Song of the Day – Better off Alone by Grinspoon

Sit back, relax and enjoy a great song.
Grinspoon are one of those little Aussie bands that have grown over the years and have a great following in Australia, but haven’t really made themselves known around the world. Good for us

Grinspoon are an Australian alternative/post-grunge rock band from Lismore, fronted by Phil Jamieson with Pat Davern on guitar, Joe Hansen on bass and Kristian Hopes on drums.

Founded in 1995, they came to fame when they were Unearthed by national, commercial-free radio station Triple J thanks to their track “Sickfest”. The band name was taken from marijuana supporter Dr Lester Grinspoon. The band has at times promoted recreational drugs during concerts and in their song lyrics.

Rubbish Answers: An Interview With A Recycling Officer

Life Goggles has teamed up with a real life recycling officer to talk about the environment as well as recycling, reducing and reusing. We call him the Recycled Man.

In the first of a series of interviews we asked Recycled Man about rubbish (or “trash” in the USA).

Life Goggles: Thanks for joining us to do this, I’m sure our readers will find your insider knowledge valuable. Everyone seems to be talking about the environment at the moment. How large a part does recycling play in stopping climate change?

Recycled Man: Hi, thanks for inviting me in. Thinking about the way we deal with our rubbish in a wider sense, including reducing the waste we create in the first place as well making the effort to recycle what we do end up using, is definitely an important part of being environmentally responsible.

And while melting icecaps and rising sea levels are the issues currently attracting the environmental headlines, recycling and the way we manage our waste is important not just in relation to climate change but also to other environmental challenges.

So while you might try to ease your CO₂ footprint through offsetting your next flight (perhaps planting some trees on the other side of the world) or buying a few energy-saving lightbulbs, this will not solve the problem of where all our rubbish will go if we don’t start doing more sensible things with it – namely recycling a greater proportion of it or better still not producing it in the first place.

This is because the current destination for much of our rubbish – landfill sites – are rapidly filling up and new sites will quite rightly not be made available. What we do when the landfill sites are full, if we have not managed to significantly cut the level of rubbish we create or recycle a lot more of what we do use, is an enormous and disturbing question.

Landfill has various unpleasant environmental consequences (such as the risk of contaminating water supplies) and if your council is still sending too much rubbish the way of landfill you’ll soon know about it from the hike on council tax bills as a result of the penalties that can be imposed through European legislation.

And coming back to the issue of climate change, landfill sites let off the greenhouse gas (and prime contributor to global warming) methane. In addition, simply throwing our rubbish into a hole or burning it does not do anything to ease the pressure on the earth’s over-exploited resources.

Recycling, on the other hand, reduces the need to make brand new products from raw materials. Materials like cans and glass bottles can be recycled back into the products they were using a fraction of the energy used when making them from new – for example, a can made from recycled aluminium uses just 5% of the energy of a can made from the raw material. Reprocessing materials also helps to avoid or minimise the problems that go along with extraction through quarrying, drilling for oil and commercial forestry.

We need to understand what affect our rubbish has on the environment and that recycling has a major role to play in reducing climate change.

We’ll be hearing more from the Recycled Man soon. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Green Gyms

Whilst we’ve previously talked about gyms that generate electricity from your workout, the BTCV have a scheme called Green Gyms.

Green Gyms are a scheme that allows you to help the environment whilst getting exercise at the same time. All sessions are free, and you could be planting trees, cutting hedges, laying a path and so on. Not only will you feel fitter, you will be making a difference to your environment.

[Link: BTCV]

Where To Start – 3 Simple Steps To Going Green

There are three easy steps to making yourself green. These are not the only steps, you can read our 100 Ways To Save The Planet post for that, and not massive steps either, but these are the three ways to start you on the road to becoming a green person – reduce, reuse and recycle.

Step 1: Reduce

Reducing the amount of ’stuff’ you use is the first and most important step to being green. As Life Goggles’ recycling expert said: “While it’s better to recycle than throw away, it’s best not to use something at all.”

But was does that mean in a practical sense? Simply it means not wasting things and deciding whether you actually need something in the first place.

So where to start? Wastage can be anything from putting too much water in the kettle using more energy and more water than you needed, leaving your phone plugged in when it’s fully charged, or leaving lights on. It’s also about walking to the shops rather than using petrol and damaging the environment in your car or carrying than newspaper and bottle of coke home in your hand rather than using another plastic bag.

