Transition Island Blog

Changes have been made to enable this scheme to work more effectively in the UK.

Originally conceived in the USA, the UK branches found the American rules increasingly restrictive as the country took Freecycling to heart.  However, the scheme is still dedicated to keeping useful stuff out of the landfill.

The Independent Association of Freecycle Moderators, a group consisting of over 450 Freecycle volunteers across the United Kingdom, has chosen the name ‘Freegle’.

This name means a couple of things. First, the name is a combination of the words Free and Google. This refers to how our group is like Google for finding free stuff. Second, the name can be broken up into the phrase “Free Goods Local & Easily”, which we feel is representative of how a group like this operates.

The tagline for the Freegle organisation may also be “Freegle - Waste Not Want Not“.
More on this story at the Guardian.

The same moderation team is still here working away in the background helping to keep the group running smoothly. Because the name of the group has changed, the web and email addresses have changed as well. They are now:

Web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IWReecycle
Email: iwreecycle@yahoogroups.com

Vegswap enables you to swap your home grown or homemade produce with other local gardeners. You can save money, reduce food miles and be gentle on the environment and enjoy fresher, better tasting fruit and veg.

Swap Fruit, Vegetables, Seedlings, Plants and much much more.

Find out more here.

Networking Event for Community Food Projects
in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

The next Fresh Ideas Network regional event for community food projects will be held on Monday 29th June, 10.00-15.00 at the Wessex Conference Centre, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 2NF

The theme will be ‘The Four A’s of Food Access:  Availability, Affordability, Awareness and Acceptability.’  

The day will include presentations, workshops and networking activities.

The event is free and travel costs can be reimbursed for participants working as volunteers for not-for-profit organisations.

Places are limited to 50. In order that we can ensure good representation from all areas across the county as well as a good cross section of types of projects and organisations, we are asking those interested in attending to register their interest via our event administration website at  http://freshideasnetworkevents.eventbrite.com by Monday 1st June and we will let you know if you have a place by Monday 8th June.  

Hope to see lots of you there! The Fresh Ideas Network

For more information on what Fresh Ideas does, please visit our website as below:
www.freshideas.org.uk   Subscribe to our newsletter

Food miles are a way of attempting to measure how far food has travelled before it reaches the consumer.

It is a good way of looking at the environmental impact of foods and their ingredients. It includes getting foods to you, but also getting waste foods away from you, and to the landfill!

Try the OrganicLinker calculator - helps you think about the implications of your shopping! 

Integrated health means bringing together mainstream medical science with the best of complementary therapies so that patients can benefit from both - and have more say in their treatment at the same time. (The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health)

* For 65% of the patients, their doctors reported a significant improvement in health;

* Half the GPs said they had been able to reduce prescribed medication and the same number that their patients needed less frequent referral to hospital;

* Four out of ten patients reported an improvement in symptoms, 81% said their general health and well-being had improved and 55% said they had been able to reduce their use of pain killers.

Read more…

less cost NHS 

“We are infinitely complex beings - mind, body and spirit - that cannot just be reduced to mechanical functioning. Healthcare should, and must, attend appropriately to all three aspects.” 

“Humans are capable of a unique trick, creating realities by first imagining them, by experiencing them in their minds. 

…As soon as we sense the possibility of a more desirable world, we begin behaving differently, as though that world is starting to come into existence, as though, in our mind’s eye, we are already there.  The dream becomes an invisible force which pulls us forward.  By this process it begins to come true.  The act of imagining somehow makes it real… 

And what is possible in art becomes thinkable in life”.  

Brian Eno.

There is so much bad news that it is all too easy to become a gloom-merchant.

But some dedicated searching can lead to progress and a real potential to change the environment. Here’s a few possibilities…

Solar cooling system

A Spanish research team has produced an air-conditioning system that uses green energy sources.

Powered by using solar and residual heat, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions in its cooling system by combining the use of a lithium bromide solution, which does not damage the ozone layer or increase the greenhouse effect. Read more…

Active focus solar panels

New York engineers have redesigned photovoltaic panels to include concentric circles that focus the sun’s rays on miniaturized modules.

