FACTORALY - E24 RUBBISH

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Rubbish isn't always waste. Sometimes it can be really useful. Find out more in this rubbish episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Factorally. It's getting closer. We're getting better. We're getting better at that. Hello, hello, hello. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, whatever time you're listening to us. Hello. getting closer we're getting better we're getting better at that hello hello hello good morning good afternoon good evening good night whatever time you're listening to us hello hello bruce hello simon actually that good night thing is quite interesting because a lot of people have said to me that they fall asleep to this i really it's obviously that interesting i'm going to choose

to take that as a compliment for our beautiful soothing dulcet tones rather than the uninterestingness of the topic i think that's right i think we just get up here and we just talk about stuff in a very nice calm calming relaxing voice absolutely so welcome back hello again thank you for returning thank you and if you're not returning this is the first one you've listened to where have you been i know what have you been up. Thank you. And if you're not returning, if this is the first one you've listened to, where have you been? I know. What have you been up to? I know. Where on earth have you been sourcing your factorial knowledge?

You won't know that we're voiceovers. No, you won't. You won't know that this is all about facts and taking slightly less than interesting things and making them slightly more than interesting. Yes, that's a good way of putting it. And actually, often we talk about interesting things. But today, frankly, we're going to be talking a load of rubbish. It's going to be absolute garbage today. I know. Total trash.

That's our subject, isn't it? It is. Rubbish. This is quite interesting, and I haven't gone back into the history of rubbish. I bet you have. I might have done. So when did we first start chucking away stuff um ever since we've been on the planet right pretty much so quite a while um you know from the very first moment mankind well not even mankind i mean animals produce waste as well you know if you peel a banana and you only eat the flesh, you end up with a skin. That's rubbish.

If you kill something, cook it, it has bones. That's rubbish. Every time you, let's say, produce your own waste from a feast the evening before. Is that rubbish? It's a form of waste, isn't it? Every time you make a pot and you accidentally drop it, it turns from something useful into rubbish.

Happens to me all the time. Well, it happened to ancient peoples as well, didn't it, when they made stuff? Sure. They would drop it and smash it and throw it away. Absolutely, yeah. And that's how we know quite a lot about the Romans, is from their rubbish, isn't it? It is.

Whenever you watch one of these archaeological dig programmes and you think, oh, how wonderful that they had the foresight to bury all their pots and plates and knives and forks. No, no, no. It's just that you've stumbled across an ancient Roman rubbish dump. That's all it is.

But yeah, as far back as it's possible to go people have been uh throwing rubbish in in rivers a lot of the time um humans have always settled near water of some kind or other and it has a wonderful habit of taking stuff away yes you downstream it's a good conduit isn't it yeah Yeah. So you finish your meal, you throw the bones in the river, no more bones. Easy. If you don't live near water or at least flowing water,

it's a little bit trickier. It means you have to do something with it. You have to dispose of it, bury it, burn it, go and dump it somewhere that isn't right on your doorstep. Yes. Even if that's only a little trip away, that can be the rubbish area. Fair enough. That's fine. It's out of sight, out of mind.

So we've been doing it forever. I usually start these things with a bit of etymology. Where does the word come from in the first place? Go for it. So rubbish comes from an old French word in the Middle Ages, rob r-o-b-b-o-u-s okay and that's the word that gives gives rise to rubble so it's it's generally speaking it's it's sort of leftover bits of broken stone and brick and and whatever that that didn't make it into the building it's been thrown away it's rubble it. It's rubbish. The word trash, which I associate as being purely an American word, that's been in the English language since the 14th century.

Wow. And was used interchangeably with rubbish, trash, garbage. For whatever reason, the Americans seem to have taken on with trash and garbage, and we seem to have kept the rubbish. I think the only way that the English people, the British people use trash is when it's like talking trash or trash talk. Oh, trash talk, yeah, yeah. That sort of thing. Maybe that's just borrowed from the Americans. I don't know.

