEE, RoHS and REACH. By concerns about how WEEE is treated in developing countries, see the links under Others, at the bottom of the post. WEEE directive, Waste electrical and electronic equipment, 2002/96/EC This directive... 
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