At a middle school reunion we were passing around pictures, when I saw one of me wearing a vest I had made out of an outgrown skirt. For a time, the landfill was spared. Schools where students wear uniforms spare landfills and parents' expenses by hosting back-to-school exchanges to recycle outgrown uniforms to younger classmates. Besides outgrowing clothes and shoes, there are plenty of reasons to get rid of old clothes. Styles change, moths eat sweaters, washing at the wrong heat setting shrinks pants.
In addition to recycling clothes at yard sales or donating them to thrift stores, retailers, such as H&M, are offering new options. Stores have bins and exchange discount coupons for used clothing customers bring in for donations to charities. Some Nike and Converse stores have Reuse-A-Shoe programs that collect any brand of athletic shoes (none with spikes or cleats and no sandals, flip-flops, dress shoes, or boots, however). At facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, or Meerhout, Belgium (whichever is closest), shoes are ground into raw material and used for sport and playground surfaces, apparel, and new footwear. More information about Nike's recycling program is available at nikegrind.com.
There are efforts to keep discarded clothing out of landfills by unraveling sweaters to reuse wool and by turning cotton items into cleaning cloths, insulation, bedding, and home furnishings.
Synthetic fibers are a worse problem, since washing clothes made from textiles, such as polyester and acrylic, with detergents releases micro plastic fibers that slip through wastewater treatment plants and into waterways, where they become "food" for aquatic organisms, such as plankton, and fish. A single fleece jacket can release as many as a million synthetic fibers in a single washing, especially if washed with powdered, rather than liquid, detergent. Fabric softener has been shown to reduce shedding, as does using a short, gentle wash cycle and cool water. Research also has shown coatings like chitosan, a finish derived from crustacean shells, have helped reduce fiber loss. Washing machine devices that trap the synthetic fibers from clothes held in mesh bags and balls that attract fibers also are being tried. When synthetic materials end up in landfills, they can take from 20 to 200 years to decompose.
Overall, the subject of fabric pollution has been slow to attract financing for research and development of recycling processes and ways to reduce fabric pollution. Reducing clothing purchases is one way consumers can instantly help solve the problem.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
China is Everywhere in Africa
"The Chinese are everywhere," writes a friend who is a missionary in Tanzania. News of China building sports stadiums, roads, railroads, pipelines, ports, bridges, hospitals, schools, and office buildings throughout the continent confirms her observation. China enjoys a reputation of making the lowest bid, not requiring local reforms, and bringing projects in on time.
A consortium of companies led by the China Communications Construction Company broke ground this year on its $478.9 million contract to build the first three berths on phase one of a $5 billion infrastructure project on Kenya's coast at Manda Bay. To the Chinese, the islands of Lamu, Manda, and Pate that lay just off Africa's Indian Ocean coast may have resembled the Hong Kong and Macau areas of China.
When completed in 2030, the Lamu area will be a deep-sea port hub with 32-berths, a pipeline to oil fields in Kenya (10 billion barrel reserve) and Uganda (2 billion barrels), a natural gas power plant, and a railroad that runs south to the Mombasa-Nairobi line and north to link landlocked Ethiopia and South Sudan to the Lamu port. The latter link would help free South Sudan's oil shipments from depending on Sudan's northern pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Security at the Lamu project is a major concern. Islamic extremists, the Shabab from Somalia, killed in Lamu county in 2014 and at a Nairobi shopping mall in 2013. Earlier, violence left 1000 people dead and another 600,000 displaced during the 2007 election of Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Poaching of elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns for art objects and folk medicine in China, Vietnam, and Thailand continues to reduce Africa's wildlife population. One Chinese woman was jailed in Kenya for two and a half years for trying to smuggle 15 pounds of ivory pieces onto a Kenya Airways flight by claiming they were macadamia nuts.
Originally, China's interest in Africa resembled that of the Europeans who carved up the continent in the 19th century. They were intent on extracting raw materials. While it is true that China still builds roads in Ghana to mine gold and into Mozambique to cut timber, the forecast of three billion people added to the continent's population between 2000 and 2100, now also motivates China to open manufacturing plants in Africa and to develop a market for its exports. Some African manufacturers suffer by not being able to compete with China, but resellers benefit from higher profits on, for example, Chinese shoes, motorbikes, smartphones, and counterfeit goods. In return, China is a market for Africa's tea, cut flowers, and, of course, chemicals, minerals, and lumber. But China's infrastructure improvements will not benefit China alone. They will be open to all marketers who see an opportunity to get more goods in and out of Africa.