So you said, how long have we been throwing stuff away? The earliest remnants of archaeological rubbish that have been found are from 3000 BC in Crete. And they had large pits into which all of their rubbish was thrown and then covered over in earth. And it's been much the same ever since then. You know, the ancient Greeks did it, the Romans did it, all sorts of civilizations through the ages. throne and then covered over in in earth and it's been much the same ever since then you know the the the ancient greeks did it the romans did it all sorts of civilizations through the ages have just chucked it in a hole covered it up yep for future archaeologists to find indeed maybe they did it on purpose for that a bit like so that there's there was a bloke who decided to bury some aeroplanes and he put cats in the cockpit he got a dead cat

put a dead cat in the cockpit, buried the aeroplane in the hope that at some point in the future some archaeologist is going to dig this thing up and go well, it seems that they trained their animals quite well and here we find an example

of the ancient cat-like civilization flying an airplane. Brilliant. Yeah. So there's been a lot of rubbish. We could start with how much we throw away. Give us some stats. I'll give you some stats.

Okay. The average citizen of the United Kingdom throws away about seven times their body weight in rubbish every year. Good grief. That's quite a lot. That's quite a bit. Yeah.

Sweden throws away quite a lot. In fact, it throws away everything. Okay. In fact, it throws away so much that it has import rubbish from Norway. Right. So it actually imports about 80,000 tons of rubbish a year from Norway. Right. So it actually imports about 80,000 tonnes of rubbish a year from Norway. For what purpose?

I mean, other than to get it away from Norway. I think they probably burn it. I think they have some very efficient ways of using it to generate energy. Oh, I see. OK. In much the same way as Formula One tyres. Have you ever wondered what happens to formula one tires

after they finished a race do you know what sadly enough yes i have and have you what does happen no i haven't i was just waiting for you to tell me so what happens after race is that all of the used tires from all of the formula one races are shipped back to brit. Right. Where they're shredded into pellets and then they are burned at very, very high temperatures as fuel for cement factories. Oh, really? But because it's very, very high temperatures, no harmful fumes are released.

Oh, I see. And the only particle that remains is like a non-poisonous ash. Wow. Well, that's a very odd fact. That's what this show's all about, though, right? That's what we're all about. Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. The ability to make people go, huh, never knew that. Now, I was quite surprised by, you sort of talked about whatever's left over at the end of the burning process. I had a little look about dustmen, like original dustmen. You sort of talked about whatever's left over at the end of the burning process. I had a little look about dustmen, like original dustmen. My old man's a dustman, he wears a dustman's hat. Et cetera.

Yes. Now, we don't have dustmen or dustbins or dust carts anymore. That's what we used to call them when I was a kid. Yes. That may not be technically what they were. Yes. That may not be technically what they were. Yes. But it's just one of those words that you accept the existence of without thinking much about it. But obviously they used to be dust men because they collected dust. So every house in the country used to burn coal for their heating, their cooking, for everything.

And at the end of that process you end up with a lot of ash yes or dust so the dustman would come around with their dust cart and they would collect the ash so that it didn't you know build up in the house and um i had never questioned what they did with all of that dust and ash but they actually used it they they took it off for use in brick making and even to scatter in agricultural areas to improve the soil and nitrogen yeah exactly yeah um so this sort of stuff you know that we we think we have the monopoly in these days of of reusing and recycling and so on but even back then they were using what was left over for for something else for something good um and then of course you had uh the rag and bone men so before the rag and bone men sort of

became a thing you just dumped your stuff you threw it out the window and it landed on the street and you just sort of left it there for wild dogs and rats and urchins and whoever else to sort of come along and scavenge and and pick things out of it um and obviously this became quite an unsanitary thing so it was it was around the mid-1800s that people started to say you know we should actually do something about this we should sort of make a service where people actually come and take stuff away from you which is where the rag and bone men sort of first came in. Got it. But apparently you could, the bones that they took away could be used for making soap, cutlery handles, even toys and ornaments.

