"The employers and the MPs are the real shirkers"

Something of the Knight about him
(he will become the 18th Baronet of Ballentaylor)
Link to the New Statesman

" 'Shirkers versus strivers' – those have been the terms of this week’s biggest debate, over the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill.

"... [But the last Labour government] swallowed hook-line-and-sinker the neo-liberal line about Britain being able to abandon food-growing and manufacturing – importing essentials from developing nations, plundering their water and soils, exploiting their grossly-underpaid workers – while relying on the 'genius' of bankers, and the luxury industries servicing them and their friends, as a foundation for the British economy, a foundation that it turns out was built on shifting sands of fraud, incompetence, and incomprehension of risk. 
[In the glorious future, people will write shorter sentences.]

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

Source: "Green Thing":

"This is one the most heart-warming and inspiring videos we’ve seen this year. Or last year.

"It is the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra - a group of very talented kids from a slum in Paraguay, playing instruments made from rubbish dug from the landfill that they live on.

"You have to watch to see just how incredible these musical instruments and musical teenagers are. But prepare to be amazed at how beautiful the music sounds.

"If you want to donate to help get the film about these amazing children made, then click here."

'Wembley Matters': "Better data needed to monitor successful recycling" (One borough's story)

Link to web site

"Green groups in Brent expressed fears that the new co-mingled recycling (everything put into one bin and emptied into one truck) would produce more contamination than the green box system, where different materials were sorted at the pavement stage and put into different compartments of a lorry. 

"This would result in more material being rejected at the recycling plant and ending up in landfill.

"Now that the scheme has been running for some time, I put in an Freedom of Information request to see if the amount of recyclates collected, which have increased now that some plastics are collected, was affected by increased contamination."

'The Rubbish Diet': "Don't let food waste be next year's shock headline - my two penneth"

Link to 'The Rubbish Diet' web site

"Well Happy New Year everyone. I can see it's kicked off in fine style!

"Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the media's shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the world's food never gets eaten.

"These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.

"But this isn't the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste. Here's a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue. ... ..."

Daily Telegraph: "Dark city: atmospheric photographs of London streets by night in the 1930s"

Link to web site

"This picture gallery features atmospheric images of London streets in the 1930s, before the Blitz, before the Clean Air Act, before sodium lighting.

"It was a city of gloomy back streets lit by dim lamps, with forbidding alleys and the occasional welcoming light.

"The photographs are from a book called 'London Night', by John Morrison and Harold Burdekin, which was published in 1934. They were recently posted on The Library Time Machine, a fascinating blog run by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Library Service."

Barnet Times

"The Golden Age of Trams: A Streetcar Named Desire"

"Move along the car! Timeshift takes a nostalgic trip on the tram car and explores how it liberated overcrowded cities and launched the age of commuter. The film maps the tram's journey from early horse-drawn carriages on rails, through steam to electric power.

"Overhead wires hung over Britain's towns and cities for nearly 50 years from the beginning of the 20th century, until they were phased out everywhere except Blackpool. Manchester, the last city to lose its trams was, however, among the first to reintroduce them as the solution to modern day traffic problems.

"The film includes a specially-recorded reading of his short story Leeds Trams by Alan Bennett and contributions from Ken Dodd and Roy Hattersley."

Haringey Independent: "Alexandra Palace chief executive hopes regeneration will gain momentum"

Climb the hill to the web site

"During the coming months, trustees of Ally Pally will find out if they have been successful with their bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £16.8million to revitalise the derelict Victorian theatre, develop BBC studios and restore the East Court.

"If the bid is successful, chief executive Duncan Wilson hopes momentum will start to build behind the project and private investment can be found for the development of a four-star hotel in the palace."

Daily Telegraph: "We throw away half our food"

Peel for the Daily Telegraph web site

"The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of food produced around the globe, or 1.2 to two billion tonnes each year, never reaches a human mouth.

"... As many as 30 per cent of UK vegetable crops are not even harvested because they do not meet retailers’ stringent demands on appearance, which are based on what customers will accept."

---

Link to Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Evening Standard: "Tube boss: we need £12 billion for vital Piccadilly and Bakerloo line upgrades"

Link to web site

"The London Tube boss today warned that passengers could suffer years of disruption because of a £12 billion funding gap in planned upgrades to two lines.

"Transport for London’s managing director Mike Brown called for government cash to complete the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines’ modernisation as well as upgrades to Bank, Monument and Holborn stations.

