Reading the news I noticed that the makers of Wallace and Gromit, Oscar winning Aardman Animations, have been making a series of short films with the voice over by comedian Dawn French. They will air on Discovery’s Animal Planet channel.
Clay models of an electric eel, penguin and a leopard are among the creatures featured in the short films to promote green living to both young and old. Amongst the stories that took four weeks to write and as manydays to film each one includes a penguin who peddles a bicycle to provide light in his igloo, a kangaroo who carries shopping in her pouch and a cow who learns about the effects of methane on the environment!

A new idea for house paint is a powder that is chemical-free, non-toxic mixed with water to produce paint. Said by the manufacturers to not need an undercoat, it is easy to apply and comes in a wide range of colours. Not a cheap option @ £10.66 for a 400gm bag to make one litre of paint and eco-friendly. Besides, what fun to make your own paint like school days as thick or as thin as you want. They also have a Naturepaint box to paint the average room with paint, recycled applicators and packaging. www.naturepaint.com

The latest craze to catch on is buying, or swapping, vintage clothing to save the planet. Many of the dresses in circulation now have been sitting in people’s wardrobes and now have a new lease of life through resale or swapping. Much of the clothing is affordable, looks timeless and saves valuable resources from being squandered. Gone are the days when it was frowned upon to go into second hand cloth shops, more so to wear another persons clothing. No longer, agencies are springing up all over the world offering either purchase or hire from the well know designers, all at a fraction of the original price. There is even a network on Yahoo, The Compact, on the group section that promotes this and many other ways of reusing and recycling on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. The end of our throw away society is getting closer but the sooner we all learn to mend and make do the sooner we will help all our fellow beings on this fragile planet.

Coffee is making a come back after sinking to second place against tea by the increase in suppliers signing up to the Fairtrade brands available. Clipper, Traidcraft and Rombouts are all pushing the new and existing brands to promote fair pay for a great product. Gone are the days when fair-trade coffee tasted like dish water, with investment and stable income leading to sustainable, quality beans being produced. www.fairtrade.org.uk And look out for Fairtrade promotions in the next two weeks.

1.  With local shops facing a bleak future start to go down to the local shop,  get to know the staff who in turn will be more than willing to pass on what’s fresh and in season.  Buying locally supports the local economy, provides jobs and, if you walk or cycle there, gives you some exercise into the mix.  Besides the local shops are good sources of gossip…not that I listen but…

2. We are all told to buy organic food as it saves the environment but if faced with produce that is organic from half way round the world with so many air miles is it really the way forward.  Many conventional farmers treat the countryside with regard and do use chemicals but more and more are reducing their use of chemicals and going back to traditional methods.  So buying non-organic from a local farm is better than flying in produce and as more farmers in the UK go over to orgainic farming our food miles will reduce.

3. Don’t throw away aluminium foil but wash and recycle as 1kg of recycled foil saves 8kg of bauxite, the mineral used to make it, as well as 15kw of energy and nearly 4kg of chemicals produced in the extraction process.

4. Refuse to have anything with genetically modified produce.   With millions of farmer’s worldwide growing GM crops, there is a push to introduce GM crops here.  Many opponents, including farmers, believe that if GM crops came to the UK, all our organic and traditional crops would be lost. 

5. Re –use carrier bags as often as possible.  With the billions of bags handed out by the big supermarkets our landfill sites will start to look like plastic bag heaven.  Buy the heavy weight plastic, hemp or natural cotton bags instead.  There is even a fashion accessory bag on the market, it folds to a tiny size and when open holds a goodly amount of shopping.  You know the bag I mean!

6.  Like local shops farmers markets are seeing a rise in popularity so why not get out there and find one to shop at once or twice a month.  Supporting the markets supports the farmer and in turn, the economy of an area.  Norman Baker, MP, headed up a team who produced a report about super markets and the staggering fact that just 26% of the cost of goods in a typical bag are food costs, the rest is for transport, packaging and overheads.  So cut out the intermediary and shop directly with the producers who will have facts about their produce supermarket staff do not.  It has also been known for local produce in a supermarket, sold as local, to have travelled over 400 miles in order to be packed!

7.  Buying ‘A ‘rated appliances such as fridge and freezer combined will reduce running costs and do not contain CFCs, (Chlorofluorocarbons) which contribute to the hole in the ozone. 
8.    Re-cycle and re-use as much as possible, mend and patch rather than throw away.  Households in the UK produce over 30 million tonnes of rubbish each year.  Enough rubbish to form a pile 10 meters high around the world so with landfill sites increasingly under pressure the less we throw away the better for the environment and our pockets.

9.  Get composting.  Save your peelings, used tea bags, eggshells and coffee grounds for your compost bin or, if you do not have a garden, keep for friends who have gardens.  An old ice cream plastic container is great as a storage vessel because it has a lid.  At garden centres and online garden shops all sorts of compost bins for all needs are to be found.  You may even consider a wormery, in which hard working worms eat their way through your waste from the kitchen and a bi-product is rich liquid manure.

10.  Using the above compost start your own herb garden in portable earthen pots rather than plastic or any container you like.  In the summer during the BBQ season, fresh herbs are available for the chef.  In the winter, they can sit near the kitchen door giving a splash of colour and fresh.  Herbs love windowsills, bathrooms, even bedrooms.  Growing tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and even potatoes in tubs act as a talking point and you have cut down on food miles.  Besides any excess herbs can be dried to provide supplies throughout the winter months. 

A recent survey in America in to the production of the plastic bag has revealed some interesting facts about the battle of plastic vs. paper.  Plastic is lighter, uses less fuel in production, is easy to store and dispense, and is stronger that most paper bags.  However, the down side of the plastic bag is that it lasts for many hundreds of years, against the paper bag that is lucky to see its first birthday.  So what should we think and do?  Well the easy thing to do is re-use your plastic bag repeatedly until it is well and truly worn out, then recycle it if facilities allow.  The local council here have a problem with plastic bags going for recycling.  It would seem that in a last ditch effort not to be recycled the bags get together and clog up the £3M recycling machine.  Go bags go!