Yeah. Glue. Glue, all sorts of things, yeah. So between them and the dust men, you know, it was a reasonably good service, you know. You can tell when a Taiwanese bin lorry is coming because they play music. Do they? So in Taiwan, the bin lorries play loud music as they're going along.

So you go, oh, it's like, you know, it's like the ice cream man. Oh, yes. So when you hear the ice cream man coming, you like dash outside. Same in Taiwan with the bin lorries. Oh, great. Oh, I haven't put the bins out. So you kind of put the bins out, and then the Taiwanese bin men take it, and then you take the bins back in.

Whereas in this country, the only noise the rubbish lorries make is, this vehicle is turning left. You haven't done that professionally, have you? I haven't, no. No. One day. One can only dream. I know.

You find rubbish in all sorts of strange places. I mean, I can tell you where there's 180 tonnes of rubbish. Just sitting there. Go on, then. It's on the moon. Right. Go on then It's on the moon Right There is 180 tonnes of rubbish including tools, bodily waste, flags, plaques There's 17 lunar vehicles that have stopped working There's just loads and loads

And of course don't forget the cameras that we might have mentioned in another episode Indeed we might Which were left on the Hasselblad's laptop So if you need a Hasselblad all you have to do is have a space programme go and have a moonwalk and you can get the Hasselblads left on them. So if you need a Hasselblad, all you have to do is have a space programme, go and have a moonwalk and you can get some Hasselblads. Easy.

There are slightly easier places to access rubbish closer to home, although not that easy to access. Where would you expect to find an abandoned piano, for example? I mean, I'd hate to say the local dump. How about halfway up Everest? Not where I was thinking for a moment. Because occasionally there are bin men who kind of get, well, cleaners, who go up Everest and tidy up because a lot of people drop waste on their way up and down Everest.

Okay. And on one trip they did, they discovered that somebody just abandoned a piano near the summit. I mean, as if climbing that mountain isn't going to be tricky enough already to take a piano with you. It's just asking for trouble. I mean, some poor old Sherpa or Sherpas has managed to get it up to a certain distance. I imagine it was some lunatic who decided he wanted to play I'm Sitting on top of the world on the piano on the top of Everest or something. Or ain't no mountain high enough. I've heard it said that the gentleman after whom Everest is named actually pronounced his surname Everest.

Do you think we should all start doing that? I think we should. It's Mount Everest. Mount Everest. Doesn't sound right, is it? But that's the point of changing a commonly accepted thing to be actually accurate. Yes. So from now on, I'm going to call it Everest.

Oh, let's see if we can get a little following. How many people can we convince to call it Mount Everest? Oh, I imagine at least three. Well, it's you and me and one other. Who will that person be? Well, let us know. Let us know in the comments. At some point, we're going to have to talk about recycling.

Yes. I mean, that's almost an entirely separate subject, isn't it? It's big. There's a lot of things that you can recycle, a lot of things that you can't recycle, a lot of different ways to recycle. Yeah. My knowledge of recycling is that i have a dark green bin i have a light green bin i put some things in one i put other things in the other and that's the end of my involvement in it well i guess i guess the the rag and bone men were sort of recyclers weren't they yeah yeah totally yeah yeah and there's that there is an awful lot

of recycling that goes on nowadays. Yes. There are some very nice things that people recycle. For example, you can recycle coffee grounds to make them into a growing medium for mushrooms. Or an exfoliant for hardwood floors. As you mentioned in a previous episode. On cleaning.

On cleaning. Yeah. You can turn tennis balls into tennis courts. Can you? Yeah. Because you crumb the rubber from a tennis ball and you turn it into a tennis court. You basically make the surface of one of those hard tennis courts. That's so apt, isn't it?

