Get along to the Final Gathering at DCA this Sat 17th July and your in for more of this! This is a wee not so sneak preview (we're well aware of posting it on the internet) of Garbologists Construction Manual! It has pages and pages to keep you busy building things you will never need, or want! Along with this, we will laden you down with so much company tat you'll be finding things to throw out (and recycle!) for years to come! Get along! You wont/will* be dissapointed! The other 8 projects have some great stuff to keep you entertained throughout the day, from hair cutting, pub touring and dress-making!
* Garbologists take no responsibility for the production of our company keyrings, although we do indulge in 'rudimentary' quality, they are of a particularly poor standard!
Thursday 15 July 2010
Bin Motors Gone By!
Or 'Dustcarts', as the American Garbologists would have ye believe! Out on the beat, people often note how easy it is now for Garbologists to empty bins in relation to having to 'kowp' the metal cylinder beasts into the back o the 'dustcart' in grander days. It isn't any easier, as beat routes continually increase with the expansion of towns in the area, and thus, many more shiny new 240's ripe for the filling! In Figure 'A', two cavalier loaders completely disregard Safe Systems Of Work and hoist a fully laden bin high above their head an into the back end. Sore shoulders lads? Dont come running to the Health & Saftey Officer!
Made it to SNH Magazine Summer Issue!
A proud pair of Garbologists after making an appearance in everyones favourite Scottish Heritage Related Publication - Scottish Natural Heritage Magazine! We hosted an event for National Biodiversity Day last month, in planting new compost beds which are now bearing some fine Courgettes outside! Inside, they are not doing so well, the rising heat inside HQ has recently put paid to the growth of the one last hope in the indoor trays, the late, hardy, Basil. Take a moment....
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Bin Motor Art Gallery!
The ultimate exposure for an artwork - exhibited on the side of a bin motor travelling to every nook and cranny of the local region! This happened back in 2006, but time is no marker on the relevance of post on Garbologists blog! Local councillor said "pairing waste collection with art is an innovative way of getting it into the public domain". But what if the bin men are the artists? - then the artwork is being made on the streets through the working day!
Tuesday 13 July 2010
High-Brow Find of the Fortnight!
The good people of Invergowrie presented a plethora of fine publications to whittle away the piece-time after litter picking the parks of Invergowrie last month. Top o the pile were 2 Viz's, 3 Motor Bike Magazines, and a recent copy of the Dundee Courier. On the street sweeping motor you can keep abreast of current affairs nae bother with out on the beat finds! unfortunately, the dates on most publications meen you information will usually be 3 years oot o date!
Monday 12 July 2010
Final Gathering Immenent - Logos on Everything!
Thanks to Lorne Gill of SNH for this image showing the shameless branding employed by the Garbologists to promote all commodities within their possession! Here, assistant artist Neil Nodzak helps hold the one and only Garbologist stencil (youve held up well lad, if a little limp from 100's of sprays by now) as it is sprayed on the side of our vegetable boxes. In the background, the Ford Fiesta still remians crashed and firmly lodged in the brae behind HQ. The can of spraypaint is of course 100% harmless to the environment (sic).
Wednesday 7 July 2010
'Waste' Of Time Staying In That 'Rubbish' Hotel
But wait, a supermodel, in a hotel made out of rubbish? This must be staged? Indeed it is, but the message from the hotel is very serious. This hotel in Rome has been fashioned from debris scattered across beaches in Italy to highlight problems they have with increasing numbers of beach-tat, ice lolly wrappers and warm, sand filled cheese sandwiches left around on the beaches. In Scotland, beaches have similar problems in parts, but are rarely seen due to the 4-minute window of summertime offered by the MET to most of those dwelling north of Hadrians dyke!
Skye-ving on Skye!
Extended piece-time in the co-op in Broadford, Isle of Skye. The yellow bin motor in the western highlands makes for a tough spot to find for a wee kip in the early afternoon, and right in the middle of the busiest car park in toon isnae it! Interested in finding out how many bin motors operate on Skye/The Outer Hebrides? May well pursue this interest and have stuff posted about it in the near future! Recycling pays no heed to the barriers of ferry crossing, the lord himself would be proud of the plastic reyccling quota from Harris and Lewis im sure, if an RBS van can get across, Im sure 7 and a half tonner bin motor can also!
Sunday 20 June 2010
Union Tat Round 1!
