Liverpool Echo - Eco Warrior

Special report: the effects of climate change on sub-saharan Africa

2009-10-23T19:33:10Z

I'm currently in Mali doing some research for a special report ahead of the Copenhagen climate change talks.

I'm looking at some of the work Christian Aid is doing to help the people here, and what we can all do to make a difference.
If there's anything specific you'd like me to investigate while I'm here, or any questions you'd like me to ask to the people here, please let me know.

Vanishing honey bees: An update

2009-10-06T15:16:07Z

Next time you sit down for a good meal, thank the honey bees who made it possible for you to eat it.
If it sounds too ridiculous to be true, then you don't know much about the plight of the honeybee. Because if they keep dying at their current rate, Britain will lose a third of all the food we normally see on our dinner plate.

Onions, cucumbers, pears, raspberries, leeks, avocados and macadamia nuts all depend on the honeybee for pollination, as do mustard, tea, fennel, kale and gooseberries.

The honeybee is slight in size but massive in economic and nutritional power. In the UK alone, bees contribute £200m a year to the economy through pollination, according to the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA). Worldwide, they pollinate some 90 commercial crops, including soya, corn, cotton and wheat.
But in just the past winter, 20% of all the honeybee hives in Britain have simply disappeared. In the United States, there's already a name for it - Colony Collapse Disorder - as two million hives (or one-third of the total) have been lost in just the past two years.
It's a problem that one beekeeper termed 'the bee Holocaust'. At these current rates, America is expected to be honeybee-free by 2035.
This trend has been noted from all over the world, from America to Australia, Italy, Greece and Brazil. And no one knows why it's happening.
VANISHING INTO THIN AIR
So where are all the bees going? It's a question that has puzzled scientists for the past few years, and it's one that filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein set out to answer in a new documentary on the subject.
The Vanishing Of The Bees, which hits British cinemas on October 9, investigates the origins and future of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) through captivating interviews with researchers, beekeepers, farmers and academics.
Characterized by large-scale disappearance of bees from a hive, CCD was first noted in the autumn of 2004, when Florida beekeeper David Hackenberg took a look inside one of his hives and realized that his bees had simply vanished.
All the worker bees were gone. And not in just one, but in 75% of all of 3,000 of Hackenberg's hives.
Oddly, the queen bee and baby bees were still present, a practice common to CCD but completely "unheard of" in nature, says Henein.
"You never see mothers abandoning their young in nature. This, to me, represents humans abandoning Mother Earth and showed me that we needed to do something to stop it."
Henein and Langworthy were immediately drawn to the mystery of the abandoned hives. No one single cause has yet been attributed to CCD, but scientists believe that pests (such as mites, viruses and bacteria), bad weather, pesticides, the importation of non-native bees to fill gaps in pollination, poor beekeeping (whereby bees are transported thousands of miles to pollinate crops from California to Maine and back again) and loss of natural habitat all play a part.
It's often said that whatever begins in America soon crosses the pond. But CCD is a phenomenon that hasn't yet hit the UK, says DEFRA, the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs.
Yet just why Great Britain is seeing such a large loss of its honeybees, compared to typical yearly losses of around 5-10%, is unknown.
As for the beekeepers themselves, some think that it's the pesticides that are posing the problem.
THE BEE KILLER
"If a pesticide is supposed to target the immune system of an insect in order to kill it, then what do we think is going to happen to a bee?" asks Hackenberg, one of the unwitting stars of Henein and Langworthy's documentary.
Hackenberg was CCD's whistleblower. The first beekeeper to present the disorder to researchers at Penn State University, he is convinced that a particular strain of pesticides - called neonicotinoids - are to blame.
"The scientists believe that something is breaking down the immune system of the bees, which is causing them to get sick, lose their memory, lose their way back home, and die off in their millions," he says.
"Now, do I think it's because of the pesticides? Well, I've been beekeeping for 40-something years and I never saw this problem before the neonicotinoids."
Neonicotinoids are recently introduced systemic pesticides that tend to be sprayed over huge monocultures and, for that reason, are "toxic in their parts per billion", says Langworthy.
"You put one drop in a swimming pool and the whole pool becomes lethal."
As honeybees fly from plant to plant collecting nectar, they ingest small amounts of the pesticide that become concentrated over time and slowly kill them, says Hackenberg.
"You never know where a bee is going to fly to collect food, because they can fly off for miles in every direction. So if there's bad food out there, they'll bring it back into the hive.
"They'll protect the hive from contamination by leaving home to die. But the thing is, the hive is already full of the infected nectar."
These toxic pesticides aren't just a problem for the bees. If that toxic nectar is turned into toxic honey, then what kind of effect is that having on human populations all across the world?
"Some scientists think these pesticides might be related to the increases in learning difficulties, autism and asthma we're seeing," says Henein.
"People really need to start thinking about where their food is coming from and how it's grown."
Certain countries, like France and Italy, have outlawed these pesticides because of the effect on the honeybee. But red tape and big business are holding the US back from doing the same, Hackenberg thinks, as "big monocultures like corn and wheat are much bigger industries than beekeeping by a long shot".
Bees work together as one giant animal. And the work they do is tremendous. The BBKA estimates that if people were forced to take over the bees' job of pollination in the UK alone, a workforce of 30 million would be required.
It sounds unimaginable, but it's already happened in southern Sichuan, China, where pear trees are now pollinated by hand after the uncontrolled use of pesticides in the 1980s killed off the honeybee population.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
You can encourage bees into your garden or allotment, or even just onto your windowsill, by planting wildflowers, which bees can feed on for nectar, and by planting grass, which they can use to shelter from the rain.
You could also become a beekeeper; there are already 40,000 registered in the UK, most of whom treat it as a hobby rather than a profession. You can find out more at www.britishbee.org.uk.
The Co-operative, which is supporting the Vanishing Of The Bees, also has loads of tips on how you can help the honeybee. See www.vanishingbees.co.uk/planbee to learn how.