These days it’s all about packaging that you end up throwing away. Even if your pears are packaged in biodegradable plastic and a cardboard tray – do you really need them? Just put them loose into your basket, not much harm will come to them. Fruit like bananas especially don’t need a bag to go in – they already have a protective skin on. Do you need the microwave plugged in all the time or can you do without a bath every night and take a shower.

If you don’t use it, then you don’t need to reuse it and then you don’t need to recycle it.

Step 2: Reuse

Obviously you do have to use some things, so reusing them is still better than recycling – that takes a lot of energy and effort. To use an example from above, most people can’t go without taking a shower every day. But that water doesn’t have to go to waste. If you use natural products to clean yourself you can fill up the watering can or the dishbowl while you’re in there. Sound ridiculous? People who have a water meter certainly notice the difference – cheaper bills.

Some people go by the mantra – everything can be used three times. A worn out bed sheet can be converted to pillow cases and then can be used a scrap cloths before they are finally thrown away.

Everyone seems to be banging on about plastic bags and quite rightly. If you can refuse to have one, great, but if you have to have one, use one from the last shop you did or use a organic cotton bag or even using one of the many ‘bags for life’ is better than nothing.

However, reusing is about more than plastic bags. It’s reusing everything and anything – you can even ‘reuse’ food waste by composting it.

But sometimes you won’t even think of reusing certain things – what do you do with old half tins of paint, useless spectacles or old cassette tapes? Even if you can’t reuse something, someone else can. There are ways to reuse a lot of things, especially environmentally unfriendly items that are hard to dispose of. Take a look around Life Goggles for more ideas.

Reusing is the ultimate, pain free recycling.

Step 3: Recycle

When you’ve cut back all you can, reused everything possible and are finally still left with something to go in the bin, it might be able to be recycled. While recycling takes a lot of energy, it’s a lot less than to produce another one of the things you’re about to throw away. An aluminium can for example takes 80% less energy to recycle than to make a brand new one.

The obvious things that can be recycled are glass, aluminium and paper/card – if you do it at home and the office it can make a difference. Plastic can also be recycled, you’ll just need to check which types your council can do.

And even more awkward things can be recycled. For example Tetra-Paks – such as those orange juice cartons that are cardboard with aluminium inside and a plastic lid- can be recycled now, check here for details.

It can take a little effort, but it’s possible to get your rubbish bin to miss you as you throw less and less away. But what’s next?

Step 4: …

Yep, there’s a step 4 and 5 and 6 and so on. Once you’ve got the green bug, there’s no stopping you. You’ll find you start spreading the word to others, ringing up the council, organising collections and getting kids involved. In fact it’s they’re future you’re trying to help, maybe they’ll be getting you involved!

So make a start, have a look around Life Goggles and if you can’t find what you want, ask us, we’re nice people. Honest. You could read our very popular 100 quick and easy ways to save the planet. If you have less time, try our top 10 tips to reduce your carbon footprint.

Organ and Blood Donation Awareness

Of course, it’s a personal choice if you wish to donate your organs, but if you decide to you could be helping some of the 1,700 people in Australia, 50,000 people in Latin America, more that 170,000 people in Europe and the United States, and over 2 million people in China who are in need of an organ transplant. Without one, these people will probably die, and at the very least have a better standard of life.

In the UK it’s easy to become a donor and join some of the people who have enabled 3,000 people to have a new lease of life. Go here if you’re in the US, else try these worldwide links.

Giving blood is also a way of providing help to others. Again, in the UK it’s easy, just visit the blood donation website and sign up, and in the US go here.

Latest Green News

There hasn’t been a latest green news for a while, so here’s an extra long one for you to enjoy.

Marks & Spencer is to ban petrol-fuelled company cars, recycle more coat hangers and give its chickens more room to roam, according to new eco-pledges to be announced today. The 33-page report, contained in its annual corporate social responsibility review published alongside its annual report and accounts, makes 100 commitments to tackle climate change, cut waste, increase sustainability, encourage healthier lifestyles and make M&S a ‘fair partner’ to do business with.

Ikea is switching its entire UK company-car fleet to hybrid vehicles as a prelude to a possible company-wide shift to greener vehicles. The company said it would trade in its Skoda company cars for Honda Civic hybrids by next year in a pilot programme that it is considering extending to other countries.

