Recycling Scheme Gets Recognition

Environment Minister Sammy Wilson this week paid tribute to a Lisburn recycling project which is helping people on low incomes.

During a visit to the Voluntary Service Lisburn’s (VSL) facilities, the Minister saw at first hand how electrical goods and furniture were being recycled for the benefit of the local community.

Voluntary Service Lisburn was established in 1981 to help meet the needs of the disadvantaged, disabled and elderly in the local community. In addition to its furniture refurbishment and white goods recycling, VSL operates a substantial volunteer system, and carries out environmental and community projects.

Financial backing from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s (NIEA) Community Waste Innovation Fund has enabled the project to provide an important service which is recycling goods which would otherwise have gone to landfill and which are sold on to people on low incomes at low costs.

NIEA’s Community Waste Innovation Fund is providing support to VSL until 2009, for its electrical (white) goods recycling project.

VSL Interiors is located in Haslems Lane in the city, just off the main shopping district Bow Street, and is part of the Lisburn Square shopping centre. They collect unwanted domestic white goods such as cookers, washing machines, dryers and small electrical items and repairs and refurbishes them for sale at low cost to those on low incomes.

This project to date has reduced the household appliances going to landfill by 132 tonnes to date, and any that cannot be reused and sold on is recycled in accordance with the latest environmental protection legislation.





Whilst I am impressed with such a service existing and this is a model example of recycle, reduce and reuse. But in the case of appliances, should we be putting old electrical appliances in homes which are less energy efficient than that of new ones.

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Keep Recycling!

The public should continue recycling as prices for materials have begun to stabilise.

While the downturn in demand began in October, industry surveys conducted by WRAP and the Local Government Association, along with Environment Agency figures on applications to store recyclable materials, indicates prices are stabilising – although the market remains fragile.

WRAP surveyed 200 organisations, including local authorities, waste management companies, reprocessors and exporters, to determine market confidence and prices before Christmas. Although views were mixed, the overall sentiment was that markets are recovering, albeit not to previous price levels.

"Our market intelligence suggests prices for recovered materials are slowly stabilising and more materials are now moving through the export market. A cross cutting theme across all materials is that materials of varying quality are attracting lower prices because more effort and expense has to go into sorting and cleaning them to produce the equivalent of virgin raw material. The positive result of this is that quality material is more valuable. It is moving at good volumes and generally has less trouble finding end markets. The picture is of a fragile but stable market, in which materials are still moving. The overall picture from the survey is that people can still be confident in using the recycling service provided by their local authority, as the materials they put out are still being recycled. Local Authorities will continue to provide guidance to householders on which materials can be recycled in their area.”
Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive Officer, WRAP (Visit her blog)

A snapshot LGA survey, found 95% of local authority services are continuing as normal despite the fall in prices for recyclable materials. Only 5% of local authorities are having to store recyclable materials for any longer than usual.

“Local people deserve great credit for boosting this country’s recycling rates so dramatically in recent years. The economic downturn has presented challenges to local authorities, but the vast majority of recycling services have been completely unaffected. Councils know only too well that the alternative to recycling is to throw waste into landfill, which is damaging to the environment and expensive for the taxpayer. Local people should continue to recycle as much as possible.”
Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman, LGA Environment Board

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Charity Shops Reports Bumper Profits as Credit Crunch Crisis Continues

It seems as times get hard people are turning to charity shops as a way of beating the credit crunch. The profits of the top charity shops rose 7.4% to a total of £106.7m over the past year, in stark contrast to falls across the rest of the retail sector.

Recent figures from the British Retail Consortium show that retail sales values were down almost 1% from July 2008.

"Trading conditions, as for all retailing, are now extremely tough, however, evidence from previous slowdowns is that charity shops are well placed to weather economic storms as cash-strapped consumers turn to them for value for money. If charity shops continue to respond to consumer needs, then they are well-placed to come out of this downturn in a good position."
David Moir, Association of Charity Shops

Not that I frequent charity shops, but we can all look on the positive side, charity shops often make use of the stuff we would otherwise throw away, sending straight to landfill. Whilst I'm sure not everything recieved can be found a loving new home, most can, whether it be retro chic 1980's attire or used CD's, DVDs, games or jigsaws, its recycling. Could the economic crisis also yeild even more vintage and quality second hand clothes stores?

