Stuart McMillen

Previously I’ve blogged about the environmental benefits of using worms to compost household food scraps. Since I’m interested in solving for pattern, I wanted to highlight another benefit of home composting: document destruction.

Many of us are still blasé with the way we destroy mail and sensitive documents. Until recently I would simply throw unwanted mail into the recycling bin, with little concern about the potential for interception by identity thieves. I’m sure there is a lot that identity thieves could do with access to our old bank statements, bills and other pieces of correspondence. Even seemingly innocuous things such as a full name or a postal address can be pieced together into a larger jigsaw of information about a person.

It turns out there’s an easy biological solution to the problem: worm composting. As well liking the nitrogen of fresh fruit and vegetable scraps, worms also need the carbon of drier, aged matter such as paper. Give the worms a balanced diet by adding your sensitive paper documents to the worm farm.

And to get the whole thing going nicely, why not pour some liquid worm castings over the paper. That ought to deter all but the most determined identity thieves! The documents will be comprehensively composted within days.

(Look at the older paper underneath the fresh letters in the above picture for an example of a document that was added less than a week ago. If you tried to peel apart the damp pages of that old lease agreement, they would tear apart in your fingers).

There are many options for secure document destruction, including personal paper shredders that can be purchased even from my local supermarket. Rather than resort to unnecessary techno-fixes, I’d rather turn the job over to my underground allies!

The ‘green tips‘ post about worm farming that I added last October is one of the most popular that I have added to this blog. More than half a year on, I wanted to write some expanded thoughts about worm farms.

• When I wrote the original post last October, I hadn’t had to remove any solid waste from the system. In the meantime, I have removed one tray worth of worm castings. My technique was basically to upend the tray and pick out the worms before using the soil as potting mix. This took some time, but I’m fascinated by the whole experience, so wasn’t too bothered. I’m still very impressed how many kilograms of waste have been processed by those worms!
• It did highlight the fact that worm farms may not be for ‘clean freaks’ who don’t like getting their hands dirty. While you can go for months on end without getting your hands dirty, eventually you will need to roll up the sleeves and get into the muck. (Or get a friend to help you out!) This should be something that people consider when placing the worm farm, as there is potential for mess to be made during certain parts of the process. Beware when deciding to place indoors or on a balcony.
• One thing that I didn’t mention last time is that you need to watch the amount of citrus and onion peels that you put into the worm farm. These are acidic foods that affect the pH of the worm farm environment. Of course, you could always balance our the acidic influence with a handful of dolomite lime every now and then, but I haven’t gone down that path yet. Crushed up eggshells are another source of this calcium carbonate.
• Occasionally worms will move from the bottom feeding tray to the liquid collector tray and are unable to return back to the surface. A good tip is to put a brick or upturned ice cream container inside this collector tray, so that the worms can easily climb out again.



• Some great composting websites have sprung up since I wrote my blog post last year. One is by Reln, Australia’s largest worm farm/compost bin manufacturer, who have rebranded their products as ‘Tumbleweed‘. Available are plenty of details about their products, instruction manuals, as well as an ‘expert advice‘ section and comprehensive information about where to buy worm farms. Really good to see that all of their products are manufactured with 100% recycled plastic.
• For those more interested in learning about the worms themselves, check out Kookaburra Worm Farms, which is based in Gin Gin, Queensland. Really good to learn about the different species of worms they breed, as well as innovative ideas such as their ‘garden bed worm farm‘.
• Finally, in homage to Napoleon Dynamite, I have taken to referring to the worms as my ‘underground allies’!

Earlier today I launched my latest cartoon “The Problem”. Things had been a little quiet on my cartoon website because I’ve been busy with other projects, and (more importantly) waiting for inspiration to strike. Inspiration for this one came on Friday night and I spent all of Saturday and some of Sunday working on it.

Since the meaning behind some of my cartoons are sometimes debated by readers, for this one I thought I’d get on the front foot and explain myself.

Inspiration
Although some of the imagery relates to BP’s current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the cartoon was written as a broader critique of the fossil fuel lobby and the undue influence they have in our economies and political systems.

