octave

I don't often need bags for my shopping I do I keep a couple of paper shopping bags in the car. and they are fine to reuse several times depending on what you have previously used them for.

And you can use many types of plastic. Here is the actual NSW law. : Everything you need to know about NSW’s single-use plastic bans Speccifcally these items are NOT banned. 3. What is not banned? A number of single-use plastic items are not captured by the NSW plastic bans. 3.1. Information about what is not banned The NSW Government is committed to reviewing the necessity of these items as sustainable alternatives become more available. Under the NSW Plastics Action Plan, the NSW Government has committed to review further items in 2024 to determine whether phasing out is appropriate at that time. We will commence work on this from next year. 3.2. From 1 June 2022 The ban on lightweight plastic bags does not apply to: • barrier bags such as bin liners, human or animal waste bags (such as nappy bags, bags for collecting food waste for FOGO systems, pet waste bags) • produce bags and deli bags • bags used to contain medical items (excluding bags provided by a retailer to a consumer used to transport medical items from the retailer). 3.3. From 1 November 2022 The ban on single-use plastic items does not apply to: • serving utensils such as salad servers or tongs • coffee cups • plastic cups • items that are an integrated part of the packaging used to seal or contain food or beverages, or are included within or attached to that packaging, through an automated process (such as a straw attached to a juice box) • single-use plastic bowls designed or intended to have a spill-proof lid, such as those used for a takeaway soup • expanded polystyrene (EPS) meat or produce trays • expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging, including consumer and business-to-business packaging and transport containers • expanded polystyrene (EPS) items that are an integrated part of the packaging used to seal or contain food or beverages, or are including within or attached to that packaging, through an automated process (such as an EPS noodle cup)

Space I have not looked up the laws in NSW but here in Victoria what you say is not correct. Printing "reuse this bag" is not a thing. Which bags are banned? The ban applies to all lightweight plastic shopping bags with handles with a thickness of 35 microns or less at any part of the bag, including degradable, biodegradable and compostable bags. Retailers are not allowed to provide banned bags to customers, whether new or reused.

These are the bags I remember from my childhood. Pretty similar to today but a little bigger and with no handles.

My memory from when was growing up in the 70s was that our groceries were always carried in large paper bags. If you are one of those who believes things were better in the past then I would have thought you would have of paper over modern plastic. Plastic has many downsides and it does not seem too onerous to me to at least attempt to reduce the amount of this stuff going into landfill.

It is amazing to think about all the inputs and energy required to produce a litre of fuel at the bowser.

Here is a photo of an interesting object. I took this photo on my usual bike ride which takes me around the waterfront of Geelong and through the port area. There are often interesting vessels to be seen. This vessel caught my interest. It is a Helix7000 which is like an oil drilling platform but it is used for decommissioning oil and gas wells (plugging abandoned wells) and also used in the case of an accident. It is here for a few days before heading into Bass Straight. Unfortunately, this photo doesn't quite capture the enormous size of this thing. https://www.offshore-energy.biz/watch-helix-vessel-comes-to-australian-port-ahead-of-decom-job-with-exxonmobil/

Between 1990 and 2011 we lived on a bush property in an off-grid house with a solar system that we designed and installed. These were early times in solar/battery tech. During this time I think we went through 3 lead acid battery banks. At the end of their lives, we got some money back from the recyclers. Lead acid batteries have been around for a long time therefore the supply of end-of-life batteries is great and the recycling infrastructure is mature. When it comes to various lithium batteries in phones, laptops, tools and battery banks large and small the recycling rate has been small but is picking up speed. With EVs, one factor is the lack of supply due to the longevity of these batteries and the second-life uses such as power storage for houses and businesses. I do think that manufacturers must be compelled to take back the batteries in their products. So Samsung should take back their batteries at the end of their useful life. The cost or benefit will be passed. on to the user. Although it is often stated that EV batteries can't be recycled they can be they are being recycled. Here is a video about the processes used at Ascend Elements. Whilst it may be a little long for some folks to watch I found the process fascinating. Ascend Elements | Sustainable Battery Recycling Here are other lithium battery recyclers https://www.blackridgeresearch.com/blog/list-of-top-global-lithium-ion-li-ion-electric-vehicle-ev-battery-lib-closed-loop-recycling-services-companies-in-the-world Lithium battery recycling is also starting to happen locallyThe Rise of Lithium Battery Recycling in Australia

Something good is that this morning I signed into this forum and someone had started a thread to celebrate the positive things that happen in daily lives. We humans do tend to have a pessimism bias. Something I do off and on is at the end of the day, write a list of the little things that happened that day that were pleasant. This does help to put things in perspective. The one negative experience is usually outweighed by numerous positives.