"He said reliability on the services — with 30-year-old trains operating on the Piccadilly line — would be affected, and cash would be wasted on repairs."

---

Link to:
"New Trains on the Piccadilly Line"

Les squatteurs de la Barnet contre l'ordonnance d'expulsion

"Phoenix et son pote, squatteurs (via brokenbarnet)"
Link above to 'Microsoft Translator', then wait a few seconds

"Although local authorities received an order to send in possession, to the building having hosted the premises of the public service, they are committed to not evict the squatters before the end of the month of January. The Council had also mentioned the idea of granting a permit to volunteers, so that they can ensure the library service pending a possible buyer.

"And the spokesman of the Friern Barnet library, Pete Phoenix, had considered the commitment by the Council to negotiate with the residents, about a possible creation of community service, as a victory for the campaign (see our actualitte)."

---

Link to Peckham Translation Service

---

Friern Barnet Community Library

Events and Meetings

There is to be a Licensee meeting, it is not too late to get involved. Please email Reema with your details: reema87patel@googlemail.com

Inaugural Licensee meeting
This will take place at Anne’s house - email Reema for address.
Date & Time: Wednesday 9 January 2013, 7pm

Big appeal for local volunteers to come in and stand behind the desk and run your library and community centre. Two hour shifts. Now is the time for the local team to step in, step up and reclaim their library and community centre.

EVENTS

Every Tuesday 6.30-7.30pm Yoga - open class for all

Thursday 10 January -

7.00pm MEETING ABOUT FUTURE OF LIBRARY - ALL WELCOME

There will be filming by Phoebe Wood - Journalist student
Journalist Wataru Sawamura will be attending from Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun - Japanese daily broadsheet and with a circulation of over 8.5 million copies, the world's second largest newspaper.

8.15pm - Moving on up: an informal talk with photos about Kim Vision’s trek to Everest Base Camp http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/events/348562035251435/?suggestsessionid=1000005008813121357401966

Friday 11 January - 7 - 9pm - Lib'ry up yourself music project rehearsal

Sunday 13 January - 5 - 8pm - Lib'ry up yourself music project rehearsal

Thursday 17 January - 7pm OPEN MIC is back, Arnie will be organising so contact him: apdonoff@yahoo.co.uk or just turn up on the night

Friday 18 January - 7 - 11pm - Earth Circus presents Evolution Cabaret (and performance of Lib'ry up yourself music project)

Tuesday 22nd January - 7.30 - 10pm - Friends of the Earth meeting – all welcome

Friday 25th January - 7 - 11pm - Dub cafe featuring the Suburban Pirate Sly and Reggie - coffee, cake and heavy dub

THE WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING... LINK ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE, TWEET - @occupiedlibrary, FORWARD VIA EMAIL, TELL THE WORLD!!

http://fbpeopleslibrary.co.uk

And now for something completely different: Is it a Particle? Is it a Wave?

"Quantum shadows: The mystery of matter deepens"

Link to New Scientist

(May need free registration)

"One day in 1978 must have been quite something for [a scientist called] John Archibald Wheeler. That was when he first lit on a very strange idea to test how photons might be expected to behave. Half a century earlier, quantum physics had produced the startling insight that light - everything in the quantum world, in fact - has a dual character.

"Sometimes it acts as if made of discrete chunks of stuff that follows well-defined paths - particles. At other times, it adopts the more amorphous, space-filling guise of a wave. That led to a question that exercised Wheeler: what makes it show which side, and when?

"It took a while for the test Wheeler devised to become experimental reality. When it finally did, the answer that came was strange enough. Now, though, the experiment has been redone with a further quantum twist. And it's probably time to abandon any pretence of understanding the outcome.

"Forget waves, forget particles, forget anything that's one or the other. Reality is far more inscrutable than that.

---

(To skip introduction go to 8.5 minutes, and to skip the wave-particle history lesson go to 19.5 minutes.)

BBC: "Climate model forecast is revised"

Link to web site

"The UK Met Office has revised one of its forecasts for how much the world may warm in the next few years.

"It says that the average temperature is likely to rise by 0.43 C by 2017 - as opposed to an earlier forecast that suggested a warming of 0.54C.

"The explanation is that a new kind of computer model using different parameters has been used."

Evening Standard: "Councils are ignoring the Government by threatening to fine residents £1,000 if they don't recycle."

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Martin Hunt, Colchester Borough Council's waste boss, has applied for new powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The legislation allows him to order dust carts not to pick up rubbish from serial offenders' homes. He said:

"People are being put off recycling because they can see other people getting away with not doing it.