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Recycling Rate in Lisburn Area Increases to 31%

Lisburn residents have achieved a 31% recycle rate for last year. By using green bins for recycling material such as paper, cans, cardboard and plastic bottles and brown bins for compostable garden waste, residents have achieved another year-on-year increase.

As well as the green and brown bins, the council also provides numerous recycling amenity sites across their remit, which accept materials such as glass bottles and jars, textiles, electronic goods and tetra pak drinks cartons. For information on your nearest amenity site or other questions regarding Lisburn City Council kerbside recycling, you can contact the council's recycling hotline on 0800 092 0246.

Lisburn City Council also offer keen gardeners and those wishing to recycle small amounts of food waste, a home compost bin for £5. This is only available to householders in the council catchment area, and can be ordered from the above telephone number.

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Picture: Paper Only

My friend saw this and thought of me during a recent trip to Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival. Clearly he knows that I am an eco geek. Its a paper only bin, more and more on street recycling facilities are appearing on streets up and down the country, to encourage us to recycle more. He commented "Edinburgh is beautifully clean".

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Where Does Our Waste Go?

A unique look from above at where the waste we throw away each day ends up. 50 000 refuse collection vehicles pound our streets daily collecting 85 000 tonnes of waste so that we can live and work in a safe, healthy environment. Where does all that rubbish go and how does it get there?

Tesco Launch New Recycled Plastic Bag

Tesco have launched their new Cath Kidston 'stripe' bag, you can get it in store from Monday 18th August. This new addition follows hot on the heels of the first two bags, 'multi floral' and 'blue spot', which launched in early July. Cath Kidston’s stunning bag designs for Tesco are great to look at as well as eco friendly, and they will donate 50p to Marie Curie Cancer Care for each one sold!

Just because you want to be green doesn’t mean you can’t be fun and stylish, the stunning range of re-usable bags created for Tesco by leading designer Cath Kidston are perfect for all your shopping and an alternative to plastic carrier bags. The bags are available in all Tesco Superstores and Extras. Three further vintage prints will be available later in the year. They’re just £3.50 each, but stocks are limited.

What’s more, for each bag sold, Tesco will give 50p to charity, Marie Curie Cancer Care. There will be no profit going to Tesco or Cath Kidston Ltd and we are guaranteeing that a minimum of £250,000 will be raised for this superb charitable cause.

Each bag is made out of nine recycled 500ml plastic bottles. Just like the school clothes we mentioned in today's earlier post, we are giving tesco far too much space. And, of course, every time you re-use these (or any other) bags at Tesco we’ll give you Green Clubcard Points to say thank you.

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Ethical & Environmental School Uniforms at Tesco

Tesco, have introduced their new lines of school uniforms, with a green theme throughout,with recycled, Fairtrade and organic cotton ranges.

Tesco's recycled uniform range. Stylish and easy to care for, the range also helps to reduce landfill as it's made from old plastic bottles, which are melted down to make raw polyester and turned into fibres and yarns for fabrics that are used to make the clothes. Through our recycled uniform range we have diverted over 40,000 x 1 litre bottles from landfill (about 1.5 tonnes of waste diverted). It takes 6 x 1litre bottles to make a skirt and 17 bottles to make a boy's fleece.

The process of making this recycled fabric uses 84% less energy than making new material and as a result the CO2 emissions are around 77% lower. Surely all polyester should be made this way.

Girls' Recycled pinafore
from £5 - sizes: 3/4-10/11 years
2 pack girls' Recycled short-sleeve shirt
from £4.50 - sizes: 4/5- 15/16 years
Boys' Recycled hooded fleece
from £4.50 - sizes: 3/4-15/16 years
2 pack boys' Recycled short-sleeve shirt
from £4.50 - sizes: 4/5-15/16 years
Boys' Recycled trousers
from £4.50 - sizes: 3/4-15/16 years

Tesco's Fairtrade uniforms supports small scale cotton farmers, ensuring that they get a fair price from sales of seed cotton, which helps them to develop their communities.

