ALEX ZANE TO HOST RAINFOREST FOUNDATION UK’S ‘HOT & BOTHERED’ COMEDY EVENT

Acclaimed comedian, presenter and XFM Breakfast Show host ALEX ZANE will compere the Rainforest Foundation UK’s ‘Hot & Bothered’ event with a host of hot comic stars as part of London’s Big Joke Comedy Festival.

The ‘Hot & Bothered’ show on Tuesday October 14 at the Leicester Square Theatre’s month long festival features an impressive line up of UK comedic talent. Alex will become the bread in the comedy club sandwich of the fabulous JOSIE LONG, Irish-Iranian stand-up PATRICK MONAHAN, the brutally witty NATALIE HAYNES and the sharply funny JANEY GODLEY, all lending their talents to what promises to be a night of hilarity, and all in the name of a good cause.

The event is part of the Rainforest Foundation UK’s ‘Hot & Bothered’ campaign aimed at getting everyone who is bothered about climate change to stand up and make a difference. All profits go to the campaign.

The box office is now open so buy your tickets today by calling 0844 847 24 75 or online at http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/ and http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/.

10 Ways To Reduce Food Waste And Save Money

Through poor portion control or buying too much fresh food that goes off before we use it we create a lot of waste. Here’s some helpful tips to help you to reduce food waste, save money and protect the environment.

1. Write a list
Menu plan your meals for the week. Check the ingredients in your fridge and cupboards, then write a shopping list for just the extras you need.

2. Stick to the list!
Take your list with you and stick to it when you’re in the store. Don’t be tempted by offers and don’t shop when you’re hungry – you’ll come back with more than you really need.

3. Keep a healthy fridge
Check that the seals in your fridge are good and check the fridge temperature too. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity.

4. Don’t throw it away!
Fruit that is just going soft can be made into smoothies or fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can made into soup.

5. Use up your left overs
Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, why not use them for tomorrow’s ingredients? A bit of tuna could be added to pasta and made into pasta bake. A tablespoon of cooked vegetables can be the base for a crock pot meal.

6. Rotate
When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food towards the back and you run less risk of finding something mouldy at the back of your food stores!

7. Serve small amounts
Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everyone can come back for more if they have cleared their plate. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they will eat at once. Any leftovers can be cooled, stored in the fridge and used another day.

8. Buy what you need
Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of pre packed, then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose meats and cheese from a deli so that you can buy what you want.

9. Freeze!
If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cook foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.

10. Turn it into garden food
Some food waste is unavoidable, so why not set up a compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with valuable compost for your plants.

Original source: www.myzerowaste.com

Energy Efficient Lightbulbs

Eco Fact: Did you know that every day more solar energy falls on the Earth than the total amount of energy that the planet’s 5.9 billion inhabitants would consume in 27 years.

Reduce your energy use: save yourself money in the long run and reduce your footprint on the planet. If everybody bought just one energy efficient lightbulb, we could shut down a power station.

Four Easy Ways To Cut Down On Unwanted Mail

1. Join the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) this will stop personally addressed unsolicited mail.
2. Royal Mail Door-to-Door. By ‘opting out’ you will stop unaddressed mailings from businesses and organisations. However by choosing this ‘opt out’ scheme you may miss out on important central government and local government information but this can usually be viewed on-line. Address: Royal Mail Door-to-Door Opt Outs, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford OX1 1RX.
3. Put a ‘No Junk Mail’ notice on your mailbox to discourage individuals delivering door to door promotional materials.
4. For additional information and advice visit: www.stopjunkmail.org.uk

Recycling Cans

Eco Fact: Every day 80 million food and drink cans end up in landfill

Recycle your food cans and you will be doing your bit to help stop them going to landfill. Rinse cans at the end of your washing up and recycle. Aluminium cans are the most cost-effective materials to recycle, so don’t waste them! Recycled aluminium from cans is used extensively to make new products.

Steel cans are also valuable and well worth recycling. They are easily separated from the aluminium with magnets at the Materials Reclamation Facility. On average, every single person in Britain uses 240 steel cans each year.

Time to meet us!!

We've been out and about this month and have attended our first show with our stand. We went the the Ardingly Spring Garden and Leisure show over the May bank holiday. The photo shows you exactly who we are from left to right Paula, Joanna and Nikki the mums behind My Eco Store.

It was a busy bank holiday weekend and we met lots of different people who were interested in our products. Our Eco Store bag went down really well and alot of postitive comments were made by people. Another great product was The Waspinator which helps to deter wasps from where you are. It's been been scientifically tested in Canada and has been proved to help stop wasps annoying you, people loved it and like the bag this is available on our website.

