Rubbish goods and 'Green Gifts'
From Critical Practice Chelsea
All the kitchen-based services that we provide are free to users. However, they do involve expenses (on some of the ingredients, and infrastructure), and a lot of labour. Donations made for one of our ‘green gifts’ helps us to continue to provide these services and develop new ones. Projects in the pipeline include: fieldwork research on wholesale market and ‘skippers’ (freegans); an ‘audio-tour’ of a wholesale fruit veg market; and a BTFM cookbook.
Donations and enquiries - email: info@beyondthefreemarket.org
CSI BTFM
‘Evidence bags’ with contents that indicate plastic crimes against sustainability. Click image for a closer look.
Rubbish Flowers
‘Flowers’ made from plastic waste; brighten up your home with floral-forms from plastic waste. By far the most popular of our green gifts in a number of different styles. Click images for a closer look.
Coca-Cola Rain Gauge
For measuring the politics of Coke and H2O. Click image for a closer look.
text reads ‘Coca-Cola’ Rain Gauge
A Beyond The Free Market ‘Green Gift’. www.beyondthefreemarket.org Trim above the line to fit gauge on bottle. (scissors / cut mark) (Dotted line)
Cut this section out to make your ‘rain window’.Cut this section out to make your ‘rain window’.
How much?! Despite being derived in large part from common resources, soft drinks and bottled water ‘produced’ by the likes of Nestle, Pepsi, Danone, Coca Cola and India’s own Parle Bisleri, are out of reach of most Indians. http://www.indiaresource.org
61% of India’s soft drinks market is controlled by Coca-Cola (2005). The opportunities available to multinational corporations to exploit resources and extract wealth from global markets bears more relation to privateering than privatisation. ‘Imperial colonisation may have passed into history, but economic colonisation is alive and well - just look at the spread of Coca-Cola and McDonalds’ - [[1]]
41% of respondents to a survey in India had made more than one “small bribe” in the past six months to falsify meter readings; 30% had made payments to “expedite repair work”, and 12% had made payments to “expedite new water and sanitation connections”. UNESCO estimates that political corruption undermines water services and costs the water sector millions of dollars every year - [[2]]
20% In some areas of rural India Coca-Cola is sprayed on crops - the practice attracts ants, which eat pests, and is ten times cheaper than pesticides. Sales in villages have increased by as much as 20% - [[3]]
Free for all? Aquifers are the primary source of freshwater for communities, agriculture and water-based industries. In India the law places no restrictions on usage. Coca-Cola bottling plants draw half a million litres of common water per day in water-stressed areas. The company now has a commitment to replace all groundwater it uses in its beverages and their production in India by 2009 - [[4]]
Trim below the line to fit gauge on bottle. (scissors / cut mark) (Dotted line)
Mineral Water Rain Gauge
For measuring the politics of water. Click image for a closer look.
text reads
‘Mineral Water’ Rain Gauge A Beyond The Free Market ‘Green Gift’. www.beyondthefreemarket.org Trim above the line to fit gauge on bottle. (scissors / cut mark) (Dotted line)
Cut this section out to make your ‘rain window’.Cut this section out to make your ‘rain window’.
Flood?! Three million litres of bottled water were handed out in areas worst affected by UK floods in 2007 - http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/07/25. Jeanette Longfield of the organisation Sustain says: “The bottles contribute to the half a million tonnes of plastic we throw away every year, and ‘water miles’ are adding to the damage caused by food miles’ - [[5]]
60% The United Nations estimate of the world’s people living in ‘water stressed’ countries by 2025 - [[6]]
30-50% of mains water consumption can be replaced through rainharvesting - www.envireau.co.uk/water_facts.htm. However, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), proposed by the World Trade Organisation, may have the affect of forcing people ‘to buy permits to collect rainwater from their roofs’, as water is conceived as a ‘service’ that can be ‘opened up’ to private investment. - [[7]]
24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi. - [[8]] Expensive on the purse and the environment.
20% of the world’s population does not have access to drinking water. (In some countries, soft-drinks manufacturers strip water out of the ground before the local population can use it.) - [[9]]
Drought?! ‘On the London underground, where temperatures reached furnace like proportions of 47°C, new water entrepreneurs set up improvised water carts, selling cheap bottles to bedraggled commuters.’ - the 2006 heatwave - [[10]]
Trim below the line to fit gauge on bottle. (scissors / cut mark) (Dotted line)
Mobius Wrist Band
Show support for BTFM concerns; made from 99% recycled market waste. These can be fitted semi-permanently onto the wrist (to be cut off) or made to slip on and off. Click image for a closer look.
Future Relics
BTFM Future Relics is a propsal developed for the Soil Association Food Fair. It ‘agitates’ around non-recyclable plastic waste packaging and the price differential between organics and non-organics.
BTFM Information Sheet: Water
Along with many others, Friends of the Earth contend that ‘access to clean, safe drinking water’ is ‘a basic human right’. (http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/gats_stealing_water.pdf) Yet increasingly, the pursuit of ‘free market’ economics means that water and its supply is seen as a commodity; something from which those who claim to ‘own’ it can expect to make a profit. This means that many people in the world can’t afford to buy the water that they need.
Concerned as BTFM is with food production in the Free Market, the issue of water is never far away for us. Not only are copious amounts used in agriculture, food processing and packaging, but ‘water’ has become a supermarket item – as intensively produced and promoted as ice-cream.