A consortium of companies led by the China Communications Construction Company broke ground this year on its $478.9 million contract to build the first three berths on phase one of a $5 billion infrastructure project on Kenya's coast at Manda Bay. To the Chinese, the islands of Lamu, Manda, and Pate that lay just off Africa's Indian Ocean coast may have resembled the Hong Kong and Macau areas of China.
When completed in 2030, the Lamu area will be a deep-sea port hub with 32-berths, a pipeline to oil fields in Kenya (10 billion barrel reserve) and Uganda (2 billion barrels), a natural gas power plant, and a railroad that runs south to the Mombasa-Nairobi line and north to link landlocked Ethiopia and South Sudan to the Lamu port. The latter link would help free South Sudan's oil shipments from depending on Sudan's northern pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Security at the Lamu project is a major concern. Islamic extremists, the Shabab from Somalia, killed in Lamu county in 2014 and at a Nairobi shopping mall in 2013. Earlier, violence left 1000 people dead and another 600,000 displaced during the 2007 election of Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Poaching of elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns for art objects and folk medicine in China, Vietnam, and Thailand continues to reduce Africa's wildlife population. One Chinese woman was jailed in Kenya for two and a half years for trying to smuggle 15 pounds of ivory pieces onto a Kenya Airways flight by claiming they were macadamia nuts.
Originally, China's interest in Africa resembled that of the Europeans who carved up the continent in the 19th century. They were intent on extracting raw materials. While it is true that China still builds roads in Ghana to mine gold and into Mozambique to cut timber, the forecast of three billion people added to the continent's population between 2000 and 2100, now also motivates China to open manufacturing plants in Africa and to develop a market for its exports. Some African manufacturers suffer by not being able to compete with China, but resellers benefit from higher profits on, for example, Chinese shoes, motorbikes, smartphones, and counterfeit goods. In return, China is a market for Africa's tea, cut flowers, and, of course, chemicals, minerals, and lumber. But China's infrastructure improvements will not benefit China alone. They will be open to all marketers who see an opportunity to get more goods in and out of Africa.
Friday, May 19, 2017
What Should I Do with My Life?
The schooloflife.com site makes the point that if you don't decide what to do with your life someone else will decide for you. I was reminded of my niece's experience. She was a college graduate with an accounting major who went to an employment agency, where she was told she should be an administrative assistant. She didn't agree and is now a corporate comptroller.
In a Ted Talk, a School of Life spokesperson did admit that deciding on a career is confusing, because there are at least 500,000 different choices.
As we are often told, we need to know ourselves. What are your tastes and inclinations. What type of movies, TV shows, magazines, books, etc. do you prefer? Do you enjoy working with a team or are you a creative individualist? Do you follow sports, fashion, or politics. What kind of music do you like? Would you rather live in a city, suburb, or on a farm? Do you like to work on things with your hands? Would you like to work in the U.S. or Nigeria? Would you like to work out-of-doors? Knowing yourself takes a lot of thought and there is no need to sort out your options in a rush.
In fact it's good to look for ways to try out career options in the real world. Collect data. Volunteer. Find an internship. Ask to shadow someone in a field you think you might like. In any job, you can study suppliers, what good and bad managers do, if you like or dislike working with customers. The internet provides ways to try out jobs. If you want to be a writer, see how long you like writing a blog. If you think being a stock or commodity trader is your thing, watch MSNBC and devise your own system for picking stocks, bonds, or sugar futures. See how much money you can make or lose over a year.
If you're interested in becoming your own boss, reflecting on the things that make people unhappy can provide an idea for a business opportunity. Consider all the opportunities that exist because people don't want to be fat. Diet pills, low-cal foods, gyms, trainers, video workout sessions, companies that send food to those who want to lose weight, fashions to make large women look better at Lane Bryant and online, the "Big Loser" TV show.
Knowing what you want to do gives you confidence and courage to ask for the position you want, not to be timid, to train for that position no matter what your age, to take the risk and to go for it. I once was sitting next to a court reporter on a plane headed to Florida in January. She knew her profession was in demand everywhere so why not follow the sun. A friend who is a nurse knows she has her choice of locations too. The object is not to settle until you get the life you want.
In a Ted Talk, a School of Life spokesperson did admit that deciding on a career is confusing, because there are at least 500,000 different choices.