An example of the rewards you would reap if you attended NINE TRADES OF DUNDEE: FINAL GATHERING on the 17th July. Synonymous with opening bank accounts or getting to the semi final of a short tennis tournament in younger years, this furry wee beast has been adapted as the mascot to the Garbologists! Any company related paraphernalia may find its way into our display at the final gathering, come along and fill your pockets!
Thursday 10 June 2010
Magic Tree & Magic Forest!
The bin motors may change, the crew on each of the motors may change, but one thing remains constant....Magic Tree! This wee belter keeps the cab in the motor smelling pretty clever as it fills with tonnes and tonnes of fragrant waste. There's an art exhibition on in Dundee just now called 'Magic Forest', by Kimberley Bright. It has loads of the trusty trees hanging from a rear view mirror! Good luck getting close to it, it smells like twenty taxis (quite strong). Its at Gallery, A New Contemporary Space. Details can be found at www.galleryanewcontemporaryspace.com
Not Entirley Practical!
You'd get a fair amount of rubbish falling through the holes in this grand spectacle! Its a truck made by artist Wim Delvoye, and I'm sure is used purely for ornamental reasons! Its made by laser cutting patterns in wood to get the intricate patterns. Reckon if all the bin motors looked like this it'd be a like a ghost fleet of lorries from Victorian times!
Wednesday 26 May 2010
Load o' Rubbish!
A full load or rubbish at that! and in the back end of the street sweeping motor! All your favourite products can be found in this filthy chamber of needless packaging. Products range from beer cans, mattresses, Tamagochis, grape stems and half-completed sticker albums. You name it, it'll have found its way in here at some point!
The TEG Shed - The Business End of Green Waste Recycling!
This machine crunches up bits of old gardens and sieves it into finer batches, which is used as compost and in part, given back to the public for free at Friarton Depot Public Recycling Centre - the home of Garbologist HQ! It really is the business end of green waste recycling, literally thousands of bins worth of waste ends up in here at Binn Farm, Glenfarg. Its amazig to see the process of recycling through so may stages!
Weighing in the Green Waste Motor!
This document shows the weight of the green waste motor PD 12 as its weighed up at Binn Farm, Glenfarg, before being tipped in the 'teg' shed, recycled and then given back to the land! The reading on the first tip today was roughly 11 tonnes, which saw the days tally reach just shy of 20 once the second load was on. Theres only a certain amount of chrysanthenums the motor can take at one time!
Up Yer Game, Alan Titchmarsh!
The aptly named 'Rocket' does exactly that out of Garbologist HQ vegetable boxes! Closely followed is Cucumber, who is showing potential in the outdoor boxes, also outdoor, Basil shows initial strength alongside Chives and Thyme. For now though, still eating pop tarts and irn bru bars until the plants are ripe to reap!
Monday 17 May 2010
Controls in the Street Sweeping Motor!
Find of the Fortnight?
Find of the Fortnight or Foliage of the Fortnight? or both? Ozzy from PD 2 spotted this up on the Kinnoull beat last week, a rare double blossom of white and pink blossom on the same tree! Here, he happily points the 'Find' out, framed nicely on the side with a 240 litre wheelie bin full of DMR (Dry Mixed Recycling) ready to be tipped into the motor and recycled down Friarton Depot!
PD 2: Just For You!
A solid motto for a solid crew! The PD 2 crew pose for a 'mean business' photo on front of the motor on the Kinnoull and Gannochy beat last Thursday. Artie, Ozzy and Martin are sure to feature as PD Poster-Boys on Garbologist Newsletter Issue 3, due early June. Keep your eyes peeled, although not in newsagents or similar retail outlets.
Thursday 13 May 2010
Garbologists Event: Scottish Biodiversity Week!
The SNH kindly suggested we host an event for Biodiversity week, which is beginning 15th May. We will be on site on Monday 17th from 9-5, and will be available to discuss how art can exist in the working environment of bin men and street sweepers, and our general activities. On Monday we will be re-planting our (slightly) failed attempt at vegetable gardening! Come for a visit if youre dumping stuff at Perth Recycling Centre on Monday!
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Not Acquired on Expenses!
