Tom Brake

Go Green - Easy Green Ideas for Everyday Life

The ideas listed here are so easy, so simple, you'll wonder why you didn't think of them yourself. Print out this list (double sided of course) and tack it up somewhere where you'll see it; you'll be glad you did. The savings could be tremendous, and your grandchildren's quality of life will certainly be changed for the better.

Here are a few initial ideas to get you started:

• Help someone to see - bring your old glasses into a high street opticians for donation to people across the globe
• Give your computer a break - putting your computer or monitor into energy efficient 'sleep' mode can save up to 70% of the energy it would use normally. And laptops? As well as being the 'hipper' and more portable choice, they're 90% more energy efficient than that clunky desktop. Ditto inkjet vs laser printers
• That junk mail clogging up your post flap can be seriously cut down with one easy click. Sign up for the free Mailing Preference Service at http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/ today, and your letterbox (and the rain forest) will thank you
• Start your baby off green. Using reusable instead of disposable nappies can save you up to £600

Cut back those home energy bills...

• Here's a basic: always turn the lights off when you leave the room
• Save £40 - turn your thermostat down just 1C
• 'If all UK households turned off their TVs at night instead of leaving them on standby, we would avoid emitting enough CO2 to fill the Millennium Dome 38 times each year.' (1)
• Energy saving lightbulbs, while costing more initially, will outlive the equivalent of 12 normal lightbulbs and save you up to £100 over its lifetime
• If your loft doesn't have any insulation, put some in! Your energy bill could see a 20% decrease after the professional installation of insulation, and you'll have an extra £220 in your pocket
• The same idea applies to chimneys. Closing off your chimney to avoid draughts when its not in use could save another 10-15% of your energy bill
• Citronella and beeswax candles make for romantic outside lighting with no electricity bill. Bonus: they keep those pesky bugs away.
• If you've ever had to deal with batteries for a digital camera you'll know this one already: rechargeable batteries can be a bit more expensive to start, but they're a life saver in the long run. And if you want to be really environmentally savvy: solar powered rechargers
• Don't waste heating on mice and bedbugs, set the timer on your heating to go off 30 minutes before everyone leaves in the morning, and to come back on again half an hour before the first person returns home.
• Go Mediterranean and skip the hefty electricity bills from the air conditioners. Instead, keep the shades down on sunny days and use a good quality fan.
• Do this at home with the kids, or in the office with co-workers: each month designate an official 'switcher-off' to make sure that lights, air conditioners (if you choose not to abide by the above tip), computers, etc, get switched off when not needed. And if your Official Switcher Off reveals a previously unknown Napoleon Complex, crown them OSO for life.

Transport - getting from A to Z

• Avoid commuting at rush hour if at all possible - It's annoying for you and a drain on your petrol budget. And if you do venture out into rush hour and you look likely to be idling for more than thirty seconds just switch the car off. The petrol wasted by starting and stopping your vehicle is far less than that wasted by idling.
• A car's fuel economy drops off suddenly after the 45-55 mph mark, sometimes it really does pay to obey the speed limit.
• 'Put up a liftshare board at work, so that people commuting in from the same areas can save petrol and start up beautiful new friendships. We can't track down the figures at the moment, but we're sure there must be a few liftshare babies brightening up people's days across the world.'(4)
• For one journey a week, don't use a car! Kill two birds with one stone and burn off some crisp packets by walking instead of driving.
• Start a walking group for the neighbourhood rugrats, and rotate school run duty with the other parents.

Recycle Recyle Recycle Re-use Re-use Re-use

• 'If 100,000 people who currently don't recycle began to do so, they would collectively reduce CO2 emissions by 42,000 tons a year.'(3)
• Buy a new TV from Comet, and they'll come and pick up your old one for recycling (for a £15 fee). Ditto any other 'white' goods
• Recycle old mobile phones and printer cartridges through Oxfam, ActionAid, and many more. Or, take your old mobile into the store, and most retailers will give you a discount on your new one and refurbish the old one for those with fewer quid to spend

Save some [water] for the fishies

• Check out this nifty children's song written in 1985 by a classroom of 10 years olds and their teacher in environmentally conscious California. It's catchy, and you'll remember it for years (which may or may not be a good thing) http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/wed2003/water_song.asp
• Historical Case Study: 'At the twelfth-century Red Lion Hotel at Dinas Mawddwy, water use was halved. A continuous flushing urinal was replaced with a Waterless TM urinal, the volumes of cisterns were reduced, a leaking tap repaired and push-on spray taps installed. The saving: £1,414 a year.'(1)
• Dress up your tank - your water tank, that is. Give it a (British Standard) jacket for £10, and pipe insultation at £3. Total Cost: £13, Total Savings: £15-20. The result: priceless
• Take a shower instead of a bath, there'll be an extra 40 litres in the water tank, and I've never really understood the concept of getting water dirty and then soaking in it to get clean.
• Washing Machines: only run them when filled. A front loading washer is much more efficient then a top loading one (who knew?). And 90% of the energy your washer uses is used heating up water, so wash those clothes on a colder setting
• In one week, a dripping tap will have wasted enough hot water to fill an entire bath. So turn your taps tight, fix any leaks, and enjoy the peace and quiet of a house without that annoying dripping.