As we are often told, we need to know ourselves. What are your tastes and inclinations. What type of movies, TV shows, magazines, books, etc. do you prefer? Do you enjoy working with a team or are you a creative individualist? Do you follow sports, fashion, or politics. What kind of music do you like? Would you rather live in a city, suburb, or on a farm? Do you like to work on things with your hands? Would you like to work in the U.S. or Nigeria? Would you like to work out-of-doors? Knowing yourself takes a lot of thought and there is no need to sort out your options in a rush.
In fact it's good to look for ways to try out career options in the real world. Collect data. Volunteer. Find an internship. Ask to shadow someone in a field you think you might like. In any job, you can study suppliers, what good and bad managers do, if you like or dislike working with customers. The internet provides ways to try out jobs. If you want to be a writer, see how long you like writing a blog. If you think being a stock or commodity trader is your thing, watch MSNBC and devise your own system for picking stocks, bonds, or sugar futures. See how much money you can make or lose over a year.
If you're interested in becoming your own boss, reflecting on the things that make people unhappy can provide an idea for a business opportunity. Consider all the opportunities that exist because people don't want to be fat. Diet pills, low-cal foods, gyms, trainers, video workout sessions, companies that send food to those who want to lose weight, fashions to make large women look better at Lane Bryant and online, the "Big Loser" TV show.
Knowing what you want to do gives you confidence and courage to ask for the position you want, not to be timid, to train for that position no matter what your age, to take the risk and to go for it. I once was sitting next to a court reporter on a plane headed to Florida in January. She knew her profession was in demand everywhere so why not follow the sun. A friend who is a nurse knows she has her choice of locations too. The object is not to settle until you get the life you want.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Kids Helping Kids
Kids can trade their active play (running, jumping, climbing) for food needed by malnourished kids around the world. To record their movements, kids do need to wear a wrist band, available for $39.99 at unicefkidpower.org. Maybe kids can work out a plan for sharing a band with each other on different days of the week. Lots more information is available at the UNICEF site.
Under "Kid Power," a program sponsored by UNICEF, 200,000 kids already have provided
6.4 million packets of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to save the lives of more than 40,000 malnourished children. Schools, scout troops, summer camps. Little League teams, and families all can join the fun and feeling of service to those who need their help.
Under "Kid Power," a program sponsored by UNICEF, 200,000 kids already have provided
6.4 million packets of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to save the lives of more than 40,000 malnourished children. Schools, scout troops, summer camps. Little League teams, and families all can join the fun and feeling of service to those who need their help.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Long Supply Lines Foster Abuses
Regarding abuses related to the $88 billion palm oil industry, Rachel Barre, who is L'Oreal's sustainable sourcing manager, acknowledged her company is far removed from the plantation level. And one palm oil industry observer noted it is impossible to delink one company's supplies from the continued deforestation of the industry as a whole.
Since, along with plantations, small farmers produce 40% of the world's palm oil, abuses at the source of this raw material are widespread. Polluting smoke from the fires used to clear palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia spreads far beyond local areas and deforestation robs the world of endangered wildlife.
In lengthy supply lines, problems associated with land acquisition, working conditions, pay, pollution, and deforestation are found where plantations, logging, mines, and textile factories source the food and goods sold to consumers thousands of miles away. Indonesia represents a good example. President Joko Widodo presides over a country of 13,000 islands. He is winning public support for a construction boom in needed roads, railways, bridges, airports, and power plants that the previous government of Suharto failed to address. Yet, projects are hindered by laws and regulatory agencies associated with each project, skilled labor shortages, land acquisition in heavily populated areas, lack of private investment necessitating growing public debt, and lax worker safety requirements.
Pressured by distant retailers to cut costs and speed up delivery, the clothing manufacturers in China, India, and Indonesia that work with viscose/rayon fibers become major polluters. On one hand, the silk alternative is heralded as a sustainable option, because it is made from the fast-growing, soft wood of beech, pine, and eucalyptus trees. But the process of turning wood pulp into viscose requires sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and carbon disulphide, a chemical linked to heart disease, birth defects, mental health problems, and cancer. Air and wastewater exposed to these chemicals harm factory workers, local residents, and fish.
What can be done?
1. Organizations, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Palm Oil Innovation Group, Forest Stewardship Council, Proforest, Fair Trade Federation, and Sustainable Apparel Coalition, assemble experts to monitor industry conditions, devise best practices, and develop certification programs. Some organizations create logos consumers can use to identify responsible producers.
2. When governments are approached to grant large scale land concessions, they are in a position to require plantation owners to obtain (without manipulation by offering jobs before the concession is granted) consent from local communities, to assure protection of traditional rights to land that is owned, occupied, or used to produce food needed by the local population, and to agree to penalties for violating stipulated working conditions and environmental protections.