On the bins: Talking rubbish with Environment Minister Dan Norris

2009-10-06T14:51:40Z

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dan Norris made sure Merseyside stays clean and green into the future.
The Minister for Rural Affairs and Environment visited Derby Park to help youngsters pick up litter and did a round on the bins in Knowsley...

"I'm really heartened to see how involved the young people are in keeping their environment clean," says Dan.
"This isn't a one-off litterpick - the children are here week in, week out keeping the area looking fantastic.
"I'm really impressed by the park too - I represent a rural constitiency, so it's been a surprise for me to see how green the area is."
Earlier in the day, he had joined refuse collectors to see how household waste is recycled.
"Effective waste collection is vital to the health and happiness of everyone," he explains.
"It is not sustainable to continue sending the majority of our waste to landfill, which is why it is so important that we all do as much as we can to reduce the amount of waste we create, and recycle as much as we can.
"Most of us don't think about what happens to our waste once it leaves our homes, but listening to and seeing the refuse collectors at work has given me a real insight into that journey.
"Today I have seen the full 'lifecycle' of waste, the action people have taken to pick-up waste to make their environment better, and how innovation can be used to turn waste into a valuable resource."
Mr Norris's visit is part of a three day tour of England to see the waste and recycling industry, and to look at how people engage with the environment.
"I'll feed back to central government all the positive steps you're taking to make the environment a better place."

Guest column: Wild and Edible website

2009-10-01T16:36:11Z

This week we ran a feature on wild food in our It's Our World Supplement. John at Wild and Edible contacted us to say how much he liked it, and in response he's written this cracking guest column. Cheers John...

http://www.wildandedible.com

Each day I would travel to work and see the fruit from the window of my train carriage, thinking that surely someone should be making use of it!

www.wildandedible.com was developed to create an online repository of wild and edible food locations.

The site content is user driven so your help is urgently needed to help collaborate on the mapping of tasty, free, wild food which grows naturally around the world and is available to all.

The site was launched in September 2009 by John Collinson. The brainchild behind the site was noticing a large amount of wild fruit going to waste, rotting in the hedgerows in my home county of Dorset.

I hope the site will bring awareness to people of what delights are available in their local area.

There was also an environmental driver behind developing the site. As the media often tells us the food system is extremely over-stretched and from living in a rural community and knowing local producers I know this to be true, therefore it seems a crime to see such nutritious, fresh produce going to waste.

The site features a simple user interface based around a google map which shows you the location of wild food, colour coded by variety. You can then view verifications of the location which have been added by our users. Signing up is a simple process, which once done allows you to log your own locations and submit verifications.

I am really open to improving the application and welcome feedback on all levels to help take the project forward. Anyone with any interest can email info@wildandedible.com.
I really urge people in the online community to embrace this application and help us all make use of the many varieties wild produce on our doorsteps... Thank you for reading!

Find out more at http://www.wildandedible.com

Are our attitudes to the environment changing? A new survey says yes...

2009-09-29T17:00:25Z

DEFRA has published a 2009 survey gives a representative picture of what people in England think, and how they behave, across a range of issues relevant to the environment. It makes for really interesting reading to see how attitudes to environmental issues have changed over the years... It's a bit wordy, but definitely worth a look.

