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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Daily Mail Tw@t$

After a long gluttonous and unfortunately carbon intensive Christmas break I am back, and what did I see before me in the Daily Mail this week. None other than a beautiful front cover on the banning on the conventional inefficient light bulb. The government must have done something right to ensure that a "voluntary ban" with the catchy headline "Robbed of their right to buy traditional light bulbs" could out strip column inches from seriously newsworthy stories, like bloodshed in Gaza.

The editors at the the Daily Mail really pushed the boat out to desperate bulb hoarders who had been frantically searching stores for the bulbs to no avail with a 25 000 bulb giveaway, rationing this national supply to just five per reader.

But what is ridiculous is that people are hoarding bulbs in their hundreds or thousands, other than the potential ebayablity in the next few years, to other bulb hoarders wanting to boost their collection of bulbs into the tens of thousands this also shows the lack of real reasoning, that an average light bulb lasts 600hrs.

We have had a few comments on the actual price of the energy saving bulbs, which are "too expensive". I picked some energy saving bulbs up at Tesco for only 8p each, to be truthful, I picked up a few hundred, to give out to friends, family and whoever else wanted them. Not to mention the fact that they last 10 to 12 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Look and you shall find them for cheap or free. Plus you won't have to run to the shops in your car as often to buy them, saving time and fuel, and of course risking life to change the one on the landing.

People are concerned that they require more resources than conventional bulbs, and that must be more carbon intensive. However, a carbon footprint analysis by the Carbon Trust for Tesco own brand CFL bulbs showed that per hour of usage, the energy saving bulb was less carbon intensive in it's production.

Medical charities say they can trigger epileptic fits, migraines and skin rashes. To which I don't doubt that this is an extremely small minority, or as we all went to Tesco to pick up incandescent bulbs we would simply fall to the ground in a fit and burst out into a rash, not to mention the inability to function in life at all, as almost all publicly accessible buildings have CFLs.

The Sky is the Limit to Find Uninsulated Homes

Members of the Coventry Partnership's Environment Theme Group have proposed an innovative aerial thermal survey of the city to be carried out this winter in order to help people insulate their homes.

Coventry Partnership brings together public, private and voluntary sector organisations in the city in order to make Coventry a growing, accessible city where people choose to live, work and be educated and where businesses choose to invest. One of the key themes is tackling climate change and the Environment Theme Group has recently been re-launched to help achieve this goal.

Over 40 delegates met on Friday 12th September at Coventry Transport Museum for a lively event which discussed practical ways in which collaborative working can really begin to make a difference to the city's carbon emissions and deliver the climate change strategy.

The top project idea was to carry out a thermal survey of the city using an advanced infra-red camera to spot areas where buildings are losing heat and require additional thermal insulation.

This will be the first time that such a high resolution camera has been used to survey a whole city from an aircraft.

The results will be more accurate than ever before due to the use of advanced GPS mapping which will mean that a heat source as small as a shoebox can be detected.

The survey will be carried out on a cold night this winter with the results available early in the New Year.

"I am very excited by the idea of being able to actually see heat losses from buildings and provide advice and support to residents to help them keep their fuel bills low and reduce their carbon footprint. We all think we've done enough but this will let us check whether we can do more in a very visible way. Personally I can't wait to see whether the work I've done to insulate my house has paid off!"
Nigel Lee, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Housing and Sustainability

It's envisaged that this will allow the identification of houses that would benefit from additional thermal insulation and ensure that residents make full use of the various grants that are currently on offer from the government and other sources.

This survey should help ensure that Coventry residents take full advantage of the additional funding for insulation announced by the Prime Minister on 11th September.

This new package comprising £910 million from the big energy suppliers intends to help people with soaring gas and electricity bills by providing free or half-price insulation to lofts and cavity walls as well as a freeze on this year's bills for the poorest families.

An earlier but less detailed aerial survey carried out in 2007 has allowed the council to contact hundreds of residents to offer help with insulation and highlighted the need for a detailed survey to pinpoint hotspots.

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New Energy Efficient Ad On TV Now

Ad Courtesy Of Act On CO2

A £6m TV ad campaign encouraging householders to make steps to make their homes more energy efficient was launched on Wednesday.