I know. I know. Well, you know how all the skater boys are always like chewing gum and spitting out gum and stuff. Well, you can turn chewing gum into skateboard wheels. They did that in France. Really? Yeah.

And famously, in the UK, you can make roads from books. No, I didn't know that one. Did you not? No, talk about that. The M6 toll road. Yes. In the asphalt, they actually pulped, I think, I can't remember how many tons it was, of Mills and Boone books. So if you get dramatic or romantic at some point on the M6 toll, it's probably because you're driving on some Mills and Boone books.

Well, I don't know, has anyone ever got romantic on the M6 toll road? It's not the most romantic place I can think of. No, not really. Not really. The hardest thing to recycle is plastic. People dump plastic generally. As you were saying, in the olden days, they dumped waste into the rivers, which ended up in the sea. And they're still doing it. That's an issue. saying that in the olden days they dumped waste into the rivers, which ended up in the sea. Yeah. And they're still doing it.

That's an issue. And there are these huge plastic, well, there's a place called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Wow. Which is massive. It runs between Japan, Hawaii, California. A lot of it is nylon. A lot of it is like fishing debris, like nets and ropes and stuff. Oh, I see.

But it's also all sorts of other things as well. And it just creates this sort of whirlpools and huge vast areas of rubbish. But you can do good things. You can do good things with plastic bottles. Tell us what we can do. Well, I don't know. Do you own

a Politech fleece? Not knowingly. I've got a Politech fleece and actually my dog, Baxter, has a Politeec fleece. Not knowingly. I've got a Polartec fleece and actually my dog, Baxter, has a Polartec coat. Okay. And Polartec fleeces are made from plastic bottles. It feels like a really soft substance. Yeah. But it's actually made from plastic bottle. A large percentage of it is plastic bottles. Brilliant. So it takes about 25 plastic bottles to make a fleece. Okay. Now, I've always had this thing with nylon and polymers in general, that to my mind, plastic is a hard, rigid substance that can't be worn. Yes.

But if you whittle it down, well, whittle it down, whatever the process is, you can take it down to thread level. Obviously, of course you can because nylon exists. Yes, exactly. And that's essentially plastic-based, isn't it? So it shouldn't be too much crude oil based crude oil based yeah yeah brilliant so milk bottles being used to make clothing well milk bottles actually another really really early type of recycling because simon knows i have a thing about glass and bottles i do so milk bottles were one of the very earliest recyclable not just recyclable

but reusable reusable yeah and they were delivered in electric vehicles yeah milk bottles have been recycled or reused since about 1880 crikey really yeah huh so you used to get them with like the the foil tops which you then collected and sent to Blue Peter. Yes. I never understood what that was about. Well, you can recycle the foil tops. Yeah. Yeah, I know. But as a little child, I was sort of like, why do they need a milk bottle top?

It didn't make sense. And then, you know, OK, they started to deliver milk in milk floats, electric milk floats from about 1935. That's surprisingly early, isn't it? Mm. Yeah. Although, you know, electric cars are one of the earliest types of car. But, you know, the milk float, I used to in my summer holidays from school when I was quite young. It seems to be like a when I was quite young episode. But when I was quite young,

my mother, to get rid of me for the day, or at least for the morning, used to put me on to help the milkman with his deliveries on the milk float. Okay. And it was a lovely thing to do. Yeah, I bet. That sounds like fun. And they weren't the only sort of recyclable bottles. They used to be, you've heard of R. White's, obviously.

