December 2004 Newsletter
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The following articles are reproduced from the December 2004 newsletter, and so any information within this page is correct only as of December 2004. For the latest up-to-date information, please visit the relevant campaign pages using the menu on the left, or by clicking on the image alongside the title of each article. |
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...
The waste campaign has so far focused on household recycling services.
We have devised a survey to gain the views of local
residents regarding kerbside recycling collection services. The survey
was first used at the Stockport Environment Fair and will
continue to be used over the coming months to build feedback on local
services. The survey can now be downloaded from our
website to enable you to complete the survey and return it to us. See
www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/waste.
Plans for 2005 for the waste campaign include:
• Working with the eco-schools scheme to encourage more children,
and their parents, to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste.
• Encouraging businesses to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste
– by increasing awareness of the need to reduce waste and by increasing
awareness of the services available.
• Researching methods of implementing recycling services for waste
streams not currently available in the Manchester area.
If you want to get involved in the waste campaign please email
recycle@manchesterfoe.org.uk
or get in touch using the details on page two.
To find details of the recycling bank nearest to you call the Recycling Team on 0161 954 9000 or visit the waste page of our website: www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/waste
If you want to become a recycling community champion for your area please call David Groves on 0161 223 8200.
Colette
Waste campaign co-ordinator:
Colette Humphrey (colette@manchesterfoe.org.uk)
Watching the Christmas Waste Line
Christmas Cards
• Send e-cards rather than buying paper cards.
• Buy cards made from 100% recycled paper.
• Recycle the cards you receive after Christmas - take them to
Boots, Tesco or WH Smith who all have recycling points.
Gift Wrapping
• Use wrapping paper made from 100% recycled paper.
Christmas Trees
• Buy a tree that you can plant in the garden after Christmas.
• Take your tree to a recycling centre after Christmas – contact
your local council for details.
Gifts
• Give money/ gift vouchers or theatre/cinema tickets as presents.
• Give presents made from recycled materials – see
www.recycledproducts.org.uk
or www.recyclenow.com
for details and ideas.
• Buy subscriptions and memberships for longer-lasting present
ideas.
• Give unwanted presents to charity shops.
Shopping
• Buy products with minimal packaging.
• Buy presents from Fair Trade suppliers, to ensure the products
were made in a sustainable way.
• Buy food and drinks in containers that can be easily reused or
recycled.
• Use reusable shopping bags.
• Reuse and/or recycle plastic shopping bags.
Colette
Dreaming of a Green Christmas
In the UK at Christmas we send up to 1 billion Xmas cards, consume an extra 750m bottles and glass containers and another 500m drinks cans! We use approximately 83 sq km of wrapping paper and buy half a million Christmas trees - most of this ends up as waste in landfill.
Try to buy presents that last long after Christmas is over and avoid overpackaging. Support local designers and avoid the high street by buying your presents at local shops, markets and craft centres. Alternatively, Fairtrade (www.fairtrade.org.uk) promotes a fair deal to Third World producers and tells you where to buy these products. Oxfam for example has joined with Traidcraft to sell ethical gifts on-line and the Natural Collection catalogue offers a big range of organic, energy-efficient and fair-trade items (www.naturalcollection.com). For a list of fair trade shops in Manchester have a look our www.realfoodguide.org.uk.
When buying Christmas cards make sure they are printed on recycled paper, or are Forest Stewardship Council approved and remember smaller cards use less paper. Or send E-cards (see www.foe.co.uk/ cards/index.html). Christmas cards can't be recycled with normal paper. This year WH Smiths and Tesco have teamed up with The Woodland Trust for a card-recycling scheme. Cards could be used for arts and craft projects with your kids. Reuse the envelopes or cut out the stamps from all your Christmas letters and donate them to, for example, the British Kidney Patient Association, who sell them and use the proceeds for their Children's Holiday Fund to give young kidney patients the chance of a break (Children's Holiday Fund Appeal, British Kidney Patient Association, Bordon, Hampshire, GU35 9JZ).
Most Christmas trees are farmed like crops and use pesticides. How about treating yourself to a new plant you can enjoy all year and decorate it? Or maybe use an existing one? Or use an artificial tree instead of a real one. But if you prefer a real one buy one of Greater Manchester's sustainable Christmas trees (www.tree2mydoor.com). Alternatively rooted trees can be replanted as garden trees if looked after carefully.
Instead of buying Christmas tree decorations, be creative and make them! For example, create a gingerbread house or beautiful garlands (www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson55.html). Or buy decorations that can be used again and again, you can find nice ones at the Christmas market in town or visit charity shops such as Oxfam and pick some up from there. Take your Christmas tree to one of Manchester's civic amenity sites for recycling. There are three in Manchester: Longley Lane in Sharston, Reliance Street in Newton Heath and Sandfold Lane in Levenshulme. Alternatively contact the council about dropping it at your local park for mulching or give it to Chorlton Water Park for recycling.