PURCHASING BEHAVIOURS

To varying degrees people say they are thinking about the environment when making purchases
§ 30 per cent of respondents said they had decided not to buy things because they had too much packaging
§ 21 per cent of respondents said they bought wood and wood products from certified sustainable sources
§ 19 per cent of respondents said they bought peat free compost
§ However, in each case a larger proportions of respondents had not given the issue any thought
§ 73 per cent of respondents agreed that they made an eff ort to buy things from local retailers and suppliers
§ 46 per cent of respondents agreed that they would be prepared to pay more for environmentally-friendly products.
RECYCLING, COMPOSTING AND REUSING WASTE

The proportion of people saying that they recycle waste has increased, compared with two years ago, and the majority of people say they are acting to recycle:
§ 91 per cent of respondents said they 'recycle items rather than throwing them away', compared with 70 per cent in 2007. 56 per cent of respondents said they did so always; 19 per cent very often and 11 per cent quite often
§ 88 per cent of respondents agreed 'people have a duty to recycle' representing an increase of ten percentage points since 2007
§ 66 per cent of respondents said they recycled plastic through door-step collection, compared with 47 per cent in 2007
§ 71 per cent of respondents said they recycled cardboard through door-step collection, compared with 53 per cent in 2007
§ 80 per cent of respondents said they recycled tins/cans through door-step collection, compared with 63 per cent in 2007
§ 76 per cent of respondents said they recycled glass through door-step collection, compared with 59 per cent in 2007
§ 84 per cent of respondents said they were already taking their own shopping bag. 56 per cent of respondents said they did so always; 14 per cent very often and 6 per cent quite often
§ 43 per cent of respondents said they were already composting household food or garden waste'. 28 per cent of respondents said they did so always; 8 per cent very often and 4 per cent quite often. However 20 per cent had thought about doing this but had rejected the idea. People say they tend not to check whether items can be recycled before they purchasing them
§ 63 per cent of respondents said they did not check whether an item could be recycle d before purchasing.

FOOD AND FOOD WASTE

The majority of people say they are conscious about wasting food and are making efforts to
reduce the amounts thrown away
§ 88 per cent of respondents said that they were making efforts to waste less food, compared with 63 per cent in 2007
§ 49 per cent of respondents said they threw away no or hardly any amounts of food. People say they are to varying degrees thinking about where their food comes from? 60 per cent of respondents said they were buying seasonal food
§ 19 per cent had never thought about it or had never heard of it
§ 33 per cent of respondents said that they were growing their own fruit and vegetables
§ 26 per cent of respondents said they were buying fish from sustainable sources People say they are already making changes to the food they buy to reduce the impact on the environment, or would make changes if they had a better understanding of the environmental impacts of how food is produced
§ 24 per cent of respondents have made changes to the food they buy to reduce their impact on the environment
§ 50 per cent of respondents would make changes if they had a better understanding of the impacts of how food is produced
§ However, 23 per cent of respondents said if they had a better understanding of the impacts they would still buy the same food they usually buy
CLIMATE CHANGE AND CARBON
Most people say they have some knowledge of climate change and knowledge of the term'carbon footprint' has increased
§ The majority of respondents said they knew either 'a lot' or 'a fair amount' about climate
change (61 per cent of respondents), global warming (65 per cent of respondents) and
carbon dioxide emissions (52 per cent of respondents), at a similar level to 2007.
§ 48 per cent of respondents said they knew at least a fair amount about the term 'carbon
footprint', compared with 25 per cent in 2007

Values and beliefs about the environment and the challenge of climate change

§ Around half of people see 'being green' as not being a minority lifestyle, most people agree
there is an environmental challenge and that it is not too late to do something about it.
§ However, about a quarter of people disagree that their lifestyle contributes to climate change
and about a quarter of people feel climate change is too far away to worry them.
§ 51 per cent of respondents disagreed that 'being green is an alternative lifestyle it's not
for the majority', compared with 30 per cent in 2007
§ 28 per cent of respondents agreed that 'I don't believe my everyday behaviour and
lifestyle contribute to climate change', unchanged from 2007
§ 59 per cent of respondents agreed that 'if things continue on their current course, we will
soon experience a major environmental disaster', compared with 63 per cent in 2007
§ 14 per cent of respondents disagreed that 'we are close to the limit of the number of
people the earth can support', compared with 17 per cent in 2007
§ 25 per cent of respondents agreed that 'the so-called 'environmental crisis' facing
humanity has been greatly exaggerated', compared with 28 per cent in 2007
§ 68 per cent of respondents disagreed that 'climate change is beyond control - it's too
late to do anything about it', compared with 62 per cent in 2007
§ 21 per cent of respondents agreed that 'the effects of climate change are too far in the
future to really worry me', unchanged from 2007

What do you think about the issues raised? Let me know if this reflects your views...

