Results tagged “recycle” from Transition Newent

Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle

Recycling has become an important part of central and local governments' response to halting climate change and reducing our carbon footprints. The new coalition government has suggested that to raise the UK's recycling rate (currently about 34% compared with, for example, Germany's 64%) they will be adopting a 'carrot' rather than 'stick' approach. Instead of penalising households who throw too much away, we could be persuaded to improve our recycling rates with the inducement of M&S vouchers, the bigger our recycling boxes, the more vouchers we would get. Notwithstanding the assumption that we might all like M&S vouchers, I have serious misgivings about an approach which seems to encourage yet more consumption and more waste, so I spoke to Roger Garbett, Environmental Services Manager at the District Council for his reaction.  (...read more)

‘The Heat is On!’ by Chris Wooldridge of Transition Town Newent

Grab the Chance to Grow Local

In my last column I said I would explore some local issues.

At a recent Transition wood-burning workshop, we saw an impressive demonstration of wood splitting. Here’s the method: Get an old rubber tyre. Fill the inner space with un-split logs standing on their ends. Take a splitting maul – a tool rather like a felling axe but built to split rather than chop wood – and aim it into the stack. Result: fuel that doesn’t fly. Low tech, energy efficient and using recycled material, the essence of Transition.

Last Friday, the Transition Food Group held a ‘Question Time’ style discussion on the future of food and farming. Local farmers and an academic were on the panel. My impression is that most farmers have yet to grasp the implications of peak oil and climate change. Food and farming are utterly reliant on oil for machines, fertilizers, pesticides and distribution, using 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food. We must find solutions to these unsustainable methods as well as tackle the 30% of our food that goes to waste, the national obesity problem and our generally poor diet rich in fats, sugars and additives. From the audience I detected a more positive note though. A town in the Forest has an allotment waiting list of 50, Community Supported Agriculture is beginning to make headway locally and Newent’s Country Market reports a large increase in sales. These alone won’t feed the world but are the beginning of an explosion in initiatives at local, regional and national levels. Some farmers may well get left behind if they don’t grasp new opportunities.

Finally, on April 29, a great chance to see and hear Rob Hopkins and Shaun Chamberlin, co-founders of the Transition Movement. Transition Newent is hosting the event at Newent Community School at 7.30pm. Details on our website.

‘The Heat is On!’ by Chris Wooldridge of Transition Town Newent

We have to make our own cakes

That once vast wilderness, the North Pole ice cap, is melting into the oceans after yielding key evidence that human activity is causing climate change. Deep in the ice layers, are stored the historic records of atmospheric carbon dioxide and drillings have confirmed we are moving into the first human-created climatic age.  In truth, unless we radically rethink the way we live, we will lose more than Bewick’s swans from Slimbridge.

Climate change is well publicized, but we face another global challenge, Peak Oil. This is the point at which world oil production peaks and begins to fall. It will be offset by the current global recession but makes little difference to our future. At current consumption, the oil that has enabled our high standards of living will run out before the end of the century. 

The Transition movement is very clear about solutions to this double whammy.  We believe there is time left in which to curb emissions but the world may have to accommodate some temperature rise. We support and encourage the 3 Rs: recycling, re-using and reducing, but our key message is for communities to localise their economies and to encourage local resilience. Currently we import our cake; sometimes we make the cherry that goes on top. In future we must make the cake.

If this sounds rather frightening, consider how local networks encourage friendship, industry and support.  The other day someone said to me, “I’ve got a great social life now. Since I joined Transition I could be out almost every night.”

We still need nation states to sign on to global emission targets and structures to guarantee social justice but it is the local actions of all of us that will count.

In future column I hope to explore these local issues in more detail.