Left? Right? Centre?
My main concern is that this cartoon will be tagged as some ‘lefty rant’. How sad is it that environmental issues are chiefly seen as a so-called ‘left-wing concern’, as if conservatives are somehow able to tolerate the man-made toxins and ills that stem from unsound business practices. I can’t understand the antagonistic fanaticism that some people hold for activities that clearly have destructive consequences, yet align with a deep-seated ideology towards status quo.

Environmental concerns should cut across the spectrum of political ideologies, and I hope my cartoons can be a part of the chorus of voices trying to demonstrate that ‘the economy’ and ‘the environment’ are not polar opposites. Why settle for second-best? If an activity produces 80% ‘good’ and 20% ‘bad’ for society, let’s work to make the equation 100% ‘good’ and 0% ‘bad’.

The roles of business and government
The first thing to change must be the current muddied distinction between business and government. As the cartoon alludes, businesses spend an excessive amount of time and resources lobbying governments, donating money to politicians, and generally trying to be the ones setting the rules of the economy. At the same time, governments too often wade into the domain of free enterprise – setting prices, picking winners and establishing programs that could be more efficiently implemented by industry.

The role of government
Governments have the critical role in setting the laws and standards for which business must abide. Taking the role of the ‘guardian’, governments sets the vision for the world and the climate for the behaviour of business. Taking care not to be too prescriptive, governments give businesses incentive to innovate by setting targets for energy efficiency, materials recycling. Through law, they also determine the activities which are unacceptable, such as the use and disposal of certain chemicals as advised by scientists.

The role of business
If governments have a talent for standards and regulation, the innate talent of free enterprise is creativity and innovation. In a healthy commercial system, industry wastes no time resisting government legislation and instead employs bright minds and lateral thinking to meet and exceed the targets set by governments. Realising that laws and standards apply to their competitors as equally as it applies to them, successful businesses seek competitive advantage from surpassing the competition whilst working within the framework set by governments.

The distinction must be made clear. Governments should be steering the boat and industry should be rowing. If the government sticks to what it is good at, and industry sticks to what it is good at, the whole system will work efficiently.

A price on pollution: the economy as the solution
The individuals who built the companies and institutions behind the industrial economy didn’t set out to make a system that slowly destroys the life on Earth. I’m sure the current CEOs and leaders of industry don’t want to leave that legacy either. Unfortunately, that’s what is happening as a result of ‘business as usual’.

Although often historically ignored and counted as ‘zero’, damage to the environment is a major cost that reduces our future ability to live a quality life. As the cartoon alludes, whenever there is an ‘externality’ from industry to the environment (for example, water pollution), it falls upon society to cover the ‘cost’ of this mistake. The most efficient way to correct this market failure is to calculate the cost to society from damaging behaviours, and impose the costs on the polluters.

Adding taxes to pollution do not ‘add costs’ to the economy as some might claim. Rather, they redistribute society’s costs towards the party responsible for the damage, giving direct incentive for improvements to be made. By enforcing a price on pollution and regularly raising environmental standards, it is amazing how quickly industry uses its talents of innovation to find cleaner (and therefore cheaper) ways of doing business. Unfortunately, this will not happen while it is still considered ‘free’ to pollute, as is currently the situation for many toxic activities.

Putting it all together
In short, the negative, mucky way of conducting business that I describe in the cartoon can be reversed. All it takes from business is a positive attitude which focuses on its natural talent for innovation and efficiency. Transferring its resources away from lawyers, lobbyists and spin-doctors and towards scientists, engineers and inventors. All it takes from governments is the courage to stand firm in the face of the vested interests of lobby grounds and act in the public interest. Governments must understand that for every laggard business that whinges about complying with government standards (“we cant”), there is always a cunning competitor profiting by leading the way (“we are”).

More reading
To dive deeper into these issues and learn about ways that business must reinvent itself, beg, borrow or steal the books “Cradle to Cradle” (2002), “The Ecology of Commerce” (1993) and “Natural Capitalism” (1999). (I lament my need to re-emphasise the compelling views of these authors in 2010, given the original publication date of the books!)