We will be attending The South of England Show at Ardingly on the 5th, 6th and 7th June 2008 we are in the Eco Village so why not pop along to meet us in person!

My Eco Store Presents Prizes

We have just presented prizes to winners of the Eco Summit 2008 competition held for local schools. Two pupils from the Thomas a Beckett Middle School in Worthing were the lucky winners. The competiton was organised by Tim Loughton local MP and we donated the 1st prize a Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player. The competition asked pupils to develop a slogan to advertise the Eco Media Player, we also donated a runners up prize of a My Eco Store bag and recycled pencil case.

Tim Loughton attended the presentation along with us at the schools Friday morning assembly. We were all very impressed with the great entries we received, this just goes to show how young people are getting to grips with going green.The winning slogan was "I want to go very green so I will listen to this machine" and it will be used to promote the product in the future

Buy Back Your Garden Waste

West Sussex homes can now buy back their garden waste as genuine organic compost called Reclaim Organic Soil Conditioner.

Household waste recycling sites are now producing bags of organic compost for sale. So far 56,000 tonnes of green waste from gardens in West Sussex have been processed into organic compost. This is an example of how recycling can effectively ‘close the loop’. The green waste from your garden can be taken to your nearest household waste recycling site or collected from your kerbside. It then goes into a local composting plant, where it is processed and bagged ready for sale at household waste recycling sites. The loop is closed when the compost is spread back onto the garden.

This is a great example of how waste can be turned into a useable product which in this case will enrich your garden with an organic product that is local in every sense of the word.

It is available at 10 out of 11 Household Waste Recycling Sites in West Sussex:
· Billingshurst
· Bognor Regis
· Burgess Hill
· Crawley
· East Grinstead, via Imberhorne lane nurseries adjacent to the site
· Horsham
· Littlehampton
· Midhurst
· Shoreham
· Westhampnett, Chichester
Worthing is expected to be complete by the end of 2008

Please let us know of other areas that are offering a similar service around the country.

Composting

To make good compost you will need to have a mixture of green and brown materials. Green materials contain a high percentage of nitrogen and breakdown quickly; brown materials contain a high percentage of carbon and breakdown slowly. Aim for a 50/50 mix of both wet greens and dry browns. For example, for every caddyful of fruit and vegetable peelings you add, match it with a caddyful of scrunched paper and cardboard packaging.
It can take approximately 6-9 months to make your compost. Finished compost is a dark brown, almost black. It has a spongy texture and is rich in nutrients. Spreading finished compost into your flowerbeds greatly improves soil quality by helping it retain moisture and suppressing weeds.



Tip: If your compost heap tends to be wet & smelly, add more browns; if it is dry, add some greens.

Compost Materials

Compost Greens
Annual Weeds, Bracken Leaves, Cabbage, Citrus Peel, Comfrey Leaves, Cut Flowers, Grass cuttings, Green pruning, Lettuce/salad trimmings, Manure, Old Bedding plants, Potato tops, Rhubarb leaves, Seaweed, Straw, Tea bags/leaves, Vegetable/fruit peelings, Weeds without seeds

Compost Browns
Cardboard, Coffee grounds, Egg boxes, Egg shells, Feathers, Hair, Hay, Kitchen paper, Newspaper, Paper bags, Pet bedding from herbivorous pets, Shredded garden waste, Shredded paper, Spent perennial stems, Wood ash, Carpet dust, Wood shavings, Charcoal (cold)

Materials to avoid
Butter, oil and dressing, Bread, Cigarette ends, Cooked food leftovers, Crisp packets, Coal ashes, Dairy products, Diseased or insect infested plants, Fatty/oily foods including cheese, Human Faeces, Meat, bones and fish scraps, Pet Waste (cat and dog), perennial roots, Plant or grass clippings treated with chemicals, Rose prunings/thorny materials, Weeds with mature seeds.

Read It, Swap It!

Bought a book and finished it? Don't know what to do with it? If you've read it swap it!

We have just come across this site www.readitswapit.co.uk which provides an eco way to get rid of unwanted books - recycle them by swapping books on-line. It is a free service with over 170,000 books available for swapping.

The swap process works in the same way that you'd normally swap something. You find something you like, you ask to swap, another ReadItSwapIt member chooses something of yours and you exchange the goods.

For more information go to the ReadItSwapIt website.

Why Recycle Plastics?

Plastic bottles are made from oil which is a fossil fuel that will one day run out. In Britain alone we throw away about 9 billion bottles every year! Many of which currently end up in landfill.