Recycle your unwanted clothes with a fashion swap shop

2009-09-29T15:26:45Z

Fancy a new wardrobe but feeling a bit strapped for cash? Get to the Palm House, Sefton Park, on Thursday October 15th for their ethical clothes swap party.

Bring your good quality unwanted clothes and accessories (no shoes please) and swap till you drop! 10 items maximum - bring along before 7.30pm so all clothes are set up ready to start at 7.30pm.

As an extra treat for Fashion lovers there will also be beauty and hair experts on hand to answer any questions and give you helpful hints and tips. Admission is £5 and includes first drink.

For more information go to www.palmhouse.org.uk.

And if you need a little inspiration...

Youngsters from six South Liverpool schools are working on an eco-friendly fashion show to be held at Parklands CLC Theatre, Speke, at the end of October. The green catwalk show, Head Above the Rest, has been organised as part of Year of the Environment and all the costumes are made from recycled products.

Up on the roof - with the Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney

2009-09-22T17:06:52Z

It's not every day I get to go up on a 150ft tower with a Government minister - let alone to wear a hard hat too...
Today I interviewed the Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney on the roof of the tallest building in the port of Liverpool.

He's just announced £22 million of funding for tidal energy, and had come up to get a better view of the estuary from above. And what a treat it was...
Read all about it in tomorrow's Daily Post.

Star Trek and Dr Who technology could make us all more environmentally friendly...

2009-09-14T10:22:13Z

Teleportation has long been the stuff of sci-fi shows like Star Trek and Dr Who.
But if one forward-thinking designer has his way, humans will not only be able to teleport themselves to any point in the future, they'll also be teleporting their very own food - using a state-of-the-art fridge that eradicates the need for cafes or supermarkets...

Sounds crazy? Perhaps. But Thai student Dulyawat Wongnawa has developed a touch-screen technology that allows hungry users to simply type in the object they want delivered to their refrigerator or freezer, and - within seconds - the 'Teleport Fridge' is stocked with the required supply.
Wongnawa, who cited Star Trek as the inspiration behind his space-age fridge, is just one of eight finalists competing for first place in the Electrolux Design Lab, part of the UK's leading architecture and design event 100% Design London, which is running from September 24-27 at Earl's Court in London.
And the ideas of Wongnawa's competitors are just as wacky as his own, if not more so. The finalists were asked to envision a home appliance product for the global competition, themed 'Designs for the next 90 years'.
So flying rain catchers vie for attention alongside 3-D food printers and Martian robots, as the finalists will be judged on how well their design will help people prepare and store food, wash clothes or do dishes over the next nine decades in celebration of Electrolux's 90-year anniversary.
The competition saw more than 900 entries submitted, from undergraduate and graduate industrial design students in more than 50 countries. But the brief has been as difficult for the students to complete as it will be for the judges to determine which is best, says Henrik Otto, Electrolux's Senior Vice President for Global Design.
"This is a particularly exciting Electrolux Design lab competition because designers have had to look further into the future than ever before - researching and projecting the sort of technology and materials that will be available to us within the next nine decades," explains Otto, who will be choosing the winner along with internationally-recognised designers such as Nipa Doshi, furniture designer and co-founder of Doshi Levien design studio; David Fisher, Design Director of product design consultancy Seymourpowell and Marisol Manso Cortina, Manager of the Colour Design Group at Nissan Design Europe.
"They have also had to consider what consumer needs might be far into the future. If we look back 90 years, washing machines, fridges, dishwashers and tumble dryers simply didn't exist. So today's finalists are coming up with product concepts that might not exist yet, but may very well do in the years to come."
The lucky winner will fetch a Design Lab First Prize of 5,000€ and a six-month paid internship at one of Electrolux's global design centres. But just why we're still expecting ourselves - and not robots - to be doing household chores 90 years into the future is anybody's guess. Here are some of the most innovative designs.
:: FOOD
Worried over an increasing world population and decreasing farm land, Swedish student Rickard Hederstierna designed the 'Cocoon', a food processor which prepares genetically-engineered and pre-packaged meat and fish dishes by heating muscle cells identified by radio frequency identification (RFID) signals.
Using science instead of agriculture to create the food, Hederstierna expects the Cocoon to lighten the burden on the planet by reducing the need for intensive farming and fishing - as long as that whole GM debate is finally resolved.
German student Nico Klaber also created an alternative to agriculture, by formulating a Willy-Wonka-esque 3D molecular food printer which prepares 2 and 3D parts of meals all on its own. Influenced by the world's great chefs, such as Heston Blumenthal, who scientifically and painstakingly experiment with food in its many states, 'Moleculaire' prints out meals using a layer-by-layer process using small particles from diverse ingredients.
"The inspiration was the experimental approach to molecular cooking," Klaber explains. "Even after several decades of molecular cuisine, it still seems to be an exclusive game for specialists. So it became my main goal to bring some of the fantastic possibilities and ideas of molecular cooking to all ambitious cooks with an easy to use, affordable appliance."
Ninety years is far enough away for us to already be on Mars, thinks Czech student Martin Miklica, who has created a robotic greenhouse designed to help the future exploration and population of the planet.
Like something out of Disney movie WALL-E, 'Le Petit Prince' carries a plant inside its glass case, which is mounted on top of its four-legged pod.
The robot searches for nutrients to feed the plant while being programmed to intuitively learn the optimal method for the process. And, like honeybees with their waggle dance, the robot is trained to report its movements and progress to its fellow greenhouse robots via wireless communication so that they can learn how best to find nutrients from each other.
Chinese student Penghao Shan's 'Water Catcher' is an automated device that is both a flying rain catcher and water purifier all in one. Dispatching small flying balls out into the rain to catch raindrops, the balls then return to a homing tray that purifies the water for drinking, and then directly to a person to be consumed.
:: WASHING
Those who love the smell of clean laundry will be inspired by Chinese student Zhenpeng Li's 'Naturewash', a waterless washing machine that uses negative ions to wash nano-coated fabrics.
Designed as a sort of sunbed (made out of entirely recyclable materials), Naturewash allows the user to lie or sit on it while cleaning or refreshing the clothes they are still wearing, with settings they can set to 'clean clothes', 'grass scent' or 'flower scent', with nature being the main focus of the appliance, Li says.
"I interviewed people from all walks of life in my research for this project, and according to their feedback, no matter how amazing future technology will be, the need to be close to nature will never change," he explains.
Steam cleaning, while not novel in its idea, is made easier with American Louis Filosa's 'Renew', which is a two-bladed steamer that both refreshes and cleans clothes.
At just one-quarter the size of a current washing machine, Renew conserves space and is made of recycled aluminium and glass. Infrared scanners and radio frequency identification also gather information about a garment from specifically-designed clothing tags.
:: DISHES
We might have teleporting fridges and flying water balls in the future, but we'll still have dirty dishes to wash up too, figures Lithuanian student Toma Brundzaite, whose 'Bifoliate' is a space-saving, wall-mounted double dishwasher that allows the user to put dirty dishes in one compartment and use the other as a shelf for clean dishes.
Using ultrasonic wave technology to clean, Bifoliate uses less water and energy than today's dishwashers, making it more efficient and eco-friendly than our current models.

