Review by M V Smith
I could not say as to whether the “DIY Planet Repairs Kit” that is being sent out by the Office of the Mayor of London, is Mr, Livingstone's personal idea and brainchild (though I do doubt that), but then that is neither here nor there.
What, honestly, is supposed to be achieved by sending out, at cost to the environment and London Council Tax payers, a little kit in a cardboard box (recycled board???) consisting of a little A6-size booklet of 42 pages, though well written, with some suggestions (we shall look at one or two of those later on) on how to be a little green, a coffee mug, which could be suggested as a water measure for the kettle as it has the slogan “Only boil enough water for the cups you are making”, a 4-minute “egg-timer” intended to be used as a timer for the shower so you only shower for four minutes, some stickers and a button badge, beats me.
The suggestions in the booklet are OK and also well written, such as “waste not, want not” on page 7, as well as many other suggestions and pieces of advice. One did make me rather smile, as I assume that I will not have been alone in that respect, and that was on page 10 where it states “Don't rush to flush – if it's just a pee”, suggesting not to flush the toilet every time that one visits it for the “pee”. I am sure, though, that some folks may not have smiled that that suggestion but have thought it rather outrageous. I am in fact not among those but think of it as rather good advice, considering how much water is, literally, poured down the drain each and every time we pull that lever or that chain. However, might I ask as to whether the Mayor of London does follow this advice himself?
Though I do live just outside of Greater London I was nevertheless kindly sent the kit upon request, without mentioning the publication even, though it took about two months at least to arrive; I did get advised of the delay and the reasons for this and received updates on a regular interval by email. The reason given was that the demand had been much higher than anticipated and therefore there were delays in getting the kits out to those who asked for them. I must say that I find the entire thing quite cute, but... I do believe that the small booklet would really have sufficed, or better still it would have been had it been just a publication on treeless paper, e.g. downloadable as a PDF, on the website only.
I am not knocking the kit per se but, like mentioning the packaging on the “Bye, Bye, Standby Kit”, I am thinking about the cost of to the environment here. It is all supposed to be about reducing our carbon footprint and all that jazz but the government offices who thus advice the public churn our tons and tons of paper, etc. in the effort to tell people to not to use so much paper, to use virtual newspapers instead of paper ones, etc. Often it appears to be the old nanny-state adage “do as I say and not as I do”. That, in my opinion, is just not good enough.
Mayor Ken's DIY Planet Repairs Kit
Green up your garden this Autumn – Gardening Tips from Ecover
Spending time in the garden is one of the most relaxing ways to spend a weekend. It is also a great way to lower your food miles (by growing your own vegetables), encourage biodiversity (by planting for wildlife) and reduce your kitchen waste (by composting!). You might already be reducing the amount of chemicals in your home but why not follow some of our top tips for greening your garden
Avoid using pesticides and insecticides in your garden, try out some natural alternatives instead. For example crushed eggshells or sharp grit is an excellent alternative slug repellent.
Re-use household rubbish in the garden ice lolly sticks for plant labels, egg boxes for seed trays and compost your kitchen waste in a wormery. With a bit of imagination your empty Ecover washing up liquid bottle could become anything from a mini-cloche to a bird feeder. Email your garden inventions to newsletter.ecover@greenhq.co.uk (Please also share them with this journal - Ed.)
To combat a slippery moss covered path add half a pack of Ecover chlorine free laundry bleach to a watering can and sprinkle over. The moss should quickly die off.
Save water by installing a water butt. Alternatively try out a Drought Buster, which uses the siphon principle to empty your bath water onto your garden.
Here are 5 top gardening tips for Autumn to help you on your way to greener fingers:
1. Don’t be too tidy! Worms love leaf litter and a healthy lawn will benefit from worms dragging fallen leaves into their burrows below the turf.
2. Don’t bother with bonfires. Pile all your autumnal trimmings into a corner of the garden: compost heaps provide habitat for all sorts of helpful gardening allies, like hibernating hedgehogs, nesting bumblebees or slug munching slow worms.
3. Leave stands of teasels, evening primrose and even sweet corn plants to over winter; the seed will provide forage for flocks of finches and all those nooks and crannies in the wrinkled vegetation will house hundreds of hibernating invertebrates.
