It has been an unusually prolific month for the Isonomia, as a host of authors old and new decided to pour forth their thoughts during September. The resulting frenzy of editing and posting as left the admin team a little frazzled, but happy with the response from our readers to the wider than ever variety of topics covered. The site once again exceeded all previous viewing figures, reaching levels of readership we previously unimagined. If you’ve taken a break from the site, what have you missed?
Our most read piece this month, and the subject of energetic debate on the LinkedIn Green Group, was Isonomia debutant Francis Vergunst’s examination of the environmental case for taking meat out of your diet, but it was a close run thing. James Fulford returned to our pages with insights derived from the Eunomia’s database of local authority waste contracts, and was level pegging with Francis throughout most of the month.
However, neither was month’s most read author, a title which once again went to our overall record holder Chris Sherrington. He took Nick Clegg to task for deficiencies in the Government’s proposed plastic bag charge, but was propelled to the top by a resurgence of interest in his article on the environmental impact of wood burners – clearly a lot of people are feeling the chill as the autumn arrives.
We were able to bring you the second part of Natasha Sim and Martin Steiner’s report on waste management in the former USSR, along with the first part of new author Mike Tregent’s exploration of the risks and benefits of fracking. It’s great to see Mike make the transition from the comments boards to the role of author, and hope others will follow in his footsteps.
Three other new authors graced our pages during September. Paul Dumble explained why changing waste composition may reduce the calorific value of refuse derived fuel, and looked at what this might mean for energy from waste in the UK. Recycling collection methods were on Andy Grant’s mind, and his contribution to the site was a hugely informative examination of why there is no simple answer to the question “which collection system produces the best quality?”
Then at the end of the month, we welcomed Edd Colbert of The Pig Idea to Isonomia, as he offered readers an explanation of why we should be managing more of our food waste by feeding it – safely – to livestock. He was joined by Thomas Vergunst, who marked Bristol Fashion Week by excoriating the environmental and social impact of the fashion trade.
Thanks to our many readers, and especially those who comment on our articles – it’s something we and our authors really value. Offering a platform for a variety of opinions and generating debate is what we’re all about, so if you anything you read here has left you irked or wearing a smirk, we’d be delighted if you responded. That might be through our comments section, or even with an article of your own. We try to provide an informed but accessible viewpoint on a wide range of environment issues, so whether it’s climate change or commingled collection that’s on your mind, please do get in touch.
It’s easy to shift from visitor to commentator to author, and we’re always glad to hear from you. Whether you’re from Bradford or Botkyrka, Swansea or the Sunshine Coast, with your help we will create a space where thoughts on topics from across the environment sector can be expressed and explored, enabling communication and cross fertilisation of ideas.
We have a fruitful October of articles taking shape: Mike Tregent will be back with more on fracking, while James Fulford will be talking about waste crime. We’ll have ideas from New Zealand from Duncan Wilson, discussing the roles of the private, public and third sector in waste management. And we even hope to bring you a bit of a Halloween special.
As if a simple blog wasn’t enough, you can now follow us by subscribing to our Paper.Li site, where you can see Isonomia’s articles, and other interesting material, gathered together in a newspaper format. And now you can keep track of our articles via our Facebook page. We tweet about each new article, and of course at the top right of each page you can still subscribe to have each article e-mailed to you.
Search term of the month
The internet is a strange and wonderful thing. All life is here – the difficulty is finding the bits you’re interested in. Our new occasional feature brings you the pick of the search terms that brought people to Isonomia…
There seems to have been a bit of a squeeze on spelling this month:
“sqeezing bins makes waste disapear”, writes an optimist (or magician?)
While for others, Isonomia seemed like a sensible place to seek a quote:
“how much does it cost to point crazy paving”, asks a home improver.
Sorry to those visitors who may not have found exactly what they were looking for, but to the many others who came for expert insight on environmental issues: keep on enjoying the site!
Leave A Comment