Keep your eyes peeled (and your accounts subscribed) for more illustrated ideas about the green economy in the coming months.

Name: Local Power
Description: Solar photovoltaic bulk buyers/installers
Founded: Brisbane, 2007

What’s a tried and true way of bringing the cost down on purchases? Buy in bulk. This is the principle used by Local Power, a Brisbane not-for-profit that organises the bulk ordering and installation of solar PV power systems.

Every few months, Local Power opens a new ‘buying group‘ for householders to be a part of. Rather than offering a wide range of solar panels/inverters to cater to a wide range of personal preferences, Local Power’s buying groups only offer a few product options. Cutting down the complexity and focusing on fewer solar system models allows Local Power to negotiate better prices from its suppliers. It also simplifies life for the tradies that install the systems. Not only is it easier to repeatedly install identical systems on different roofs, bulk buying groups also allow the installers to better plan their work and efficiently drive between houses in local geographic areas.

As well as offering great value for people that are already interested in renewable energy, Local Power opens doors for people who are willing to embrace solar power, but lack the time or knowledge to buy systems on their own. Working in a coordinated fashion gets positive attention from the government, supports the fledgling renewable energy industry, and makes Local Power customers feel like the are a part of a kind of ‘movement’. A not-for-profit with four successful buying groups behind it, Local Power is a great example of a community initiative that has ‘filled a gap’ for hundreds of households, and made genuine steps to reducing the carbon intensity of our neighbourhoods.

Other resources:

• Local Power FAQs.
• Excerpt from a 2009 book about the Local Power story.
• Listen to a 12 minute chat between 612 ABC’s Madonna King and Local Power founders Russell Holmes and Rob Farago. Discussion mostly about broad, layperson descriptions of solar PV and solar HWS.

Name: Carrotmob
Description: Targeted green consumer activist movement
Founded: San Francisco, 2008

No, this has nothing to do with the crunchy orange root vegetables. The name Carrotmob comes from their principles of using ‘incentive carrots’ to try and change business behaviour.

Carrotmob aims to mobilise a group of shoppers who are willing to spend their consumer dollars with businesses that commit to improving their environmental credentials. Some steps to Carrotmobbing:

• Carrotmob organisers choose a particular geographic area and business category (e.g. bottle shop, restaurant) that they want to target, and then invite locals businesses to compete with each other.
• The businesses submit proposals for the percentage of sales revenue (etc) that they will use to improve their environmental impact.
• The proposals are all evaluated by the Carrotmob organisers, and eventually one winner is chosen.
• On a particular day, the Carrotmob supporters all visit the winning business and spend their money to reward the business owner for their outstanding commitments.
• The results of the day’s trading are collated, and the Carrotmob organisers, often in conjunction with a supporting organisation, go about using the money to undertake energy efficiency improvements, etc.

The above video summarises things very nicely, as does the animation on carrotmob.org. In fact their site is a wealth of information, with FAQs, a guide to organising a Carrotmob, and a history of their past successes.

I have some reservations with the Carrotmob concept, but overall it is a good, positive initiative. Does anyone want to help me organise a Brisbane Carrotmob? Let me know.

Although I think that governments and large corporations must do a lot of ‘heavy lifting’ to get us moving towards a sustainable economy, it is often the smaller ventures that fill me with pride and inspiration. I am always pleasantly surprised by the nimble enterprises and initiatives that pop up to fill a specific gap in society. Importantly, as a person with a business degree, I can better relate to to entities that exist to tackle focused problems, rather than the more nebulous ‘advocacy’ organisations that exist.

I have already written about Green Drinks fairly extensively in the past few months, so thought I would share details of other enterprises/initiatives that have captured my imagination. I call it the ‘green groups‘ series and they will be collated in this category of my blog.

Note that I haven’t necessarily dealt with these groups/organisations personally. Often they’re just a great idea that I have heard about.