Tesco use Fairtrade cotton sourced from cotton producers certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) and processed through FLOcert. The Fairtrade scheme offers traceability of seed cotton supply back to farmer level, to ensure the cotton used is truly Fairtrade and is benefiting farmers directly.

With organic cotton, producers aim to cut chemicals, improve soil fertility and help conservation and animal welfare in both its growth and manufacture. The organic cotton used in our uniforms is sourced mainly from farming co-operatives in India. Find out why organic cotton is better for the environment?

Now an initative which is very ethical. In Kenya, many children don't go to school simply because they can't afford a uniform. But you can help change that. Buy trousers for Save the Children from Tesco and, for each pair sold, Tesco will give a Kenyan child either a school skirt, shirt or pair of trousers. By producing the trousers in Kenya, we are also benefiting local trade.

By working together, you, Tesco and Save the Children are providing Kenyan children with the chance of a brighter future.

Now your only decision to make is which one is greener, more ethical, or lower in carbon footprint?

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MSC Napoli Dismantling Nears Completion

The dismantling of the MSC Napoli nears completion at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. The project has kept 80 shipyard workers busy, essentially "building a ship in reverse", the project has recovered 60 000 tonnes of ship-grade steel which will be reused in other building projects worldwide. Once the drydock is cleared it will be then used for a project constructing 60 wind turbines for a wind farm off the south west coast of Scotland.

Gordon Brown: Charge for Plastic Bags ... or Else

Gordon Brown writing for the Daily Mail today has announced plans that if UK retailers can not reduce their reliance on plastic bags over the next year he will enact plans to introduce a mandatory charge on each bag, and reveal the revenue generated.

The Prime Minister will introduce legislation next month to impose a charge of 5p or even more on all giveaway bags next year if they fail to comply. Yesterday, the trade body which represents 33,000 convenience stores said they are ready to accept a plastic bag tax in a bid to reduce the number handed out.

Supermarket Tesco used 3bn plastic bags last year. It does not charge for them, instead offering bonuses such as extra clubcard points if they re-use bags. A Sainsbury's spokeswoman said the supermarket had a policy of encouraging its customers to "reduce, reuse and recycle". She also said that since April 2007 there had been a 10% reduction in the number of free plastic bags given out, which is the equivalent of 85m bags. A spokesman for Asda said it was on target to reduce the environmental impact of its carrier bags by 25% by the end of 2008.

"I am convinced we need to act - and the time to act is now. I have already made clear that over time, we should aim to eliminate the single-use plastic bag altogether."
Gordon Brown

A voluntary agreement brokered by the Government to reduce the use of plastic bags by 25 per cent is behind target. Official figures show the number of bags issued by retailers has fallen by only 7.4 per cent in a year. The written feature in today's Daily Mail follows on from yesterday's announcement by Marks & Spencer to introduce a five pence per bag charge nationwide after trials in Northern Ireland and Southwest England. The trial saw a reduction in plastic bag use by 70% and raised substantial funds for environmental charity Groundworks Northern Ireland.

"The company wanted to make it easy for our customers to do their bit to help the environment. On top of this, our customers will be raising valuable funds to go to our partner charity, Groundwork, to invest in much-needed green spaces in our neighbourhoods".
Sir Stuart Rose, Chief Executive, Marks & Spencer

The plastic bag is a blight on our environment, to find out more reasons on why plastic and paper bags damage our environment check out Paper or Plastic?

Recycle Your Clothes

As part of Plan A, M&S are offering those donating their old M&S clothing to Oxfam a free £5 off voucher, when you spend £35 in store on clothing, home or beauty. To claim simply take your unwanted M&S items to your nearest Oxfam. Please note that this offer may only apply in Ireland. If you know otherwise please let us know in the comments section.