Following a rise in the number of people calling energy efficiency advice lines, the adverts, directed by This is England director Shane Meadows, are to air from tonight.

"Apart from the fact that I really liked this campaign because it's funny and well written, I was also interested in making some films that might make a difference to the way people behave. If these films can make a few more people aware of the problem and actually do something, then it's got to be a worthwhile project."
Shane Meadows

The advert shot by Meadows show a father trying to get his family to cut their energy consumption, reducing their gas and electricity bills and reducing their carbon emissions.

ACT ON CO2 advice line from the Energy Saving Trust has reported that the amount of calls it has received has quadrupled since the government announced a £910 million package to help householders become more efficient.

Taking steps such as ensuring all sockets are tuned off, installing insulation and using energy saving appliances are among the recommendations the advice line ACT ON CO2 has been handing out.

"I am encouraged that following last week's announcement, people are looking to take action to cut their fuel bills and save energy at the same time. We now need to build on that enthusiasm."
Hillary Benn, Environment Secretary

The government package aims to make sure all homes have proper insulation by 2020.

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Food Waste Scheme Hailed Success

The Waste & Resource Action Plan (WRAP), has hailed a food waste recycling scheme in which 4,272 tonnes of food waste were diverted from landfill a success. The efforts also averted 1,967 tonnes of CO2.

Nineteen English local authorities experimented with ways of collecting food waste from 94,000 households. In the majority of areas, more than 70% of people agreed to separate their food waste for composting. The average food waste collection was between 0.3 and 2.2 kilos.

"We are delighted by the results of these trials, which show that if consumers are given the right tools and are provided with a good service, they will participate in initiatives to cut waste sent to landfill."
Phillip Ward, Director for Local Government Services, WRAP

The organisers believe that a survey of people in the pilot areas identified a gap between perception and reality.

Of the non-participants interviewed, a common reason for not taking part was that residents felt that they did not produce enough food waste to make it worthwhile.

However, WRAP research in the recent "The Food We Waste" report shows that even households claiming that they generate no food waste at all produce, on average, 2.9kg per week.

Concerns about potential odour, hygiene issues or attracting vermin were the reasons given by 24% of non-participants - but for those who did participate, the majority claimed not to have had a problem with any of these issues.

A highly positive note from this announcement is that these schemes work when implemented, people are willing to carry out the task of waste separation and will do. If similar schemes were implemented across the UK's approximate 21m households, we could see 954 383 tonnes of food diverted from landfill and 439 436 tonnes of CO2 emissions. However even more importantly, by volume, food waste is the largest contributor to methane gas production, and sending this to landfill releases these gases. The EU Landfill Directive and Waste Regulations, like regulations in other countries, encourage diverting organic wastes away from landfill disposal for these reasons.


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Public Inquiry for Rose Energy Incinerator

Lisburn City Council have called on the Environment Minister to hold a public inquiry into the construction of the proposed agricultural biomass incinerator by Rose Energy, in Glenavy.

Representives from Rose Energy and Communities Against Lough Neagh Incinerator were at at the Lisburn City Council Planning Commitee meeting on Wednesday evening, held at the council offices headquarters at Lagan Valley Island.

The decision has now been deferred to the Department of the Environment, who should ensure the proposal is rigorously assessed.

Northern Ireland often exports its chicken litter to mainland Britain as a way to efficiently reduce waste and reuse the energy stored in the bedding as no facility exisits in the country. The 1.8m chickens produced each week, create 250 000t of chicken litter annually. Hence the decision by major chicken producers O'Kane Poultry, Glenfarm Holdings and Moy Park, who have been supplying poultry bedding for use as a biofuel to power stations in England and Scotland for a number of years, to join together as a consortium, known as Rose Energy, to propose the first energy plant which will convert agricultural biomass into electricity in Northern Ireland.

The proposed site in Glenavy, near Lisburn, is in an ideal location between the two major poultry processing areas in NI. It is also located next to Ulster Farm By-Products, which will be a major supplier to the plant of one of the fuel sources – meat and bone meal. Furthermore, the plant will serve to reinforce the electricity infrastructure in an area which is currently deficient.

The £100m power plant will have a capacity of 30MW, and could effectively power 25 000 homes, assisting up to a third of the Northern Ireland obligation to source 6.3% of its energy from renewable sources by 2012. The government intends to exceed this figure and achieve 12% and is providing a funding package for suitable green energy initiatives to help develop viable projects.

