Commentary STechnology & Marketing Sustainability, Dickens style Last summer, I read Charles Dickens’ last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend. PRAYThe 6 Spray October 2013 Cynthia Hundley Publisher chundley@spraytm.com Michael L. SanGiovanni Executive Editor msangiovanni@spraytm.com Ava Caridad Editor acaridad@spraytm.com Montfort A. Johnsen Technical Editor montyjohnsen@att.net Susan Carver Vice President, Administration scarver@spraytm.com Doug Bacile National Sales Manager dbacile@spraytm.com Joy Cunningham Reader Service Coordinator readerservice@spraytm.com Circulation circulation@spraytm.com Member: CAPCO Volume 23, No.10 October 2013 Copyright 2013 by Industry Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part may be reprinted without written permission from the Publisher. Spray Technology & Marketing (ISSN No. 1055-2340) is published monthly by Industry Publications, Inc. 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Industry Publications, Inc. also publishes Indoor Comfort Marketing The opinions expressed in this publication are not intended to be, nor should they be interpreted as, a replacement for professional, legal advice. main characters are typically, Dickensianly poor, and most make their living by scrounging off the most abject scraps of London’s waste: They gather dead bodies from the Thames River in order to collect the “missing person” reward, often helping the unfortunate (still alive) person into the river in the first place. Another character collects bones from dubious sources, articulates them and sells them to medical schools. Several characters work in “dust heaps” or trash piles. In the mid-nineteenth century, garbage was big business. Collected by private contractors, the rubbish was piled into mounds and men, women and children sifted through them looking for things to sell, as well as valuables that were accidentally thrown away. Most of the trash was sold as raw materials for other industries, such as brick making, soap making, road building and paper manufacturing. Equally engrossing me at the time was the coincidental news story out of London about the notorious “Fatberg,” a 15-ton lump of discarded food fat, wet wipes and other personal care debris coagulated inside a London sewer. I couldn’t read enough about this monstrous abomination that threatened to send raw sewage spurting into London’s streets and homes. It was the stuff of B-movies, and I immediately began the notes for a SyFy Channel screenplay (copyrighted), whereby Fatberg comes to life via a) massive electrical current or b) nuclear radiation to terrorize the city during a) the 2012 Olympics, b) the Royal Wedding, c) Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee or d) the recent birth of the future King of England. But back to Dickens. It didn’t escape my keen sense of frugality that Fatberg was truly a 21st Century phenomenon, and that such a thing would never have had existed under the streets of Victorian London. Plenty of other nasty things would have existed down there, this is true, but never a Fatberg because it would have been too valuable a commodity. For one thing, excess fat would have been made into tallow candles—the primary source of light for most people before gas and electricity. Fat wouldn’t have been dumped into a sewer or elsewhere, rather the “grease dealer” would have collected it from domestic kitchens, scraped it into a tub and resold it. Waste paper found in the gutter would be converted into broad, white paper sheets while old ropes were processed into fine note paper. No, nothing was wasted; absolutely everything was used, re-used, re-processed, refurbished and resold. It’s not all bad news, however. Last year, British television show Kevin McCloud’s Man Made Home featured an episode whereby biodiesel for a lamp was manufactured from a different London Fatberg. And as for this most recent incident, CountyClean Environmental Services, the waste management company that removed the Fatberg deposit, said the big blob would indeed go to good use. They claimed to have recycled everything they took away: the water was extracted and the remaining fats and oils were turned into soap, biodiesel and other fuel products. Utility company Thames Water has warned homes and businesses that they need to change their ways when it comes to the disposal of fat and wet wipes, urging people to “Bin it, don’t block it.” Thankfully, no flushing is required when disposing of aerosol cans, which are being accepted into more and more recycling programs everyday, all over the world. Indeed, the British Aerosol Manufacturers Assoc. (BAMA) has one of the most aggressive recycling campaigns in Europe. Dickens would be most pleased. Editor Ava Caridad, Editor
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