People are saying: 'why should I bother with recycling when my neighbour is putting 12 black sacks out?'

They feel they are paying for someone else not doing what they could be doing, but by me having these powers, it could put a stop to that."

"Lengthy Austerity? Financial Instability? Housing Crisis? Military Redundancies? Modest Politicians, with much to be modest about?" Well, at least we've put all that behind us...

[Reposted] 11 Aug 2009: Sale of "Former Friern Barnet Sewage Works at Pinkham Way"

Barnet Cabinet: 11 August 2009

"To recommend the disposal of the site to the North London Waste Authority."

1. RECOMMENDATIONS

1.1 That the offer from the North London Waste Authority be accepted for the site, which includes a reserved area of 4.5 Acres for the Council to retain and construct a new depot facility, on the basis set out in the exempt report.

1.2 That the external solicitors be instructed to conclude the contract for the disposal.

'Freedom Pass': New route map (Dec 2012)

FreedomPassMapDecember12[1]

More details: here

---

And for the route of the new east-west light railway across outer north London...

The Brent Cross Railway,
now between Old Oak Common Crossrail
and Alexandra Palace Crossrail 2 stations

The Independent: "A ballooning problem: the great helium shortage"

Link to web site

"The supply of helium, an inert element with the lowest boiling point of any known substance, has now become so erratic that scientists are calling for a ban on all but the most essential uses – which could mean no more helium-filled party balloons. "Peter Wothers of Cambridge University, who gave the 2012 Royal Institution Christmas lectures, said:

“The scarcity of helium is a really serious issue. I can imagine that in 50 years’ time, our children will be saying: ‘I can’t believe they used such a precious material to fill balloons'.

There is a finite supply of this lighter-than-air gas on Earth, so if we keep using it for non-essential things like party balloons, where we’re just letting it float off into space, we could be in for some serious problems in around 30 to 50 years’ time."

Barnet Times

Barnet Times: "Squatters will launch two-pronged attack to prevent eviction from Friern Barnet Library"

Link to Barnet Times

"Squatters occupying Friern Barnet Library will appeal against their eviction from the building while community groups launch their own bid to run the facility, it has been confirmed.

"Members of the Friern Barnet Community Library voted last night to press ahead with legal action in a bid to delay or prevent their eviction should negotiations with the local authority fail."

[Reposted] Harris + Hoole artisan coffee shop 'has spilled beans' on Tesco ownership

Link to The Guardian

" 'I thought: 'That's very brave, opening up next to Starbucks,"' Bridget Chappell, a full-time mum, said of Harris + Hoole, a new coffee shop in north London, next door to a branch of the US coffee behemoth, and four doors down from a Costa Coffee.

" 'I like to try independent shops, and it was really very nice with great coffee,' she said. 'But when I got home, I looked it up and discovered it was a chain.'

"Chappell is one of a growing number of Harris + Hoole's customers discovering that the new, independent-looking, stripped-back coffee shops popping up on high streets across London and the south-east are part of a chain that is up to 49% owned by Tesco."

---

Link to 'LabourList':

"The colossal snobbery of those who sneer at Tesco"

BBC: "Concord, Massachusetts bans sale of small water bottles"

Link to web site

"The US town of Concord in Massachusetts has banned the sale of bottled water in units smaller than one litre.

"The law came into effect on January 1, after a three-year campaign to reduce waste and encourage tap water use."

Daily Telegraph: "Cost of food 'not going to stop' rising, warns UK chief scientist"

Link to web site

"Food price inflation will only get worse, as the rising global population and climate change add to the volatility faced by British consumers, the government’s chief scientist warned today.

"During a radio discussion about food prices, he said much of world’s agriculture was dependent on stable weather patterns, which have undergone 'major changes' in recent years.

"This, he warned, meant that food supplies were 'extremely fragile' and that reserves were subjected to extremes in conditions caused by climate change."

Fri 18 Jan: Friern Barnet Cabaret

The Independent: "The 20mph revolution: Millions of drivers face lower speed limits as new laws sweep the country"

Link to The Independent

"In what is being hailed by campaigners as a 'cultural shift' - as well as a significant reversal in decades of policy which prioritised motor vehicles over the safety of pedestrians and cyclists - new figures show that dozens of cities and towns across England and Wales have either approved slowdown zones, or are now considering introducing them.