This development is a viable solution to address the disposal of agricultural biomass, which is now included under an EU directive, whilst also providing an additional source of renewable energy. It will also assist in reducing emissions produced from exporting chicken litter, via road and sea,to mainland Britain.

Northern Ireland Assembly Debate on Issue - 3rd June 2008
Options For Chicken Waste


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Get EnviroWise About Water!

A scheme which proposes to help businesses save up to 30 per cent on their water and effluent bills is issuing a final call for participants to sign up.

The Rippleeffect, a water conservation project from Envirowise, offers businesses structured information and support to reduce the amount of water used.

Simple measures such as ensuring showers and taps do not leak, installing water efficient toilets and rainwater harvesting, could help firms make significant water savings even as the cost of water is set to rise by 22 per cent between 2010 and 2015.

"While cost-savings may be a key driver for water conservation, companies that do so demonstrate to customers that they are adopting best environmental practice. This in itself offers a competitive advantage."
Mary Leonard, Director, Envirowise

Saving water also helps save energy and emissions as the utilities use energy, often generated by fossil fuel burning to get water to residential and commercial taps.

Companies have until September 10th to sign up for the project.

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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?

How Much Electricity Does a Russell Hobbs Kettle Use?

Whilst I have a rough idea of how much a kettle uses, I thought I would test my own kettle at home to see how much it uses, and how much time and energy is wasted by boiling more water than you need. I have previously discussed how much energy we waste as a nation by boiling more water than we need in Energy Saving Tip - Boiling the Kettle.

I tested the Russell Hobbs Satin Montana Kettle (Model No. 14150), rated as a 3kW kettle, after approximately 6 seconds the kettle began to draw power and used between 2.81kW and 2.87kW.

However if you boiled a full kettle (1.75lt), the kettle took 212.8 seconds to boil. If you were using the kettle for a single cup of tea you could have saved 173.3 seconds, as boiling a single cup (allowing approximately 10% more for evaporation) took a mere 40.5 seconds.

Boiling a full kettle required 0.16kWh (about 2 pence) whereas a single cup, required only 0.03kWh (about 0.4 pence). If you are a mad tea drinker then boiling what you need as opposed to what you don't need could save you a bit over the year, not to mention alot of time.

So what can you do to reduce your impact;

• The Eco Kettle
  The innovative Eco Kettle has a unique double chamber that gets you to measure out exactly how much water you want to boil, saving electricity, water, money and time, making it better for the planet... and you still get to have a great cup of tea. That's smart thinking - making the eco kettle one of our favourite eco products, and an essential for any eco friendly kitchen or workplace. Using a kettle to boil more water than you need is the equivalent to powering 300 CFLs unnecessarily.
  
  
• Referring to the measure on the side can help you to accurately determine the amount of liquid necessary
  
  
• Measure how much water you require by filling the cup or saucepan you are planning to use and then pour this water into the kettle, remembering to add a little bit extra to compensate for evaporation
  

For information on the electricity consumption of other products check out "How Much Electricity Does a ... Use?"

Please Note the energy use figures are taken from an energy monitor and are not scientifically analysed, therefore the range and margin of error is greater. If you would like a specific product tested let us know and we will endeavour to check it out.

Diageo Invests £65m in Renewable Energy

Plans for a pioneering bioenergy facility at Scotland’s largest distillery, Cameronbridge in Fife, were announced by Diageo this week. Following two years of rigorous research, Diageo - which makes leading global brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray and Smirnoff - has signed a formal partnership agreement with energy management company, Dalkia, to create the new facility.

Costing approximately £65 million, the planned state-of-the-art facility will generate major environmental benefits and is set to place Scotland at the forefront of green technology on the world stage.

The facility will for the first time integrate sustainable technologies – including anaerobic digestion and biomass conversion – on a commercial scale. It will be the largest single investment in renewable technology by a non-utility company in the UK and is set to reduce annual CO2 emissions at the site by approximately 56,000 tonnes (equivalent to taking 44,000 family cars off the road).