When wrapping your presents re-use paper or make your own individual wrapping paper by using newsprint, maps, posters or left over wall paper. Instead of wrapping paper try to use gift bags as they can easily be reused. But if you prefer wrapping paper buy one that can easily be recycled. Rather than spending lots of money on gift tags cut up used greeting tags and use them!
After the hectic run up to Christmas, enjoy a Christmas meal made from home-grown, organic ingredients and relax with a bottle of organic wine or juice, which you can buy from many places around the city - check out our real food website to find a shop near where you live!
And when it's all over... pass good quality unwanted presents onto charity shops including all the plastic bags you got in the run up to Christmas (every plastic bag in landfill takes 500 years to decay), and recycle and compost as much waste as you can.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Kerstin
Take the Airport Pledge
Join hundreds of people from all over the country who are angry about the scale of the Government's airport expansion plans. ...after only two months more than thousand people had already signed it!
The pledge is a response to the Government's Aviation White Paper launched a year ago. It shows the Government the scale of opposition to unnecessary airport growth and that those who sign it are ready to take personal non-violent action to oppose runway development. The White Paper forecast a near-trebling of passengers using UK airports over the next 30 years and cleared the way for Manchester Airport to have roughly the same number of flights as Heathrow does now within this timeframe.
The pledge is your chance to register your opposition to airport expansion and choose an action to take that is entirely a matter of your personal choice. By signing the pledge you make sure your opposition is recognised from the outset.
Help us to fight unnecessary airport expansion and sign the pledge at www.airportpledge.org.uk or send your statement to The Airport Pledge, 16b Cherwell Street, Oxford OX4 1BG.* There are far more effective ways to manage the rapidly growing demand for air transport!
Kerstin
* Please provide your full name, postal address or email. Your personal information is confidential and will never be given to anyone. Only your name/ nickname and your personal pledge will be listed on the website.
4x4s Action Just the Ticket
We are having a "Stop Urban 4x4s" day of action on Saturday December 18th. Camden FoE originated the idea of printing "parking tickets" for large urban 4x4s parked on city streets (nowhere near the mountains or wilderness you see in the adverts) pointing out what a poor vehicle choice they are for urban areas. If you would like to come along and help ticket a few petrol guzzling monsters, please join us at the Friends Meeting House at 10am. Please contact us if you would like to join in!
Dave
Transport campaign co-ordinator:
Graeme Sherriff (graeme@manchesterfoe.org.uk)
Halve Your CO2 Emissions
The Atkinsons achieved this by switching to a renewable electricity supplier and by deciding to stay in the UK for a holiday instead of flying to the USA.
These are the figures for the Atkinson family, who are typical users of gas and electricity. They have a car which does about 12000 miles a year. The numbers show the tonnes of CO2 emitted.
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The next goals for the Atkinson family are to reduce their car fuel use by changing to a more economical model and to have their house checked for energy efficiency by the local energy advice centre.
Dave
First Manchester, Then the World...
So far over 200 households in Manchester have signed our MFoE Big Switch pledges to consider switching to an electricity supplier whose energy is produced only from renewable sources. In addition we have distributed many more Switch Guides at events, meetings and through our newsletter and other mailings. We have also handed out over 150 low energy light-bulbs to help households reduce their CO2 emission right away. We have already received messages from some households to say they have switched - please e-mail us the good news if you have! We will be reviewing the overall success of the Big Switch campaign in February.
On the good news front, in October Russia agreed to ratify the Kyoto protocol on Climate Change. As 126 nations responsible for more than 55% of the worlds CO2 emitters now subscribe, the protocol has come into force and takes effect on February 16th 2005. Getting most of the world's industrial nations to sign up is a major step forward both because it will hopefully result in a genuine focus on slowing our growth in Climate Change gas emissions (the protocol targets a 5.2% reduction in 1990 levels by 2008-12) as well as highlighting even further the US and Australia's world isolation in refusing to sign. Less welcome news in November however was that the re-election of the Bush administration probably makes US ratification even more remote. The rest of the world is going to have to continue to cope with an administration that still explicitly refuses to acknowledge that Climate Change exists.
Dave
Climate campaign co-ordinator:
Dave Coleman (dave@manchesterfoe.org.uk)
New Year Resolutions
If you have...
...15 minutes a week
Why not sit down and consider your journeys for the next week? How will you make them in a way that will cut environmental pollution, save time, money and stress? Go to www.gmpte.gov.uk to check out your public transport options.
...1 hour a week
Go to our guide www.realfoodguide.org.uk and find your nearest 'real food' shop. Why not take a trip and check out the healthy and environmentally friendly options?
...2 hours a week
Get involved with Manchester FoE! Come along to one of our meetings and see what you can do as part of our campaigns. A calendar of meetings and actions is on our website.