Almost all plastic bottles are made from 1 of 3 types of plastic:
1. PET e.g. fizzy drink bottles, cordial bottles, cooking oil bottles
2. HDPE e.g. milk & fruit juice bottles, washing up bottles, fabric conditioner bottles
3. PVC e.g. still mineral bottles, bottles for toiletries, cordial bottles

PET bottles can be recycled to make a variety of end products, including

• fleece clothing
• sleeping bags
• anoraks
• new packaging
• industrial strapping
• wall and floor coverings

ECO FACT: It takes 25 x 2 litre plastic bottles to make 1 adult-size fleece jacket

HDPE bottles can be recycled to make a variety of end products, including:

• fences
• park benches
• sign posts
• It can also be put back into bottles to be recycled again and again.

PVC bottles can be recycled and used to make a variety of end products, including

• drainage pipes
• electrical fittings
• clothing

ECO FACT: Recycling 1 plastic bottle saves enough energy to run a 60-watt light bulb for 6 hours

Recycling bottles does make a difference – plastic bottle recycling cuts down on waste and saves energy.

The UK now has over 4,900 plastic bottle banks and over 5.4 million households can have their plastic bottles collected as part of a kerbside collection scheme.

Recycle Your Wellies!

A bit of fun for a Friday afternoon - I thought this photo was great!

REUSE

• cut-down wellies to use as slip-ons
• plant things in them!

RECYCLE

• Donate to charity shops (in pairs!)
• Sadly Dunlop has stopped its Welly Recycling Campaign

Please let us know if you have any other tips for recycling your wellies!

source: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Nicky Scott

10 ways to go green in the kitchen!

1. Ditch the bottles - Bottled water is pricey and uses a lot of fuel to transport as well as to make and store all those bottles. Use what come out of your tap instead. Get a good filter to boost purity.

2. Buy Local - Rediscover the bounty of the area that you live in. Seek out Farmers Markets and Country shows where you can buy locally produced products and help boost local shopping.

3. Dispose of Disposables - Instead of relying on single use containers, get real dishes and wash them! The resources savedwill really add up.

4. Banish Excess Packaging - Buy things in larger sizes if you know that you use them all the time. Try to select items thathave less plastic and extra filler stuffed into them.

5. Bring your own bags - It's so simple, plastic and paper bags take resources to produce and distribute and end up as litter.

6. Get a green thumb - Growing your own plants not only helps soak up excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but it can help clean toxins from the air and provide habitat for wildlife.

7. Eat less meat - Modern meat is energy and resource intensive and factory farms are huge polluters. Eating lower on the food chain reduces these problems.

8. Use appliances wisely - Get an energy audit (doing one yourself is easy) unplug unused devices and purchase an energy meter to see just what you are saving

9. Cook! - Plan meals ahead of time so you are not scrambling to pick up something convenient, which is likely to be less healthy and wrapped in more packaging.

10. Become Educated - Learn to save money and time by reducing waste and unneeded consumption, whether that's water, energy, paper, food, travel and more.

Eco Facts About Cars:

• There are 38 million empty car seats on the roads every day
• 58% of car trips are under 5 miles and 25% are less than 2 miles
• Road traffic produces one fifth of the Uk's carbon dioxide

Have you heard about Liftshare?

Whilst continuing our research on ways to go green we came across an interesting website called Liftshare the other day. Liftshare was set up in 1997 with the initial aim of making more efficient use of the millions of empty cars on UK roads by encouraging and enabling more people to share their car journeys. They help individuals to find travel companions to share the journey and offer a wide choice of travel modes not just cars! We thought this was a great idea and wanted to share our findings with you.

Liftshare are recognized internationally as leaders in the field of online journey matching. They have a friendly and professional team who work with many different organisations helping them to set up their own liftshare programmes. Before liftshare was founded, organised journey sharing was almost unheard of in the UK. They have worked extremely hard to make the concept of UK journey-sharing a reality.

Why not take a look at their website which gives a full run down on exactly what they do.

5 Ways to make your Business Greener!

1. Reduce waste and save money

Business waste in the UK carries a high premium. Latest research suggests it can cost as much as 4% of annual turnover. Using recycled and recyclable materials and biodegradable packaging can reduce waste costs dramatically. Specialist recyclers can be found for hazardous waste, such as batteries and chemicals. Printing on both sides of paper obviously helps to save on paper costs.

Moving to ‘digital documents’ having the agenda and notes on your computer rather than paper, not only reduces waste but also provides an easily found record of the event.

Check for leaking taps in the office kitchen and ensure the sink has a plug to use when washing up.