The proposed facility, which is subject to planning approval, will recover 98% of thermal steam and 80% of electrical power at the distillery. It is an example of Diageo’s commitment to the environment and the use of energy efficiency programmes to reduce energy and water consumption. Dalkia will construct the facility over the next two years and it will then transfer to Diageo under a finance lease, while continuing to be managed by Dalkia.

“This will be a showcase bioenergy facility which harnesses a variety of green technologies in a project of an unprecedented scale. It is without question the right way forward in terms of environmental benefits and secures the long-term sustainability of our operation, moving the site away from reliance on fossil fuels"
Bryan Donaghey, Managing Director, Diageo Scotland.

The bioenergy facility will generate renewable energy from ‘spent wash’ – a mixture of wheat, malted barley, yeast and water - produced during distillation. The spent wash is separated into liquid and dried solids. The liquid is then converted, via anaerobic digestion, into biogas and the dried solids form a biomass fuel source.

Around 90,000 tonnes of co-products, which would have required transport off-site by road, will be turned into bioenergy in the form of electricity and steam for use at the distillery. The facility will also recover almost a third of the site’s water requirements.

"SEPA welcomes the use by industry of efficient, sustainable energy sources. We are very supportive of new and developing technologies that can help protect Scotland's environment and make a meaningful contribution to tackling climate change. Diageo is to be commended for its investment in bioenergy.”
Campbell Gemmell, CEO of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

"This pioneering scheme demonstrates the effective use of bioenergy and highlights our shared commitment to efficient sustainable energy for industry. It will deliver real environmental benefits.”
Frédéric Pelège, CEO of Dalkia plc

The bioenergy project is in addition to a £100 million programme of investment currently being undertaken by Diageo in Scotland. This includes a new distillery at Roseisle in Morayshire which will also feature cutting edge sustainable technology, together with a £40 million expansion at Cameronbridge Distillery due for completion in spring 2010.

Diageo, and partner Dalkia, have been working closely with local and national stakeholders, as well as consulting widely with representatives of the local community, to ensure the full potential of the project is realised.

Cameronbridge currently employs around 100 people and the new bioenergy facility is expected to create up to 20 additional jobs.

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Food Waste to Electricity in Devon

12,000 homes in the Axe valley area of Devon, are recycling their kitchen waste, through weekly collections, the collected material is then used to produce a gas, by mixing them with animal slurry, which is then used to generate electricity for the National Grid. The scheme is part of East Devon Council's aim to recycle 50% of all waste by 2010. Towns taking place in the scheme are Axminster, Beer, Colyton, Musbury, Seaton and Uplyme. Other areas in councils remit will be included in 2009.

The waste is collected on a weekly basis, residents simply place any food waste, with the exception of liquids into special containers provided by the council. It is then taken to a biogas plant at Holsworthy. There through a process of anaerobic digestion, a gas is produced, which is then burned to create electricity.

"The waste food will be mixed with animal slurry. The bacteria in the mixture will then heat itself to 70C and it will go through a digestion process, producing gas."
Paul Deakin, Waste Manager, East Devon District Council

Whilst there is no certainty in the amount of waste that will be collected, the resulting reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfill will not only help the environment, but also reduce the ever increasing landfill fees, however these will most likely be offset through the collection. In the long-term it is likely other council areas will implement similar schemes across the country, as the fees on each tonne of waste landfilled is rising by approximately £8 per year. But one other exciting bit of news released this week is that over one-third of homes in England are composting waste.

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Go Green Without Reducing Your Geek Chic

Dell has launched its Studio Hybrid their greenest consumer desktop PC. Their smallest design is about 80% smaller than standard desktops, and it contains about 75% less printed documentation by weight when compared to typical tower desktops.

Going green without cramping your style, Studio Hybrid, personalisation is easy with 6 interchangeable color sleeves or also one in bamboo (for an extra $130 USD (or £110 in the UK with a 15 day extra wait on delivered systems), but what's $130, when your saving the planet). So why the huge extra cost in the UK? and why charge an extra £30 to select the colour of your choice, when you charge £29.99 for two covers, surely multiple plastic covers are not a good thing right? and in the US Dell charge no fee to choose another base colour? and only £10 for extra plastic covers.

