The Green Village News for the ‘Recycling and Waste’ Category
Monday, April 20th, 2009
This week, supermarket chain Morrisons are giving away a free Bag for Life to all their customers. The initiative is part of their ‘Today‘ campaign, where Morrisons try to do their bit to make a difference for tomorrow.
Morrisons advise in their 2008 corporate social responsibility report that nationwide, the chain has seen a saving of 110 million carrier bags, a figure which could be cut further if more people reused their old bags or used stronger, bigger bags for life that have a longer lifespan, and can be used for other shopping and transporting of goods too.
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Tags: bag for life, carrier bags, morrisons, plastic bags, supermarket
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Ethical shopping, Green Living, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | 1 Comment
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
New Zealand supermarket chain, Foodstuffs, have announced the introduction of a tax on carrier bags for customers at all New World and Four Square stores nationwide, and South Island’s Pak ‘n Save stores, which would make them the first supermarket in New Zealand charging for plastic bags. It is hoped that this will help reduce the number of carrier bags sent to landfill each year.
Jo Knight, director or Zero Waste New Zealand, advised that over the course of a single year, New Zealanders get through over a billion carrier bags. About 80% of this shocking amount of plastic shopping bags are handed out by New Zealands supermarkets. Knight urged competitors of Foodstuffs, Progressive, to follow the example being set by taking action to reduce their contribution to the carrier bag problem.
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Tags: carrier bags, foodstuffs, get real, new zealand, plastic bags, supermarkets, zero waste
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Ethical shopping, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Monday, April 13th, 2009
A new children’s book, ‘Colonel Trash Truck’ has been launched ahead of Earth Day and aims to inspire children to care for the environment and get involved with recycling and leading greener lives by asking them to help him and the Green Team on their quest against the litterbugs.
The author, Kathleen Crawley, explains the inspiration behind her rubbish collecting character,
“There’s no better way to teach kids to respect and save the environment than to introduce them to Colonel Trash Truck. Colonel Trash Truck believes cleaning up trash and recycling is something we all must do and he wants nothing more than to have kids join him in his quest to ‘Keep the Planet Clean and Green’.”
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Tags: colonel trash truck, earth day, kids book, recycling
Posted in Environmental Politics, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste, Science and Technology | No Comments
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Around the country Britain’s supermarkets have been declaring war on carrier bags, with various methods across the different chains to try and entice us to loosen our grip and reliance on plastic bags. Co-op have their adverts at the tills telling us about whales washing up on shores with 2lb worth of carrier bags in their stomachs that they mistook for food. Tesco have the Green Clubcard points and Sainsbury’s extra Nectar points for customers using their own bags. And everywhere from Asda to Wilkinsons has bags for life, ranging from longer lasting plastic bags to cloth or jute bags, available at the tills.
December saw 7 major supermarkets – Asda, Co-op, Somerfield, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Waitrose and Tesco – join together in a pledge to cut the amount of carrier bags given out by 50% by spring 2009 compared to those given out in 2006, with the ultimate aim being to reduce the figure by 70%. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has advised that the actions of the supermarkets has seen 3.5 billion fewer carrier bags being handed out, but the amount of people still using plastic bags is still too high. The majority of bags are only used to transport goods home, and are then destined for landfill, along with the millions of tonnes of other packaging waste generated each year.
For more information about the impact of carrier bags on the environment, visit the Daily Mail or watch the video report on the BBC.
Tags: carrier bags, plastic bags, supermarkets, WRAP
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
British Waterways have been responsible for caring for the 2,200 miles of Britain’s canals and rivers since it’s introduction in 1962. The organisation was set up as an Act of Parliament to protect the inland water network of Britain, which used to be as much a part of the UK’s infrastructure and transport network as the motorways are today.
As part of their ongoing responsibility to maintain the water network and ensure public safety for people and boats using the waterfront, British Waterways announced a new clean-up mission to address the issue of trolley dumping in Britain’s canals and rivers. Members of the public can either call the Trolley Hotline on 01923 201120, or use the form on the British Waterways website to report sightings of dumped trolleys.