Eat Green

• Use a toaster instead of the grill. Simple.
• Don't constantly open and close the oven - it knows what it's doing, and your checking up on it only slows it down. Plus, if baking exotic things like soufflé or popovers, they will actually be damaged by the bursts of cold air
• Babies haven't been around for long enough to become gourmands: they don't need posh food in 50p-£1 jars. Buy a £5 handheld blender and make-your-own baby food with organic UK-grown veg
• Make use of your back gardens (www.tombrake.co.uk/petitions) and get your children started on gardening. A bunch of radishes: 45p - A packet of 1000 radish seeds (at least some of them will grow): £1
• And for that fledgling radish garden - compost. Make-your-own-heap in your back garden for absolutely nothing
• Save some packaging and bruising journeys - buy your veg at your local farmers' market, and you'll have the advantage of knowing exactly where it came from. For those of you from Sutton, ours is in Wallington, 2nd Saturday of every month from 9am-2pm at the Old Town Hall & Library Gardens. For the rest of you: http://www.countrymanmagazine.co.uk/farmersmid5.html
• Recycle those empty bottles and cans: the energy saved from recycling one fizzy drink can run your television for a whopping three hours.

Written, Compiled and Published by Tom Brake (room 2, Kennedy House) with the helpful aid and inspiration of the following sources:

1: http://www.foe.co.uk/living/tips/avoid_disposable_batteries.html

2: http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/whatcan/10pointchecklist/

3: Gore,Al. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. Rodale, 2006

4: 10 steps to a greener workplace. The Guardian. 23 September 2006

The Liberal Democrats and the Environment

Britain to be Greener

The Liberal Democrat Secretary state for Climate Change has committed the UK to halving carbon emissions by 2025, from 1990 levels, and changing the way that the country produces energy

The Secretary of State said "the decision would be reviewed in three years to ensure the targets are aligned with other members of the European Union, which he said made "pragmatic sense"

Agreeing the targets took weeks of wrangling among ministers, but late on Tuesday afternoon the Energy and Climate Secretary, announced to parliament that the "carbon budget" - a 50% emissions cut averaged across the years 2023 to 2027, compared with 1990 levels - would be enshrined in law

Energy from Waste in Sutton

The approach to waste management here in Sutton should be to recycle as much as possible. In 2010, the Borough recycled just under 38% of all waste, a figure that sits favourably compared to the national average. However, this still leaves us with the question of how we should dispose of the remaining waste that at present cannot be recycled.

It was recently announced that Viridor has been chosen as the preferred bidder for disposing of non-recyclable waste produced in the four boroughs of Sutton, Kingston, Merton and Croydon that together make up the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP). Viridor's proposal, which would be based at their existing landfill site in Beddington, involves building a new 'Energy from Waste' plant that will convert non-recyclable waste into energy.

Currently the landfill site in Beddington is used by all the SLWP's four boroughs. Those of you who have been to the site will know that there is nothing environmentally friendly about it. Landfill leaves millions of tonnes of non-degradable materials underground, can contaminate local water supplies and produces such high levels of methane that it contributes more to global warming than vehicle emissions.

In addition to the financial benefits of an Energy from Waste system which will save tax payers here in Sutton over £2million every year, experts agree that the Energy from Waste system has the potential to be far more environmentally-friendly than the existing landfill. Sue Riddlestone, a Director at Bioregional (one of the UK's leading sustainability organisations) and a BedZED resident has argued that whilst we should not lose focus on prioritising recycling and our ambition to reach a stage of zero waste, the new plant could and should in the meantime benefit the community by providing heat that could supply homes in Hackbridge and in the surrounding area. The alternative proposals, to transport our waste away to a plant in Kent, would not only reduce our incentive to increase recycling levels, but through emissions also have an adverse effect on the environment.

However, despite meeting with Viridor earlier this month at a meeting of the Hackbridge Community Forum that I chaired, there are some important questions yet to be answered.

It is still not clear whether, if we increase the percentage of our waste which is recycled in the future, the plant will run below its annual 215,000 tonnes capacity or whether more waste will be brought in from outside the four boroughs. In the same way that we do not want to send our waste off to other parts of the country, we should not be importing it from much further afield.

Another concern of mine is that whilst the Energy from Waste plant would use modern technology and would in no way resemble the old-fashioned polluting incinerators of the past, the site is nevertheless close to a residential area. All care must be taken to ensure that the plant will operate to the highest environmental standards (including new standards as they are developed) and will not affect people's health.

These concerns should not detract from the undeniable benefits that these proposals could have for Sutton. However, the proposal are at an early stage and will be subject to much more scrutiny and consultation and I intend to raise as many concerns as possible before a final decision is taken.