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Wheely important debate

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by Michael Willoughby

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What colour is your recycling kit? A clear silly season discussion has begun on the normally staid Scalation news list regarding the bruised hues - and various shapes and sizes - of different containers up and down the land.

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Apparently, in South Manchester, they have green for garden waste, blue for paper and board and black boxes for glass, tins, etc. But plastic bottles have to be taken to the local tip.

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In North Lincolnshire the wheelies are brown for compostables, burgundy for card and plastic, and green for residual waste, plus a blue stacking box for paper and a green one for glass and metal. They will also take textiles and shoes in a plastic bag.

Weekend Review, 8-9 March 2008

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Turbines are back with a vengeance this week, especially in the Sunday Telegraph. Climate Tsar, Lord Turner suggests bulding more of them in the central reservations of motorways, brownfield sites or other places where there was already 'visual intrusion.'  He thinks the country needs to do more rather than less to cut carbon emissions. His committee is due to report back to the PM before the end of the year to suggest whether or not a 60% cut will be needed by 2050.

Dragons' Den sees green

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There's definitely been an eco-theme to many of the business pitches from budding entrepreneurs on the latest series of BBC2's Dragons' Den.  Like most who appear they are a mixed bunch. Thankfully, one last night, designer Max McMurdo who runs a firm called Reestore, managed to make an impression. He got 50K from two of the dragons to sell the recycling bins he's created that are themselves recycled from plastics bags. A couple of the investors made the point that reusing plastic bags is missing the point as we shouldn't be using them in the first place but Max stood his ground, claiming the material was going to be around for a long time, whether we liked it or not.

The warm fuzz of freecycle

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I'm about to give away my first belonging as part of the Freecyle community. It's an old ghetto blaster that's collecting dust in my bedroom, and to my surprise there were plenty of takers for it, including a woman who had just dropped and broken the one she was planning to give to her teenage children. To quote recent commentor on this site Ian Kemmish there's a warm fuzzy feeling in both getting rid of something unwanted and helping out someone who needs your item. Surely this is transferable to large scale swapping of materials , products etc?

Channel 4 tackles waste

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A new show called Dumped, which starts on Sunday, may offer an interesting twist on rubbish and recycling. The premise offers the usual mix offered by the broadcaster - reality TV based around a contemporary theme. Eleven volunteers are marooned on one of the UK's biggest landfill sites and challenged to survive using our refuse.

How green is the Olympics?

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Not very reckons the Green Party. It has published a report on the environmental credentials of London's hosting of the Games, reports this week's Time Out. Strangely I can see no mention of this on the Green Party website. I can understand the criticisms in the report - lack of renewables, loss of biodiversity - but have some sympathy for those running the uber project - balancing those demanding the highest possible quality and sustainable standards against those baying commentators ready to stick the knife in when there are slips made on the programme or budget.

A torrent of targets

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Yesterday saw the publication of a Draft Strategy for Sustainable Construction issued by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. There are no less than 35 targets set for procuring and assessing the performance of buildings as well as for waste recycling and a commitment to whole life value. I'm wondering whether there should be a deadline set in the next year after which all public sector bodies and companies must pledge not to issue any new targets. Or perhaps this is just a fact of life for the next few decades.

Severn Barrage: one thing Blair and Brown agree on

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The proposed Severn Barrage - a barrier that would stretch between Weston-Super-Mare and Lavernock Point, on the south coast of Wales, has been approved by Tony Blair in his closing days in office. However, the barrage has encountered fierce criticism from environmental groups and commentators. George Monbiot, author of Heat, recently said that, "It will cause too much environmental damage: there are far better ways of getting energy from the sea."

Salford City Council leads the way in renewable extensions

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Since 1999, Salford City Council have been exploring the development and use of prefabricated relocatable extensions for elderly and/or disabled members of their community. In all, 47 units have been made and used, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from their recipients. Now other city councils, as well as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), are looking into their work.

The Big Build brings visitors to Offsite 2007

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One of the main attractions to Offsite 2007 at BRE was The Big Build. This was made up of ten new "concept-buildings" by a number of different architects and contractors, all of which strived to achieve the highest levels in the new Code for Sustainable Homes. Most were private homes; one was a mini-school, another was a semi-detached housing development in which one "half" was fully furnished while the other half had transparent panelling, so allowing visitors to see through the walls and floors.