In addition supermarkets are being called to action to reduce the amount of trolleys that are able to be taken in the first place, and will be shortlisted for one of two awards, a ‘Golden Trolley’ commendation for least trolleys retrieved, and a name and shame award, ‘Off Your Trolley’, for the supermarket that has the most trolleys pulled from the water over the course of a year. The aim of the initiative is to reduce the amount of public money – currently standing at £150,000 – that is spent each year on removing trolleys from the water; money that could be better spent enhancing the waterfront experience for visitors and wildlife.
Tags: british waterways
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
A sewage treatment plant in San Francisco is anticipating being fined for a leaking pipe which has allowed 500,000 gallons of mixed raw and partially treated sewage to pour into San Francisco Bay.
The leak was spotted on Tuesday, where initially 300 gallons of sewage were being emitted per minute into the Bay. The fitting of a metal plate to redirect the leaking waste water back into the plant for proper treatment managed to reduce the amount being released to approx 1 gallon per minute. The task of completing the repair work by encasing the 23 year old pipe in concrete was not possible to rectify immediately however, as the piece of pipe affected was at the water line, and the high tide, worsened to by recent high levels of rainfall, meant that workmen would have to wait until Thursday before being able to continue with the repair.
Comments have been made that maintainance and repairwork should be made a priority rather than waiting for problems such as this to provoke a response. Last year, The Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin was fined $1.6m when over 3 million gallons of partially treated sewage was released. How many more cases where sewage, chemicals and other untreated waste is released will happen before agencies and authorities realise that it is their responsibility to prevent their organisations being responsible for such detriment to the environment?
Tags: san francisco, sewage leak
Posted in Environmental Impact, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
In July 2007, chocolate firm Cadbury launched their ‘Purple goes Green’ campaign to review their processes and reduce the carbon footprint of their products. Although Cadbury has had an environmental policy in place for the last 15 years, the ‘Purple goes Green’ initiative is aimed at addressing climate change and reducing Cadbury’s environmental impact.
The initiative has so far seen Cadbury save 117 tonnes of cardboard in the transportation process and 202 tonnes of plastic. They have made a commitment that by 2010, 100% of the packaging used in their products will be recyclable or biodegradable.
Their latest action is to undertake a pilot scheme with some of their milk suppliers to provide guidance and advice to help farmers reduce the amount of methane produced by their cows. Cows contribute a significant amount to the UK’s carbon emissions each year, and because the milk used in Cadbury’s chocolate is responsible for just over 60% of its carbon footprint, Cadbury wants their suppliers to make improvements to farm management techniques, including providing nutritious diets to help reduce cows’ emissions.
To find out more about Cadbury’s green commitments, visit their dedicated ‘Purple goes Green’ website.
Tags: cadbury, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, purple goes green
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Findings from Local Government Association research into the amount of packaging supermarkets insist on wrapping goods in has prompted comments from Mike Warhurst, Friends of the Earth’s Senior Waste Campaigner.
Current Government targets allow more than two thirds of plastic waste to be added to the tonnes of rubbish finding its way to landfill every week. Mike Warhurst argues that these targets should be tightened up to make supermarkets use more recyclable materials in the packaging of their goods as well as promoting more responsible food waste disposal.
Many homeowners are already in the habit of separating their waste for kerbside collection, and would no doubt welcome waste plastic recycling. The current system means greater expense being passed on to tax payers, and a greater strain being placed upon existing landfill sites and incinerators.
Although supermarkets have done their best to defend their actions by telling the media about the reductions that have been made, the figures show that even the supermarket with the highest proportion of recyclable material still has another 33% of non-recyclable plastic to account for.
Chairperson for the LGA, Margaret Eaton has proposed, “If retailers create unnecessary rubbish, they should help taxpayers by paying for it to be recycled.” To read more, visit the BBC website.
Tags: landfill, packaging, recycling, supermarkets
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
