August is the traditional month for crayfish parties in Sweden – the harvesting of crayfish used to be legal there only in the late summer. However, kräftskiva parties have become popular across the nordic countries and Finland, though the extent to which this can be attributed to the deliciousness of crayfish or widespread enthusiasm for the copious drinking that accompanies the event is open to debate.
Naturally, the celebrations also involve special attire and festive decorations. So if you have spent August searching for the right kind of amusing paper hats and bibs, or drawing the man in the moon onto paper lanterns, what did you miss on Isonomia?
The juiciest crayfish of the month was cooked up by Roy Hathaway, who took an typically fair and balanced view of what much maligned Resources Minister Dan Rogerson may have meant when he said that a circular economy was neither achievable nor desirable. Roy’s article provoked plenty of tweets and discussions on LinkedIn, as well as stirring up plenty of comments on Isonomia.
A close second favourite with our readers was the cray-zy world of Mike Brown. He delved into the murky waters of waste crime to ask if waste export is really to be blamed for the increasing amounts of waste left ‘orphaned’ in waste sites and fields. EcoMENA’s Amir Dakkak returned to maintain his place as the crawdaddy of Middle Eastern water scarcity reporting, this time taking a look at the dire situation in Gaza, which has been made even worse by the recent escalations of conflict.
Adding to the circular economy gumbo we’ve been cooking up, Thomas Vergunst shared his thoughts on whether the circular economy has killed the waste Hierarchy. We also welcomed a new author to the party in Alex Murray, who provided a bisque run through of the reuse and recycling options available when you need to get rid of an old mattress. Finally, just as the party was winding down at the end of the month Peter Jones turned up to get things going again, not with his famous home brew but with an article detailing the pitfalls local authorities may be fall into when seeking TEEP advice.
Thanks to all those who commented on our articles; it’s something we and our authors really appreciate. Offering a platform for a variety of opinions and generating debate is what we’re all about, so if anything you’ve read here has been made you want to party or has given you a hangover, please do let us know 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 you’ve got renewables or reusables 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 Baton Rouge or Bruges, Lake Charles or Charlestown, 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.
What’s cooking for September? Father of the Waste Hierarchy Ad Lansink may well return with some thoughts on material reuse; Emma How may be tackling the stick issue of gum; and new author Hilary Vick may be sifting through the topic of real nappy incentives.
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Does anyone know what you can re-use fishing nets for? By all accounts fishing nets are a major problem especially in remote coastal areas where the costs of shipping them for reprocessing is exhorbitant. We are putting together a project to reuse fishing nets but need more ideas on possibles uses – apart from green roofs and Coastal Defenses – have come up with very little. Please contact jose@joseospina.com.