Olam International's palm oil operation in Gabon offers some insight. The company holds a government lease on land for 15 years. Although those who wanted to farm outside the concession could continue to do so, 95% of the local population took jobs with Olam. The company invests $1.6 million a month in community healthcare and development. Yet it took pressure from environmental groups to cause Olam to announce even a one year moratorium on deforestation.
3. Before they suffer bad publicity, companies at the end of supply chains need to realize consumers are becoming better informed about the dangers associated with certain products and industry practices. The need to end pressure on suppliers who cut corners to meet demands and to designate someone to root out untrustworthy intermediaries suppliers may hire to avoid responsibilities is likely to grow. Touting a palm-oil free product became a contested, competitive selling claim in a Belgian court. The supermarket chain, Delhaize, advertised its Choco spread was better for the planet and health than Ferrero's Nutella, a spread that contains palm oil, Although Ferrero successfully argued against Delhaize's claim, the case showed how some marketers have begun to recognize consumers are growing wiser about everything involved with the food they eat and the products they use.
4. With technical, financial, and other support from governments, private sources, and non-profit organizations, more small scale entrepreneurs need opportunities to enter supply chains.
5. To ensure their survival, critically endangered and endangered wildlife, such as gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos/pygmy chimpanzees, saolas, and orangutan, often need the protection of "no-go zones" and wildlife corridors in concession territories. Palm oil plantations in Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, for example, already have destroyed chimpanzee and gorilla habitats. Company and government wardens and scientists need to prevent poaching and to monitor animal health in land concessions.
Of course, abuses can be avoided by shortening or controlling supply lines. The missionary nuns who grow and sell tomatoes to their local communities in Africa short circuit the supply chain (See the earlier post, "Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa."). The nonprofit organization, serrv (serrv.org), finds artisans and farmers in areas of great poverty in countries such as Ghana and South Africa, helps them with marketing suggestions to make their goods more attractive in developed countries, and sells these products through catalogs and the retail stores they own.
Monday, May 1, 2017
All Aboard for China's African Railroads
A new Chinese built railroad scheduled for next month's trial run from Kenya's busy Mombasa port to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi offers students a good opportunity to study the map of East Africa. At the same time, this infrastructure improvement will benefit, not only the Chinese, but all future marketers who want to get their commodities and products in and out of Africa.
China has seen Africa's need for railroads as a promising use for its excess steel production and a way to avoid charges of dumping, i.e. exporting overcapacity at below fair market prices. Since Africa's population is expected to boom from one to four billion between 2000 and 2100, China also is looking ahead to the need for ports and transportation links capable of handling a growing market for Chinese goods (and Africa's own growing economies).
China has experience building railroads that connect African ports, known to handle 90% of the continent's exports and imports, with the interior. In the 1970s, China financed and built the TAZARA Railway from Zambia's Copperbelt to the port at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Other Chinese railroads connect Nigeria's capital at Abuja to Kaduna, and an electrified railway that opened this year gives landlocked Addis Ababa in Ethiopia access to the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea in Djibouti.
By the time the Mombasa-Nairobi line is ready to handle passengers and freight in January, 2018, it will have taken seven years for a process that required: Kenya and the China Road and Bridge to sign a memorandum of understanding, to finalize $3.6 billion in financing from China's Exim Bank and Kenya's government, to lay tracks, to build and deliver locomotives and cars, and to complete trial runs. Kenya's attitude toward the Chinese-built Mombasa to Nairobi railway turned negative as ballooning costs turned four times the original estimate and raised suspicions of corruption.
Plans call for extending the Mombasa-Nairobi line farther west around the northern coast of Lake Victoria, up to the Uganda border by 2021, and then on to Uganda's capital in Kampala and Kigali, Rwanda, with a branch line to Juba, South Sudan. Extending the Mombasa-Nairobi line into Uganda would facilitate oil shipments from new fields in and around Lake Albert and copper, cadmium, and other mineral shipments from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also would improve the supply route to the Dominican nuns mentioned in the earlier post, "Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa."
Although the Mombasa-Nairobi route is only about 300 miles long, terrain required 98 bridges, embankments, cuttings, and an elevated section through Tsavo National Park that provides six openings for wildlife to pass underneath. Annually, freight trains are expected to carry 22 million tons over the line, 40% of all cargo entering Mombasa. Trips from the freight terminal at Mombasa to container depots at Embakasi/Nairobi are expected to take less than eight hours. New standard gauge trains traveling at 75 mph could reduce a passenger's trip from Mombasa to Nairobi to four hours compared to the current all day trip on the deteriorated, leftover meter gauge railway built before Kenya's independence. The trip will take longer when any stops are made for passengers at the 40 stations expected to be completed along the route.
