Plastics Campaign - April 2019

“A Plastic Ocean” film screening with Festival of Debate is at 2:30 pm on Saturday 11 May at Theatre Deli and we will need to staff a stall during the day and Justin will be able to promote it on Twitter and take photographs. Click here for more details

Richard and Amy will discuss future support for the MPs campaign to promote a Plastics Pollution Action Plan Bill and the petition.

Plastics Campaign Update March 2019

Richard had done a talk and activities with Year 4 at Rivelin. Shaun has been in touch with Amy Parker originally from Bristol, but now living in the Peak District. She has lots of experience with beach clean-up activities and a link to the producer of Plastic Ocean so might be able to provide additional contacts. The Plastic Ocean film screening with Festival of Debate has a 2 hour slot (starting at 2:30 at Theatre Deli as part of the One Planet Hub Day) so there will no be time for more than a short discussion/Q&A.

See https://www.facebook.com/events/976614342538285/ for more details of the Festival of Debate event which takes place on Saturday May 11.

MPs’ plastics campaigning group  – 30 MPs attended the meeting at Westminster to launch a campaign to support plastics legislation.

Make It Better - Apple

Friends of the Earth has revealed that Apple is using tin from Indonesia that's wrecking the environment. This tin has been linked to the destruction of tropical forests, coral reefs and fishermen's livelihoods.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth and Young Friends of the Earth activists went undercover at Meadowhall on Saturday 6th July to raise awareness amongst customers. Our activists, Richard and John, left a trail of tags attached to Apple products asking if they contained tin from Bangka. The pair managed to speak to the store manager about the issue before leaving.


The latest statement from Apple is:
“Recent concerns about the illegal mining of tin from this region prompted Apple to lead a fact-finding visit to learn more....we are helping to fund a new study on mining in the region so we can better understand the situation.”

Make it Better - May 2013 Update

Friends of the Earth having taken a 1-0 lead with the bee pesticide ban took the score to 2-0 with a win against Samsung. You might have seen in the media that we forced the world's biggest-selling smart-phone maker to confirm that it uses forest-trashing tin in its products. Persuading a multi-billion pound company like Samsung to delve deep into its supply chain and hang out its dirty laundry in public is an amazing achievement. Samsung hasn't just gone public about its use of Bangka Island's tin - where tin mining is destroying tropical forests, coral reefs and livelihoods.

The company has said it will work together with other companies and governments to improve the situation on Bangka. This has the potential to make a real difference. But actions speak louder than words, so we need to let it know that we expect it to commit to a firm plan to protect the people and environment of Bangka.

This isn't the end of the story as we will start to concentrate our attention on Apple.

2012 - 2013 Yearly Review

Clean British Energy Campaign
This has mainly focused on people signing postcards to urge the government to invest in renewables rather than following a ‘Dash for gas’.  If gas fired power stations were built it would mean the UK would not achieve it’s Climate Change targets, it would mean less green jobs and higher fuel bills as gas prices continue to rise.  People were also encouraged to earn a CBE certificate by switching to a power company that invests in renewables such as Ecotricity or Good Energy.  A petition to make Sheffield a Frack-free city was started with Sheffield Climate Alliance.  A photo stunt entitled ‘Green is working’ to promote green jobs was held in October.  A display of photographs featuring Renewable Energy was set up in the Town Hall foyer in December.

‘Energy we can all afford’ public meeting – Clive Betts MP (Labour), Cllr Joe Otten (LibDem) Simon Bowen (FoE) Craig Jackson (SYHA & LiveGreen) and Emma Bridge (Sheffield Renewables) answered questions from the public about the rocketing fuel bills, green jobs and climate change.  The meeting held at The Circle on Rockingham Lane, was organised by Sheffield Friends of the Earth in collaboration with Sheffield Campaign Against Climate Change.  It was held despite heavy snowfall and hope it influences Decarbonisation targets being included in the Energy Bill.

The Bee Cause
In July we held a Bee Breakfast with Meg Munn MP & Cllr Isabel Bowler and were featured on Radio Sheffield by Paulette Edwards.  In September Cllr Jillian Creasy and Cllr Sylvia Anginotti attended a Bee Walk.  There was a petition for a National Bee Action Plan and cards for people to sign.  Free seeds, wildflower posters and booklets made this a very popular campaign.  A bee map where people had marked their bee friendly gardens was displayed in the Town Hall foyer in September.  The group are currently searching for a site to plant a bee meadow in Sheffield.

