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Your Christmas gift to the planet
LIVERPOOL City
Council is urging residents to give the planet the best Christmas
present ever and recycle everything they can during the festive
period. Last Christmas, the people of Liverpool recycled more
than 2,000 tonnes of household waste – equivalent to the weight of
44,000 premiership football players or 500 Liver Birds!
The city’s environment chief Councillor Berni Turner is launching a
campaign to double the tonnage this year and push Liverpool higher
up the recycling league table.
Councillor Turner, said:- “This year, it’s predicted that
Liverpool people will use enough wrapping paper to cover 500
football pitches and will throw away more than 6 million glass
bottles and jars. I’m delighted that we recycled so much last
year, especially as the wheelie bin service was relatively new.
This Christmas I want our figures to double. So far this year, our
figures have shown that thousands more people are using the service
and wheelie bin recycling is proving really popular – so there is
really no excuse for it not to rocket over the festive period.”
All glass bottles and jars, food and drink cans, wrapping paper
(without the sticky tape), cards, plastic drink bottles and
newspapers should be put in the blue wheelie bin. Residents
who have a green wheelie bin can fill these with their real
Christmas trees and leave them at their kerbside ready for
collection. Liverpool’s recycling rates are over 20% for the
first time since the service was introduced in 2003.
What goes where this Christmas:-
· Glass, cans, paper, magazines, newspapers, wrapping paper (without
the sticky tape), Christmas cards, cardboard food boxes, egg
cartons, toilet or kitchen roll inners, plastic drinks bottles
(milk, fizzy drinks), washing up liquid bottles, shampoo bottles,
phone directories including Yellow Pages – blue wheelie bin
· Real Christmas trees – with green wheelie bin
· People in Liverpool will use enough wrapping paper of Christmas to
cover 500 football pitches.
· Over 6 million
glass bottles and jars will be thrown away.
· More newspapers and
magazines are bought over Christmas than at any other time of the
year.
· Residents in
Liverpool will send around five million Christmas cards this year.
· On average each
person in Liverpool throws away about 7 times their body weight in
rubbish every year. Over half of this could be recycled. Recycle for
Liverpool.
· Over the Christmas period, 30% more rubbish is produced.
· 7.5 million
Christmas cards will reach Liverpool homes this year, and most will
end up in the dustbin
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North West Comes Last In Jewson Sustainability League
THE North West
is the UK’s least sustainability aware region, according to new
research by Jewson, the UK’s leading supplier of timber and building
materials. With the HIPs legislation having been rolled out to all
properties on the 14 December 2007, Jewson’s research highlights the
lack of awareness not just in the North West, but across the Nation
when it comes to energy performance and sustainability.
Based on a nationwide sample of 1,408 adults, the research indicated
that people in the North West are less likely to understand
sustainability issues and undertake practical steps to improve
energy efficiency in the home than anywhere else in the UK.
The research indicated that:-
* Only 57% of people in the North West are familiar with the new
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) which will form an integral
part of the Home Information Packs, compared to 64% in the UK.
* People from the
North West are less willing to pay just a 5th more for sustainable
products that will lead to long-term savings (41%).
* 91% of people from
the North West are not interested in reducing CO2 emissions.
Jewson, which plays an industry-leading role in promoting
sustainability in the construction sector, commissioned the research
by Tickbox to find out how much the British public understand about
energy efficiency. The survey focused on what type of sustainability
considerations they made when doing any home maintenance or
improvement projects, and what affected their decision to implement
more sustainable solutions into the home. Nationally, it
showed that while a relatively high proportion of people (65%) would
like to consider ‘green’ factors when doing maintenance or
home improvements, for the majority of people (82%) cost issues are
the overriding concern with people more focused on spending as
little as possible rather than investing in energy efficient
solutions that deliver long term cost savings.
Key highlights of the national survey include:-
* 36% of those surveyed had not heard of Energy Performance
Certificates (EPC’s) and only 2% fully understood what the
implications of EPC’s were.
* Only 3% of those
surveyed felt confident in their own understanding of environmental
efficiency and sustainability
* 90% were concerned
about tradesmen’s knowledge of environmentally friendly solutions
for home maintenance and improvement
* 82% cited cost as
the biggest concern when conducting home improvements with only 16%
citing whether the materials used were more sustainable as a main
consideration
As one of the UK’s leading industries, the construction industry has
an important role to play in sustainable development. Jewson, with
its vast experience in the public and private sector building
industry, has placed sustainability at the top of its own internal
agenda and plays an industry-leading role in driving improvements in
sustainable practises across the construction sector. The company
works closely with its customers and suppliers to help ensure the
delivery of a more sustainable future for the industry, and is
committed in its role to educate its customers in line with
government sustainability guidelines.
Steve Millward, Sustainability and Quality Director for Jewson
said:- “While the people interviewed in the North West showed
a lack of understanding around sustainability issues, there is room
for improvement across the UK. The research demonstrates a clear
need for more guidance and education on a local and a national
level, by organisations such as ourselves, tradesmen and the
Government.” |