Africa's Chinese railroads are a work in progress. Funding and loan repayment, as well as stolen materials, have plagued these projects. In some cases, the China Communications Construction Company will operate Africa's railways while local employees are being trained. Over Easter, Nigerians complained about changed schedules and poor communication. The same poor maintenance that left colonial railroads in disrepair after African countries gained independence could be a problem in the future.
China has seen Africa's need for railroads as a promising use for its excess steel production and a way to avoid charges of dumping, i.e. exporting overcapacity at below fair market prices. Since Africa's population is expected to boom from one to four billion between 2000 and 2100, China also is looking ahead to the need for ports and transportation links capable of handling a growing market for Chinese goods (and Africa's own growing economies).
China has experience building railroads that connect African ports, known to handle 90% of the continent's exports and imports, with the interior. In the 1970s, China financed and built the TAZARA Railway from Zambia's Copperbelt to the port at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Other Chinese railroads connect Nigeria's capital at Abuja to Kaduna, and an electrified railway that opened this year gives landlocked Addis Ababa in Ethiopia access to the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea in Djibouti.
By the time the Mombasa-Nairobi line is ready to handle passengers and freight in January, 2018, it will have taken seven years for a process that required: Kenya and the China Road and Bridge to sign a memorandum of understanding, to finalize $3.6 billion in financing from China's Exim Bank and Kenya's government, to lay tracks, to build and deliver locomotives and cars, and to complete trial runs. Kenya's attitude toward the Chinese-built Mombasa to Nairobi railway turned negative as ballooning costs turned four times the original estimate and raised suspicions of corruption.
Plans call for extending the Mombasa-Nairobi line farther west around the northern coast of Lake Victoria, up to the Uganda border by 2021, and then on to Uganda's capital in Kampala and Kigali, Rwanda, with a branch line to Juba, South Sudan. Extending the Mombasa-Nairobi line into Uganda would facilitate oil shipments from new fields in and around Lake Albert and copper, cadmium, and other mineral shipments from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also would improve the supply route to the Dominican nuns mentioned in the earlier post, "Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa."
Although the Mombasa-Nairobi route is only about 300 miles long, terrain required 98 bridges, embankments, cuttings, and an elevated section through Tsavo National Park that provides six openings for wildlife to pass underneath. Annually, freight trains are expected to carry 22 million tons over the line, 40% of all cargo entering Mombasa. Trips from the freight terminal at Mombasa to container depots at Embakasi/Nairobi are expected to take less than eight hours. New standard gauge trains traveling at 75 mph could reduce a passenger's trip from Mombasa to Nairobi to four hours compared to the current all day trip on the deteriorated, leftover meter gauge railway built before Kenya's independence. The trip will take longer when any stops are made for passengers at the 40 stations expected to be completed along the route.
Africa's Chinese railroads are a work in progress. Funding and loan repayment, as well as stolen materials, have plagued these projects. In some cases, the China Communications Construction Company will operate Africa's railways while local employees are being trained. Over Easter, Nigerians complained about changed schedules and poor communication. The same poor maintenance that left colonial railroads in disrepair after African countries gained independence could be a problem in the future.
Russia Continues to Live in the Past
News of Russia's training for military operations and plans for oil drilling in the Arctic indicate Moscow continues to stake its future on aggression and wealthy oligarchs. Neither will stem volatile oil prices, which dropped to the $43-$44 a barrel range June 26-27, 2017, or unlock the sanctions, imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, that block the import of drilling and fracking equipment needed to exploit the Arctic's oil and gas.
Nor, it seems, is Russia positioning itself to take advantage of the new commercial Northwest Passage opportunities climate change brings to the Arctic Ocean, such as voyages of cruise ships like the Crystal Serenity that carried 1,700 passengers and crew from Alaska to New York in the summer of 2016.
To catch up on the race for the Arctic, see the earlier posts, "North Pole Flag" and "Iceland Gives China the Cold Shoulder."
Nor, it seems, is Russia positioning itself to take advantage of the new commercial Northwest Passage opportunities climate change brings to the Arctic Ocean, such as voyages of cruise ships like the Crystal Serenity that carried 1,700 passengers and crew from Alaska to New York in the summer of 2016.
To catch up on the race for the Arctic, see the earlier posts, "North Pole Flag" and "Iceland Gives China the Cold Shoulder."
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