No sir, no dodgy politicians up at Garbologist HQ claiming duck pond mini-mansions or such the like, just a delighted skip site worker in the shape of Tom with his new bird table! Cheers to Tom for all the seeds he has donated to be planted in the garden area and window boxes at HQ, this bird box was a wee gesture built today to return the favour! Funnily enough, it was built from wood Tom had rescued and donated to HQ anyway! Here he is holding it high like a certain world cup trophy, which, alas, will pass by the hawnds of the not-s0-mighty-at-the-moment Scots once again.
A 'Hive' (or bike) of Activity
Confirmed! Wasps have breached the hull of Garbologist HQ. There's been a fair bit of buzzing about in the shed lately, and when work was being done in the on building a bird hut today, this wee beast fell off the underside of the workbench! After being disposed of, the wee buggers kept coming back in their numbers, forcing all actions to be performed in the yard outside HQ. Its only a matter of time before some hapless Garbologist meets a stingy end while working tirelessly to fuse art and recyling!
Thursday 29 April 2010
Updates on YouTube!
New films on youtube to get yer peepers into! Still more to come and fair amount of footage currently being trawled through at Headquarters! This screenshot is of the 'Weighbridge and Transfer Station' epic, featuring an 'inside the motor' tour of driving off the weighbridge, round Friarton Depot, in to tip the waste in the transfer station and back out on the beat! Oscar winning performance from the PD3 motor!
Tuesday 27 April 2010
The Boxing Bin Man!
As if the pub didnt harbour enough entertainment already, this rare sporting champ popped up for a bout on sky sports in his hi-viz shorts last weekend, supported by a merry band of equally visible supporters! Yes, Rendall Munroe is The Boxing Bin Man! He's got it emblazoned on his shorts, and romped to victory, helped in no small part by the fitness gained out on the beat. Good luck for future bouts Rendall, we'll keep our eye out in the sports pages for you here at the Garbologists!
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Garbologist Newsletter at Zine Showcase in Glasgow!
Yes indeed, the Garbologists Issue 1 Artists Union Newsletter was featured recently in a showcase of artists books and zines, and of course union newsletters! It came complete with a (laminated) complement slip and business card in an A4 brown envelope, and was of course given away fro free! The showcase was organised by NOW NOW PROJECTS, who are very active in hosting fun art related events in Scotland and beyond. To find out more about them visit
http://nownowprojects.wordpress.com/
As you may have noticed our Newsletter is subtly circled in yellow to keep your eyes from having to work too hard to find it!
Thursday 15 April 2010
Suggestion From The Lads At Michelin?
Chris Dyson - a Nine Trades artist (see his blog for more info about his project) staged an amazing drive-in movie event at the Michelin factory in Dundee on Saturday night! It was incredible seeing about 50 cars, each tuned in to their car radios to hear the sound, watching Grease, which was projected on the side of a white Lorry! Saw this on the side of the bin motor today, and thought it may well be the thoughts of the Michelin workers for an event every month!
Enduring Image!
Love this picture of Andy Irons (who's a loader on PD3 and big fitba fan!) waiting for a 240 Litre General Waste Wheelie Bin to empty and return to the ground to be replaced safely and emptied by the side of the road! This is at about 8AM this morning (15th April) on a back road near Stanley. Keep your eyes peeled for more posts about PD 3!
Vandalised Again! We Shall Resolve!
Yes indeed, some wee scamps of the night panned in another window, and cheers to Tom at the skip site for fixing it when I was on the motors! They had a wee poke about HQ but nothing major was disturbed (although the filing system was skee-whiff). Lucky I've got a sign above our indoor sign in HQ to remind us that all is well, and 'HERE'S FINE'.
Find Of The Fortnight Definite!
Sealed the deal. Cheers to Andy and Tom at the skip site for this little beauty! Arriving at the shed after 'the shift' to discover some warmth making devices was a cracking end to a cracking day! three canisters in total and all the shards of wood you could ever want to set alight around HQ. K-wality!
Titschmarsh Would Have A Field Day!
After a hefty shift on PD 3 today there was just enough time to get up to Headquarters and begin/finish work on the Garbologists vegetable garden! Its basically a box, some seriously reeking free compost from the skip site (courtesy of the equally reeking TEG Shed at Binn Farm, Glenfarg) and some seeds. The seeds are as follows, dont expect to see them sprouting anytime soon! Rocket, Spinach, Lettuce, General Mixed Salad.
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Brings A Tear!