"It is claimed a 10mph cut in the maximum speed limit [can] lead to a 40 per cent reduction in the number of road casualties, as well as reducing pollution, promoting cycling, walking and local shopping.

"Meanwhile, public backing for a blanket 20mph limit in built-up areas has reached more than 60 per cent with support particularly strong among women, younger people and pensioners, a ComRes survey for The Independent found."

'The Times': "Secrets of recycling success rubbish Eric Pickles’ bin policy"

Link to 'The Times' subscription web site

"A combination of fortnightly dustbin rounds and separate food waste collections are the most effective way of increasing household recycling, analysis of Government figures suggests.

"... The statistics fly in the face of moves by Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, to reverse the “unpopular and unhygienic” shift to fortnightly bin collections which began under the last Labour government."

---

Link to Daily Telegraph:
"Householders forced to recycle more because councils abandon weekly collections"

"Official figures published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show for the first time ever more rubbish is recycled than goes to landfill.

"... Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, told The Daily Telegraph:

“The idea of reducing frequency of residual waste collection is that people are forced to recycle by the lack of capacity in residual waste bins. This is a far speedier way of changing attitudes than education which is costly and time-consuming. ..."

The Guardian: "Single men found to be rubbish at putting out the recycling"

"Women are doing more than their fair share of recycling, while single people living alone are less likely to recycle"

Link to web site

"As many homes come to terms with a backlog of discarded wrapping paper and empty packaging after Christmas, women will take on the most responsibility for disposing of it in an environmentally friendly way, according to new research.

"... As local councils offer better recycling facilities, people are increasingly viewing it as an essential part of their household routine, rather than a voluntary green act. The UK's governments have set ambitious targets to increase domestic recycling of all waste to 50% by 2020 – currently standing at 41.5% in England and Wales, 37.2% in Scotland and 39.7% in Northern Ireland.

"The study shows that making men the focus for green messages could be the best way forward."

Andrew Dismore AM: "Local Assembly Members welcome decision from Waste Authority to abandon Pinkham Way plan"

Recent PWA protest meeting in Friern Barnet
Link to Andrew Dismore web site

"Local Labour London Assembly Members Joanne McCartney and Andrew Dismore have today welcomed the announcement that the North London Waste Authority is to withdraw its plans for a Mechanical and Biological Treatment Plant on the Pinkham Way site.

"Over the past year, both members have consistently supported local residents, and opposed the plan for a waste treatment facility to be built in the middle of a built-up residential area of north London."

Barnet Greens: "Stop the £4.7 bn North London Waste privatisation – the battle goes on!"

Link to web site

"It’s great news that Veolia has withdrawn from the bidding for the North London Waste Authority’s £4.7 billion procurement contracts, and it is equally pleasing that the authority has scrapped plans for a huge mechanical bio-treatment plant at Pinkham Way, Friern Barnet. BUT THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER!

"NLWA chair Clyde Loakes and his Labour and Tory colleagues on the authority are pressing on with plans to award the two enormous contracts, even though there is only one bidder left for each contract."

North London Waste Authority statement

"The information recently released about the Authority’s procurement process, and plans for its site at Pinkham Way, is the only information we are currently in a position to provide.

"Bidder proposals continue to remain confidential."

(Er, that's it.)

Pinkham Way Alliance statement

"The new that the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) no longer intends to put a mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) waste plant on Pinkham Way, and has withdrawn its planning application, is excellent news.

"Despite this, Pinkham Way remains under threat. The NLWA has now earmarked Pinkham Way for 'delivering, sorting and transferring waste from local households'. As these waste uses have never before been proposed for the site, we can only assume that this is a hasty alternative proposal to justify the premature expenditure of £12million in buying it from Barnet.

"There is still much to be done to prevent the allocation of the Pinkham Way site for any waste use in the new version of the North London Waste Plan (NLWP). If we fail to achieve this, the site will be vulnerable to these new options announced by the NLWA, or, further down the line, even to the same MBT plans that have just been withdrawn.

"Haringey Council must now be persuaded to withdraw Pinkham Way from inclusion in the new North London Waste Plan, and to fully protect its strong conservation status. The council must carry out a full assessment of the site ASAP; until this is complete, they should protect it from all development.

"The NLWA attribute their change of plans to falling waste figures. The PWA has long been pointing out these figures. However, the change must also be because of the recently published planning inspector’s report on Haringey Council’s Strategic Plan, in which the council’s attempt to redesignate the site as 'industrial' was refused.