However, the Hybrid uses about 70% less power than a typical desktop, and meets Energy Star® 4.0 standards with an 87% efficient power supply. The system uses only 1 watt of power when off or in hibernate mode, 26W while sitting idle, and 44W when pushed to the limit. Studio Hybrid packaging is made from 95% recyclable materials. And the Studio Hybrid comes with a system-recycling kit, so you can help preserve and protect the environment.

Systems in the US start at $499 (ex del) and in the UK at £399 (inc del).

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Cow $h*t Could Provide 3% of North America's Energy Needs

Turning animal faeces into a fuel source could generate enough electricity to meet up to three per cent of North America's entire energy needs, scientists claim.

A study in the Institute of Physics' journal Environmental Research Letters says that fuel from livestock manure could also help to bring about a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

The research is the first attempt to quantify how much electricity can be generated by livestock manure. Left to decompose naturally, livestock manure emits two particularly potent GHGs – nitrous oxide and methane. Through anaerobic digestion, similar to the process by which compost is created, manure can be turned into energy-rich biogas, which standard microturbines can use to produce electricity. The hundreds of millions of livestock inhabiting the US could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power millions of homes and offices.

"In light of the criticism that has been levelled against biofuels, biogas production from manure has the less controversial benefit of re-using an existing waste source and has the potential to improve the environment."
Dr Michael Webber and Amanda Cuellar, University of Texas, Austin

Stay Hydrated This Summer

As the Summer heatwave continues, we are all searching for ways to stay hydrated in the basking Summer sun. Before we all grab a branded PET bottle of the shelf of our local convenience store, in these times of the "credit crunch" remember that in the majority of cases you are simply paying for the plastic bottle, which I found out when looking at a B2B price list from Coca Cola, a 250ml bottle of water with sports cap costs more than a standard 500ml bottle, and a 750ml bottle with sports cap, is twice that of a 500ml bottle.

So simply if you want to reduce your spending, waste, energy consumption and environmental impact as well as reap the benefits of hydration can bring to your body. Simply get a water bottle, and carry it everywhere, of course you can reuse your old PET bottle, even if it says you can't (like Volvic bottles did, or maybe still do, its been a long time since i have seen one).

In the USA, 2.5m bottles are thrown away every hour, so what options are there to reduce? Buying a reuseable bottle such as that of Platypus bottles, which are in the league of premium water bottles, and shown above. Even more expensive are SIGG water bottles, which have a strong environmental focus on their website, and an eco-chic "I am not plastic" water bottle for $21.99.

Top 100 Foods Wasted in UK by Weight

The following tables list the top 100 types of food making up avoidable food waste in terms of the estimated annual weight for all UK households. Avoidable food waste is made up of food items that could have been eaten if they had been managed or stored better. The food may not have been fit for consumption at the time of disposal because it had gone mouldy or had been spoilt or it may have been thrown away because it was no longer wanted. Avoidable food waste excludes items that could not have been eaten such as bones or items that some people choose not to eat like vegetable peelings or bread crusts. These tables include both items thrown away whole and those partially consumed.

Food type (Weight in tonnes, % of Avoidable Waste)