Make it Better Campaign
Some smart phones contain tin which comes from Bangka Island in Indonesia causing devastation of the environment.  E-mails were sent to Samsung and Apple.


Litter Pick
We conducted our litter pick on Penistone Road on the Jubilee Holiday Tuesday 5th June 2012.  We wore masks of the Royal Family and were featured in the Sheffield Star newspaper.

Free Green Film Festival
As a result of a ‘buy two get one free’ offer at Dogwoof films, we showed ‘The Island President’, a very recently released film, on 30th May 2012.

The latest film festival will take place in the Spring 2013 with four films being shown on successive Wednesdays at the Red Deer pub beginning with Blue Gold on 17th April.

Stalls
We have run 9 stalls at: Environment Week, National Climate Jobs Caravan, the Green Fair, Firth Park Festival, Lowedges Festival, Ecclesfield Gala, Sheffield Food Festival, Riverlution and Peace and Craft Fair

Facebook, Twitter and Website
Sheffield FoE now has an active presence on Facebook and Twitter thanks to John who tweets and posts regularly.  Shaun has radically updated the website so it has a fresh modern feel.

Speakers
Dave Berry from Sheffield Renewables spoke at the September meeting about the share offer.  As a result of this it was decided that Sheffield FoE should buy a share.  Malcolm Lee of Sheffield Forgemasters spoke at the February meeting on the subject of ‘A Manufacturing Perspective on UK & EU Climate Change Policy’

Training
Members have attended various training sessions including the FoE Northern Gathering at Haworth, Local Groups' Conference in London, Planning Masterclass (Richard) and the Bee Prepared Day in Darlington.  There were also more varied local training days such as Planning and Sustainable Housing.

Other Actions

• Gerry attended the ‘Broomhill Air Quality Symposium’ on 21st April 2012.  
• Richard reported on his visit to the Garden Organic AGM at the May meeting.
• Liddy helped out on 15th September on a Greenpeace stall to lobby MPs about the Electricity Market Reform Bill.
• Richard attended the Sheffield Food Conference on 13th September and wrote a short report.
• Maureen wrote in support of Holbrook Biomass plant providing it is locally sourced.
• We opposed the RecyCoal planning application with a draft letter of objection being circulated among members.  Unfortunately this was passed at the January planning meeting. 
• Met with Cllr Jack Scott in October to discuss SCC environmental policy.
• We opposed the widening of the Incinerator’s resource base to as far away as Newark.  A sample bullet pointed letter was circulated among members for them to lodge their objections.
• Maureen’s letter about fracking was featured in January 10th Sheffield Telegraph.
• John talked to Sheffield Rotary Club about Sheffield FoE on 12th February
• Beatrice and John lobbied David Blunkett on 9th March about putting pressure on the government about the Energy Bill

Other Campaigns March 2013

Bee Campaign
Maureen has contacted Councillor Jack Scott for a suggestion as to where Sheffield Friends of the Earth can plant a bee meadow near the town centre but so far no site has been identified. The other idea is to find an area in Nick Clegg's constituency so we can link the two together for publicity. If you live in this area do you know of a good site? John is to continue the search for a site.




Make it Better Campaign
National FoE have asked members of the public to e-mail Chelsea FC regarding how their sponsor Samsung sources the tin in their smart phones.

See the link for the latest details of the Bee Cause and the Make it Better Campaigns

Campaign News February 2013

Fracking
We will hand in the fracking petition after the council budget has been set as there will be less pressure on councillors. We hope this will have more impact.

Creating a Bee World
Maureen has contacted Councillor Jack Scott for a suggestion as to where Sheffield Friends of the Earth can plant a bee meadow near the town centre. So far no site has been identified.

Other FoE groups making a bee friendly environment

Make it Better campaign
Friends of the Earth have now decided to target the companies that Samsung & Apple sponsor.
See http://www.foe.co.uk/what_we_do/make_it_better_action_37571.html for more details

Rotary Club Talk
John gave an excellent summary of the wide range of issues Friends of the Earth has campaigned on, and although he was heckled at some points in his talk, it was generally well received.