YouTube is brilliant! Whittle away all your hours with some shredding action, in this instance sadly, the honourable 240 litre wheelie bin! Nice rotation on the shredder though, a well oiled machine like that deserves to claim any item it encounters!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bsOwNCEHPQ
And So Should You!
This came free with the Viz a few months ago, as even the most high brow publications begin to wage war on 'Plakky Bags'! You can cut it out and use it to carry anything! Examples of things to carry are a packet of fags, a rolled up junior football round-up section of The Evening Telegraph, or some seeds to plant in Garbologist HQs new vegetable garden! (recommended!)
Even Bono has jumped on board to endorse this free product, and he HATES publicity!
Warmest Day Yet!
April 12th 2010: Officially the warmest day yet at Garbologist Headquarters! Its a rare sight to see shadows cast across the side of HQ, and as the weather keeps improving, we keep expanding our premises having recently acquired - through means of no monetary transactions - a racer bike, 3 big crates and a roll of bitumen roofing. Look out for our vegetable garden sprouting any time soon on the sunny side (east) of HQ. Fingers crossed in a months time there will be spinach, lettuce, chives, spring onions and various salad components ripe for the picking!
Monday 29 March 2010
Cha-Ching!
The level of decadence is astounding at the skip site with "the things folks throw out", but this Monopoly fiver cast amongst the swine at the rear of Garbologist Headquarters takes it to whole new levels. Not sure who wouldve been playing there, but there are two chairs in the bike shelter the noo so perhaps some night time visitors took time out from raking the General Waste Skip to sit down to a wee bit of buying and selling on Bond Street. Incidentally, American comedian Steven Wright has a joke about Monopoly, its reasonably obvious..........
........"I think its wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly".
1st Wasp of Spring?
Along with youths and the weather, Garbologist HQ is now being targeted by something else! WASPS! We didn't think they existed at this time of year, but the Hi-Viz vests were only made about a month ago so we did 'the math' and realised that the wee bugger must have targeted us specifically, in what may well be the first wasp attack of the decade? Don't be spilling any fizzy juice about your person while wearing yellow in the near future mind!
Monday 22 March 2010
Garbage Artwork!
There was an exhibition on in London by Michael Landy called ART BIN where people were invited to throw out a bit of art into the bin which would then be destroyed! It finished last weekend, but the Garbologists wasted no time in applying to 'safely dispose' of a copy of our 1st Newsletter. Sadly, we received no reply, but it just means one more lucky recepient from our limited print run! We reckoned that by putting in a copy of our newsletter we'd be 'Recycling' (haw haw) the very context of our existence as an art movement and union! Opportunity missed Landy!
Recycling Doon Dundeh Riverside!
The Garbologists were out on a field trip recently to Riverside Recycling Depot as part of Kill Your Timid Notion experimental music festival in Dundee. We were led on an interesting tour of the site by Peter Goldie as part of artist Jarrod Fowler's investigation into recycling. It was great to see the site location - on the Invergowrie corner of the Silvery Tay - and to hear more about realistic possibilities for green waste recycling and waste reduction. As ever, find out more from the film on the Garbologists YouTube site!
Crieff Landfill Site Check!
The pictures here show Alan Rigby of P&K Council and the Garbologists checking a covered landfill site for gases. The process depicted is water being pumped from the landfill (up to 30metres underground!) to be tested for various gases and chemicals. There are many old landfill sites like this around the country, and are almost impossible to detect, apart from the wooden marker posts and pipes leading to test sites. To find out more check out the Garbologists YouTube site and watch the film about Alan, its got some fascinating stuff about the testing methods!
Thursday 11 March 2010
Recycling On The Silver Screen!
Went to see Micmacs earlier on, its a wild French film about getting one up on arms dealers. It features loads of madcap inventions made from skip finds and the place where the vigilante recyclers bide (pictured left) is made out of stuff dumped in the Scrappies yard, and is far more homely than Garbologist HQ! Its on at DCA in Dundee till 18th March! Head along!
Wednesday 10 March 2010
PD Profanities!
Rubbish Laughs!
I'm currently watching 'Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience' on Big British Castle 2. Comedian Gilbert has donned his Hi-Viz and is tackling the day job of a Scaffie in Wales. A 6am start and so far he's rolling out some decent funnies while walking on a litter-picking beat along the seafront. Check it out on iplayer while you can and see how he gets on!
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