Video: Fight to Green Business

Greening business is an essential task to reduce waste. According to our friends at Lets Green this City in San Francisco each office employee wastes 770g of high grade paper, which could otherwise be recycled, every day.

The number of people in employment for the three months to November 2007 was 29.36 million in the UK. If we also wasted 770g each per day, we would as a nation be wasting 22 600 tonnes of paper a day, or about 385 000 trees a day.

Paper can easily be recycled and offers a high revenue payment per tonne recycled, if your business is yet to start recyling waste paper, this simple change could reduce costs and increase revenue.

Some Paper Facts (Source: GreenPrint)

• 1 ton of paper = 400 reams = 200,000 sheets
• 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333 sheets
• Average cost of monochrome printed page .67 pence
• Average UK office worker prints 38 pages per day, which is at 232 working days per annum is 8,816
• Average of 29% of which is wasteful printing creates 2,556 pages per year of unnecessary paper waste
• For every user in your organisation, based on these findings, in printing terms alone generates 61.34 KG CO2 requiring 142 kWh of energy to be consumed to supply the paper
• Printer Ink is one of the most expensive liquids to purchase. To fill an Olympic sized swimming pool with ink would cost around £11.8 billion
• One ton of paper requires the use of 98 tons of various resources
• The Pulp and Paper industry is one of the more destructive and energy consuming industries in the modernised world
• One tonne of paper uses over 19,000 gallons of water
• In order for us to consume our fair share of the world's wood resources we would need to reduce our consumption by 73%.
• The UK is the fifth highest consumer of paper and board in the world.
• On average, each of us consumes 198 kg of paper and board per year.
• London offices churn out three and a quarter million tonnes of office and printing paper a year.
• The US conservation pressure group Conservatree has calculated that on average one ton of uncoated non-recycled printing and office paper uses 24 trees.
• Paper accounts for 42% of industrial forest use.

Picture: Sea of Rubbish as Naples Dumps Close

Rubbish has been piling up in Naples for two weeks since collections ended because dumps were full.

Mercury in CFLs in Context

CFLs have once again received a battering in the press this week with the BBC headlining three articles over three days over claims of their impact on their health.

The three articles were;

Low-energy bulbs 'cause migraine'
Low-energy bulbs 'worsen rashes', and today;
Low-energy bulb disposal warning

As I watched rolling news this morning on BBC Breakfast at 6am, they offered a three minute report, which whilst balanced (and needed to be entered into the public domain) bordered on alarmist, played back every thirty minutes with discussions with Dr David Grey, a toxicoligist from the University of Nottingham, and Louise Molloy of Greenpeace, on two seperate hours in the morning.

Having written an article on mercury in CFL bulbs, which is also available on the BBC Action Network, I was more than aware of the fact mercury was contained within, and not only that I have on several occasions called for adequate information regarding mercury content, recycling information and clear up information to be added to packaging and the dissemination of information of information to the public, which is seriously lacking, as 99% of us never read the packet anyway. People probably think I am getting sidelines from CFL manufactures to fight the mercury issue, however unfortunately I am not, I wish I was. CFLs are old technology, and if you can get you hands on LEDs at an affordable price, this makes a better choice over CFLs.

With Energy Star Canada citing the average CFL contains 3mg of mercury, placed in context with other household appliances CFLs are the least of our worries with the following containing mercury in far greater weights, some several hundred or times more than a CFL;

LCD Monitors
Thermometers
Thermostats
Mobile Phones, and
Dental Fillings

For a list of items in your home that could contain mercury the EPA has provided a short but not extensive list.

Whilst I am not saying mercury is safe, it is a deadly neurotoxin after all, I am trying to put your mind at rest that the amount contained in these bulbs is in relative terms only a small proportion of the mercury found in the home. CFL bulbs do not often break unless subjected to abuse, for example I have seen bulbs dropped from a reasonable height on to a solid surface, the bulb and its glass remained intact.