Food Cooking Demo
If anyone would like to volunteer to demonstrate how to cook certain dishes to encourage use of fresh ingredients etc then please contact Trisha on trisha.brutus@gmail.com

Make it Better Campaign January 2013

Some smart phones contain tin which comes from Bangka Island in Indonesia causing devastation of the environment. John is to investigate how this campaign will move forward.

For more details and to take action see the link here

Make it Better campaign

Some smart phones contain tin which comes from Bangka Island in Indonesia causing devastation of the environment.  Campaigners are being asked to e-mail Samsung and Apple.  FoE is aiming for a Europe-wide law next year to make all companies to come clean about their supply chains.  John is taking this campaign forward.

Waste Campaign

From yoghurt pots to CDs, we know that people across the UK are fed up with having to bin so much rubbish and much of it could be avoided in the first place if companies cut unnecessary packaging and products were built to last.  The Government is now deciding what to do about the nation's rubbish and the results of this Waste Review are due in May, so we have a massive opportunity to push for an ambitious goal to halve household 'black bag' waste by 2020. We're also asking for a similar goal for businesses to cut the amount of waste they bury and burn.

To make the campaign visible to the Government, several members of Sheffield Friends of the Earth joined a spoof version of David Cameron outside the Town Hall to call for a 50% reduction in household waste. The stunt obtained press coverage and the photograph below in the Sheffield Star.

For more details of the campaign see www.foe.co.uk/what_we_do/talking_half_rubbish_27167.html

Food & Fishing Campaigns

On Monday 8th June, the Showroom Cinema was showing a new film called End of the Line. It is from the distributors of The Age of Stupid, a documentary on the devastating effect of over-fishing on the planet's ecosystem. Filmed over two years, with beautiful footage of our oceans, investigative reporter Charles Clover confronts politicians and restaurateurs about the implications of our love affair with and over indulgence in fish as food. A few members of the group went to watch this. For more details see www.endoftheline.com

Parkwood Landfill Campaign

I’m writing to you on behalf of a group of local tenants, residents and businesses starting to feel and see the environmental impacts that landfill has on people, wildlife and industry.  Parkwood Springs Landfill Site is one of the largest landfill sites in Europe, situated near the heart of Sheffield, where large amounts of household and industrial wastes are deposited.  Local people complained so much about dust, odours, nuisance and health issues that a health survey was commissioned, though this is still not finished and many of the previously reported problems still keep reoccurring.

With all the aforementioned information we were astonished to learn, the Environment Agency granted a new permit allowing 650,000 tonnes of inert and active waste (incinerator ash and fine dust compounds, which can be treated toxic wastes) to be deposited per annum totalling 8,910,000 cubic metres.  This will produce a huge mountain of waste, which according to one spokesperson for Viridor the operators of Parkwood Springs Landfill Site will result in gas being released until 2046.  

Viridor have two planning applications 05/00956/FUL and 05/00959/FUL these are for a gas utilisation plant, leachate treatment plant (leachate is created when water runs through a landfill site) and expansion plans.  So far, we have collected over 2500 signatures, names and numerous objections and most are lodged with Mr V Faulkner at Howden House.

We know people want a reduction in landfill, so we must find alternatives for this to become reality and we are beginning a Green and Organic Waste Awareness Campaign.  30% of household waste is green and organic, so if every household recycles these types of waste in the many ways available that would mark a huge turnaround in attitudes and move a step closer towards making landfill and incineration redundant.

Many local authorities provide community-recycling points, though some go further by providing green bins or bags, for each household.  High quality compost can easily be made from green and organic waste, so people could start their own recycling scheme with the added benefits of lush gardens.  Compost bins can be purchased from most DIY stores and filled with: grass cuttings, leaves, cardboard, paper, fruit and vegetable peel, tea bags, rabbit and hamster droppings…  Maintenance is very low just requiring turning with a garden fork once a week and adding water if the heap appears dry.  There are a few items, which must not be added such as fish and meat, cooked foods, cat and dog droppings, exceptionally woody plants and oils.  The next time you have a cup of  tea or portion of vegetables please consider where the waste goes and encourage recycling. 

Best wishes and please email if you support our Green and Organic Waste Awareness Campaign.
Paul Antcliffe,

Parkwood Concerned Tenants, Residents and Businesses Group

Door Step Recycling – One Step Closer

Late last year 20 MPs were given the chance of each introducing a Bill to Parliament. Friends of the Earth decided to ask the MPs to adopt the Door Step Recycling Bill. If passed as a new law it would see the introduction of special bins at each home in the country for collecting different recyclable materials.