4. Make (or buy) some bug boxes, hollow tubes like bamboo canes, cow parsley or even the dreaded Japanese knotweed make superb dwellings for safety seeking bugs. Stuffing plastic bottles or steel cans with layers of stems or bark and placing them in a protected place ensconced in a log pile or cleft of a shrub is not only fun but provides habitat for ladybirds and lacewings alike.
5. Many species of birds will be looking to put on some weight in anticipation of colder and harder times ahead so its a good time to clean bird table and feeders before offering winter time treats like sunflower hearts or suet.
Being greener in the garden by encouraging wildlife is easy and fun particularly if you get the kids involved!
Jewish National Fund Launches Environmental Awareness and Carbon Offset Program
As a new year dawns for the Earth and its inhabitants, we must take responsibility for its future. Jewish National Fund, Israel’s oldest environmental organization, is proud to announce JNF GoNeutral - An Environmental Movement for Tomorrow
You are invited to our site www.jnf.org/goneutral, where you can calculate the average amount of carbon dioxide you put out each year by answering a series of questions about lifestyles and energy consumption, and then offset these emissions by supporting JNF’s century-old afforestation program in Israel. Trees play an important role in the Earth’s carbon cycle, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and breaking it down into carbon and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the air while the carbon is sequestered in the tree.
You can also support JNF’s other cutting-edge environmental work, such as the research and development of alternative energy sources, water desalination and recycling techniques, arid land management, and combating desertification.
Actor Chris Noth has kicked off the campaign, becoming the first person to "GoNeutral" with JNF. Known for his roles as Mr. Big on "Sex and the City" and Detective Mike Logan on "Law and Order," Noth, a committed environmentalist, has been a friend of JNF since he planted an olive tree in JNF's Presidents Forest in Jerusalem on a visit to Israel in 2004.
Since 1901, JNF has utilized its world-renowned forestry expertise to plant more than 240 million trees in Israel, transforming 250,000 acres of arid land into sustainable forests. These trees have absorbed an estimated 110 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. JNF also leads the world in water desalination and purification techniques and organizes international conferences on desertification and arid land management.
“With a century of experience in greening the landscape of Israel, JNF has evolved into a global environmental leader and is uniquely positioned to spearhead this campaign about environmental accountability within the worldwide Jewish community,” said Rabbi Eric M. Lankin, D.Min., JNF’s chief of institutional advancement and education. "Our Jewish tradition reminds us of our responsibility for the Earth. JNF GoNeutral reaches out to both young and old, making them active participants in protecting our planet's future."
Because the first and most important step in curtailing climate change is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the GoNeutral website.
www.jnf.org/goneutral also lists simple ways to cut down on energy consumption at home, in the office, and on the road, encouraging participants to reduce their emissions as much as possible.
GoNeutral with JNF. Visit www.jnf.org/goneutral.
Nylon teabags coming to a supermarket near you
Supermarkets in the UK, apparently, have begun stocking teabags made from nylon mesh, rather than the traditional perforated tissue paper.
Experts predict the nylon variety, said to be the next best thing to loose leaf tea, could come to replace the paper version.
The bags are based on a Japanese innovation from the 1980s, and Asda, which is owned by Wal Mart, uses the new-style translucent nylon teabags for its Extra Special range, while Sainsbury's now sells St James fruit teas, made with silky, food-grade nylon. The bags are large enough to be filled with whole leaf tea, fruit, flowers and herbs.
The nylon bags are around four times more expensive than the paper version and have previously only been available at specialist tea shops. This is the first time they have gone on sale in mainstream high street stores.
While experts say that “these nylon mesh tea bags are the next best thing to whole leaf tea brewed in a teapot," it beats me why we do not, in fact, rather use loose leaves in a pot or, if you have to brew in a cup, why not use a infuser. I know of some people who carry their own tea and infusers to do just that.
This is the world gone mad entirely, in my view. While everyone is being encouraged to recycle and to compost where possible along come teabags that cannot be composted so, you have to open the bags if you want to compost the tea leaves and you still have something left that is not biodegradable, and that is rather a messy affair. This is utter madness.
