Our work and the environment:

[Mush]

Whats everyone doing with their old discharge lamps and fluro tubes, still just sticking them in the bin?

[Panzerman]

Many large electrical wholesalers, C.E.F. for a start, operate recycling schemes for fluorescent tubes and discharge lamps. Every little helps, I reckon. Now, it might simply be a PR thing and they just lob them in the tip after you have dilligently taken them for recycling, after what I saw today, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

I have spent my weekend spring-cleaning the warehouse, having a ruthless dog-out, filled the van and took it to the tip. The jobsworths who run the place won't let anyone in a van, or with a trailer, use the facility without paying - great policy this, rather than paying, most people just go and dump their old junk down a country lane now. Duh! Ever tried getting a double mattress into an average family car? This kind of policy doesn't hit builders who are tipping 3 times a week, they know it is quicker and easier to pay and bill their client. It only deters Joe Public who has borrowed a van to have a clear-out.

Anyway, so I duly parked outside the tip and hauled all the waste in, already sorted into types- scrap metal, wood, cardboard etc. Just as I was leaving, I watched the staff emptying the unpainted wood skip into the pit with all the other waste!!! I have reached the conclusion that the notice stating they had achieved their target of 40% waste recycled last month (42% actually!) had something to do with it. I guess they count the wood in the skip as being "recycled" even though it ultimately ends up in the same place as all the "un-recycled".

There's "Targets" for ya!

[ChrisD]

It makes you think that possibly the government should be enforcing recycling and other environmentally friendly policies, rather than worrying about noise pollution and wire colours and the damned stage height regs.

 

(no mis-spellungs found ;))

[Guest lightnix]

Then again there is another school of thought, which says that recycling used goods actually consumes more energy than making new ones. Not sure how much of a generalisation or how true this is, tho'.

[Suzette]

I tend to keep all the half used batteries from radio mics used in a show and use them in the technical rehearsals/dress rehearsals of the next show. New batteries are used for all performances.

After they have been used in rehearsals (or maglites) they get taken home by myself and put in my recycling box at home ... which is conveniently collected every week by my local council !!

[Dave22]

regarding comment on tubes and lamps

 

Used to work for a relamping company no name mentioned don't want a legal fight on my hands very large company charging customers recycling fees and just dumping the lamps in a skip at the bottom of the yard,

 

The lamps should have been sent to a specialist place to have the gas removed and glass crushed and metal recycled.

 

More care should be taken to recycle waste but it is all made very difficult with no regular collections from houses etc,

 

It should be made easier for people to recycle without having to make it a military exercise every time you go down to your local waste depot.

 

 

Dave

[Brixton]

Once upon a time boys and girls

there was to be a show at Salisbury Cathedral all about saving the planet.

It was to be a great show and a good cause

so the rigging company chappy.(A small ugly fellow named after a part of the great metropolis) gave them the job for next to nothing (crew costs only)

And lo it came to pass that

Upon rehearsal a production company type said "wouldn't the rig look better being black?"

And verily the rigging crew lowered the rig and sprayed it black.

16 cans of black spray paint and a double decker bus sized hole in the Ozone later the rig was indeed black.

 

Still at least all that electricity, truck diesel and CFC has in some small way made our world a much better place to be

[Suzette]

I agree with Dave22 - it should be made easier to recycle. I am lucky that my local council (at home) does have a doorstep collection for virtually all recyclable goods except plastics.

I believe that the reason for not collecting plastics is that the companies who actually carry out the recycling pay by weight - and plastic being so light, yet quite bulky, doesn't pay for itself.

 

But at work the local council only collects paper - not even cardboard.

Surely if the councils are sending a lorry to collect paper they could also collect card, glass, tins, batteries, fabrics etc.

[Modge]

The state of recycling in Birmingham is appalling - I'm at university here and in all other respects (well aside from chew-able air and lack of open space) it beats my home town in the centre of Essex hands down. But at home glass, paper, garden waste and tins are all collected separately by the council where as here its just leave your sacks of unsorted rubbish that get picked up.

 

On the front of our industry in particular I think our best hope lies in technology since for the reasons set out previous in this thread, notably money (lets face it par cans are the most horribly inefficient things in this world but they're damn cheap) we're not going to change our selves. We waste 100's of KW's with a lot of our current rigs for no better purpose than looking damn cool. As in the future the price of LED fixtures comes down and the efficiency goes up so things will hopefully improve. Even discharge lamps are one up on tungsten sources, at least in efficiency terms.

[peter]

Even discharge lamps are one up on tungsten sources, at least in efficiency terms.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think its already been said, but the huge problem with Moving Heads is the fact that the discharge source burns all the time, meaning that instead of having 1000w for, say, 20 minutes in a show (350kWh), you end up with 250w for 3 hours (750kWh). Without trying, you've already doubled the energy consumption of your venue by using moving heads over generic sources. Discharge followspots, of course, have this same problem.

 

Something else which upsets me with moving heads is the fact that the motors are energised even though they are not performing any function. I know that this is due to the way that stepper motors work, but perhaps in future designs could work around a sort of 'locking' system. I don't know enough about motor electronics to know whether this is feasable, but it seems pointless to use electricity when something is static.

 

Whilst we're talking about efficiencies, it is perhaps worth considering the efficiency of LED fixtures at reducing the heat of a venue can be outweighed by the need to heat the venue in winter. Although it is hard to document the exact savings in ambience, it could be argued that the effect is neglegable as air conditioning to cool in the warmer months will be cut back on whilst heating in the cooler months may increase.

 

Something which interested me a while back was an item on show at the Centre for Alternative Technology (well worth a visit if you have a spare day in mid-wales) - a mirrored tunnel is channeled though a building and provides natural daylight to the lower floors of a building using reflection alone. It would be interesting to see if we could (efficiently, of course) harness this daylight and develop some control over it for theatrical use. Of course, this system has potential problems in evening performances ;)

 

Edit: Just found the link for the SkyLights....here

[GMPSA]

www.recycle-more.co.uk

 

'nuff said.

[Darkfold]

Just out of interest... what type of processors are we using to run our computers to talk about this... Why does the PC need a heatsink and fan and typically runs at 50C despite this. ;)

I do agree with recycling more and have recently seen some very interesting solar systems used for providing emergency light (if only it didnt cost so much to install)

[Solstace]

Just out of interest... what type of processors are we using to run our computers to talk about this... Why does the PC need a heatsink and fan and typically runs at 50C despite this.  :huh:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good point well made - we have so much more computing power on our desktops than 10 years ago, but have had to sacrifice power consumption into the bargain. Still, in terms of power used per clock cycle, we're doing better than we used to - and I for one don't want to go back to the days of beating a 386 into submission with a copy of Windows 3.1 and Cubase!!!

 

I'd like to see some kind of government subsidies (to help with purchase cost at the consumer end) and development funds being granted to manufacturers. This way, perhaps there would be less of a difference in cost to the bean-counting departments and humble consumers out there, so that everyone can get in on the action.