So the R. White's van used to be you've heard of our whites obviously so the art whites van used to used to come and deliver well it started off with lemonade and then became sort of colas and tizer and all sorts of other things and he would come once a week and deliver lemonade and just refill whatever bottle you had at home uh no he so you would give him your empty uh our whites bottles i see and he would give you a deposit on the bottle oh off the price of a new bottle of right of lemonade so it would like without a deposit bottle it would be so much and with the deposit bottle it would be less yeah and they would deliver lemonade and then they would recycle the bottles brilliant and recycling bottles is

something that um i'm very keen on yes because you have to because yes the thing about glass they reckon it could take about a million years for a glass bottle to actually biologically break down okay so we really ought to find something else to do with them then exactly and that's exactly what we can do so um an area of waste that i had a look at is e-waste oh right it's it stands for electronic waste as everything with an e at the beginning does i've never really given any thought to this i actually read a script recently for a piece of voiceover work talking about electronic waste and um it's one of those things where it's out of sight out of mind you get rid of your old phone your old laptop you send the

old item off to a place where they sort of give you a tiny amount of money and then it's taken away to do whatever with it it is that they do but so much of this equipment just gets dumped. Roughly 50 million tons of e-waste is produced a year worldwide. Worldwide? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, not just us. That would be silly. And it's just shipped off to poorer countries, sadly. It's just shipped off and dumped in poorer countries, often around Asia and Africa.

And you sort of think, well, OK, that's annoying. You've got a big pile of laptops taking up space, but that's not really a bad thing. But our electronic devices actually contain quite a lot of material, which becomes toxic over a period of time. So between your phone, your laptop, your Bluetooth headphones bluetooth headphones speakers whatever it might be they contain traces of arsenic lead chromium vinyl chloride dioxins antimony and then a whole lot of abbreviations and initials that i don't understand what they mean right but toxic stuff yeah and if this if if all of this stuff just gets dumped and it starts leaching into the soil it can

be really really bad um so there are more more and more companies who are trying to do what we're talking about here reuse and recycle yeah mend old stuff make it usable again rather than just chucking it into the ground and and letting it have its horrible toxic after effects there's a there's golden stuff in there as well isn't there yes there is. So there are things that can be used, you know, these things can be broken down and stripped apart and, you know, have their useful contents reused. Talking about plastic bottles and turning plastic bottles into other things. Yes. The UK government, I think it was this year,

the beginning of this year, put forward and actually got approved through Parliament a thing called the Deposit Return Scheme, which is a bit like what I talked about with our whites. Yes, OK. Which is quite interesting, where you charge an extra, I think it's 20p, for things like soda. I use an American expression because it's justp uh for things like cola bottle you know soda i use an american expression

because it's just easier sorry pop bottles fizzy drink fizzy drinks bottles fizzy drinks bottles so the supermarkets that sell the pop bottles um charge an extra 20p and then when you come back to the supermarket you bring the empty bottle back with you and you put it into a reverse vending machine and it gives you 20p back, either as cash or as money that you can then spend in that supermarket. Okay, yes. So it's actually good for the supermarkets because it means that it encourages customer loyalty. Yes, absolutely, yeah.

And this is going to take place, I think, in 2025. I think they want to get it in place. So they've got a couple of years they're trying to use it for for just plastic but i think that there's a lobby that says we want to also put glass in there as well so it'll make glass recycling easier too i mean we're seeing more and more uh cases when you go to a supermarket now there's a a large bin to put your old batteries in yes um there are bins where you can put your old plastic bags in well batteries are quite interesting because it it takes about 50 times more energy to make a battery than the batteries got in it um i just mentioned carrier bags way too big a thing to

get into the whole bag for life yeah debate and all that sort of stuff but just a statistic the average plastic carrier bag is in use for only 12 minutes. Wow. Because you pick it up at the supermarket, you take your goods home, you don't use it anymore, 12 minutes. The average plastic carrier bag takes 1,000 years to break down. So it's in use for 12 minutes. Minutes and 1,000 years.

And it lasts for 1,000 years. Wow. They're not a good idea i think we can just say that i think i think that yeah i think that's a good statement well it was a load of rubbish yes well i think that's that's the end of all of our our trash trivia our garbage facts indeed yes facts. Indeed, yes. Thank you, everyone, for listening. We hope you've enjoyed listening as much as we've enjoyed talking. And if you like this sort of thing, then you're in luck because we do this regularly.

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