The cost of organic fruit and vegetables could fall after the discovery of a new technique which extends the shelf life of fresh produce. Scientists have found that treating apples with short bursts of oxygen allows them to be kept in cold storage for as long as eight months without them developing any blemishes.

B&Q will this week pledge to abandon the sale of the endangered hardwood merbau at its Chinese stores amid criticism of China’s timber trade and mounting concern about the contribution of illegal logging to global warming. Executives from the company will hold a joint press conference with Greenpeace in Beijing on Tuesday at which they will outline plans to
abandon the wood which is currently used in flooring and furniture.

The Daily Express reported that Superfoods are not only enjoying a popularity boom, they are fuelling a multimillion-pound industry. Blueberries have enjoyed the biggest sales surge of all, up 132% in two years, with Britons spending 95m on them in the year to last month. Other foods renowned for their health benefits, such as broccoli, salmon and spinach, have also been selling strongly. The Evening Standard also reports that demand for organic and Fairtrade produce has soared. A poll has shown that the proportion of people agreeing that it is worth paying more for organic food has risen from 24.3% in 2002 to 33.4% this year.

The Guardian reported on a campaign to encourage shoppers and retailers to support the first ever national plastic bag-free Christmas. We Are What We Do has announced it plans this week to build on heightened public awareness about the issue to end the wasteful use of plastic bags and excessive packaging over Christmas. It hopes to persuade retailers to
tell shoppers that they will not automatically get a plastic bag, and to display a colourful logo saying “Plastic Ain’t My Bag”.

The government’s chief scientist Sir David King has advised that all food products should carry a carbon emissions label to enable shoppers to buy greener goods. He also called excessive packaging “a consumer tragedy”.

The Financial Times today reports that Europe’s agricultural ministers have agreed on a compulsory logo for organic food as new figures have revealed that an increasing number of farmers are switching to the production method in response to consumer demand. The logo will be used from 2009, however some producers have stated that standards have been set too low as they permit genetically modified material that accidentally enters the food chain.

Royal Mail, the UK postal services company, is to conduct trials of electric vehicles after awarding a contract to Tanfield. Royal Mail, which boasts a fleet of over 33,000 vehicles, has taken a single 7.5-tonne Newton electric truck and a single 3.5-tonne Edison van on trial. A successful trial could see Royal Mail place an order for more electric vans in a deal
that could potentially be the largest signed by Tanfield.

The Sunday Mirror today reports that sales of organic food have reached over £1b-a-year for the first time, increasing by 9.3% in the year to March 2007. A new report has revealed that the food has grown so popular that it is leading to new supply shortages. Dairy goods and fresh produce were the biggest sellers, with milk accounting for 19% of organic sales growth. Sales of organic poultry, fish and meat also rose by 11.5%.

The Evening Standard City Spy claims that Marks & Spencer’s new plastic bags, made with 20% recycled material, do not work. The article claims they are thinner and flimsier than the old bags, meaning that customers are forced to ‘double-up’.

The price of organic food could increase because of new rules about GM labelling, campaigners warn today. The Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers have pledged to keep their criteria of accidental GM contamination at 0.1%, despite EU agricultural ministers agreeing that 0.9 per cent should be the cut-off point for GM-free labelling. Maintaining this standard could incur extra costs to farmers and growers which would in turn push prices up.

Waitrose has started selling milk in plastic pouches after campaigners complained that the sale of millions of plastic milk bottles was threatening the environment. The pouches will be sold alongside special jugs to use them with.

All news is copyright of it’s original owner and reproduced for information only.

Harry Potter Goes Green – Wizard!

Imagine all those Harry Potter books and all those trees! Worry not though because Green Futures reported in its May/June issue that although it took 220,000 mature trees to print the US edition of The Half-Bood Prince in 2005; in 2007 things are much greener. In the US the seventh and final book in the wizarding adventure series has been printed on paper made of recycled fibre and sustainable Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) -certified virgin pulp.

JK Rowling is just one of many environmentally friendly authors. If you want to find out more about them then checkout the Greenpeace book campaign.

Finally, Adam has previously written about Green Metropolis which is a website he uses to buy used books and where you can also sell your old books. In the UK they pay £3 for every book you sell and you can buy most paperbacks for £3.75.

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