Just Stop Oil

Now hear me out... I know they're controversial and I know they wind a lot of people up but one thing they did do is get people talking.

Oil - it's bad. Most people would agree drilling for oil and removing fossil fuels from the ground is a bad thing for the environment, now this goes deeper (excuse the pun), if we are to save the environment we should live in a sustainable way - which includes photovoltaic panels, solar panels, wind farms, generating electricity from tides, all of these are sustainable.

Everything we do at Upcycle Interiors is with a sustainable ethos in the back of our mind, right through to creating a business which can sustain itself, trying to create things which last for a long time - nothing lasts forever but the least sustainable thing you can do is something which is short term. Everything we do, we try to make it long term, so hear me out and this is going to be controversial - oil is not bad!

After the crime has been committed and shell or BP have removed the oil from the ground there's no going back, the damage is done, so the worst thing we can do would be to waste it (on a side tangent this goes right through to the same ethos that if you're vegetarian you shouldn't pay for a leather jacket to be made because that fuels the economy of killing cows to create coats, however a second-hand leather jacket, third-hand, fourth-hand, that's recycled and reused – that makes that death of that cow divided amongst multiple uses of the jacket and therefore the crime is divided … hopefully you catch my drift).

So my thought process for the last week has been on exactly the same basis for oil - I didn't commit the crime of drilling for oil and I cannot (on my own) stop other people drilling for oil, however once the oil is out of the ground (let's assume that the oil has been used in your car engine - which everybody pays for and everybody needs) then after that oil has been “used up” (you’ve had your annual oil change) that oil now becomes a waste product.

At Upcycle Interiors we're all about reusing waste products and re discovering a new life for them, now hear me out, can that waste oil therefore be re-used? For example to soak railway sleepers which is what they used to do 50 to 60 to 70 years ago?

Now you could say that railway sleepers that are treated with oil or Telegraph posts treated with oil are bad for the environment, however a Telegraph post that only lasts for five years and then you need to grow another tree and take the post down and replace it is not sustainable is it? So soaking the Telegraph post in a pit of old oil for years and then sticking the Telegraph post in the ground and it lasts for 20 years - surely that's more sustainable? The waste oil has been used to make the wood last longer. I'm not suggesting for one moment that we should be buying new oil and drilling for new oil to soak Telegraph posts in!

I'm saying there must be a use for old oil which has come straight out of your motor vehicle. Now hear me out again, and this might be controversial - what about fence panels, can they be treated with oil too? (20 years ago they were – with Creosote).

Is old engine oil a better product then a water based “Ducksback” or “Cuprinol” product which is almost like a powder paint from Infant School!? if you buy a brand new fence post or a brand new fence panel and you paint it with water based products on an annual (!) basis I still seriously doubt that the fence panel will last more than 5 years (maybe 10 years at the very most!). If it was treated with oil (I'm not saying new oil I'm saying old oil) I would bet that the fence panel will last for 20 to 30 years minimum.

Now, there is a problem of the oil slowly washing off into the ground… like I said this is a controversial thought that I've had and it is by no means fully thought through, but surely the principle of treating exterior timber with waste product oil is a more sustainable option than the water based products that we are sold which don't last and result in us having to replace fences every five years?! I would rather not cut down trees and build a new fence every five years-  I would rather the fence lasted for 30!