Urban bee keeping - the way to solve our bee crisis?

2009-08-16T12:46:16Z

IT'S the stuff that sweetens our cakes, soothes our sore throats and unwittingly fills our gardens with flowers - but the honeybees that produce our honey are dying due to parasites, bad weather and pesticides.

Albert Einstein once warned that if bees disappeared, man would have only another four years.

The decline of honeybees not only threatens the crucial pollination of our crops, it has unknown consequences for the survival of plants and flowers. A symbiotic relationship has existed between flora needing pollination and bees who pollinate for the last 100 million years.

The good thing is that there is something we can do about it. We can become beekeepers - even if we live in the city.

Urban householders are being urged to consider keeping bees in their gardens, rooftops or even balconies to help protect declining honeybee populations.

The Government conservation agency's chief scientist Tom Tew says: "There's no reason why our towns and cities should exist as wildlife deserts - wildlife can thrive when we design our urban areas with nature in mind and bee-keeping is a great example of how easy it is for anyone to bring the natural world closer to their doorstep."

He added that gardeners should go out into their local area and see which plants the bees liked and then plant those in their flower beds.

And, it seems, the bees are happy city residents.

On the fifth storey of the World Museum Liverpool on William Brown Street, bees buzz merrily.

"It's beautiful honey," enthuses Paul Finnegan, manager of the museum's bughouse. "Very sweet and very pure."

The hive there has already produced 30lb of honey this year, and another 30lb will be drawn off before winter, and Paul's so sure of its purity he gives jars of it away to visiting schoolchildren.

The bees fly high - around five metres above the ground - so there's no worry about them coming into contact with people on the city's pavements.

There are some 250 species of bee in the UK, including 25 bumblebee species, and they are nearly all in decline.

A new beehive design by Omlet - makers of the Eglu urban chicken coop - aims to make it easier for people to keep bees in towns and cities, even if they do not have much space.

Its makers say the bees will produce an average of 50 pots of honey from just an hour's attention a week in the summer.