As Richard Allan Lib Dem MP for Sheffield Hallam was one of the selected twenty, several local group members wrote letters asking for his support. Richard replied to Sheffield Friends of the Earth with a positive and encouraging letter. A copy of the Richard Allan’s letter is available on our website at:
mysite.freeserve.com/sheffieldfoe

The Bill was actually introduced to Parliament by Joan Ruddock Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford so Richard Allan was able to vote for a different Bill. In January, Friends of the Earth will be doing more lobbying work to get the Bill passed as a new Law.

Door Step Recycling Facts:

A majority of 330 MPs signed EDM 186 and EDM 46 in support of doorstep recycling nation-wide
9/10 people in England and Wales would recycle if it was made easier an Environment Agency survey revealed in May this year

The expansion of recycling would provide tens of thousands of jobs, reduce demand for raw materials, cut emissions of Greenhouse gases and reduce pressure for unpopular and environmentally damaging new landfill sites and incinerators. It would also mean we could catch up with recycling levels of our European neighbours.

The Doorstep Recycling Bill, sponsored by Joan Ruddock MP, calls for local authorities to provide a doorstep recycling and composting service to every household by 2010 and for more money to provide this service. The Bill is essential to increase our recycling rate from a miserable 12% to the 50% already achieved by many European countries

It has the support of a majority of MPs, 150 local authorities and over100 organisations, including Friends of the Earth, the Community Recycling Network, Greenpeace, Help the Aged and Unison. The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit published its review of the current waste strategy in November 2002. The review provides a welcome boost to waste minimisation and recycling but it fails on several accounts:            

1. It does not put a brake on the building of massive incinerator
2. It does not provide enough money for recycling.
3. It does not set a statutory target of 50% recycling by 2010

Waste Training Day

A dull November morning saw a Sheffield Friends of the Earth member make her way to Birmingham to receive up to the minute information about waste disposal.

The initial address was about International and European legislation and its bearing on the situation in U.K.  The Earth Summit included a paragraph (Point 22) about waste, to the effect that Governments should act to develop systems to prevent, minimise, reuse and recycle waste.  Environmentally sound disposal facilities should be used but unfortunately this, according to the agreement, includes technology to recapture the energy contained in waste.  The production of reusable consumer goods and biodegradable products is to be encouraged.

The main piece of legislation affecting U.K. policy at the moment is the European Union Landfill Directive the gist of which is that by 2020, 66% of biodegradable waste (garden, food and paper waste etc) should not be taken to landfill sites.  Instead it should be composted rather than incinerated.  This means that nearly all local authorities will have to have separate biodegradable waste collections by 2010. 

The East Midlands Waste Strategy plans to incinerate 50% of household waste and use all the resulting bottom ash to make construction materials.  This is not good news as it is assuming that only 50% of the rest of waste will be recycled.  Incineration contracts tie Local Authorities to providing waste to burn for 20 or more years. 

Friends of the Earth is certain higher recycling targets can be achieved:- 50% by 2010 and 75% by 2015.  Daventry in Northamptonshire already achieves almost 50%.  The first step to increasing recycling rates is to provide a doorstep recycling service.  Friends of the Earth are currently trying to get the Doorstep Recycling Bill through parliament.  This will make it compulsory for all Local Authorities to provide a recycling bin as well as the ordinary waste bin.  Reducing the size of the ordinary bin also reduces the amount of unrecycled (i.e. residual) waste.  Once all these services are in place, charging for residual waste can begin, which further increases recycling rates.  Friends of the Earth recommends that the remaining residual waste should undergo mechanical biological treatment (MBT).  This process separates recyclable materials mechanically and puts the mixed waste containing biodegradable material through a composting process to produce a stabilised material.  This can then be landfilled.  Local Authorities should find MBT an attractive technology as it is a small scale process that is cheaper than pyrolysis.

As items are manufactured more carefully with recycling in mind, the amount of waste needing to be landfilled will approach zero.  For a sustainable future all Regional Waste Strategies should be aspiring to ‘zero waste’.

More information about the Waste Campaign can be found on the Friends of the Earth website at www.foe.co.uk

Organic Waste

Earlier this year I contacted Sheffield City Council’s Environmental & Waste Management Services to discuss the feasibility of collecting more organic waste which could then be used as compost in preference to peat.

