It has come to our attention at Plastic Surgeon just how much time, money and effort the construction industry is putting in to recycling components such as PVC-U windows and doors, with the whole process largely being driven by onerous Government legislation imposing financial penalties for failure.

If you are an avid fan of TV’s medical dramas like Holby City and Casualty, or just someone who takes notice of the national news, you cannot fail to have realised that the cleanliness and general state of repair in our hospitals is a major talking point.

School-children have for the past decade been taught about environmental matters: including greenhouse gases, energy saving and acid rain. The school curriculum from primary level through to the sixth form is almost unrecognisable from the narrow set of core subjects which were taught, back before...

The lengths to which proponents Global Warming theory will go to make their case was quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit and released 61 megs of confidential emails and files onto the internet.

By the time you read this, Burn’s Night will be well and truly over, the only memories lingering, perhaps, will be of haggis and neeps; plus the slight headache from quaffing too much Scotch during the celebrations. It would be interesting to know, though, how many people rushed out to buy that yearly bottle of whisky to toast the Scottish poet, and more importantly, where that wee dram came from.

Between the controversial business practices of ‘No-Win No-Fee’ personal injury lawyers, and the rising tide of claims resulting from extreme weather events such as flooding, it seems certain that everybody’s insurance premiums are set to rise sometime in the not too distant future. It’s all down to statistics and actuaries, but if the insurance companies are paying out more money, the only place they are going to recoup it is from the policy holders.

Most people you speak to are glad to see the back of 2009: to many it will be remembered as symbolising the worst recession since the Great Depression. But interestingly, 31st December 2009 threw out a nugget of hope for the construction industry, crying in its dying moments, “I wasn’t that bad, please don’t remember me as being that bad – look, I have something good to offer you!”

The panto’ season is in full swing but of course there is another type of entertainment that the winter period is famous for, and the Plastic Surgeon played its full part in the run up to Christmas.

Fans of TV programmes such as Property Ladder or Grand Designs might have noticed there is a key ambition shared by many of the aspiring developers, self-builders and house-hunters in general. And it has nothing to do with the energy efficiency, the number of bathrooms, or even the location.
 

While the papers and news broadcasts have been full for the last fortnight, relating stories of world leaders and environmental campaigners having meetings through the night to hammer out a deal at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Plastic Surgeon has been keeping up its own round-the-clock efforts to save the planet.