Johannes Paul, of Omlet, said it was easy to keep bees in urban areas, and having a hive was a "low maintenance hobby which is really fascinating".

He said: "Those in the know have been keeping bees in towns for a long time. Keeping a hive doesn't take much space, so you can even keep them on balconies, roof tops and obviously gardens."

If you don't have space for a full beehive, you can support other species of bee by installing bumblebee nest boxes in your gardens, and plant insect-friendly flowers.

And like any kind of pets or livestock, you have to consider the commitment it involves and then get advice or visit your local beekeeping association for support.

Go to www.britishbee.org.uk

The Wormery at Tam O'Shanter urban farm, Wirral,

2009-08-16T12:41:50Z

Tam O'Shanter Urban Farm has an unusual star attraction this summer. As well as the sheep, goats, pigs and ponies, the farm is home to a working wormery.

"We found we had a lot of organic waste - from the animals in the farm and grass clippings - and a wormery seemed a great way to turn it into compost," says Nick Harding, ranger for Bidston Hill. It's certainly proved to be a hit with visitors, and the farm will be able to make the most of high quality worm compost for its flower beds. To find out more about worms and wormeries, see www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/environment/ or head down to Tam O'Shanter, Boundary Road, Bidston, Wirral, CH43 7PD. Tel 0151 653 9332. Open daily: 9.30am - 4.30pm. Entry is free

How to reduce your daily waste - tips from the experts

2009-07-14T15:25:41Z

THIS week, after I laid my terrible wastefulness bare for all to see, I've been looking at ways to reduce the amount of rubbish I generate each day.
Here are the top tips I've been following. I'll report back with my progress:

Take your own cups, glasses, plates and cutlery to work, and use them in place of disposable ones.

Take your own bags out shopping. They're smarter, stronger and greener than cheap and nasty plastic bags.

Make the most of your food with a Perfect Portions planner. Go to www. lovefoodhatewaste.com for tasty recipes and much more.

Refuse individual portions of butter, jam, sugar and sauces. Instead, buy a full-size package wherever possible, and use it up over time.

Think about the amount of packaging on the food you buy. Do you really need a sandwich in layers of greaseproof paper, a paper bag and then a carrier bag, too? Is there a way you could use less?

Could you take your own lunch, rather than buying it? You'll save money and, if you pack it in a reusable box, you'll make less rubbish too.

Get clued up about wasting less - find out what you can recycle and where by going to www.recyclenow.com

Where does your recycling go? Not to China, it turns out...

2009-07-10T17:10:29Z

Fact or myth? Most of our recycling waste, which we meticulously separate before it's picked up by the council, ends up being sent to Shanghai and sold back to us or dumped in their landfill.
It's a popular theory, and indeed some of our waste is sold to China.
But more than 90% of the glass bottles, cans, cardboard, paper and plastics collected in our green boxes are recycled here in Britain.
With so many different recycling rules for so many different local authorities, just where does it all go?
I followed the trail of rubbish to find out....

Merseyside's councils are some of the most forward thinking in the country when it comes to green issues.
As a result, my recycling box can take anything from car batteries and old clothing to milk bottles and beer cans.
What ends up where depends on what facilities are available both locally and nationally.
Technically, recycling boxes either go to MRFs (Materials Recovery Facilities - lovingly called 'Merfs' by those in the know) or to a Waste Transfer Station.
MRFs take whole loads of recycling from bins and flats. The loads are then separated by machine into different sections - aluminium, cans, glass and so on - and then sent to respective facilities nationwide which deal with that particular recyclable.
Waste Transfer Stations, on the other hand, are big loading docks whereby waste that has already been separated - for example by the guys who work on the recycling trucks - is sent to places all over the country and recycled.
Facilities are different across Merseyside, but Halton, for example, provides a multi-material kerbside recycling collection service to 26,000 properties for glass bottles and jars, cans, plastic bottles, paper and card in their blue bins.
This scheme is being extended to a further 16,000 homes this month.
By 2010-11 all properties in Halton will have access to kerbside multi-material recycling collections.
But there's still the worry that we're diligently sorting our rubbish for it to be shipped to China or simply chucked in landfill.
After doing a little digging, I discover that Halton's rubbish is reused in the following ways:
l Glass is crushed and then re-processed and used for a number of products - including new glass bottles and jars. They collected 544 tonnes of glass last year, which was sent reprocessors in Yorkshire or Ellesmere Port.
l Cans are sifted into aluminium and steel using a large magnetic sorter and are then sent for smelting to produce large blocks of aluminium or steel.
They sent over 181 tonnes of cans for recycling last year. After sorting at a materials recycling facility these were sent to reprocessors in the West Midlands and St Helens.
l Paper is delivered to a paper recycling mill, and goes through a process of pulping, cleaning and pressing to make fresh newsprint.
Paper collected by the Council is bulked up in Halton and transported to for reprocessing in Wales where it is recycled into newsprint.
Last year Halton sent over 2950 tonnes of paper for recycling.
l Cardboard is taken to a MRF for recycling where it is pulped and the new material is then used in the production of new cardboard at reprocessors in Wales. A variety of card packaging types can then be produced such as boxes, brown paper and corrugated materials.
l Plastics are recycled into a variety of products including fleece clothing, fibre for anoraks and sleeping bags, drainage pipes, fences, signposts and new packaging.
Last year 417 tonnes of plastics were collected for recycling in Halton, with the material being sent to reprocessors in various locations including Skelmersdale and St Helens.

