Here’s a 6 slide PowerPoint about the use of fireworks.

Please do share your thoughts.

Many people think of food waste as a benign substance. It rots down in the landfill anyway, so no problem, right?

Wrong! For food to compost properly, it needs light and air. In the landfill, it has neither.

Instead, food devoid of light and air produces methane gas, which contributes to global warming. It is estimated that we throw away a third of the food we buy each week! Through poor portion control or buying too much fresh food that goes off before we use it we create a lot of waste.

Follow these tips to help you reduce food waste, save money and protect the environment:
1. Write a list!
Menu plan your meals for a 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 need.

3. Keep a healthy fridge.
Check that the seals on 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 be made into soup.

5. Use up your leftovers.
Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, why not use them for tomorrow’s ingredients? 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 moldy at the back of your food stores!

7. Serve small amounts.
Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back for more once they’ve cleared their plate. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they can 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 prepacked, then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose 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 rich, valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen composter (bokashi bin) will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps (you can even put fish and meat in it), sprinkle over a layer of special microbes and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used on houseplants and in the garden.

With thanks to Atul Bafna

Other articles about food waste:

People are needlessly throwing away 3.6m tonnes of food each year in England and Wales…

Councils are to start collecting food waste separately in order to tackle climate change.

London receives £362,000 grant to save food from landfill.

What do you imagine when you think of fireworks? The warmth of the bonfire! Beautiful colours. Lots of sounds expressing how amazed the onlookers are. Generally happy thoughts.

I don’t think the same way anymore!

A couple of years ago I was speaking to the head at the school I work in. She once told me that she thought all fireworks should be banned unless it was an event organised by some sort of professional. The continued to explain that it would reduce the amount of fireworks going off left right and centre for Eid, Diwali, Bonfire Night, New Year and more.
Are you wondering why she would want a restriction placed on firework displays?
Her primary reason was so that her pets wouldn’t be frightened as often.

My take on it is that there would also be less pollution and other animals in the trees & around the bonfires would not be scared, harmed or killed. It would be better for the environment in o many ways!

The affect of fireworks is created by mixing chemicals, metals and plastics BUT the show isn’t over once it’s over!

The ‘stuff’ lingers and causes smog and acid rain which would damage the animals, birds, our property e.g. our homes, plants, the water we use, food that is grown and so on!

A firework lasts a few minutes but causes destruction for many days, weeks and months to come!

Do you know what’s in a firework?
75% potassium nitrate.
15% carbon.
10% sulphur.
Plastic casing.

A great concoction to leave behind right?

A side point – we follow America’s example in so many ways. Why not in this case? In many American States the use and sale of fireworks is restricted due to the Clean Air Act.

Do you agree with this?

People are disposable. Dump him or her and find someone else. Even get an upgrade! Someone better! This applies to employees too. Sack him or her and find someone else younger, quicker and better.

Goods are disposable and require getting rid of even if they still work. Not so long ago, we thought twice about getting something as simple as a microwave but they’re as cheap as £20 now. We can get multiple microwaves if we want to. If the knob breaks, there’s no need to make do. Just get a new one!

Technology is disposable. Why? Because it changes so quickly! The demand is huge and goods are again, cheaper than before. The need to travel and the demand for space means laptops and netbooks have become popular regardless of the fact that laptops wear out quicker than desktops. The battery becomes inefficient. Laptops cannot be built upon. A desktop can last for years, and you can continually build upon it, adding a new graphics card, hard drive etc.  Still; the laptop is in more demand. Just get rid of it and upgrade in a few years time!

Your identity is disposable. You can change it yourself. You can copy/clone it and then dispose of it.

Tissues are disposable. Recycled or not, why not use a handkerchief?

Cars are disposable. Generally people change their cars every 3 years. With the help of the government’s scrappage scheme more people can scrap cars that may work perfectly well. They’ve just got a bit older!

Nappies are disposable. Why bother with towel nappies when you can use and throw?

Did I leave anything out?

Have I painted a skewed picture?

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The following information has been provided by Dave McKeon from Harrow Council

Compost is easy to make and provides one of the best quality soil conditioners that you can put on your garden and it’s free! It’s a great way to make use of your garden and kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings.

What to compost

• Shredded paper and torn card

• Rabbit/guinea pig bedding

• Dead cut flowers

• Soft hedge clippings

• Fallen leaves

• Grass cuttings

• Weeds (avoid persistent weeds and weeds in seed)

• Old plants

• Fruit and Vegetable Waste

Japanese knotweed must not be composted – please contact the council for advice.

Brown Bins in School

Items that can be placed in the brown bin for composting are:-

• Fruit waste

• Vegetable waste

• Tea bags

Definitely no cooked food, meat and bones

For more Information take a look at The London Borough of Harrow Website

Did you know any of this stuff about asbestos ?

A distinction which is never made in waste disposal is between asbestos fibre used as insulation, which can readily give off asbestos dust and presents a serious hazard to those handling it; and asbestos cement sheets and pipes, where the asbestos is intimately bound with cement and can only be liberated into the air by seriously irresponsible handing (such as a powered circular saw, which has long been recognised as bad practice).

Asbestos cement, despite the asbestos it contains, is benign and needs no special precautions to handle it safely – ironing boards 20 years or more old have a piece of asbestos cement as the stand for the iron – these remain in good condition and confirm that the material is stable.

Asbestolux insulation board was manufactured up to 1970, and is more friable than asbestos cement and presents an intermediate level of hazard.

If these distinctions were recognised, it would reduce both the cost of removing asbestos from buildings and industrial plant, and disposal.

Asbestos cement is an inert waste – the history of its use and satisfactory service in underground pipes shows this – it is capable of being sent to landfill without special precautions, including after 2015, or could be considered as a construction waste.

Theodore wrote a post on the Jain Vegans group recently in which he discussed what he knew about fruitarianism. I hadn’t even heard of it before! It makes a lot of sense and is very Jain in terms of non – violence and compassion. Do you think it’s possible? 

What is fruitarianism? 

It’s a diet that involves eating only fruits and as such it avoids the death of earthworms and field animals as there is no ploughing or mechanical harvesting involved, and by definition it avoids the killing of plants and vegetables. 

This also has environmental benefits, such as, the reversal of CO2 emissions, the reversal of soil erosion and the reduced need for machinery.  However the environmental benefits can be negated depending on the amount of imported food consumed.

Theodore