Even if the bulb was to break, one study looking at long tubular fluorescent bulbs found that over a two week period, only 17 to 40 percent of the mercury in the bulb evaporated. The rest remained stuck in the bulb. Roughly one-third of the mercury that evaporated did so in the first eight hours after the breakage; the rest seeped out slowly over the remainder of the study period.

Taking this into consideration that would result in 6% to 13% of the mercury being released in the first 8 hours, or 0.18mg to 0.39mg of mercury. Assuming your in a room with a volume of 25m3 (similar to a medium bedroom), this would average 0.0072mg/m3 to 0.0156mg/m3. This is equivalent to 7.2µg/m3 or 15.6µg/m3 over 8 hours. In comparison a single amalgam filling with an , average surface area of 0.4 cm2 has been estimated to release as much as 15µg mercury/day, primarily , through mechanical wear and evaporation, but also through dissolution into saliva (Lorscheider et al. 1995). For the average individual with eight occlusal , amalgam fillings, 120µg of mercury could be released daily into the mouth, and a portion of that , swallowed or inhaled (Lorscheider et al. 1995). Both Canada and WHO consider dental amalgam to be the single largest source of mercury exposure for the general public.

Something that may astound you is that the levels of mercury in a dentists surgery is up to 69µg/m3. Up to 9 times the mercury from breaking a bulb in your medium sized bedroom. Considering this you are likely to be subjecting yourself to more mercury sitting in the dentists than from breaking a CFL. Not that I am trying to put you off going to the dentist of course. There are mercury free dentists up and down the country.

As a light hearted way to end this I thought I would highlight the 102 year old ex-dentist that has emigrate to New Zealand, a story published on the same day as the Low Energy Bulbs Disposal Warning, by the BBC. Surely he should be as "Mad as a Hatter"!


If you do break a CFL bulb then follow this advice;

1. Do not allow children or pregnant women to enter the affected area
2. Open windows and allow air to circulate to the affected area
3. First sweep up all of the glass fragments and phosphor powder (do not vacuum)
4. Then place in a plastic bag
5. Wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up stray shards of glass or fine particles
6. Place the used towel in the plastic bag as well, and seal
7. For proper disposal of a broken CFL bulb, contact your local authority for a community household hazardous waste collection

For more information and discussion on CFLs, how to recycle, and the mercury within visit the CFL Mercury Myths

Picture: Recycle Your Christmas Cards

TV presenter and I'm a Celebrity, contestant Anna Ryder Richardson puts her support behind the annual Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme, which aims to collect and recycle 100 million cards via special bins located in various high street stores throughout January. For more information on the Recycle Now campagin please see our blog post, How Much Extra Waste this Christmas?

Recycle Unwanted Gifts with 10p Listings Day

After some research by eBay, unwanted presents worth £1.2bn were bought this Christmas. People spent an average of £20 on unwanted presents for other people.

49% of the 1960 18 to 34-year-olds questioned would consider selling their unwanted gifts online.

Only one in every 25 of those questioned would throw their unwanted gifts out. People spent an average of £31 per gift, the survey found, while the average spend on all gifts, food and decorations totalled £641.

As part of an annual tradition, eBay are holding their post-Christmas 10p Listings day on 29th December 2007, so get listing.

How Much Extra Waste this Christmas?

According to new research from Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign, households are set to produce nearly three quarters of a million tonnes (736,574) of extra waste this Christmas.

This means on average each family will throw out an additional five sacks of rubbish over the festive period. That's the equivalent of generating 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Each family in the UK creates at least 68kg of carbon dioxide from this extra waste which would provide enough energy to power home fairy-lights continuously for 18 years.

Recycle Now has also teamed up with the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme to enable people to recycle their cards throughout January at participating Tesco (excludes Express), mainland WHSmith high street stores, TKMaxx and Marks & Spencer stores throughout January.

