Scrap Metal

Over the 18 months since buying our farm we've collected three large piles of scrap together as a number of rundown livestock sheds have been dismantled and the land cleared. Each pile has usually had at least one intriguing centre piece: the first was a very old seed drilling machine (we kept the cart wheels), the second was the number of tin roofing sheets and the third were the ovens removed from the house.

As a pile grew collection was arranged with the local scrap merchant, using a lorry complete with an integral crane, to make way for the next heap. I received the final tally today and all together we removed 10.6 tonnes of scrap, everything from wire fence, tools, guttering, wheel hubs, nails and screws we had found buried to old beds and building material.

To put that total in perspective 10.6 tonnes is the equivalent of:

• the kerb weight of eight VW Golf cars
• one of the capsules on the London Eye
• 1,052,631 £1 coins
• a third of a fully laden Tornado fighter
• around 163 women of average weight.

Here are a few pictures showing, pile one:

Pile two being driven away:

Pile three being collected last week:

Pallets

During our building project here I've tried and failed to have wooden pallets removed by drivers making fresh deliveries. I don't understand, surely the builders merchant or other business could take good pallets and use them again, as opposed to buying new pallets, thus reducing costs?

Perhaps drivers could be incentivised to bring back good pallets, even if they weren't dropped off by their company originally. Even if the pallets were stored at a depot and not used for further deliveries, they'd be in a single location, in volume, and profitable for companies that specialise in pallet recycling/collection/supply.

Maybe you can tell I've just spent a day breaking up pallets..? Our neighbours have gratefully taken some, be it for the base of a dog kennel or to store straw bales on but the rest had to go and some will make good kindling.

There are of course enterprising folk out there who'll do a bit more with the average pallet: http://craftbritain.co.uk/2011/08/24/recycle-wooden-pallets/ 

According to the Environmental Information Exchange at the School of Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, approximately 12% of softwood used in the UK goes into the manufacture of pallets and other packaging. There are thought to be around 2 billion pallets in circulation worldwide and as many as 90 million in the UK alone (Brighton and Hove Wood Recycling Project).

The Environment Agency estimates that the UK produces 7.5 million tonnes of wood waste each year, with over 80% disposed in landfill sites, despite the fact that much of it is reusable. 

Have you heard of WRAP? I hadn't but you'd probably recognise their 'recycle now' campaign. They look at the wood recycling issue closely; it turns out there's a market for recycled wood! And of course there's an industry body; I wonder if a member of the Wood Recyclers' Association would take our scrap wood pile, and what (unlike the healthy scrap metal supply/demand relationship) it would cost..?

Gold Fleece

New Zealand would like sheep shearing to be an Olympic sport!

The New Zealand Farmers Federation, a rural lobby group, claims wool shearers should be recognised alongside the world's finest athletes for their "sport".

Jeanette Maxwell, a spokesman for the federation, describes top shearers as "athletes who take it to another level".

"Surely, the time has come to elevate shearing's sporting status to the ultimate world stage. "One way would be to make shearing a demonstration sport at the Commonwealth Games, if not the Olympics itself." She said: "I can testify to the physical effort shearing takes.

From The Daily Telegraph today.