The panels automatically sense sunlight and turn towards it, helping to make these high-tech solar cells more efficient. The key breakthrough is the miniaturized concentrator solar cell, which uses a lens with concentric grooves to focus collected light. Only the size of a postage stamp, the cell is much more efficient in collecting and reusing solar energy. Read more…

Carbon sink method workable

Adding lime to seawater increases alkalinity, boosting seawater’s ability to absorb CO₂ from air and reducing the tendency to release it back again. While the process of making lime generates CO₂, adding the lime to seawater absorbs almost twice as much CO₂ so the overall process is therefore ‘carbon negative’.

The idea has been bandied about for years was thought unworkable because of the expense of obtaining lime from limestone and the amount of CO₂ released in the process. But it could be efficient in regions that have a combination of low-cost ’stranded’ energy considered too remote to be economically viable to exploit — like flared natural gas or solar energy in deserts — and that are rich in limestone, making it feasible for calcination to take place on site.

Shell is so impressed with the new approach that it is funding an investigation into its economic feasibility. Read more…

Algae capture carbon doxide

Ohio University engineers have designed a simple, sustainable and natural carbon sequestration solution using algae. a photo bioreactor that uses photosynthesis to grow algae, passing CO₂ over large membranes, placed vertically to save space. The CO₂ produced by the algae is recycled as it dissolves into the surrounding water.

The algae can be harvested and made into biodiesel fuel and feed for animals. A reactor with 1.25 million square meters of algae screens could be up and running by 2010. Read more…

opinion

It’s true there’s many a slip twix cup and lip - research is some distance (and time) (and money) away from industrial production. But where there’s a will there’s a way!

Good and bad news came in around the UK energy situation. 

Problems in the area are not going to go away. Here we have a selection: political, economic, local opinion and habitat impact.

uncompetitive supplies

Allan Asher, the chief executive of Energywatch, has told MPs that power companies have it too easy. There is next to no market competition.

It is indisputable that competition in a market of six major players is unlikely to be as fierce as it would be with 20. As a result, he said, the difference between them is “just a few pence a week”.

hot air

Villagers in part of south Leicestershire are protesting at proposals to build a wind farm. They would be equivalent to eleven 40-storey buildings.

Members of the protest group claim the plan will damage the environment.

nuclear expansion

The UK government confirmed in January that it was in the country’s long-term interest that nuclear power should play a role in providing Britain with clean, secure and affordable energy.

Read the rest of this entry »

About one million litres of water will soon be saved by Southern Water on the Island every day.

The County Press says this is enough to fill 10,000 baths.

A £7 million investment in new state-of-the-art recycling equipment, which takes water out of sludge, will improve supplies in the south of the Island.

The project at the Sandown works is part of £700 million of environmental improvements being carried out for Southern Water throughout Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Island between 2005 and 2010.

The water company said its new equipment, which is nearing completion, will take 90 per cent of the water from a thin sludge that previously went to waste.

new machinery

The new machinery takes water used in backwashing the normal filters, slows it down and adds clarifying chemicals that bind together the solids in the sludge so that it falls out of the flow. This clarified water can then be sent back to the beginning of the filtration process and can end up as clean water.

Read the rest of this entry »

Around 10,000 people took part in the recent Walk the Wight in aid of Newport’s Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

The full walk across the Island is 26.5 miles between Bembridge and Alum Bay. There is a newly-introduced eight-mile Flat Walk along the cycle path from Sandown to Newport, approximately half the distance. (Photo from County Press)

Walk the WIght was created during the early Spring days of 1991 by two old friends who loved walking, and started walking for charity. It has become the largest annual fund raising event on the Island. 

perfect conditions

Early morning cloud and drizzle were replaced by glorious sunshine as participants walked, ran, stilt-walked, hobbled and limped their way across the Island.

Hospice fundraiser Karen Eeles said: “After last year’s torrential rain, who would have thought we’d get so many people? The atmosphere was fantastic.”

growing event

Before Sunday, 8,275 walkers had registered to walk either the and organisers have estimated that more than 1,000 more registered on the day. Local people of all ages and abilities joined in, and lots of youngsters - and dogs - also took part..

Fundraisers are hoping the total raised will exceed last year’s figure of £230,000.

This is a growing event, having raised £200,000 in 2006 and £217,000 in 2007. Walker numbers have also risen, with over 5,000 last year having grown to an estimated 10,000 this year.

individuals help

So often, the question “But what can I do?” comes up when we’re faced with environmental problems - even those we want to contribute to solving.

‘Walk the Wight’ is a great example of what can be achieved by individuals who work together as a team.

Action:
Volunteer!