Many consequences follow from this situation. Our research suggests that economic, social and political concerns complexly affect the ecological, but less seldom vice-versa. As a way of starting to address this and to raise awareness of the many vicious ironies the current situation perpetrates, we have developed and produced a ‘double-measure’ rain gauge. And below, some ‘high-lights’ from our research. www.beyondthefreemarket.org
£10,000 The amount United Utilities water company must pay for discharging 56,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage into the river Mersey Source: www.edie.net
2,000 litres - The amount of water it takes to produce food for one person for one day Analysis: The cost of water (2003) - Source: [[11]]
300% The increase in demand for water over the last half-century. Water scarcity may be the most underestimated resource issue facing the world and a cause of future conflict [[12]]
157 litres The average daily domestic water consumption in the UK. Only3% of domestic water is used as drinking water Source: [[13]]
30 - 50% of mains water consumption can be replaced by rain harvesting Source: [[14]]
33% of managed water is lost before it gets to the tap. 33% of domestic water used goes down the toilet – save half, install a Hippo Source: http://www.envireau.co.uk/water_facts.htm
18 feet The average drop in the water table within 3km of Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Mehdiganj, India. The plant was licensed to draw over 500 litres per day for five years. Source: [[15]]
13 The number of conditions attached to Coca-Cola’s license to resume operations in Kerala, India following acusations of groundwater exploitation Source: [[16]]
2.7 litres of water are needed to produce one litre of Coca-Cola Source: [[17]]
BTFM Information Sheet: Plastics
The success of plastic is linked in part to the efforts of a previous generation to make use of waste from oil and provide consumers with affordable products. One of its many virtues is that it is often a cheaper, versatile option. Heightened anxieties over climate change and peak oil have defined a new generation of waste awareness and an alternative assessment of what is ‘affordable’. As the data and the technology to measure beyond financial profit improves, it behoves this generation of consumers to reassess how it invests its energy and resources.
Recognising that in working with plastic, we too were implicated in debates about its post-consumer management, our task has not been easy. We discussed the environmental value of making ‘non-necessary’, if recycled items with our scavenged materials, their eco-friendly message weighing in the scales against the energy the plastics could release if incinerated. We hope that the results provoke collective action on the problem of the overuse of this seductive but environmentally damaging material. www.beyondthefreemarket.org
13 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each year – that’s about 290 for each of us Source: Defra / www.wasteonline.org
486 million plastic bottles were recycled in 2003. That’s only 5.5% of plastic bottles sold! Source: www.assurre.org
43,000 The average number of pieces of plastic litter per square mile of ocean worldwide Source: www.flyintheface.com
80% of post-consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill. Plastics can be incinerated but the process is inefficient and causes pollution from air emissions and toxic ash Source: [[18]]
35% of the UK’s plastic consumption is packaging - plastic is the material of choice in nearly half of all packaged goods Source: [[19]]
25 recycled two litre drinks bottles provide material to make one fleece jacket Source: www.recyclenow.com
2.5 times less CO2 a third of the sulphur dioxide and half half the amount of nitrous oxide is generated by carrier bags made from recycled rather than virgin polythene Source: www.wasteonline.org
1.82kg of Greenhouse gas emissions are avoided for every kilogram of recycled PET Source: [[20]]
1 plastic bottle is equivalent in energy to six hours of light from a 60W light bulb Source: www.recoup.org
1 tonne of plastic bottles for recycling can fetch around £200 Source: www.recyclenow.com
Zero waste ‘maximises recycling, minimises waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled...’ Source: www.zerowaste.com
BTFM Information Sheet: Beyond The Free Market
We are concerned with the effects of the so-called ‘Free Market’, especially as that relates to food production and consumption, as food is so vital to human life.
When the ‘Free Market’ actually refers to trading systems dominated by big businesses that typically put profit first, we explore the impact that this has on food supplies. In particular, we address and re-think some of more questionable aspects of Free Market food supply e.g. over-production, waste, excessive ‘food miles’, alongside food insufficiency in many parts of the world. As a result of this, we have been encouraged to consider other economic models of production, including the ‘gift economy’, ‘freeganism’, and a more ‘green’ economy.
Salvage Services
Free Market Kitchen – A self-catering mobile kitchen for nourishing discussion on the future of food
Free Market Salad Bar – A no-cooker version of the kitchen
Rubbish Make-In – A recycling workshop for kids and adults
Beyond Jam – Preserves from salvaged fruit, ideal for picnic discussions
Juice Bar – A liquid version of the kitchen
‘Green Gifts’
All the services that we provide are free to users. However, they do involve expenses (on some of the ingredients, and infrastructure), and a lot of labour. Purchasing our ‘green gifts’ helps us to continue to provide these services and develop new ones. Projects in the pipeline include: ‘fieldwork’ research on wholesale market - ‘skippers’ (freegans); an ‘audio-tour’ of a wholesale fruit veg market; and a BTFM cookbook.
Products
CSI BTFM – ‘Evidence bags’ with contents that indicate plastic crimes against sustainability
Rubbish Flowers - ‘Flowers’ made from plastic waste'
Mineral Water Rain Gauge – For measuring the politics of water
Coca-Cola Rain Gauge – For measuring the politics of Coke and H2O
Mobius Wrist Band – Show support for BTFM concerns
Contact Mary Anne Francis and Trevor Giles: info@beyondthefreemarket.org www.beyondthefreemarket.org
