HOUSEHOLD TIPS NOT FOUND IN WOMAN'S WEEKLY

[Stanley]

"The virus enters the eyes when we touch them with contaminated fingers." Nose pickers beware!
Today's tip is to recognise that today is widely recognised as one of the most depressing days of the year, Xmas bills arriving and other factors combining to depress people. Don't let this get you down. Knowing you lot you have been sensible and made sure you have avoided the worst effects.

[Tizer]

Here's a tip if you want a quiet life: watch out for shops leaving the security tags in stuff you buy. On our last weekly trip to the `big Sainsburys') I bought a waterproof jacket. When we got home I found it had a security tag attached to the inside. It wasn't very obvious, we hadn't seen it and the checkout lady didn't look for a tag. No-one stopped us and we didn't hear alarms when we exited the supermarket. I was going to cut it off but Mrs Tiz warned me that if you do that it might release a dye that stains the garment, so we kept it to take back on the next visit for de-tagging. Today the man at Sainsbury's apologised for our inconvenience and tried the tag in the entrance - the alarm went off. He suggested we might have `escaped' the first time due to something masking the tag from the alarm detector.

But here's the reason I'm warning people to watch out for tags left on goods. The man told us that the tag not only triggers an alarm in Sainsbury's but would do the same in many other shops. So if I'd worn the garment immediately after leaving Sainsbury's then gone into WH Smith's I might have triggered their alarm. At least then we had the supermarket receipt with us. But what would have happened if instead I'd still not noticed the tag and had first worn the coat the following day and gone into a shop that was sensitive to the tag - and I didn't have the receipt. Would I be held there until a Sainsbury's security man arrived to take me away? And what if I'd thrown away the receipt? It could all be very irritating and embarrassing!

[plaques]

Tizer, If you had paid by plastic a store like Sainsburys should have been able to trace ALL your purchases back to that event. Also within the big brother system it would have been part of your 'Nectar' records. A more worrying aspect of the RFID use is the tiny little ones that can be embodied into everything you wear so that you become a walking transmitter every time you enter one of the participating stores. Link Quote. 'Since RFID tags can be attached to cash, clothing, and possessions, or implanted in animals and people, the possibility of reading personally-linked information without consent has raised serious privacy concerns'.
I'm not suggesting that Sainsburys or any of the main street stores actually use these things for nefarious purposes but it makes you think though.

[Marilyn]

Some years ago I bought a blouse in the Ladieswear of a department store and paid for it at the counter on the second or third floor. Got stopped by security on the ground floor, as the tag had not been removed from the garment. Back upstairs, lined up again, no apology given but the tag was removed and the assistant handed back the garment, all smiles.
Got home and found a ruddy big hole in the blouse where the tag had been. I was seething! She must have seen it!

[Stanley]

We can all look forward to the day when all pre-packed goods will have electronic tags.... Deep Joy!

[Tizer]

Tizer, If you had paid by plastic a store like Sainsburys should have been able to trace ALL your purchases back to that event.

I agree, but I was more concerned about being `caught' in some other store and all the inconvenience it could cause before having a chance to show my card at Sainsbury's. Even that could have been more of a problem if I were out on my own - Mrs Tiz paid for the jacket on her card with the groceries.

I also agree about the problems of RFID and privacy. In fact I was raising concerns about this in the early 1990s when it was being introduced and I was writing news for a packaging magazine. But in those days people didn't realise how common and how small the tags would become and they weren't so challenged by privacy issues.

[Tripps]

I continued to trigger the alarm at Tesco after Christmas a couple of times, but it seems to have stopped now. I still carry exactly the same cards, but I got a new wallet which is more substantial - perhaps that's the difference. I hope so.

[Stanley]

Save clean plastic carrier bags and give them to a small retailer for re-use. They love them!

[Tizer]

I'm saving carrier bags, they'll soon be a rare item and I'll be able to make a fortune selling them on Ebay. In the future watch out for me appearing on Antiques Roadshow with my collection!

[Marilyn]

Use cloth bags. Better all round.
I haven't used plastic bags for about 15 years!

[Stanley]

I do for the Co-op shopping Maz.
A favourite in days gone by was to pull the hem of your pinafore up, form a bag and carry shopping home like that.

