CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE
The diagnostic engine of the platform.
20 min read
The Disappearance of Domestic Science
We removed the subject that taught an entire population how to maintain a life, and called it progress. Every skill the curriculum stopped teaching became a product someone sells.
24 min read
The Franchise of Permission
Right to Repair legislation grants you the legal right to fix your phone. It cannot grant you the ability. The gap between the two is the truest measure of what was taken.
25 min read
Make Do and Mend
We didn't forget how to mend. We were dispossessed of the knowledge, and the dispossession was so complete we mistook it for who we are.
15 min read
The Maintenance Bargain
What We Lost When We Stopped Knowing Our Coats
19 min read
The Progress Paradox
Why We're Living Longer but Not Better
11 min read
Enough
The Architecture We Demolished
12 min read
The Convenient Lie
How We Engineered Distance Between Action and Consequence
12 min read
The Alibi
Who Needs You to Believe You're Naturally Extractive
9 min read
Before Plastic — How We Kept Our Feet Dry for Centuries
We traded 'good enough with maintenance' for 'perfect without maintenance' — and the cost of 'perfect' was permanence.
22 min read
The Certification Void
Seven logos on one shoe. None of them verify what you think they verify. The standard that should exist does not.
16 min read
The Foam Lie
Your sneaker's midsole is petroleum plastic renamed. "Bio-based" versions swap the feedstock but keep the immortality.
28 min read
The Slipper Problem
Four petroleum polymers against bare skin, eight hours a day, in conditions that maximise chemical migration. No one has measured what happens next.
9 min read
The First Case Was 1979
What Your Cat Licks Off Its Fur
13 min read
Your Baby Is Inhaling Plastic
The Sensory Blindspot That Regulation Missed
19 min read
The Soft Exemption
What Silicone's Comfort Conceals
12 min read
The Pump Problem
Who Really Manages Your "Sustainable" Refillables
14 min read
The Waterproof Gap — Is Sustainable Waterproof Footwear Even Possible?
The properties that make a material waterproof are the inverse of the properties that make it biodegrade — or so we thought.
9 min read
Wellington Boots — What Lasts in the Body, What Lasts in the Ground
"Natural rubber" means 15-85% latex. The rest is vulcanization chemistry that persists 100+ years in soil.
10 min read
The Plastic Boot — What Your Synthetic Wellies Are Actually Made Of
PVC boots transfer phthalates to the insole touching your skin. The label won't tell you.
13 min read
When 'Recycling' Leaves the Country
Fourteen fields track a waste shipment leaving the UK. None ask whether recycling occurred at destination.
7 min read
Producer Responsibility
The Phrase That Means 10%
9 min read
The Ghost Tonnes
How the UK Recycling System Succeeded at Paper, Failed at Plastic
12 min read
What "Compostable" Stole From Composting
Inside the Certification Gap That Let a Word Mean Nothing
8 min read
The GBP 317 Million Failure
Britain Built Its Largest Plastic Recycling Plant. The System Killed It in 33 Months.
14 min read
The Transparency Trap
How Visibility Exhausts Scrutiny
21 min read
The Displacement Risk
Carbon pricing raises the cost of incineration. It does not raise the cost of landfill, export, or fly-tipping. Waste flows to whichever route is cheapest. The cheapest route is always the one nobody measures.
19 min read
The Council Bill
Carbon pricing says the polluter pays. The waste disposal contracts say the council pays. The contracts were drafted first.
13 min read
The Dry Run
The UK gave waste incinerators a voluntary carbon counting period. That silence is worth £377 million a year — £15 for every household in England.
9 min read
The Substitution — Where Your Recycling Money Actually Goes
Producers are paying GBP 1.1 billion for recycling. Councils are facing GBP 2.3 billion in deficits. The maths suggests a meeting point. The mechanism ensures they never meet.
9 min read
Weight Is Destiny
How the UK's glass fee punishes bottles by weight—despite the government model showing volume often limits collection costs.
11 min read
The Invoice Moment
The UK's first Extended Producer Responsibility invoices created a revenue stream expected to raise GBP 1.4-1.5 billion in year 1 that nobody can see, nobody responds to, and nobody can trace to recycling infrastructure.
16 min read
The Arithmetic of Cheap
What Your £8 Shirt Really Costs
12 min read
Rewarding the Entrepreneur
The Real Arithmetic of Risk and Reward
7 min read
The Permission Slip Economy
Your tote bag actually helps. You're still using it to buy permission.
11 min read
Why You Believe the Girl in the Video
The Psychology of Scaled Intimacy
19 min read
Growth, Forever
Why We Can't Stop Checking the Number
7 min read
The Reversible Self
You'd be happier if you couldn't send it back. You'll never give up the option.
6 min read
The Alibi Menu
You didn't invent the excuse. You selected it from a menu the brand pre-wrote.