Cocky notes

In this issue:
1 Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo numbers are still down in Perth
2 A love affair with the cockatoos of Coomallo Creek
2 Artworks contribute to cockatoo conservation
3 Plant pathogen devastating black-cockatoo habitats
3 Plants flowering for Carnaby’s
3 Plants for Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo workshop
4 Researching micro-climates of nesting hollows
4 Cockatoo conservation logo flies again
5 My journey with Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo
6 Tales aplenty at Newdegate
7 Steps to Recovery DVD

 Check the online newsletter here

REmida: Refuse, Reduce, REUSE, Repair & Recycle!

If you have any creations using REmida materials we want to see them!

RE-BOOT! Members Exhibition is being held as part of National Recycling Week to celebrate the joys and infinite possibilities of reuse and promote it as household concept (before recycling, and definitely before throwing away!).

If you enter a piece or not, please join us for the opening on the 10th on November from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.

Check for more info here

Design & Thinking - 1 November in Perth

"Design & Thinking" is a documentary exploring the idea of "design thinking"

“Design thinking is a term that arose in order to distinguish between what others think of as design, which is usually just the surface, to the thinking behind. Thinking is something you do first, and then you make.” Paul Pangaro, CTO, in Design & Thinking.

Come to see the movie!
More info here

Aspartame

Did you know that Monsanto started back in 1901 by becoming the primary source of saccharine for the US, eventually switching to aspartame in the 60s? Toxic from day one.

Test Your Awareness: Do The Test

Organised crime, illegal timber and Australia’s role in deforestation

Illegal logging is booming, as criminal organisations tighten their grip on this profitable global industry. Hence, it comes just in the nick of time that Australia, after years of debate, is on the verge of passing an anti-logging bill.

Illegal logging is an international scourge, and increasingly an organised criminal activity. It robs developing nations of vital revenues while promoting corruption and murder. It takes a terrible toll on the environment, promoting deforestation, loss of biodiversity and harmful carbon emissions at alarming rates.

Moreover, the flood of illegal timber makes it much harder for legitimate timber producers. The vast majority of those in Australia and New Zealand have difficulty competing in domestic and international markets. That’s one reason that many major Aussie retail chains and brands, such as Bunnings, Ikea-Australia, Timber Queensland, and Kimberly-Clark, are supporting the anti-illegal logging bill.
Read the article

Ride2work day

I am just home from Ride2Work day. I participated as a volunteer in the big breakfast in the city where lots of local suppliers donated their goodies. I was in charge of the yummy Mundella Greek yoghurt with passion fruit and Harvey milk. But there were Carnarvan bananas, local apples and pears, juices, cerial, buns, etc. Nobody went home on an empty stomach!

I always ride to work, one or two days a week this is 34km return and two days a week it's a 22km return (I teach at two different locations) which adds up the total kilometers nicely. I participate in the Cycle instead spring Bike to Work challenge and in the past four weeks I did more than 600km!

There is a discussion on The Conversation about riding to work Governments should get behind bikes, and not just one day a year which is interesting as coming from Holland I am used to lots of bicycles on the road, especially in peak hour. Here it's only the happy few in lycra and the compulsory helmet. I wouldn't mind if we get a more relaxter mentality here in WA about bicycles on the road!
Join the discussion!

The Power of We

When I started this blog in May 2007 it was because I was asked to be the liaison for the global network o2, a network for sustainable designers, in Western Australia. The first thing I had to organise was the Perth Green Drinks, which was a bit of a task as being reasonably fresh migrants to Australia our network wasn't that big yet.

So I started this blog, gathering all kind of interesting, mainly local, news on environmental topics while in the mean time making plans on how to organise the first gathering for Green Drinks in Perth. I used this blog to gather ideas from readers by creating polls.

Green Drinks is a global network for anyone who is interested in sustainability and the environment, most people from NGOs, academia, government and business. When I started in 2007 there were about 230 cities active in the mean time, five years later, there are about 680 cities who have regular (in Perth it's bi-montly)  Green Drinks.

Over the years we've had visitors from other countries checking out our Perth Green Drinks and I have visited Green Drinks in Sydney. I started at the same time as Olivia in Singapore and if I look back on what we've achieved this is wonderful! Five years later Perth and Singapore Green Drinks are vibrant networks who bring people from different disciplines together to get even better ideas.

So my message for the Power of We is that whoever you are and whatever your background, you can achieve something big by just doing it! Don't be afraid to just start something totally new to interact with other people to become stronger and get a good platform to work from!

So where are you waiting for?

Toxic leather tanneries

Since I teach 3D Sustainability at Curtin University (2008) I've shown a picture at one of my lectures of the waste in Bangladesh from the many tanneries and glue factories there. Now I come across this article: Children as young as 11 being exposed to poisonous chemicals in Bangladeshi tanneries and see it's even worse than the picture and nothing has been improved since the past five years.

As designers of products using leather we must source materials from companies who improve their business practices. We must check how clean the factories work, how they dispose of their waste and if they are using child labour. And say no to their products if they are not cleaning up their act!

Stop Shell drilling oil on the north pole.

Recycling mobiles a mammoth task

AUSTRALIANS are hoarding more than 22 million unwanted mobile phones despite a national service that will recycle the old handsets free of charge.

But the scheme, funded by the mobile phone industry, cannot afford to recycle them all and a prominent environmentalist has accused the group of failing to do as much as it should to collect and reuse the massive stockpile.

The recycling program, Mobile Muster, is run by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association and is funded by handset levies paid by phone makers and the country's four major telcos.
Read article

How to recycle your old mobile phone:
First of all it's best to use it as long as possible, most discarded mobile phones are still in perfect order. And if you buy a new mobile give your old one to someone else who will use it.
If there is nobody who wants your phone recycle it:

-- COLLECT a reply-paid Mobile Muster satchel at Australia Post
-- DOWNLOAD and print a shipping label from mobilemuster.com.au
-- DOWNLOAD and print a shipping label from apple.com/au/recycling
-- DROP YOUR OLD PHONE off at a collection point listed at mobilemuster.com.au

I just tried it and it gives me 8 places where I can bring my old mobile if I want to recycle it within 1 or 2 km from my home. But they won't get my old Siemens yet, it's 9 years old and still working perfectly for where I need a mobile for: calls and texts!

Tom Dixon: Legal advice for designers

In his presentation at the London Design Festival, Dixon commented on the threat foreign manufacturers pose to his design business. Searching for his work on eBay produces seven pages and only two genuine items, he said: “All the others are copies at a third of the price from Hong Kong.

” Copiers use drawings from designers’ websites to produce accurate replicas and even steal marketing images to paste into their own online catalogues, he explained. “It’s very quick and pernicious. I used to laugh it off and be flattered that people bothered to copy, but now I’m more nervous.”

Speaking to Dezeen after his talk, Dixon explained that “in Australia for instance, if you call something a Tom Dixon replica you can bypass the law: you’re stating what the thing is, it’s a replica, so therefore it’s legitimate even though it’s a copy.” He says that designers “just have to be smarter, faster and quicker to market.”
Read full article and hear him talk here

The case for keeping grain on rail - public forum

(Click on picture to enlarge)

SEN has organised a public forum and Q and A panelon the Tier 3 Rail Network: The Case for Keeping Grain on Rail

When: Monday 8th October 2012
Meeting time: 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start
Where: City West Lotteries House, 2 Delhi St, WEST PERTH
(Next to City West train station)
FREE EVENT, Refreshments Provided
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