The UK recycled only 3% of its plastic bottles in 2001, a figure that has jumped to 34% today. And while the press continues to regale Brits for not recycling enough, Cllr Phil Harris, Halton Council's executive board member for recycling is nothing but impressed with how quickly we've cottoned onto the idea.
"At the moment it costs nearly £60 to dump a tonne of waste into a landfill," he explains.
"This is going to rise considerably over the next few years, possibly to as much as £250. Recycling reduces this cost. It also reduces pollution and saves raw materials.
"At present, most waste gets tipped into landfill sites, but with the amount of waste we all generate increasing (by around 3% per year) we're fast running out of space to dig new landfills. Current estimates suggest that the UK has between 5 and 10 years before all the landfills we have are full up. That's why we all need to recycle more if we can.
"There is a myth that all plastic gets shipped to China where it ends up in their landfills. The truth is there is a huge demand in China and other far east countries for plastic. They pay for the plastic, which returns as everyday goods to the rest
of the world. Having paid for it and then gone to the trouble of shipping it half way around the world it would be odd for it to be simply dumped."

The mountain of rubbish on my desk - cutting down on waste

2009-07-10T17:05:00Z

A SOLITARY banana sits sweltering in a polystyrene tray, wrapped in layers of cling film.
Never mind its robust, convenient and biodegradable container provided by nature, it is encased in a layer of artificial packaging, apparently for our convenience.
Then, of course, there was the now famous sight of a shrink-wrapped coconut.
How much energy does it take to produce the plastic wrappers, carrier bags and plastic trays that end up in our bins?

But, bit by bit, our supermarkets have reduced the amount of unnecessary packaging.
And at home, I'm fairly good.
Partly because it's greener, partly because it's cheaper, I buy big packets, avoiding things that are unnecessarily divided up by further layers.
I take my own linen bags to the shops, or reuse carrier bags as little bin liners.
I refuse to buy overly wrapped fruit and veg and I recycle what little packaging does make its way through the door with semi-religious zeal.
But, when I get to work, it all goes out of the window.
The morning begins with a hot drink, bought in a paper cup with a plastic top, toast in greaseproof paper and a paper bag, with a napkin thrown in whether I want it or not. I spread on it individual plastic pots of jam and pats of butter wrapped in foil.
Mid-morning, and there's another coffee, with biscuits in a plastic wrapper.
Lunch is a sandwich in a cardboard carton or soup in a cardboard cup, eaten with a plastic spoon, roll spread with plastic knife, yet another individual pat of butter, neatly wrapped. Then an individual packet of crisps in a foil packet, water in a plastic bottle.
Come mid-afternoon, I'm drowning in a sea of litter - a sea of my own making.
It's not unusual for me to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the office, so day by day, I'm making a mountain of discarded packaging that I then need to find something to do with.
It's not as if I don't recycle. I do, pretty faithfully.
But not everything is easily recyclable, and really that isn't the point. Even recycling uses energy.
The answer, for me at least, is to use less stuff in the first place.
HOW much of this must there must be - per day, per week, per year, per person?
I'm tired of walking down the high street dodging swirling plastic bags and takeaway wrappers. But while I'm buying food and drink packaged to within an inch of its life, I'm part of the problem.
There is the perception, on the part of visitors, that Liverpool's streets are covered in rubbish.
"They were having a festival of litter when I arrived," Bill Bryson famously observed.
Recycling rates are growing, too, and in order to meet up- coming European waste directives, based on weight, consumers need to be encouraged to throw away even less.
The onus is on all of us to cut the amount of rubbish we make - whether that's at home or in the workplace.
Multiply my mountain of coffee cups, a crisp packet or two, by more than 60m Britons, every day of every year. The idea made me shudder.
So I decided to keep all the rubbish I generated during the day this week, and work out what I can do to reduce my own personal litter mountain.
The results make for fairly disgusting reading. Brace yourself.

