Slow boat to China

'At about £500 to send a 26-tonne container of waste to China, it is now cheaper to send plastic to the Far East than by road from London to Manchester'

Here's another example of waste management policies in the UK that are simply not good enough. This article ( The slow boats to China filled with our refuse by Cahal Milmo at The Independent) illustrates more topsy turvy thinking. How can it be that this recyclable waste cannot be put to better use in this country. Surely we have the personnel, funding and location to handle our own plastics recycling?

Press Gazette coverage

More coverage for Project Freesheet today.

Sarah Lagan at Press Gazette has written this article

Good to see that Friends of the Earth and Westminster Council are now challenging the newspaper publishers to clean up their act. Placing the onus on the producer of polluting materials has to be the way forward

That's enough

Westminster council is challenging the free newspaper publishers to clean up their act. And they're doing it under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

Here is the story as reported by the Online Press Gazette

'Westminster council estimates that a quarter of all waste in the West End is made up of free newspapers and ultimately ends up in the landfill, rather than being recycled, as it is mixed with street rubbish.'

So, the opposition to the freesheets is gathering pace. What will the reaction of the publishers be?

Everybodys going green! It's great isn't it?

The tidal wave of 'green' continues to wash over the world of commerce. Whilst it is obviously great to hear of shifting attitudes and priorities, one has to wonder what the motivation is behind these recent announcements when the likes of Tesco, Walmart and BAE are getting in on the act.

BAE Systems - because 'lead used in ammunition can harm the environment' a new range of 'green' munitions are being developed including lead-free eco-bullets, quieter warheads (to reduce noise pollution!), smoke free hand grenades, and armoured vehicles with hybrid engines. Umm, environmentally friendly war?

Tesco and Sainsbury's are to start their own local veg box delivery scheme. With the impact that companies of this size have on the market, will the advantages of having small to medium sized suppliers now be lost? Can this new move really help to reduce food miles?

Walmart are making huge claims about their desires to go green. But can a trans-national company of their size really reduce their 'carbon footprint'?

Consuming responsibly is important. Supplying our shops with locally sourced materials is more important. But reducing the amount of waste we produce has to be the most important priority of all. Can the 'big-boys' with their huge appetite for resources really provide the answer?

Less waste equals less landfill equals less green house gases.

Guardian Media Monkey

Very excited to be featured on the Guardian website today.
Because you need to regsiter, here's the text -

Freesheet fightback begins

Tuesday January 9, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Sick of tripping over those unwanted copies of London Lite, the London Paper and Metro? Monkey offers you the chance to take your revenge... in a green way. Project Freesheet is asking Londoners to take pics of discarded freesheets and post them on its website. Around 1.5m free papers are produced every day apparently and many end up flapping around commuters' ankles. Project Freesheet founder Justin Canning says: "Tube Lines and Metro Link, who run the tubes, admit that they can only recycle around 10% of the 100-150 tonnes of rubbish that is left on the Underground. It's an issue of waste." Justin will use all the images he gets to make a collage, which will be posted online and displayed in a gallery. He's looking to get 1.5m pictures. So far he's got 85. As he says on the website: "We need another 1,499,915! keep them coming!". You've got to admire the man's optimism.


Big thanks to Tara Conlan @ Guardian Online

Greenpeace

'A staggering 80% of the world's original ancient forests have been destroyed or degraded. Today, many countries have lost their entire forest cover. Much of what remains is under threat from illegal and destructive logging'

'Every 2 seconds, an area of ancient forest the size of a football pitch is destroyed.'

The above 2 quotes are taken from a Greenpeace guide called 'The Paper Trail' produced to aid and inform the publishing industry of its impact on the environment. This publication was produced 3 years ago. I wonder how many millions of hectares of ancient forest have disappeared since then? The decisions taken by producers of books and newspapers are still so enormously important to our environment.

I gathered some new perspective on Project Freesheet today from a meeting I had with Belinda Fletcher @ Greenpeace. To talk to someone who is dealing with large organisations on a daily basis and trying to persuade them that they need to take more responsibility for the sourcing of the raw materials that produce their publications, gave me a glimpse of the scale of the challenges which are being faced by campaigners. Quite daunting if you ask me.

Have a look at this if you are interested - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/flashmap.cfm