"Hopefully, this type of bag will become the norm”, said the same expert. I rather hope not and I hope that the environmentally conscious consumers will send this idea to where it belongs. Into the annals of stupid ideas and inventions. Nylon is a product of the petroleum industry and do I really want to brew my tea in “plastic”? I do not think so.
I would rather see the demise of the teabag altogether in the interest of the planet and the return to proper tea in the pot – or by use of a infuser. In some supermarkets I find it is actually difficult to actually buy loose tea and let's not even talk of teas that are not “standard” such as a favorite of mine, South African Redbush tea. It seems to be only available in teabags.
Let's hear it for the loose tea and the infuser.
© M V Smith, November 2007
Reelight – Product Review
On Sunday, November 4, 2007, I finally managed to get around to fitting the set of Reelight SL100 Flash Extended that I received as a review sample at the Cycle 2007 Show at Earls Court, in London, a couple of weeks ago, to my Raleigh Pioneer Classic bicycle.
Reelights are “driving lights” for bicycles with no need for batteries as they have theyr own own energy source by magnetic induction. They are made with LEDs with long lasting durability and tested also under severe climate condition
Bikelights have a documented increase in safety with up to 32% for cyclists. Reelight bike lights are for cyclists who need stronger and always turned on bike lights. Motorbikes and cars drive with constantly turned on driving lights in many countries – and make themselves thereby much more visible and safe when in the traffic. Bike lights are made to light your bike up day and night. Because Reelight bike lights are very strong, always on due to their own power source and no need for batteries and the fact that they are on as soon as the wheel moves you will also be more visible during day light. This means more safety for you when riding your bicycle as you are seen easier by other road users, whether during the day or in the dark.
While the fitting is quite easy to achieve for anyone with a little experience and knowledge in fixing up bicycles and who has the right toolkit one could benefit from some more detailed fitting instructions. Despite the fact that I am quite versed in fixing up bicycles and have a rather comprehensive toolkit for cycles it took me the best part of an hour for fix the set of lights to the bike. I would, therefore, recommend that anyone not all that well versed in cycle maintenance and repair have this set of lights fitted by a cycle mechanic.
While the version that I was given for review, namely the SL100, does not continue flashing at stopovers, the SL120 version, apparently, does. I cannot, however, report on it as the review sample is the previous version, e.g. version SL100.
As for a little ride report I can only say that the flashes are very bright, even in daylight, and there is no loss of kinetic energy from the magnets in the wheels.
As those lights do not use any batteries whatsoever it should and has quite nice green credentials. One part, unfortunately, offsets that into the negative direction and that is, like with the “Bye, Bye, Standby” kit I reviewed a while back, the fact that the packaging is, to a great extent, plastic “wrap” of a kind that is hard or even impossible to recycle, according to waste managers at some councils.
I am sure that one could use just a cardboard pack like is used, for instance, with the Pedalite pedals.
Review by M V Smith, November 2007
Reelight website
Recycling alone will not do
Even if we would recycle everything that can be recycled in the UK – and the same is probably true also for elsewhere – there would still simply too much waste. Something must be done with that.
There is only one answer to this problem; we simply MUST reduce our waste; the waste that we produce in households, in industry and especially the packaging waste and I am not only referring here to the plastic carrier bags.
The problem is that, probably even then, after the step above, there will still be some stuff left that needs to be disposed off. In an ideal world, maybe, that would not be the case but...
...we do not live in an ideal world and won't be, I am sure, for some time to come.
Therefore the non-recyclable waste must be used to produce energy, whether this is by means of incineration in waste-fuelled electricity power plants – no NIMBYS please – or by anaerobic digestion and the use of the resultant methane gas for the generation of electricity, or as gas for heating and cooking, does not matter. What matters is that holes in the ground are no longer an option.
Other countries can do it and are doing it rather well. However, when this even gets as much as suggested in Britain firstly everyone – especially the likes of those that claim that they are all for the environment – gets up in arms against such incinerating electricity generators and we are also being told that it cannot be in Britain as, apparently, Britain is different to Germany, Holland or Sweden. Then again we are also told that Britain is different when it comes to, say, micro-generation of electricity and selling of possible surplus from such activities back to the national electricity grid, but then, that is rather another story.
