Green Matters - April 2008
Where on earth does it go?
Ever hungered to know exactly what happens to your potato peelings and tea bags after you put your blue bin out?
Hackney residents are being offered a unique chance to find out during International Compost Awareness Week.
London Waste Limited is holding an open day on 8 May at the EcoPark in Edmonton, where all the borough’s food waste collected by the blue bin scheme is taken. The rich earth that is produced via an in-vessel composting programme is used to fertilise Hackney’s parks and green spaces.
There are visiting sessions at 10am and 2pm.
Residents will need to make their way to the EcoPark at Advent Way, Edmonton, N18 3AG.
More information
To book, send an email with your name, address, contact number and preferred session to: ander.zabala@hackney.gov.uk.
Seeds of change
Children from London Fields Primary School have helped to create an Olympic Park nature reserve on the banks of the River Lea.
Two classes helped with the planting on East Marsh to create grasslands and wildflower areas, and they will be invited back to see how their work has grown and developed.
Volunteers from the London Wildlife Trust were on hand to help the children.
The project – a partnership between the Council and Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) – will see the creation of a wildlife corridor around the north edge of the Olympic Park, covering more than 10,000 square metres.
Birds, frogs, spiders and beetles will find a home there, and it is hoped that endangered ground bugs and the rare toadflax brocade moth will also flourish.
Kim Wright, the Council’s Corporate Director of Community Services, said: “The nature reserve will be home to a broad range of plants and wildlife unlikely to have previously been seen there.
Hackney residents will be active in creating and developing the area, including the planting.”
Natural materials, much recycled from the Olympic Park site clearance programme, have been used to create different habitats including log walls, compost piles and earth mounds.
ODA Head of Sustainable Development and Regeneration, Dan Epstein, said: “We began an extensive ecology programme last year. We want to make sure local communities are part of the process as these school children will be the ones using the venues and parklands long after 2012.”
More information
Read the ODA Sustainable Development Strategy in full.
One click could make your day
If you have some clutter that can’t wait until the Council’s next Give and Take Day, why not join Freecycle?
The online network is a grassroots movement of people who donate and collect items for free in their local town or borough.
The Hackney Freecycle group is open to anyone who wants to reuse something rather than throw it away. Whether it’s a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old bed, you can post the details on the website.
People and not-for-profit groups are also welcome to log on and look for items they need.
Key fact
Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.
Old and new online
Signng up
Membership is free. To sign up in Hackney, email: hackney_freecyclesubscribe@yahoogroups.com, visit: www.groups.yahoo.com/group/hackney_freecycle or: www.freecycle.org.
Giving
When you find yourself with items you don’t need any more, but they’re too good to throw away, send an email offering it to members of the Hackney Freecycle group.
Receiving
If you see something you want, simply respond to a member’s offer. After that, it’s up to the giver to decide who receives the item and to arrange a pick-up time for passing it on.
It's all in the name
Remember the golden rule – every item has to be free.
Ban the Bag
In November 2007 London Councils, encouraged by clear public support, deposited a private Bill – the London Local Authorities (Shopping Bags Bill) – to parliament. If passed, the Bill will bring about a ban on single-use throwaway shopping bags in the capital.
You can help the environment, by contacting your MP to show your support for the Bill. The more people that email their MP about a ban the greater chance the proposals have of being successful. > More on Ban the Bag > Email your MP
Wooden you know it?
Residents in Murray Grove may have been wondering about the mushroom-like appearance of a new building on the estate.
The nine-storey housing development, known as Stadthaus, will be built in less than three months – and save huge quantities of carbon from entering the atmosphere.
The tower, the tallest of its kind in the world, is being built entirely from prefabricated timber panels, similar to giant pieces of plywood. They arrive on site ready to be slotted into place, allowing for speedy construction. Even the floors, stairs, load-bearing walls and lifts will be made of wood.
Timber absorbs carbon through its natural life, and continues to do so after it is cut. The fabric of the tower will store more than 181 tonnes of carbon. By not using a reinforced concrete frame, a further 125 tonnes are saved from entering the atmosphere – the equivalent of 21 years of emissions from a building of this size.
The Council granted planning permission for the – 3 million scheme last year. The tower will contain 29 flats, some of which will be affordable housing. It has been designed by greenthinking architects Waugh Thistleton, who were also behind the recently-opened Water House – Hackney’s first zero carbon restaurant in Orsman Road, Shoreditch.
Schools out for nature
The London Wildlife Trust picked Hackney for the launch of its Green Schools pack, which aims to get children out of the classroom and into nature.
The pack offers schools information on using playgrounds, nature reserves and green spaces to teach key stage one and two pupils. It aims to deliver the national curriculum, while helping schools set up and run their own gardens and clubs.
Teachers from 13 primary schools, including Parkwood, De Beauvoir and Woodberry Down, gathered at West Reservoir Centre in Stoke Newington, on 12 March.
Representatives of The Learning Trust, and Hackney Environmental Education Network also attended.
As well as receiving a free pack, teachers tried some activities. They made ‘mini-beast hotels’ and bird feeders, led by Trust staff.
The Green Schools pack also contains useful contacts, health and safety information, details of school initiatives such as Eco Schools and Growing Schools, as well as sources of funding and further reading.
Later, there was a chance to look round the centre, which also has watersports facilities, and find out more about its schools’ membership scheme.
More information
For further details or to order a pack contact Leah McNally: education@wildlondon.org.uk.
To visit West Reservoir call: 020 8800 6161.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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