1. Potatoes (359,000, 9.7%)
2. Bread slices (328,000, 8.8%)
3. Apples (190,000, 5.1%)
4. Meat or Fish Mixed Meals (161,000, 4.2%)
5. World breads (e.g. naan, tortilla) (102,000, 2.7%)
6. Vegetable mixed meals (96,000, 2.6%)
7. Pasta mixed meals (87,000, 2.3%)
8. Bread rolls/baguettes (86,000, 2.3%)
9. Rice mixed meals (85,000, 2.3%)
10. Mixed meals (85,000, 2.3%)
11. Bananas (84,000, 2.3%)
12. Bread Loaves (75,000, 2.0%)
13. Yoghurts/Yoghurt Drinks (67,000, 1.8%)
14. Sandwiches (63,000, 1.7%)
15. Cakes (62,000, 1.7%)
16. Lettuces (61,000, 1.7%)
17. Tomatoes (61,000, 1.7%)
18. Cabbages (56,000, 1.5%)
19. Cooked rice (55,000, 1.5%)
20. Mixed vegetables (53,000, 1.4%)
21. Oranges (51,000, 1.4%)
22. Carrots (46,000, 1.2%)
23. Onions (43,000, 1.2%)
24. Pears (42,000, 1.1%)
25. Sodas (42,000, 1.1%)
26. Milk (40,000, 1.1%)
27. Cheese (40,000, 1.1%)
28. Mixed Salad (37,000, 1.0%)
29. Cooked Pasta (36,000, 1.0%)
30. Mixed Snacks (36,000, 1.0%)
31. Melons (35,000, 0.9%)
32. Coleslaw (33,000, 0.9%)
33. Pizzas (32,000, 0.9%)
34. Chicken Portions (32,000, 0.9%)
35. Cucumbers (32,000, 0.9%)
36. Chocolate/sweets (31,000, 0.8%)
37. Sweetcorn/Corn on the Cob (30,000, 0.8%)
38. Sausages (30,000, 0.8%)
39. Pork Portions (29,000, 0.8%)
40. Biscuits/Crackers/Crisp Breads (27,000, 0.7%)
41. Water (27,000, 0.7%)
42. Beans (excluding baked beans) (26,000, 0.7%)
43. Grapes (22,000, 0.6%)
44. Ham (22,000, 0.6%)
45. Plums (20,000, 0.6%)
46. Squashes/Cordials (20,000, 0.5%)
47. Breakfast cereals (20,000, 0.5%)
48. Cook-in sauces (19,000, 0.5%)
49. Fruit juices (19,000, 0.5%)
50. Eggs (19,000, 0.5%)
51. Fish (19,000, 0.5%)
52. Beef portions (18,000, 0.5%)
53. Dough (18,000, 0.5%)
54. Celery (17,000, 0.5%)
55. Strawberries (16,000, 0.4%)
56. Peppers (15,000, 0.4%)
57. Chicken drumsticks (15,000, 0.4%)
58. Flour (15,000, 0.4%)
59. Chicken breasts (15,000, 0.4%)
60. Mushrooms (15,000, 0.4%)
61. Broccoli (15,000, 0.4%)
62. Sandwich spreads (14,000, 0.4%)
63. Baked beans (14,000, 0.4%)
64. Bacon (14,000, 0.4%)
65. Peaches (13,000, 0.4%)
66. Milkshakes/milk drinks (13,000, 0.4%)
67. Crisps (12,000, 0.3%)
68. Lemons (12,000, 0.3%)
69. Beetroots (12,000, 0.3%)
70. Fruit pies/strudels/crumbles (12,000, 0.3%)
71. Jams (11,000, 0.3%)
72. Pheasants (11,000, 0.3%)
    
73. Dips (10,000, 0.3%)
    
74. Mixed fruits (10,000 0.3%)
    
75. Butter/margarine (10,000 0.3%)
    
76. Herbs/spices (10,000 0.3%)
    
77. Dessert cakes/gateaux (9000, 0.2%)
    
78. Cream (9000, 0.2%)
    
79. Pineapples (9000, 0.2%)
    
80. Crumpets (9000, 0.2%)
    
81. Pastry (9000, 0.2%)
    
82. Chicken products (9000, 0.2%)
    
83. Pet food (9000, 0.2%)
    
84. Yorkshire pudding and other batters (8000, 0.2%)
    
85. Cauliflowers (8000, 0.2%)
    
86. Uncooked pasta (8000, 0.2%)
    
87. Leeks (8000, 0.2%)
    
88. Milk puddings (custard etc) (8000, 0.2%)
    
89. Doughnuts (8000, 0.2%)
    
90. Oils (8000, 0.2%)
    
91. Mayonnaise/salad cream (7000, 0.2%)
    
92. Spring onions (6000, 0.2%)
    
93. Peas (6000, 0.2%)
    
94. Turnips/swedes (6000, 0.2%)
    
95. Parsnips (6000, 0.2%)
    
96. Burgers (6000, 0.2%)
    
97. Lamb (6000, 0.2%)
    
98. Pickles (6000, 0.2%)
    
99. Nuts (6000, 0.2%)
    
100. Mangos (6000, 0.2%)

Source: WRAP

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.

E-day: Worthwhile or Waste of Energy?

Matt Prescott the mind behind the event recently wrote his comments for the BBC in their ViewPoint section;

E-Day was designed to raise awareness that saving energy offers a quick, simple way of tackling the massive and urgent threat posed by climate change, and makes sense as a way of saving money and improving peoples' comfort in summer and winter.