[Tizer]

We have a lot of heavy duty bags that we take when supermarket shopping in the car. At other times Mrs Tiz always carries one of those soft bags that folds up to something smaller than a purse. I tend to have a basic carrier bag stuffed in one of my anorak pockets.

[Marilyn]

That is good guys.
Days of expecting grocery stores to hand out plastic bags are over. ( well...they are over here. And that is the way the entire world should be heading!)
I've had some of my cloth bags for so long, they have been repaired several times over.
It becomes a life-style to carry them folded in my handbag.

[Marilyn]

Between using cloth bags for 15 years and banning all junk mail from my letterbox for over 20 years, I feel I've made a difference to the world. Now, if another few billion more could take up the cause, we might get somewhere!

[Stanley]

We must all do our little bit.... My personal beef is with cotton buds, the plastic stems are virtually indestructible. Time they went back to wood like they used to be......

[Tizer]

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is very useful to protect objects but it's a terrible nuisance for the environment. The small broken bits and beads get carried along with the wind and end up in soil and water courses. There are biodegradable alternatives but they don't get used because the EPS industry is massive. There is an EPS Alliance in the USA to look after their members.

[Stanley]

Why do I hate how EPS squeaks?

[Tizer]

We had an electric fire delivered from Dimplex recently, one of those that looks like an open fire. It was in a sturdy cardboard box and completely shrouded in shaped EPS. Instead of throwing it away I found a use for the EPS by cutting it into blocks and putting it in the cavity behind the false back of a kitchen fitted cupboard. This has the manifold of CH pipes that I showed in a photo recently and the cupboard was too warm for storing foodstuffs, as well as allowing heat to soak away into the block wall behind. The EPS took up most of the space and then I squeezed mineral wool loft insulation into the rest of the space. Now the cupboard is at ambient temperature and less heat escapes into the block wall.

Disposing of the cardboard should have been simple - put it in the appropriate recycling box....but if I'd done that it would have been rejected at the recycling plant and been redirected into landfill. The reason is that the glossy, colour-printed outer surface had a covering of polyethylene film. I only discovered this by accident when I detected a tiny piece on a corner which had `lifted'. I carefully picked at it until I could peel it off. It was very tight against the glossy board but not fixed with adhesive. It's stout board and I'll keep it - I can always find uses for strong cardboard!

[PanBiker]

Be careful using EPS where electrical cables are present or in voids where they run. The PVC outer jacket on twin and earth has a chemical reaction when in contact and will "melt" the EPS.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the advice, Ian. There are no cables in this void but I'll keep it in mind for any future DIY insulation ideas. I usually stuff holes and cavities with mineral wool only but this one was large, hence the EPS.

[plaques]

Thanks for that Panbiker. Didn't know about that effect. Here's some advice from the fire service.

"Electrical wiring
Electrical wiring had been run across the loft space with sheets of polystyrene insulation laid over the top.

Over a period of years the cable insulation became coated in polystyrene, not due to thermal effects but rather as a result of “plasticiser migration”.

There was a reaction between the plasticiser in the PVC insulation and the polystyrene, whereby the plasticiser migrated out of the PVC, softening the styrene which adhered to the PVC, leaving a brittle cable that cracked and split, exposing live conductors which caused a fire involving the timbers within the loft space."

[PanBiker]

That's the one Tiz.

[Whyperion]

I hope that advice is passed to builders and council building control officals and confirmed as being aware of. I have a feeling that trade names for EPS in the building industry mean that professionals and DIY'ers dont know exactly what the product is and just go on what it is marketed for. I use EPS containers as plant pots and garden planters - they will degrade over time - about 20 to 50 years - am I right that EPS is mainly a Coal Derived product rather than an oil one ?

[Stanley]

I didn't know about PVC v. EPS..... Useful info..... Thanks.

[Tizer]

Am I right that EPS is mainly a Coal Derived product rather than an oil one ?

No, polystyrene is made from styrene monomer, which is made from ethylbenzene, which is made from ethylene and benzene, both sourced from petroleum.

I have a feeling that trade names for EPS in the building industry mean that professionals and DIY'ers dont know exactly what the product is and just go on what it is marketed for.

There does tend to be confusion with names of such products. For example, builders still tend to talk about using polyurethane foam insulation panels although they have been replaced by polyisocyanurate panels which have better fire resistance.