The Council’s response included the following points:

• Up to 50,000 tonnes of organic waste is produced every year in Sheffield.
• It costs £15.00 per tonne of waste plus landfill tax.
• Organic waste is disposed of by either landfill or incineration.
• The Council have started installing green skips at recycling centres for organic waste. The waste will be composed at Salmon Pastures.
• The moisture in organic waste can affect the efficient operation of the incinerator.
• The Council sold compost bins at cost price on a publicised day this year. Residents can also purchase these directly from Bernard Road for approximately £11.00.

Our group intends to continue working on this campaign for more composting and more recycling facilities.

FoE Joins The Rat Race

With less than one month before Christmas, a coalition of Sheffield FoE members and many students from Sheffield University Students’ Union were on hand to host 1998’s National No Shop Day stunt.

The stunt consisted of a large maze with the words “Work Harder”, “Earn More Money”, “Buy More Things” and “Keep Going” printed on each side. Several “rats” could be seen perpetually running around the maze in the pointless goal of trying to find happiness by working harder and buying more goods.

The idea of the maze was to reject the notion made by advertisers that to be happy you have to consume more. In reality, happiness is obtained by having good health, friends, a nice community and a clean environment in which to live.

The day of action should have also transformed Fargate into a living room, complete with lamp stand, television and sofa. This was going to visually highlight that we’re all being brain washed by advertisements on television. Unfortunately, due to delivery problems this action had to be cancelled.

On a more positive note, two musicians helped to attract the attention of the public by singing songs about Meadowhall’s environmental impact while playing the guitar and the violin.

Later that day a photographer from the Sheffield Star arrived to take photographs of the rat race maze. On Monday, an article covering nearly half a page appeared in the Star complete with a photograph of the maze. A few days later, the Sheffield Gazette covered a slightly cut down version of the article. With the combined readership of the two papers we may have informed thousands of people about the aims of No Shop Day.

Besides the expected media interest, an artist walking down Fargate decided to take snaps of the event to include in his exhibition of life in the city centre.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth would like to thank all the people involved on the day and everyone involved with its planning. In particular,  we would like to thank the university green group for making the event possible and for the building of the maze.

Campaign News: May-Aug 1998

Waste Minimisation Campaign to Start Soon
During the March general meeting we decided the group’s priorities for the next 6 to 12 months. Our first aim is to carry out some campaigning on food issues which would then be terminated after a special general meeting in May with one of Friends of the Earth’s national food campaigners giving a talk. We also hope to invite many other speakers such as local organic food growers and people from allotments. After this short campaign, the group will turn its attention to a lot of campaigning about recycling, packaging and other waste minimisation issues rather than campaigning on lots of different issues. We haven’t decided exactly which waste issues we will campaign on but if you have any ideas and would like to get involved please turn up to one of our general meetings.

Sustainable Consumption
As mentioned in the last newsletter, Sheffield FoE were planning to take part in a day of action as part of the International No-Shop Day. We can now report back that several of our members made an appearance at Meadowhall to get the sustainable consumption message across to the public. Members set up a variety of board games and played musical instruments to highlight alternatives to mass consumption.

Sustainable Consumption - Take Action
Keep the pressure up for tough laws to ensure electrical goods are designed for reuse and recycling. FoE have targeted Dixons (the UK’s largest electrical retailer), but they have not yet responded. When you go shopping in Dixons or Currys (Part of the Dixons group) ask the following 3 questions:

• Will you take back electrical products at the end of their lives?
• Will you ensure the parts are reused or recycled?
• What plans do you have to label products with their expected life-spans so I can buy long lasting ones?

Recycling in Sheffield drops
Figures from the Council’s own performance indicators show that Sheffield is falling well behind on its recycling, no doubt partly as a result of the large capacity wheelie bins issued to most people. The percentage of household waste recycled has fallen from 4.65% in 93/94 to 2.47% in 96/97 while the cost of rubbish disposal has shot up from £7.58 per tonne to £13.35 over the same period. Inevitably the refurbishment of the Bernard Road incinerator to bring it up to EC emission standards and the landfill tax on all rubbish that had to be dumped for a year while it was closed for the  work won’t have helped (total cost now put at 15M). While closed the properties normally heated by the system had to be heated by the back-up gas boiler.