Regarding waste we have only one major option and that, aside from recycling, is reducing the waste that we produce. We must look at recycling maybe also in a different light, e.g. Not so much to the large commercial operation but in fact looking at the craftsman or -woman who has ideas of how to turn waste into reusable items. This, however, also requires a different approach by banks and grant-giving bodies. I guess this is, however, again something that could not possibly be done in the UK.
Food for thought, I hope...
...now let's go and make a change.
© M V Smith, November 2007
Don't rush to flush -
- if it's just a pee
This is the advice given in the DIY Planet Repairs Toolkit (review of this little "kit" to follow soon) from the Office of the Mayor of London.
While the idea of not flushing the lavatory each and every time, even if it was just a “pee”, may offend some people and even be considered unhygienic and even unclean by some, it would save lots of water if we all would follow this advice. Each and every time the loo is flushed “unnecessarily”, gallons of perfectly good water are just literally poured down the drain.
If we see that even in countries as rich – at least in some places that country is – as the USA there are places where water has become so scarce that the supply has to be trucked in by tanker and then is released from a water tower to the community only for a few hours each day then such advice as given in that booklet from the London Mayor's Office might be worth more than just a little consideration. Who know is we not all, one day, be faced with similar water shortages as are being reported from the USA, if we do not learn to conserve water.
While households are one source of water wastage often, as with all too frequent flushing of the lavatory and leaving the tap running while brushing teeth (Why would anyone do that? What's wrong with using a beaker?), industry is one of the major users and indeed wasters of water, though only second in line after the water companies themselves who do not fix leaks and broken pipes fast enough. Before they should even be permitted to tell their customers to conserve water, however important and necessary this may be and is, they must get their own act together first and sort out those pipes that seem to be more porous than a sieve and that are for ever leaking gallons and gallons of water into the surrounding soil and elsewhere.
© M V Smith, November 2007
Love Food Hate Waste campaign launched in the UK
LONDON - New research has revealed that Britons waste a whooping 6.7 million tons of unused fresh fruit, vegetables and baked items annually. The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimated that the cost of these food items touches at least £8 billion per year.
Therefore a new campaign called 'Love Food Hate Waste' has been launched in the country with an aim of increasing awareness among consumers. The organizers estimated that almost one third of all food purchased in Britain's High Street ends up being wasted.
Food that is thrown away often ends in landfills, where it decays and released gases like methane, which are classified greenhouse gases. The WRAP claims that when energy expended to pack and transport the food is taken into account, almost 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide is spewed into the atmosphere.
"Our research showed that 90 per cent of consumers are completely unaware of the amount of food they throw away. Once attention is drawn to it however, we know that people are surprised and keen to take action," said Liz Goodwin, chief executive of WRAP. "If we could halt the amount of food being wasted in this way, we would make a big impact – the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads."
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign is also being backed by celebrity chefs including Ainsley Harriott, who said that throwing away vast amounts of food was a criminal waste. "You don't have to be a chef to know how to cut down on food waste, you just need to care about your food and your pocket and the rest will follow," he added.
For more information on the campaign as well as tips to prepare and store food, please visit the website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
RSPB Gone Crazy?!?
The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has bought, so I understand, an area of 1800 acres of prime farming land on the coast of Essex, UK, and is intending to flood it with seawater to create a salt marsh for wading birds.
Duh? Why? Why reduce prime agricultural land that Dutch engineers wrested from the sea some 150 years or so ago at great expense to a useless salt marsh; in other words, to return it to what it was before it was reclaimed?
Yes, OK, for the wading birds and all that jazz and I am all for the environment but... Why destroy productive land? This is environmentalism gone made.
The RPSB, which is a charity, seems to have accumulated too much money from subscription from its members, donations and other sources (and maybe the Charity Commission should take a little look into what it going on) and if I would be a member of that organization which, thank the Gods I am not, I would cancel my membership sort of yesterday.
Environmentalism gone mental is not, it has to be said, the sole prerogative of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Other environmental organizations too have their share in this, including such organizations as Friends of the Earth. They should about the need for renewable energy but as soon as a wind farm or a wave energy plant is proposed somewhere they go up in arms against it. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot have wind energy and other renewables – and we must get away from bio fuel that comes from palm oil (this is another subject though) – without placing the plants for this somewhere. Not in my back yard does not work with this. Time everyone realized that.