2. Reduce energy and save money

Switching off your computers, printers, other equipment and lights at night are easy ways to save energy but also save money. Even during the day encourage employees to turn the lights off when they leave a room, switching off computers and unplugging mobile phone chargers when not in use will all save money. Rather than using a screensaver, set your monitor to power off after the same amount of time – its easy!

Checking heating and air conditioning are not on at the same time can help and keep doors closed when either of these are in use will help their effectiveness. If rooms are empty make sure the light is turned off and possibly turn the heating off too.

3. Change your products and make money

Introducing features that promote the reusability or recycled nature of your product(s) not only helps the environment but also helps sell your product. Can you print on recycled paper? Can your business send material out via email rather than print?

4. Buy Plants and improve your environment

Plants not only make your office look nicer but they absorb airborne pollutants and negative ions from computers, whilst emitting oxygen. Plant waste like bark and leaves can also be recycled and used as garden mulch.

5. Car share

Encourage your employees to car share and/or take public transport where possible.

It is important to remember not all green initiatives will save you money or cost nothing but having a green business is not always about saving money. Ultimately you will be doing your bit to help save our planet for future generations to enjoy.

10 foods that you DON'T have to buy Organic

With all the talk about pesticides on our foods and going organic, we have found ten foods that are safe to eat without being organic which can help if you are on a tight budget.

1. Asparagus
2. Avocados
3. Bananas
4. Broccoli
5. Cabbage
6. Kiwi Fruit
7. Mango
8. Onions
9. Papaya
10. Pineapples

Please ensure that you wash them all thoroughly before you eat or cook with them.

The Dirty Dozen

Did you know that the most highly contaminated foods with pesticides and chemicals even after washing and peeling are:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Imported Grapes
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

If you can always try to buy the organic alternative.

Eco Fact Of The Week

It's estimated that Sussex generates 8,849,000 kg of carbon emissions each year, the equivalent to filling 50,000 double decker buses or nearly 320 million party balloons.

How can you save Energy?

Reduce electricity usage, save money, save the planet..... but how do we know how much electricity we are using at any one time, typically all the information we receive is an electricity bill. The Efergy meter changes this, this device allows us to see at any moment how much electricity is being consumed and at what cost. Once set up you can see exactly how much in pounds and pennies is being consumed, it's amazing how easy it is to find lights and appliances to turn off. Save money...Save the planet.


We started using one of these meters in our homes and now we all have very eco conscious children! As soon as we put the kettle on or switch on the TV the numbers change on the meter and one of the kids lets you know how much the figure has gone up by! It has made us all a lot more conscious of the electricity we are using and how much can be wasted by leaving lights on when you are not in the room!

The key benefits of this product as we see it:

• It helps you to understand where and how energy is being used
• Identifies areas where you can reduce energy consumption and save money
• Shows instant power use, electricity cost and your carbon footprint
• It gives real time, instant accurate reading of how much energy is being consumed

Happy Easter

We hope that you have a relaxing Easter Break and don't over indulge too much on chocolate! On an Eco front be mindful of how you dispose of your Easter Egg Packaging.

Eco Fact: Around 60% of your rubbish can be recycled – but only 11% is actually recycled.

Try to follow the simple moto: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" which is also the name of a book packed with ideas for cutting your consumption, reducing your rubbish, reusing and recycling. It also tells you where your old plastic goes to, what happens to your old glass jars, how they handle waste in other countries.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is an invaluable guide for anyone who want to slim their bin and help stop the earth going to waste.

Happy Easter

Eco Fact Of The Week

The total mileage travelled per person has increased significantly since the mid 1980s. This is because, whilst the total number of trips made by people has remained fairly static, average trip lengths have increased by a quarter from 5.2 miles to 6.6 miles.

Going Green For Easter

Chocolate manufacturer Cadbury’s has just unveiled its Eco Easter Egg. The firm is cutting back on the packaging it uses on its Easter Eggs in a bid to become more eco friendly to read more go to BBC News.

Be mindful when buying your eggs and try to reduce the amount of packaging that you purchase. If we all do a little bit we can help the environment.

Do you know anyone who has a dairy allergy? Easter can be a hard time for them but one of our children is and we’ve just found a website which produces dairy free Easter eggs click on this link to take a look

Green Easter Games to play with the kids over the 4 day weekend :

• Egg and Spoon Race


• Bunny's Eggs - a version of stick the tail on the donkey – pin the egg on the bunny


• Paint an Easter Egg – children will love this


• Easter Egg hunt in the garden or around the house if the weather is bad


• Make cakes - Chocolate cornflake cakes filled with mini eggs