I hoped to focus attention on how almost everyone can painlessly take greater personal responsibility for reducing their own demand for energy, and so cutting carbon emissions.

I had calculated that if every one of the 22 million households in the UK turned off just one 100 watt light bulb, on the same day, four 500 megawatt coal-fired power stations could be turned off.

I therefore wanted to see whether this information could be brought to life in a way that involved and interested everyone, and whether asking everyone to switch off at least one electrical item for a day could produce a noticeable impact on the country's energy use and carbon emissions.

No-one likes being repeatedly beaten over the head with messages asking them to "make sacrifices for the planet".

So I decided E-Day should be fun - and was able to set it up initially as a comedy-led BBC television programme likely to feature the talents of people like Graham Norton.

After 18 months of work, BBC TV cancelled Planet Relief just as we were getting ready to go into production.

This was apparently because a couple of other environmental projects had delivered poor ratings and there had been a public debate about whether it was the BBC's job to "save the planet".

The cancellation had immediate implications for E-Day - the first being that it was likely to slide into oblivion - but also raised wider questions about the public's appetite for the climate issue.

Opinion polls show widespread concern about climate change, and a significant majority in favour of taking action - so why weren't people watching? Or were broadcasters being too timid?

Anyway - I decided to see whether I could make E-Day work as an independent venture. The environment charities, religious groups, energy companies and scientists I had been working with decided to remain involved, and the National Grid agreed it would still monitor national electricity use - so it seemed viable.

However, I had very little money to make things happen. A couple of charities came through with no strings attached funding, and the damage to my bank account - while still the equivalent of a deposit on a house - looked manageable.

Come the big day, thanks largely to some fantastically talented people giving their time for free, we had a superb website, a fresh and fun launch event at St Paul's Cathedral featuring the premiere of a bicycle-powered cinema, some lovely short films on YouTube and the agreement of some of the large energy companies to use E-Day to promote home insulation.

But the big disadvantage of working outside one of the big media or campaign groups is that you are dependent on others for publicity.

Without publicity, no-one would know that E-Day was happening, and so almost by definition it was bound to fail on both objectives - lowering energy use and spreading awareness.

In the end, this proved the project's Achilles heel.

The Sun covered our "Bjorn The Bear" video, the BBC News website carried a live data feed of electricity use, BBC News 24 filmed the launch, and 15 local radio stations interviewed me.

A Russian TV news channel, with an audience of 100 million, decided that E-Day was important enough to merit 10 minutes of prime time coverage, even during the Russian elections.

MTV phoned up and asked if they could be part of E-Day in the last few hours!

But it was not enough. As Kevin Costner might have said in Field of Dreams: "We built it; but they did not come".

I was deluged with emails saying, in a nutshell: "Great idea - wish I'd known about it".

It didn't help that the National Grid's prediction for "business as usual" electricity demand immediately ran into trouble.

The day was colder than expected, and this meant that more heating and lighting were being used than the Grid's experts had predicted; for a while, the graphs allowed you to conclude that E-Day had raised energy use - and maybe this dissuaded people from taking part.

Towards the end of E-Day, the Grid used actual weather data to update its predictions, and its final figures revealed that electricity use over the 24 hours of E-Day was 0.1% higher than would have been expected.

At first, I was hugely disappointed by this result.

But as the next morning dawned, and hundreds of encouraging emails started to pour in from children, businesses, councils and people overseas, I started to realise just how much had been achieved.

Now, a month or so on, I am able to step back a bit and ask: was it worth it?

First, the positives. Many energy companies, charities, academics and retailers set aside their day-to-day differences and found common cause; that has to bode well for the future.

Through E-Day, five major energy companies simplified the hoops that people have to jump through when they apply for help with home insulation; perhaps this is a model they can take forward now.

They are required to offer these services by law, so they might as well make it as easy as possible.

The together.com coalition of big companies pledged to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of their customers by 1 million tonnes in time for the next E-Day.

Will there be another E-Day, though?

Right now, I don't know. If there is, I hope that the next one will be bigger and better, and able to build on the ideas, lessons, support and interest generated this time around.

The novelty and ambition of E-Day appeared to create a rare set of conditions under which competitors felt they were missing out if they refused to join efforts to save energy and to come up with solutions to climate change.