Just my 2cents on this subject.
© M V Smith, November 2007
Bye, Bye, Standby – Product Review
Bye, Bye, Standby
• The average household wastes around £37 each year by leaving appliances on standby – across the UK this is equivalent to the annual output of about 2½ 700MW power stations!
• Households in the UK now waste around 10% of their electricity bill on standby power.
• The average household has up to 12 gadgets left on standby or charging at any one time.
Source: Energy Saving Trust
Switch appliances off at the wall… we all could do it, but what proportion of people actually do, and what impact does this simple oversight have on the world we live in? Also, who wants to crawls about under the desk at the end of the working day or at home to get to the sockets to turn off the PC, the printer, the scanner, etc. and, to a degree, the same is true with the TV, Hi-Fi, etc. Often the sockets are actually behind the very units that house the appliances. The Energy Saving Trust’s “Habits of Lifetime” survey concludes that 71% of householders admit to leaving appliances on standby. Surely in a world of climate change we all have a social responsibility to do the best to protect our environment and the world we live in for our children?
Domia has created a product that is both simple and affordable for consumers.
Bye Bye Standby is a brand new energy saving and cost cutting solution designed for both home and office use. A clever combination of smart sockets and a wireless remote control enables users to cut power to any appliance consuming energy in standby mode at the simple touch of a button.
An independent test confirms that a family of four using three Bye Bye Standby devices could save around £38 per annum (the price of this kit, if I understand that correctly) – a result directly in line with the claim made by the Energy Saving Trust. Furthermore, if the majority of UK households were to adopt this energy saving kit, then we could save around 8.4 TWh of energy (about half the potential output power of a coal-fired power station).
E2 Energy Solutions Expo 2007 at Olympia saw the launch of the Bye, Bye, Standby Office Energy Savings Kit”.
This is, basically the upgrade, so to speak, from the “Bye, Bye, Standby Energy Savings Kit” for the home environment, which has been on the market now for a little while already.
While the domestic kit come with just three plug in devices and a small remote control the office version comes with four devices and both the remote and the plug in devices are a little meatier than the domestic units.
During my visit to the show and the stand of “ Bye, Bye, Standby/Domia Ltd.” I was kindly given (my thanks to Judy Wakelin for providing the kit) a domestic version of the kit which is good enough for the purpose of the review and for continued use in my small home office.
The installation, is one can call it thus, just could not have been more simple. The little socket device gets plugged into the mains outlet (or into a power strip as I have done) and you can then control, using a power strip, safely, up to four devices, e.g. Monitor, TV, scanner, printer, etc.
I must admit that I have plugged a strip into the device with six devices connected and that too works well (though I would not recommend that to the amateur). The power rating is 4 amps and scanner, powered USB hub, monitor (LCD), external DVD burner, speakers and external hard disc drive, I doubt, will ever get anywhere near that kind of load of 4 amps.
Up to now, I have to confess, those devices, with the exception of the external hard drive, always remained on, and all remained on at their power supplies. The scanner could not ever be turned off physically as it has not even got a power on/off switch. Silly construction, I know. We must never forget that any power supply (mains adaptor) when left plugged into a mains outlet uses power, and nearly as much as it the units themselves were running. They also tend to get very hot.
As said, fixing them was child's play and so is using them. With devices like these available – OK, they are not cheap – you have now no excuse for leaving things unnecessarily switched on. The kit will pay for itself in a least a year, I am sure, through the saving you make in electricity costs. And not only that. You are helping the environment too.
There is but one problem with the green credentials of this gadget and that is the blister packaging that it comes in, aside from the fact that it is a struggle to get into the packaging, as it appears to be of the usual kind of plastic this stuff is made from which, as far as I am led to believe by the waste managers of several Councils, is non-recyclable. Would it, therefore, not be better to package the product in a box made from post-consumer recycled cardboard, which breaks down in the soil, making it thereby home compostable? We have far too much of this kind of packaging around as it goes and especially for a product that is designed to help reduce one's carbon footprint environmentally friendly packaging, I think, should be a must.
Now, what's stopping you from doing your part to cut down your electricity consumption? Go out and get a kit or two and make your home more energy efficient in this way.
© M V Smith, October 2007