Day One
2 paper coffee cups
2 cup lids
Plastic smoothie cup and lid
2 Plastic straws
Cardboard cup carrier
2 plastic knives
3 butter wrappers
Plastic jam packet
Cardboard sandwich packet
Brown paper bag
Cherry stones
Peach stone
2 foil sweet papers
Tea bag box

Day Two
2 paper coffee cups
2 cup lids
2 plastic knives
2 plastic forks
2 paper napkins
Plastic salad box
Aluminium drinks can
Brown paper bag

Day Three
2 paper coffee cups
2 cup lids
Plastic water bottle
Plastic smoothie bottle and lid
2 Chocolate wrappers
1 Aluminium drink can
Carrier bag
2 peach stones

Day Four
2 plastic water bottles
Plastic smoothie cup and lid
2 paper napkins
Plastic straw
Cherry stones
Paper bag
Carrier bag

Day Five
2 paper coffee cups
2 cup lids
Cardboard cup carrier
2 plastic knives
2 brown paper bags
2 napkins
2 butter wrappers
2 Crisp packets

What does my sorry pile of detritus shout out? A desperation for convenience? A huge waste of money? A shamefully lazy woman?
Yes, yes, and yes again.
From my first meal of the day until the last cup of tea before I go home, I'm profligately wasting precious resources on things that - at best - go straight in the recycling bin.
And all of it, five days of observation revealed, that I'm leading a Jekyll and Hyde double life.
At home, there are mugs and glasses and pots and plates, and they, of course, can be washed and reused. No matter how tired/busy/lazy I was feeling, I wouldn't dream of making myself tea in a cardboard cup at home, or eating with plastic cutlery off a paper plate.
So, I've decreed, next week will be different. I'll make my own tea and coffee in a proper cup with a real spoon.
I'll report back with the results.
Wish me luck....

The Guerrilla Gardener runs wild in Liverpool

2009-06-28T10:41:23Z

DERELICT plots of land beware... the guerrilla gardener is on the loose in Liverpool. Horticultural warrior Richard Reynolds, who is best known for reclaiming neglected or forgotten urban turf across the world and beautifying it, is running rampant in Merseyside...

His weapons are a fork and spade. In night-time raids, he transforms a small unused plot of space on a roadside or roundabout into a tiny green oasis.

He's been talking to residents about the dozens of covert digs he has arranged, along with hundreds of flower-empowered followers transforming roadways, roundabouts and even a few neglected window boxes.

Richard said: "Taking responsibility for a bit of unloved local land in a public place reaps so many benefits for the gardener and the passers-by.

"It's environmental and social regeneration. As your plants bloom, so does your familiarity with other local people.

"I meet a lot people who are scared. They are intimidated by some of the gardening programmes on TV. Millions of people are being mislead and frustrated because on TV, they use expensive and unnecessary materials. It's sad because gardening can be very cheap and simple.

"The more love and attention you give it, the more you will get back from it. And that is good for the soul."

Richard has been helping out with the Adopt a Plot scheme, which encourages families in South Liverpool to adopt a plot of unloved land in their community and transform it by planting flowers or creating a vegetable patch.

He's become an honorary Adopt a Plot member, and has been getting his hands dirty at a plot in Lyden Park, giving top tips to the South Liverpool team.

He said: "I'm impressed that not only are the Adopt a Plot gardeners spreading the word in the street about their gardens, they're also sowing the seeds of their efforts online. I hope this idea will be thoroughly rampant."

Adopt a Plot is just one of the projects taking place as part of this year's Four Corners programme.

The programme involves all of Liverpool's neighbourhoods and links residents, cultural organisations, artists and the city council's neighbourhood services team.

Using art, drama, poetry, planting and podcasts, hundreds of people in communities across the city will answer the environmental question in their own special way.

Other initiatives taking place across the city include scarecrow making in North Liverpool, a huge sustainable tea party in the city centre and film making about Stanley Park in the East.

The projects will culminate in a special exhibition at The Bluecoat from July 23-29 - where the projects will be displayed or performed throughout the venue.

For more on guerrilla gardening, see www.guerrillagardening.org.

Recycle Week, June 22-28: what are you doing?

2009-06-21T10:11:53Z

This week is Recycle Week, a great reminder of what we could all be doing to make the most of our limited resources...

I've found a great website, full of inspirational ideas:

http://www.recyclenow.com/

Have a look, and tell me what you're doing this week. I'm setting up a recycled section in my garden - using some old containers for plant pots. I'll take some pictures and put them up as soon as the plants get established.

I'm also going to take a big bag of perfectly good clothes I don't wear anymore to the charity shop. That'll give me lots more space for the clothes I do wear, an the others will get a great new home.