Vocal Voices

Duvets. Yes, duvets as wall insulation. The fillings of man-made ones are chemically treated polyester fibres to make them fire-safe so that they smoulder and melt before becoming combustible. The local tip is in the middle of studentland and has a container specifically for duvets. Winner.

Another is roof tiles made from paper and hard to recycle plastics. Paper can only be recycled a few times before the fibres become so short as to be useless. Black plastic food trays are difficult to recycle as their colour contaminates now products, so mix the two. Blend the two in a solvent then roll it out und put under a heated press, same way as circuit boards are made, chop them to size and you have roof tiles. They are waterproof and insulating.

And finally - chewing gum. The days are long gone since the natural gum, chicle, was used to make the stuff. The modern version is a mix of polymers and plasticizers... plastic. It is now being used to make coloured Wellies, fishermen's waders and waterproof ponchos, and that keeps the streets clean.

All UK ideas for making money out of waste, or as we say in Yorkshire "where their's muck there's brass" and there is.

Brilliant, and shows how inventive we can be if we put our minds to it.

Guys, when I was doing Technology at Uni we were in the same complex as the Materials and Math people - we shared a few lectures.

Materials were working on under carpet hard flooring similar to the roof tiles. One side was profiled as a sound insulator for flats - think egg box shape.

When I was first in Saudi it was near the Yemen border - wild country. The houses had black painted 45 gallon oil drums on their roofs as water heaters. They also had planters made from old water cooler bottles filled with a mix of sand and goat dung and other composts to grow tomatoes, chillies etc. Goats were the main meat herds.

Air con. Put a strip of cotton material over two rollers passing through a tray of water and use a simple low Watt fan to blow through it.

We are so inventive when we need to be, and expensive and power hungry high tech does not have to be involved.

These are brilliant ideas!

The "air conditioning" idea is brilliant. I will remember that next summer

How about letting a little bit of light in?

Inspirational or what?