"All this festive consumption means extra waste, which if consigned to the bin will end up in landfill and potentially generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. One way in which we can all make a difference this Christmas is by recycling and the good news is that nine out of ten homes now have a doorstep recycling service for a range of materials including paper, card, glass, metal cans. Recycling also has a positive impact on helping to tackle climate change, with current recycling in the UK saving greenhouse gases equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road."
Dr Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive, WRAP

Thanks to the public's support last year, 93 million cards were collected. That's enough to enable the charity to plant 22,000 trees or a forest the size of 44 football pitches. This year the scheme hopes to raise funds to plant 24,000 trees by collecting 100 million cards.

Ed Byrne Christmas Recycling Video
Joanna Lumley Launches Christmas Card Recycling Appeal

Gordon Brown Outlines Climate Plans

Download the Speech (MP3)
Read the Speech
Watch Some of the Speech

Gordon Brown has outlined his plans for the British fight against climate change, fronted by a "green hotline" to advise people on how they can reduce their impact on the environment. The new Green Home Service, a website, telephone hotline and advice centres will be a "one-stop-shop" for advice and information on a range of issues including reducing waste and saving water.


In essence this seems like a government funded carbon copy of the independent Energy Saving Trust, and whilst I'm sure the Green Home Service will provide a competent and worthy service to the public on a range more diverse than currently captured by the EST. It still remains that people will need to seek advice before they change their habits, rather than implementing legislation, funding nationwide initiatives, or implementing voluntary agreements with retailers which forces change. Within his speech he cited that a third of households in the UK will be offered assistance to make carbon reductions in the next three years, equivalent to about 2.2 million homes per year. Potentially leading to reductions of 6m tonnes of CO2 per year by 2010, or 1.1% of total UK CO2 emissions.

"I believe it will require no less than a fourth technological revolution. In the past the steam engine, the internal combustion engine, the microprocessor transformed not just technology but the way our society has been organised and the way people live. Now we're about to embark on a comparable technological transformation to low carbon energy and energy efficiency and this represents an immense challenge to Britain, but it is also an opportunity."
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, United Kingdom

In addition to the new information service, there was also plans to further co-operation with other countries including Japan and the US to establish a new "funding framework", to help developing countries adjust to low carbon growth, adapt to climate change and tackle deforestation.


In recent months the government has come under increased scrutiny over reports published regarding its commitment to, and likely failure in meeting targets regarding renewable energy. Currently approximately 5% of UK energy is provided by renewable energy sources, however Gordon Brown hit back at these critics stating Britain was absolutely committed to meeting our share of the EU's 2020 renewable energy target, further suggesting it could mean the UK will have to produce between 40 and 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. An exceptional target which almost seems pie in the sky to some. BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said this would be "staggering", but he said that the government was seeking to negotiate down the EU target.


However this part of the speech will be seriously considered tomorrow as Gordon Brown's government reveals whether consent has been granted to a new coal fired power plant in Kingsmill, Kent (beside an existing inefficient coal-fired power plant). The existing power plant provides up to 7.5% of the UK's current electricity demand by burning 750 tonnes of coal per hour. The proposed new power plant from electricity company E.on would improve efficiency by 20%, equating to carbon emission savings of 2m tonnes a year, however if the proposal is rejected the existing plant will need to close as it will not meet with legislation regarding emissions. This is a scenario facing half of UK coal fired power stations. With the closure of nine nuclear power plants over the next ten years this will result in a reduction in production of electricity of 30%. Eyes will be carefully watching the news tomorrow to hear the result.


There was many other initiatives mentioned in the Climate Change Bill regarding consultation with the British Retail Consortium to phase out plastic bags, a major expansion that will see five million more homes offered discounts of up to 100% on cavity or loft insulation, and another three million offered cheap or free low-energy light bulbs and other appliances. Over the next decade, every household will be offered a smart meter that shows people the true extent of their energy use, encouraging frugality.


With the suggested measures it seems difficult that these will equate to a faction of the 60% reduction in CO2 emissions proposed by 2050.