"This refusal is a significant success for the PWA, which created and presented successful planning arguments to the inspector, and urged the site’s proper protection as a Grade 1 Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC).

"To read more detail on all of this, please take look at the latest page on our new website.

"You can also read the press release on the NLWA website.

"Together, we have achieved so much. But this could easily be lost if we don’t press on and ensure that Pinkham Way is not included as a site suitable for waste use in any future NLWP. We’ll send out information about how this can be achieved early in the new year.

"In the meantime, we warmly thank all MPs and councillors who have genuinely supported their communities.  By contrast, do not be lulled by opportunist councillors hastily claiming the NLWA announcement as 'their' victory, while failing to alert the public about the ongoing threat to Pinkham Way, as they have failed to do all along.  This sharply displays their continuing sloppiness and lack of authentic engagement with waste issues in north London.
"You can follow us on Twitter, join the Facebook Group, and make a donation here."
 
Kind regards,

Bidesh Sarkar
Chair, Pinkham Way Alliance

---

[Reposted from July 2011] NLWA plans new Edmonton incinerator - and it DOES have a 'Plan B'

The 'North London Waste Authority' Confidential Minutes, below (from an NLWA meeting held at about the time as the 'Pinkham Way exhibitions') include:

"... A further Member queried why the option of building a new Energy from Waste plant at Edmonton had been excluded from further consideration.

"The Procurement Director said that there were a number of considerations, including the likely cost of modelling such an option.

"The substantive issues were that there was no prospect of a good quality combined heat and power solution at Edmonton for all the energy that the Authority’s solution might generate, and it was highly unlikely that a large mass burn incinerator would be deliverable.

The Authority was, however, considering whether a smaller plant could be delivered at Edmonton, potentially associated with half the Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)."

The Guardian: "We need a coalition of resistance against local council cuts"

"Barnet Blogger Therese Musgrove, with her avatar at [Friern] Barnet Library;
her group campaigned against services cuts."
Link to The Guardian

"As the new year dawns, councillors around the country will start drawing up budgets for 2013-14. Sharp and continuous reductions in government grants totalling 30% will result in severe cuts to balance the books. By law, they have to do this. Town halls can't run deficit budgets, unlike the government."

[Reposted] Waste site near to housing? See the Willesden example

Link to the Ealing Incinerator
(Ealing is the 'Queen of the Suburbs', traditionally)

'Green Alternatives to Incineration in Scotland'

Link to web site

"Waste incineration is fundamentally unsustainable, recovering only a tenth of the energy used to make the products in our rubbish. 

"Burning one tonne of waste represents the emission of up to 6 tonnes of CO2, consisting of:

• 3 tonnes of 'legacy' CO2 (generated by the manufacture of the items in our rubbish) and 
• up to a further 3 tonnes from the combustion process itself (1.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of wood/paper burnt, 3 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of plastic).

"Recycling recovers 3-8 times more energy than incineration (3x more for paper, 5x more plastic, and 8 times more for textiles) and produces proportionately less CO2 as a result. 

"Over the past 10 years, the Scottish Government has spent over £100 million on incineration in Scotland (either directly or via local authorities), but less than £2 million on improving Scotland's recycling infrastructure, i.e. facilities for reprocessing materials such as plastic and paper for manufacture into new items. This is incredibly wasteful.

"Friends of the Earth have calculated that recycing generates 36 times more jobs than incineration on a pound-for-pound basis). Despite this, all four of the main political parties in Scotland support waste incineration. Under European law incineration includes gasification and pyrolysis.

If we really want to save the global environment, we really have to stop producing so much waste in the first place. That means doing things like banning single-use carrier bags, and forcing manufacturers to redesign their products so they can be easily reused and recycled with minimal energy consumption or CO2 emissions. These are things that only the Government can do, but the Government is doing very little about it.

Campaign background

" 'Green Alternatives to Incineration in Scotland' (GAINS) emerged from a gathering of Scottish incinerator protest groups at the Scottish Parliament on 1 October 2009.

"Our purpose is to enable fellow campaigners to share information and inspire the 'Powers that Be' to turn away from the lazy approach of burning waste, and instead adopt forward-thinking and imaginative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle waste."

Zero Waste

"We reject the Scottish Government's view that waste incineration is a renewable source of energy,  compatible with the aim of achieving a zero waste society. [See the web site of] the Zero Waste International Alliance."

Evening Standard: 26 Photographs of the Year

Click for the other 25.