At the December Green Party meeting the Council’s recycling officer admitted that the proceeds from the landfill tax  is likely to go to ‘attractive’ causes such as tree planting when money really needs to be spent on better recycling facilities. It is now well documented that there is no real incentive to increase recycling in Sheffield because this could undermine the viability of the incinerator and the associated district heating scheme. (Taken from Greensheaf)

Recycling - Did You Know?

• Did you know that the UK’s Christmas cards and wrapping paper this year used the equivalent of around a quarter of a million trees?
• Out of every £75 pounds spent on groceries, £10 is for the packaging?
• A returnable container system for drinks could create up to 4,000 jobs in the UK?

Food News
Unilever are now labelling one of their smaller brand names, Bachelors Beanfeast (or should that be Genebeast?), as containing genetically engineered soya. As Unilever tests the water for public reaction, FoE have been warning people to watch out for this small label and also to be aware of other brands which Unilever might be thinking about using GE ingredients.

However, on a positive note, as of 1 May, Iceland supermarkets’ own brand products will be free of all genetically engineered ingredients. The tough stance was outlined at a press conference on 18 March in London. FoE supports this position and urges all other supermarkets to follow Iceland.

Forests & Paper Campaign
Finnish company UPM-Kymmene, major paper suppliers to the UK and involved in using wood from the last old forests in Finland, has further demonstrated its lack of commitment to the environment by announcing a joint venture with an Indonesian company APRIL. The venture will involve clear-felling logged-over natural forest in Indonesia and replacing it with industrial monoculture plantation. The APRIL enterprise is also involved in a dispute with a local village who are claiming compensation for loss of their land to the company. FoE groups in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK are launching a campaign calling on UPM-Kymmene to pull out of the deal.

Meanwhile, several old-growth forests in Finland were logged in the past few months. UPM-Kymmene is believed to have bought wood from at least some of the old-growth areas. UPM Kymmene supplies paper to IPC Magazines (publishers of New Scientist, Marie Claire etc.) and BBC Magazines (publishers of Radio Times and BBC Wildlife). UPM-Kymmene is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a group of companies supposedly committed to sustainable development, which doesn’t square with either clear-felling rainforest, or destroying the last old-growth forests in Finland.

To take action write to UPM-Kymmene’s president, Mr Juha Niemeläa at PO Box 203, FIN-00171 Helsinki, Finland. Say that as a UK paper consumer you urge them to show their commitment to sustainable development by withdrawing from the deal with APRIL and declaring a moratorium on using wood from Finland’s last old-growth forests.

Campaign News from Local Groups
Leeds Friends of the Earth’s Wild Woods Campaigners took to the street with a petition calling for the newspaper industry to buy more recycled paper. This very vocal day of action drew a lot of attention and filled the petition sheets in record time.

Thorne and Hatfield Moors have retained their status as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, despite plans to remove the designation by English Nature at the end of last year. FoE local groups, particular in the north east, quickly responded to a call for action at Conference in September and threw themselves into the fight to save the Moors

Near Doncaster - the last surviving lowland raised peat bog in England. Without a local group in the immediate area, Robin Maynard and Matt Phillips from FoE attended and spoke at a public meeting organised by the local authority. There are now murmurings of a new FoE group in Doncaster.

Frankenstein masks and lab coats were the order of the day for groups in the West Yorkshire FoE Network who quizzed local shoppers about their choices, and cheered and shook hands with shoppers leaving Safeways for taking part in the “biggest genetic experiment”.

Recycling Campaign - Summer 1991

Recycling Campaign - Summer 1991

We are currently involved in a promotion in conjunction with the National Dairy Council to promote the reuse of bottles, as is the case with the doorstep delivery service. Friends of the Earth want to encourage a higher return of empties, and promote reuse and recycling in general. So this will be important for Friends of the Earth as well as for the dairies.

All dairies nationwide will have the opportunity to display Friends of the Earth promotional banners on the sides of their milk floats, and deliver national FoE membership leaflets to customers. Each local FoE group taking part is given £500 by the dairies.

On publicity day there will be a competition involving local schools and Brownies, whereby they dress up a
milk float under the theme "Message in a Bottle" using household waste such as milk bottle tops, egg cartons etc. The event will be covered by local newspapers and should provide an excellent photo-opportunity. It will be fascinating to see what the competitors can produce.

