It is however worrying nonetheless that the government still think this is a positive project to approve despite the widely acknowledged environmental issues with adding an additional 125,000 flights a year, never mind the environmental impact of the existing Heathrow operation which is far from fit for purpose!!

When oh when will governments, not just in the UK, but across the world begin by valuing natural capital in the way it should be, and less of this hell bent desire for economic growth and crazy drive to push consumerism to its limits.

I was however heartened to see that Greenpeace had managed to purchase a bit of land on the proposed site of the development.  Please take a look at their website and join the airplot campaign.

However, people are beginning to think “what is the point of sorting my waste if it is just being stockpiled”. Well I will tell you the point, if it was not sorted then those large piles of paper, etc that you are seeing will end up in landfill and wasted, this is not what we want. I would encourage you all to keep recycling and to put pressure on your local authorities to continue recycling schemes which they may currently feel is uneconomical in financial terms, but as we all know it is not just money that matters in the world today.

What I would suggest in the meantime is a bit more micro household recycling and reuse. Just simple little things. Reuse plastic bottles rather than buying yet another bottle of water, use both sides of paper when printing, put waste paper in your compost bin, use shredded paper as pet bedding, and so on. This is much more efficient and productive than sending it to the local authority in the present economic climate. You may even see an improvement to your own ‘bottom line’ as a result!!!

Belated new year wishes to you all.  I hope 2009 is a happy and prosperous one for you all.

Has anyone made New Year resolutions, are you managing to stick to them or relented!

I have a few short term goals in mind don’t know if I could class them as New Year resolutions though, more a case of things that need done.  Number 1 is to construct a storage wheelie cabinet for sorting waste - at the moment it does done to cumulate in a boxes lying in various different places.  Hopefully I will get a storage solution that can be wheeled in and out from under a space on the worktop in the kitchen.

Number 2 task is to sort out some for of renewable energy generation for the shed that has no electricity supply.  Don’t know if solar would be as effective as wind so looking at some small scale turbines.

So lets have them, what are your resolutions/immediate tasks for the year.

Don’t be shy!

I’ll get a review of all my goodies once things settle down, and I have had time to wear them in/read them!  Now on with preparing the lovely free range duck that we are having tonight!

It is not that I am vain and won’t wear glasses it is just that contact lenses are far more practical for me and wearing glasses is often problematic for me. I do try to minimise the number of days I wear them, wearing glasses instead, however this is not always possible.

How do I find the balance between environmental responsibility and day to day practicality?

I would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this issue. Do you wear lenses? What is the lowest impact method - daily disposable, monthly? Have you found any site/resource detailing actual impact.

Pardon the pun but I think it is important not to lose sight over these small things!!

I have just added two more information articles on paper production and paper recycling.

Paper Production

Until the mid 19th century paper was produced mostly from recycled cotton cloth, linen or hemp fibers. With the increased demands of the Industrial Revolution and widespread desire for more books and writing materials, a cheaper alternative was sought for and found with wood pulp. A financially viable mechanical pulping machine was developed in Germany in the 1840’s and by the turn of the twentieth century various chemical means to pulp wood into paper fibers was developed. [...]

Benefits of Recycling Paper

Each year, the people of the United States uses no less than eighty-six million tons of paper, of which this country recycles only about nineteen million tons of this waste paper. If we were to recycle all of the remaining paper, we could recycle up to forty-six million tons. Recycling those forty-six million tons could save at least seven hundred eighty six million trees, or at least several forests worth. This would save the habitats of many endangered species.[...]

Just drawing your attention to two new articles I have posted on aluminium:

Aluminium Production:

As one of the lightest and most plentiful metals in the Earth’s surface, aluminum has become the premiere material for constructing beverage containers since its first use for this purpose in 1965. It is also one of the most environmentally and economically feasible products in use today for the purposes of recovering and recycling previously used aluminum containers and cans [...]

Recycling Alumimium:

It’s amazing just how much we could help clean up our environment if people would just recycle the aluminum cans they thoughtlessly throw into the trash a send to the landfills every single day. The American people throw away no less than thirty-five billion aluminum cans every single year! [...]

For every 50 green points (1 item = 1 point) that a passenger accumulates they receive a 20p bus travel voucher, and 100 points earns them a 50p travel discount. It maybe does not sound a lot but to be honest the amount you receive is not the determining factor, it is still a small incentive.  It is more about increasing accessibility.

Hopefully it will prove successful with “new recyclers” appearing and consequently the system is rolled out in other areas.

Planning a little micro-enviro activity for tonight/this weekend - I am going to try (with the assistance of my wife!) to make some Christmas crackers with the numerous toilet rolls I have saved up along with the other recycled material I have saved.  The only question now is what to put inside them.  Do I find some very poor jokes, do I put in little quotes, environmental messages, or simply nothing?  I might settle for a combination of the first three. 

I suppose I also have to come up with a cunning plan for the ‘bang’ element.  Mmmmm, plenty to ponder!