The reactions to the speech have been varied with quotable regular Philip Sellwood, Chief of the Energy Saving Trust commenting on his blog;

"This Green Homes Service will form the first genuine one-stop-shop for citizens to access advice on all matters 'green' - whether that is energy efficiency, renewable energy, travel, water efficiency and waste reduction. At a time when both Government and particularly Defra's budgets are under such pressure, credit must go to Defra for holding out for this additional funding over the next three years. Sorry if this sounds a bit like I'm being a cheer leader for Hilary Benn, but sometimes even the Government gets things right! I know that's not a very fashionable view these days, but let's at least give a small round of applause on this dark, grey and wet Tuesday!"
View Greener Homes Are In Sight!

Other Reactions to the Prime Ministers Speech;

"Six months in the job of prime minister, and Brown has finally got around to talking about climate change. Whilst I welcome plans to consider tightening the 60% target, the government is playing catch-up - and asking another committee to look at the figures won't help. To make real headway on curbing our emissions, we need to act now. We do not have time for yet more commissions and reviews, for more political delay. Today's speech was sorely lacking in real measures to reduce our emissions."
Caroline Lucas, Green Party


"In March, Tony Blair committed the government to an EU target for 20% of Europe's energy to come from renewables. Since then the government - and particularly the dinosaurs in the DBERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) have tried to wriggle out of it. It is good to see Gordon Brown recommit to this and get the renewables revolution back on track."
Keith Allott, WWF UK


"It's good news that the government will not renege on its EU renewable energy targets. But we need to look at the small print to see whether Mr Brown is really prepared to meet 20% of our energy from renewables without counting nuclear power as the French are doing. The government blithely talks of the opportunities created by green industries yet refuses to promote fledgling initiatives properly. Boasts of a new Green Home Service seem shallow when recent cuts to the New Millennium Grants will dissuade many homeowners from installing energy saving measures in their homes."
Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrats


"After a summer of lobbying, wriggling and confusion, the government's apparent change of heart on renewable power is fantastic news, but will only be credible if new policies emerge to actually meet targets. Britain lags a long way behind most of our European neighbours on renewable power, despite having the greatest wind, wave and tidal resource in Europe. We should be able to contribute our fair share of the EU-wide renewable energy commitment and source at least 20% of our energy from renewables by 2020."
Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth


"It's positive that the prime minister has raised the bar ahead of the Bali conference by talking about an 80% cut in UK carbon emissions by 2050. Oxfam believes that only an 80% cut in rich countries' emissions will be enough to stop the worst impacts of climate change. The world's poorest people - already hard hit by climate change - depend upon rich countries like the UK moving first and fastest to set a clear course for a low carbon economy."
Phil Bloomer, Oxfam

Hong Kong October 2007

From 03 October 2007, I will be in Hong Kong for eight days, during that time I will be writing on various topics based on energy efficiency in Hong Kong, and how these concepts could be implemented into a low carbon economy in the UK. If you are part of an energy related project in Hong Kong that you would like to publicise, explain to me, show off to the world please feel free to contact me. Our site currently receives in excess of 50 000 hits (75 000 page views) per year and growing steadily month-on-month, with top international brands, and industry insiders reading on a regular basis.

Coke Aims for 100% Recycle Rate

Coca Cola has announced that it plans to invest over £30m in building a PET recycling facility to recycle or reuse 100% of its plastic bottles in the United States. The plant is being built in partnership with United Resource Recovery Corporation, and is expected to be fully functional by 2009. In addition to this ambitious target Coca Cola are strengthening their ties with kerbside collection organisations such as RecycleBank. The news comes after Coke announced plans for a line of eco apparel made from recycled PET, with environmental based slogans 'I'm wearing post-consumer waste, 'My white t-shirt is green' and 'My Bag is Green'.

It's good to see a strong corporate organisation make such an ambitious target for dealing with the consumer waste it produces, especially plastics, whether or not they can step up and meet the target they have set will be seen in the long term.

In the UK companies must recycle 25% of the plastics packaging they produce, and Petcore figures from 2004 said that Europe wide we recycled just over 30% of PET bottles. I wonder will Coke make this gesture in other countries and help us out a little.