We organised some successful events with SCRAP during Environment Week in May. A guided tour of the British Tissues toilet roil factory at Oughtibridge was oversubscribed, and much enjoyed by those lucky enough to attend. We therefore intend to arrange a similar tour this Autumn. The display on composting with the children's "Not so Ugly Bug Ball" was popular, and we would, therefore  like to extend our activities in this area. too, in the Autumn.

We are currently concerned that we have not placed enough emphasis on campaigning recently, and are planning to embark on an exciting new project which is more practically orientated. This should provide a splendid opportunity for members to get struck into interesting and exciting work in which the fruits of their endeavours will be more tangible and apparent.Suggestions for a theme for the project are welcome.

To find out how you can get involved in these worthwhile pursuits, why not attend our group meetings on Tuesdays at 7.30pm. at the SCRAP Office (140 Devonshire Street) to get active and make your voice heard. The meetings are informal and you'll be more than welcome, as we need volunteers to make the projects successful.

Marc Roddis

Environmental Charter for Local Government

Environmental Charter for Local Government - August 1989

National FoE has produced a draft of this document which sets out an agenda for "Green" local authorities. Local authorities have been asked to comment on the draft, and the idea is not to bash local politicians  but to work out how local authorities can implement policies that end, or at least reduce, damage to the environment.

One example would be for council vehicles to use lead free petrol  and catalytic converters to reduce pollution. Another which we are already discussing with Sheffield Council would be for the City to stop using tropical hardwoods from non-sustainable sources in construction and renovation contracts.

If local authorities throughout the country implemented environmental polices, their purchasing power would help accelerate the change towards a greener Britain. Councils use huge quantiles of paper, much more of which should be recycled.

They buy supplies of all kinds of materials and products for schools, council owned housing, libraries and offices. They own land: gardens, parks and farms which could be used to promote nature conservation, and organic growing.

The aim of the Sheffield FoE campaign this Autumn is to explain the opportunities for Sheffield Council and to the public. We want to achieve a greener city. We recognise the City Council's achievements - it is after al l the first Recycling City and we have to acknowledge that sometimes the Council operates within constraints imposed by central government.

However, we hope that Sheffield City Council will accept the challenges of the Environmental Charter wholeheartedly. We will be inviting representatives from the City Council to a public meeting on November 20th to discuss Sheffield's plans to become a Green City.

Rev Bennett.

Recycling Update Autumn 1989

Recycling Update Autumn 1989

The paper market is slumping again, which means we will be getting less for the paper we collect at the garage and around Nether Edge. Fortunately the decrease in price is not as great as it was a few years ago when it became almost impossible to give away the newspaper and magazines we collect  The price we are being offered has gone down from £15 to £12 a tonne.

Despite Recycling City and the promotion all kinds of recycling has had in Sheffield recently, the paper market is international, and it fluctuates. The present dip has been caused by mandatory recycling in Canada and the USA. Because the use of recycled paper products has not been properly developed in
North America, a surplus has been generated.

This is being shipped from North America to Europe, and, while it is not being imported into Britain, it has undercut the British export market and led to a glut of supplies for British paper mills. Also, the volume of paper collected by voluntary groups in Britain has increased as environmental consciousness has been raised, particularly in the last year.

Other recycling markets; such as for higher grades of waste paper (office and computer paper), glass and aluminium cans, remain buoyant, whereas there has been a very poor market for recycled textiles (rags etc.) for some time.

It is shameful that it is not at present "economic" to recycle materials, but we live in a "market economy" where supply exceeds demand. We can campaign, persuade others, and act ourselves to make sure more and more people and organisations use recycled paper products wherever possible so that "demand" increases.We can also point out that the market equation does not take into account the cost of landfill, when perfectly recyclable materials are dumped into holes in the ground. This will become increasingly expensive as suitable sites run out. Obviously someone has to pay for this.

Lots of people want to recycle because it is a simple and effective way of helping to save resources and reducing our impact on the environment. In a perfect world everything possible would be recycled. The problems of the waste paper market remind us that tackling environmental problems in a complex industrial society is not always straightforward.


* AN APOLOGY *

In May at a General Meeting we asked for people interested in setting up an aluminium can recycling scheme. Then nothing happened. This was because there was no-one willing or able to co-ordinate the collections.

Hopefully we will be able to get this going in the Autumn, and we will be asking members if they can organise collections in their streets involving their friends and neighbours. If you are interested, please say so at a meeting, or contact the office.

Rev Bennett.