However, the fact that E-Day couldn't guarantee high-profile coverage meant that many big and wealthy organisations decided they could say "yes" to contributing a low-cost idea and their logo, but "no" to spending any money on publicity.

There are of course other initiatives with similar aims, such as the recent Earth Hour.

All of them are worthwhile; what we must not do in the environmental community is create any sense of competition between them.

If different groups concentrate on promoting just their "own" ventures, none will achieve what they want. We must keep our common goal of reducing carbon emissions in mind.

Hopefully, next time around it will be possible for all the E-Day partners to promote it more whole-heartedly so that all of their customers and members know exactly when it is, what they are being asked to do and what solutions are on offer.

I also hope that a major media organisation or two will turn out to have a serious enough interest in saving energy that we can do something exciting and unique together in time for the next E-Day.

The Daily Mail's campaign to banish plastic bags appears to have borne fruit; the recent Budget gives supermarkets a year to put their houses in order, otherwise legislation will force them to.

To me, this shows that simple, focused campaigns with significant media coverage, designed to help the environment, can be effective and popular.

Comic Relief and Children in Need successfully campaign against poverty and child abuse; so I hope that backing sensible measures to save energy and urgently tackle climate change, to the level the science indicates to be necessary, will not frighten anyone in the British media for much longer.

Meanwhile, our leaders need to lead and our governments to govern, while customers and voters need to demand and support efforts to save energy and tackle climate change without delay.

In the end, bringing carbon emissions down as far as we need to will require not an E-Day but an E-lifetime; and we should grasp every chance we have to spread the word and start on the small steps that will make the big challenges we all face less daunting.

Picture: Zero Carbon City

Masdar City will be constructed in the desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. The aims are to use only renewable energy sources, and to eliminate 99% of the waste stream. This artist's impression shows wind turbines on the edge of the city and public transport links running through. The six-square-kilometer city designed by Foster and Partners, will be capable of housing 47,500 people, who are scheduled to start moving there in 2009. Construction is expected to take 10 years.

The city will be placed to take advantage of the cool sea breezes, while a perimeter wall around the entire city will protect buildings from the hot desert air and noise from the nearby Abu Dhabi airport.

No cars will be allowed in the city. People will get around through an electric light-rail system that will be linked to the center of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Reducing Commercial Refridgeration Costs

I mentioned before about becoming a green provocateur, and trying to suggest ways to companies to reduce their energy consumption, saving money and reducing CO2 emissions. Whilst I have yet to be proactive, I belive my first attempt failed stiffling my ambitions, as I received no reply.

I thought I would look closer to home for my second choice and thus emailed the directors of my medium sized employer, with about 140 employees. The issue at hand was commercial refridgeration, at each of the ten locations they operate, each store has about two to four commercial refridgeration units.

The solution to reducing the energy consumed across the group is a small wax cube measuring about 3 inches squared and simply mimics the food in your fridge, by hooking up the fridge or freezer thermostat. As the air temperature in the unit rapidly changes the food temperature does not drop as quickly. The wax cube allows the fridge to work less hard, more efficiently without compromising food quality or safety, by reducing the amount of cooling cycles. Typically saving about 16 to 33% of the energy required.

Savings on walk-in fridges and freezers could be as high as 1500 kWh per annum, which would translate to about £150 in savings and almost 750kg of CO2 reduced. My quick calculations suggest as a group we could save about 40 000 kWh per annum, £4000, and almost 20 tonnes of CO2, across our ten locations, I will also forward this on to our parent company which operates almost 1000 locations across the UK.

So what is this miracle wax cube with such potential, it is the eCube. Developed by Guy Lamstaes and colleagues and gained them a place on the Guardian's fifty people who could save the planet.

It has some strong support across the industry with testimonials from;

"We have carried out an independent trial with an eCube in one of our on-site kitchens, through the trial we made an energy saving of 17.78%. Based on these savings we will be rolling out the eCube across all of our sites. It is a simple idea that seems to be very effective in energy saving which will lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions."
Mike Wells, Head of Facilities, npower

If you are interested in having an eCube or two, you will be happy to realise they don't cost the earth at a mere £25 each, with a potential payback in two to four months, it's not a surprise how these are being implemented across the country.

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.