What made you sad today

I'm sorry to hear about your loss Neffa It never gets easier either, does it? Big hugs xx

When I got home today I could smell gas really strongly in the hallway, but not in the front room and living room. I rang the gas board, cause I haven't got the foggiest what to do in these cases. They arrived within a couple of minutes, and started investigating. Turns out that the empty house next door was cleared of all its contents end of last week, which has paved the way for someone that was clearly waiting for that to happen, as it exposed all the pipes under all the rubbish that was left in there. Today they'd broken in and stole as many pipes as they could and left water gushing out of a pipe in the toilet downstairs, and had enough gas gushing out into the house that I could smell it in my hallway through the loft. They'd clearly taken their time, cause they'd gone on the front of the house and turned off the gas supply. It's sad to see someone's house being treated that way after the old gent passed away

You wonder at the actions of some people! Despicable.

Sad, mad, miffed. I love nature but not in my garden
Finished of repairing compost wrinkly tin structure, good sense of achievement. Had a wander round picking up tools etc and found rabbit incursion from next door. We have put wire net all round the garden to stop rabbits, dug it down into the ground to block digging but some how the devils still get in. It must be a biggun as the hole in the fence is large. Now the dilemma is do we plug up the gap and potentially trap the varmint our garden or leave it. I'm gonna plug it up and hunt bunnies if necessary.

Came across this article on recycling that depressed me somewhat: https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2026...recycling/

I had thought that the more we recycled, particularly plastic the better. Seems that plastic should all go to landfill till we stop using it. It didn't exist when I was young. Milk was in returnable bottles till after I was married.

A bit from the piece:

"The most dangerous aspect of the recycling myth is not just that it creates low-quality plastic—it’s that it acts as a Dispersion Engine.

The current ‘Green’ model takes a contained, manageable solid (a PET bottle) and ‘downcycles’ it into a high-surface-area product, such as a synthetic carpet or a fleece jacket.

This is biophysical insanity. We are effectively taking a solid waste problem and processing it into a format designed to shed. Every time you walk on that ‘recycled’ carpet or wash that fleece, it releases microfibres into the air and water.

We are building a machine that masticates our waste for us, pre-digesting it into microplastics so that it can more easily bypass biological defences and enter the food web. This is bio-contamination on a global scale.
"

Came across this article on recycling that depressed me somewhat: https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2026...recycling/

I had thought that the more we recycled, particularly plastic the better. Seems that plastic should all go to landfill till we stop using it. It didn't exist when I was young. Milk was in returnable bottles till after I was married.

A bit from the piece:

"The most dangerous aspect of the recycling myth is not just that it creates low-quality plastic—it’s that it acts as a Dispersion Engine.

The current ‘Green’ model takes a contained, manageable solid (a PET bottle) and ‘downcycles’ it into a high-surface-area product, such as a synthetic carpet or a fleece jacket.

This is biophysical insanity. We are effectively taking a solid waste problem and processing it into a format designed to shed. Every time you walk on that ‘recycled’ carpet or wash that fleece, it releases microfibres into the air and water.

We are building a machine that masticates our waste for us, pre-digesting it into microplastics so that it can more easily bypass biological defences and enter the food web. This is bio-contamination on a global scale.
"

 I had a read of that, quite disturbing.

Its looking like only around 10% of plastics are recycled, does the rest get dumped in the UK or is it all just shipped to Malaysia.   Not looking good at all for the future.

I have often wondered whether returning to a "plastic free" life was possible. The sort of life "we" led in the 40s/50s - when food came wrapped in paper, tin or glass. When takeaway meals were fish & chips and supermarkets didn't exist on every street corner.
Sadly, I don't think it is. There's Plastic everywhere you look - in the laptop I'm using now for example. The kitchen equipment - fridge, kettle etc. Maybe soft plastics would be more achievable and I could, in theory, stop buying stuff in plastic packaging. Note that I've said "buying" because some of my food is FREE over which my only control is to refuse it. .......and I won't be doing that!
As far as possible, I find ways to reuse plastic waste - as seed trays, for freezing food etc. Soft plastic bags line the kitchen waste bin but the options are limited.
Its a big problem that can only get worse for us and the planet.

You’re right Veggie plastic is everywhere these days.
We still have a milk man who delivers in glass bottles, we’re lucky they’re local so we were able to keep them through 3 house moves.

There was the Stone age then the Bronze age, followed by the Iron age and in the future we will be known as the Plastic age! (Wonder what age comes next?)

Wasn't the Atomic age in there somewhere?

Wasn't the Atomic age in there somewhere?

But can you find a piece of 'atomic' lying around? Plastics will be tangibly there many years in the future methinks?