The technology required to be alternative!
- Missing Shade Of Blue
- Jun 17, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 6, 2020
I am passionate about repair, re-use, upcycle, build to last etc. But how is all this possible; how do I keep an 80 year old motorbike on the road? Because I have a well equipped workshop full of tools - plenty of them power tools - which have been produced in the modern industrial complex in which I live.
I am getting into pallet projects and have blogged about them on Missing Shade of Blue. This is a great example of re-use and upcycle. It is keeping those pallets out of landfill - or a skip for wood recycling, But to do this I need my car to collect the pallet as they are big and heavy. Whereas not essential, it makes these projects far more viable if I have my Goldscrew PZ Double-countersunk screws which can be driven into the pallets using my Makita cordless on hammer. I have not explored how recyclable - or not - are the lithium ion batteries in this. So here is something of a paradox right at the heart of my womble ethic.
When I do my repair, reuse and upcycle I am being an individual subversive; when I have done it with others in the past we have been a subversive little community. This is modelling ways of living which are more sustainable; alternatives to the usual way most people in Britain today live. I am also fully aware of the fact that these brief dips into freegan living are parasitic on the rest of the nation going ahead with their normal consumerism, and hence throwing stuff away, which is then available for me to repair, reuse and upcycle. I am also aware of the paradox of the amount of technology I use in order to do that.
I love these ideas. Especially as there is an old vehicle involved. I have a huge enthusiasm(maybe illness) for old hand made things and have made a career out of repairing them. I feel The common theme running through these things is there well crafted hand built nature. Carefully selected materials sourced and treated respectfully to make a lasting product that performs as good as I possibly can. It’s often The crude simplicity of engineering that draws our attention.. a steam engines centrifugal governor or an oak framed building held together solely with 18mm oak pegs.
Spending so much of my life fixing old buildings and drooling over old vehicles I often feel a frustration by the upcycled, pallet built…