Not knowing that much about sailing I found this video enlightening. I think lay people like me have tended to think that sailing vessels are blown along like a leaf or something when in fact sails act like wings. The paradox of sailing faster than the wind

Sailing Faster Than The Wind - How Is That Even Possible?

I can relate to this when visiting my son last time he lent us this car to get around in. Loads of fun to drive but comical to get in and out of. As far as Teslas go I don't really see the Model 3 as being ugly. The Model S to me at least has less pleasing proportions. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is my son's Model 3 the day he picked it up. Fun fact about 3 months later I had an "incident" that resulted in a dent in this vehicle.

EVs require more energy to manufacture and therefore have a greater environmental footprint than IC however this is compensated after a certain period. This explanation seems reasonable. Are Electric Cars Worse For The Environment? I guess we need to define safe. I would assert that if we take a harsh attitude petrol cars are not safe. Deaths and injuries in petrol or diesel car fires are reasonably rare but none the less, it still happens. I believe in Australia there were about 13000 EVs whilst in Norway at this time there were about 600000 EVs. It would seem that looking at the experiences of countries that are way ahead of us would yield interesting information about the safety of EVs. Whilst battery recycling has been slow to start it is being done now. Partly it is hard for a recycling system to develop when there are so few end-of-life batteries around. Recycling does occur as well re-use in second-life stationary power systems. Batteries are generally lasting longer than originally expected. Many EVs are using LiFePO4 which has advantages in safety and environmental friendliness although not quite as energy-dense. I don't particularly with we are rushing like a bull at a gate toward total EV. I would suspect that the overturning of horses by petrol vehicles was done at a much more rapid pace. Certainly, early aviation could not be considered safe. I am not suggesting everyone must rush out and buy one however I do think there is some hysteria amongst some folks. When there is a fire involving a car online comments are usually along the lines of, I bet it was an EV or I heard it was an EV

I only searched for incidents in recent times in Melbourne and this was not all of them. I would suspect that a search for NSW would yield a similar number of incidents.

Vehicles of all sorts occasionally catch fire. The important question is what is the rate of fires diesel vs petrol vs electric per KM driven. Another factor is how these common occurrences are dealt with. I am assuming that the recent electric truck fire has been successfully dealt with by now. People tend to think aviation is dangerous when 1 crash is reported in the news but happily ignore many other crashes. Massive Truck Fire On Princes Highway Driver escapes serious injury after truck catches fire on busy Melbourne freeway Truck fire causes major delays on Melbourne road Truck carrying TVs engulfed in flames on Tullamarine Freeway, Brunswick West Massive truck blaze disrupts traffic on Melbourne’s Western Ring Road Truck fire closes lanes on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway at Doncaster

Democracy is not free. We could save an awful lot of money by never having the opportunity to vote.

To me it is more palatable to believe that people fell for fear and misinformation than that they were unprepared to give the smallest of changes that would not have impacted their own lives at all. Some of the no campaigners such as Mundine and Price advocated no because they thought it did not go far enough. Mundine in an interview said that the struggle for a treaty would start after a no vote. I am betting that these stars of the no vote will be dropped pretty quickly by the conservatives. We have voted for the status quo. We were to afraid to adopt system like pretty much every other country in a similar position. I fear we deserve our international reputation.

I suspect that is rare. My wife spent time at a couple of booths handing out vote yes cards and there were certainly as many no volunteers. I am guessing in your polling booth there were not enough committed no voters to hand out how to vote cards.

I think it is more a case of some of the no campaigning being Trump like in the relying on creating fear and uncertainty. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-05/united-nations-voice-conspiracy-misinformation-spread-revealed/102932852

I actually had a vehicle catch fire whilst I was driving it. It was about 20 or so years ago. I was driving my Mitsubishi L300 van, which has the seat over the engine. I asked the fire fighter if this was an unusual occurrence. He said they are called to several each week. Anyway the van was a right off.

This is an interesting article about the two varieties in the "no" camp. The conservative "no" and and the progressive "no". https://theconversation.com/there-are-two-sides-to-the-no-campaign-on-the-voice-who-are-they-and-why-are-they-opposed-to-it-212362

Sounds like a myth to me. https://www.youngdriverfactbase.com/the-issues/ethnicity/

If you are suggesting favouritism to one side, the AEC has clarified that you can wear a yes or no t shirt. They can't stop you but would rather people did not. This is not a one sided rule. https://www.smh.com.au/national/voting-in-a-campaign-t-shirt-the-aec-suggests-you-bring-a-cardigan-20231012-p5ebqf.html "The same rules would apply to anyone wearing No paraphernalia."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-16/fact-check-jacinta-nampijinpa-price-secret-documents-niaa/102485040