The whoops and gasps of amazement heard from the admin desk in May were replaced in June by spontaneous applause and the occasional loud cheer, as site records did not tumble so much as they were hurled violently aside.
The record smasher in chief was Thomas Vergunst, who showed just how much interest there is amongst the ecologically minded in which kind of nappy to choose. First, he set to work on Hattie Parke’s records from last month. More people read his article in a day than any of our articles before. Then even more people read it, thanks to the power of Facebook. Unsurprisingly, his piece had soon been read more times in a month than any previous article – and much more surprisingly, within the span of June it caught and overtook Chris Sherrington’s Turtles article to become our most read piece of all time – although taking all his articles together, Chris remains or leading author. If we see old Aesop, we’ll let him know that, while a turtle may outstrip a hare in the long run, a reusable nappy can afford to give a turtle quite a head start….
Thomas’s sterling work was a big reason why we had more unique visitors, more views per publication and more comments per new article than in any past month, but credit is also due to the authors of the other great articles we were able to publish in the month.
- Chris Cullen dug into the data underpinning Eunomia’s Residual Waste Infrastructure Review to tell us more about how the trend for UK waste to be exported to the continent as fuel for incinerators may develop;
- Alex Massie dipped his toe in the water to assess how warmly we should feel about water footprinting as a way to measure the impact of the embodied water in the products we import; and
- Phillip Ward rounded off the month with some thoughts on how best practice regarding recycling systems can be captured and shared.
Once again, our work has found its way into a number of other publications. Chris Cullen’s article was reprinted by SCM Scrap-Ex in their EfW magazine. Meanwhile, the CIWM Journal and ENDS Report both referred back to Peter Jones’s article (published in April) about the Daily Mail’s misleading report on what happens to exported recycling.
July’s articles are already ripening on the admin desk’s vine, with the first to mature expected to be from Steve Watson, who will be examining the language of waste, its origins and effects. Chris Sherrington is preparing a new piece about the pernicious nature of block paving, and we are hoping for a welcome return from Martin Steiner, who has some thoughts about what can be learned from Europe’s experience of Pay As You Throw charging for household waste disposal.
It should be a lively month… but it will be all the better if our readers continue to pitch in with their thoughts. Our aim is to provide a platform for a wide variety of views, and if you are annoyed or enthused by something we have published, we’d like to extend to you the opportunity to respond, whether in our comments section, or with an article of your own. We try to provide an informed but accessible viewpoint on a wide range of environment issues, whether it’s bees or seas, bins or dolphins – whatever’s on your mind, get in touch.
It’s easy to shift from visitor to commentator to authors, and we’re always glad to hear from you. Whether you’re from Dublin or Durham, Dundee or Dubendorf, you’re 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.
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