# The Folk in Friern Barnet #

Link to song (click near top of screen)

"Dedicated to the folk running Friern Barnet People's Library, who occupied the building after the council tried to sell off the treasured community resource for short term financial gain. For more info go to: fbpeopleslibrary.co.uk."

PLASTICIZED ~ Feature Documentary Film

Daily Telegraph: "Up to a fifth of recycling is 'contaminated'"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admit that the amount of 'contaminated' rubbish has gone up by around 40 per cent in the last five years.

"The latest figures from the 'Waste Data Flow' show the amount of recycling sent to landfill or incinerators went up almost 50,000 tons between 2007/08 and 2011/12 to 180,000 tonnes."

---

Link to web site

Letsrecycle:
"Wandsworth in recycling contamination clampdown"

"Wandsworth council is calling on its residents to be more vigilant when recycling after finding that 17% of materials put out for collection are contaminants.

"And the council said that if the problem continues some areas could have their recycling bins removed as a result.

"... Shaun Morley, head of waste management at Wandsworth, told letsrecycle.com:

“We are not really sure why the contamination is high. As you know it is a new materials recycling facility (MRF) and the regime for sampling is fairly stringent. It is possibly more stringent than some of the other MRFs around the country. As it is new maybe they are being more careful and more selective about the waste."

"Mr Morley added that one reason for the contamination could be because residents living in high-rise buildings have their recycling collected in a communal bin meaning it is difficult to stop people putting bags of residual waste in them. The level of contamination for these bins is even higher than 17%, at almost 25%."

If 'Nu-Barnet' (c) ran Christmas...

'A visit to Father Christmas'
Link to 'Flip Chart Fairy Tales'

... Little Johnny: "Actually, I asked you for a Chelsea strip last year but I never got it."

Santa: "Hmmm. I’ll look into it. It could just be a simple process error. On the other hand, it could be that your address isn’t on the service specification." ...

'The Independent': Overpackaging: An alternative

"It sells everything you could ever need for a great meal.
There's only one catch – 
it won't give you anything to take it all home in."
Link to The Independent

"If you ever find yourself eyeing the kitchen bin guiltily, with its vast mound of plastic packets, cardboard containers and wrappers, you might be interested to know there's a whole movement that aims to go one better than even recycling: 'precycling', or cutting out packaging in the first place.

"Among those at the forefront of this consumer revolution is Unpackaged, a first-of-its-kind shop that eschews all packaging and invites customers to bring in their own containers and Tupperware to stock up on essentials such as flour, cereals, nuts, pasta, rice, lentils and so on. Bring bottles for oils, apple juice, wine and even gin. Simply weigh your container when you arrive so it can be deducted from the overall weight and then get filling. 

"Not only will you save money but by foregoing packaging you'll reduce the amount of material waste being either sent to landfills or incinerated."

Why Packaging?

"It’s hard to visit a landfill site without being struck by the craziness of taking very valuable minerals and resources out of the ground, using a lot of energy, turning them into short-life products and then just dumping them back into the ground. It’s an absolutely monumental waste of energy and resources. As someone from the fashion industry might say, its just so last century."

(Michael Pawlyn, The Guardian, November 21 2005)

The Problem with Packaging

Whilst some packaging is necessary in our modern industrialised food chain, unnecessary packaging is a waste:  

• Cost: It increases the price of the goods you buy. You are charged twice – first when you buy overpackaged products and then through council tax for disposing of your rubbish.
• Waste: It wastes resources at every level: production, storage, transport and disposal.
• Pollution: Landfill and incineration are the two main ways of dealing with un-recyclable packaging waste. These are major pollutants for people and the environment as they release greenhouse gases.

"What about recycling? While some packaging is recycled, most ends up in landfill sites and some packaging is difficult and impossible to recycle. Recycling is certainly part of the solution, but it will only work if we use less packaging and adopt more ‘reusable’ ways of doing things – Unpackaged is based on this ethos. Remember:

• Reduce by only buying what you need
• Reuse by bringing your containers for a refill
• Recycle what you can’t reuse.

"And… if you can’t reuse or recycle it, then don’t buy it!"

David Burrowes MP: Christmas present

"This is excellent news for all the tireless campaigners, who have made it clear that the Pinkham Way site was totally inappropriate for such a large-scale development.

"The withdrawal of the application is a great Christmas present for local residents. It means that the North Circular area can continue to regenerate without the blight of the waste management site on our doorstep."

David Burrowes MP
PPS to Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP Secretary of State for DEFRA
www.davidburrowes.com