Weekly News Articles

With less than a month to go before Christmas it seems appropriate to give some ideas for a green Christmas.

Every year Christmas places a heavy strain on the earths resources and our environment. However, it is the major festival in Britain offering lots of fun to millions. We don’t want to stop people having fun but we would like to reduce its environmental impact.

Luckily by a little thought and a bit of information we can significantly reduce its impact.

In Britain over 3 million tonnes of festive waste will be produced. 90% of this is currently thrown away but more than half can easily be recycled.

Nationally our Christmas Waste will include over a billion Christmas Cards, 6 million trees, 4200 tonnes of aluminium foil and thousands of tonnes of old clothes, textiles and unwanted presents.

However in Colchester we can recycle all our cans, bottles, paper, cardboard and even your Christmas trees and old textiles through your kerbside collection. You can also give any unwanted presents or old clothes to local charity shops.

In the Tendring area you can recycle cans, paper and plastic through your kerbside collection and in both areas you can use the bottle, can, paper and plastic recycling banks.

In addition you can help the Woodland Trust by recycling your old Christmas Cards through the recycling bins that will be available at Tesco and W H Smith stores from the beginning of January.

En-form will also be collecting christmas cards, used stamps, corks, clean foil and perforated bottle tops (the type used on beer bottles) at the office.

Finally a quick reminder that the last full Farmers Market before Christmas is on this Friday the 5^th December from 9.30am to 1pm at The Colchester Arts Centre. A mini market is currently being planned for the 17^th December. 

Over the summer months en-form was involved in an energy efficiency project with Colchester Borough Council and Essex Energy Advice Centre.

It was a very successful project with survey forms being sent to all 60,000 properties in Colchester. Over 8,000 forms (13%) were returned.

Everyone who sent back their form were entitled to a free energy efficient light bulb and a report detailing improvements they could make to their homes together with information on free grants available.

Over 2300 people called into our office to collect their free light bulb ensuring that energy use has been reduced in Colchester.

If you haven’t already followed the recommendations made in your report now would be a good time to action them.

Apart from making your home warmer and more comfortable it is a very good investment. For instance if you bought an energy efficient light bulb for £5 over the 10 years of its life you will save about £50. Payback times on other energy saving methods are also impressive.

Contrast this with the 15p at most you are likely to get in interest on your £5 in the bank.

If you didn't complete and return your energy efficient survey form you can still pick one up from our office. You will still receive a free report and details of grants. If you are on benefit you will be entitled to a free energy efficient light bulb and if not you can buy one for £1.50.

There are also some great offers in the shops now. For more energy ideas check out our website www.en-form.org.uk.

Finally a reminder that the next Farmers Market in Colchester will be this Friday 7th November at the Arts Centre. For those of you about to do your Christmas shopping we are running a large Christmas Market at the Clacton Factory Shopping Centre on the 29th and 30th November. Look out for details.

Re>Paint is a national scheme that aims to re-use unwanted paint that would otherwise go to waste and end up being dumped in landfill sites.

Paint is not the easiest or most pleasant waste to deal with and any unused paint that is diverted from the waste stream is good for the environment. If at the same time it can be used by the community to improve the local environment – that’s even better.

There are currently around 50 Re>Paint schemes working successfully around the country but only one in Essex. We therefore feel that a successful scheme could and should be set up in this part of Essex.

However, we have currently found it difficult to obtain funding although the search will continue.

In the meantime we have received a lot of requests from people who have surplus paint they wish to dispose of and from community groups who would like to make use of it.

As an interim measure we have decided to run a matching service. So have a look in your garage for old tins of paint you want to get rid off and we will try and find a use for it. Also if you are a community group, charity, school or church and you want some free paint to do up your village hall or school for instance give us a call and we’ll try to locate some for you.

Finally on a further recycling note if you have any wooden pallets you want to get rid off or any hessian backed carpet give us a call as we have found a use for these as well.

We are currently working on 2 projects that we hope to have launched in September.

The first is a local food directory which is being produced in response to requests from customers at farmers markets. This will contain details of local food producers within a 30 mile radius of Colchester.

The purpose of the directory is to allow the general public and local businesses to buy locally produced food and drink. Local producers tend to grow a wider variety of crops, each with there own distinctive taste which unfortunately are rarely available through supermarkets.

We hope to have the directory available in October and 20,000 copies will be produced. They will be freely available from local libraries, visitor centres and farmers markets as well as the producers themselves.

If you are a local producer and would like your details included free of charge please contact Andrew Wilkinson on 01206 367776.

The second project we hope to launch is an aluminium can recycling scheme. Alupro currently have an incentive scheme that rewards local authorities, schools and community groups with trees for each tonne of aluminium recycled. This is in addition to the cash raised by selling the aluminium cans for recycling.

In Colchester please recycle your aluminium and steel cans through your kerbside collection or can banks. Alternatively, recycle aluminium cans only through schools and community groups.

We are currently compiling a list of schools and groups who are part of the scheme. If you would like to join the scheme and raise extra cash please contact us.

Over the next few weeks new Yellow pages will be delivered in the Colchester area. Please put your old one out with your paper on your kerbside recycling day so that they can be recycled.

Finally, the Colchester Farmers Market continues to go from strength to strength. The next one will be at The Colchester Arts Centre on Friday the 5th September.

Composting garden waste is crucial to Colchester hitting its recycling target over the next few years and it will therefore prove useful to clarify the system. As an environment centre we want to encourage everyone to use this new free service to minimise the waste going to landfill.

The most environmentally friendly way of disposing of garden waste is to compost and use it in your own garden. This is also the only way to compost your kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings as due to government regulations this cannot be collected through the garden waste collection scheme. Bags containing kitchen waste will not be collected.

Eventually every home in Colchester will receive a garden waste collection sack (these are currently on trial in some areas) but in the meantime you can put your garden waste out in compost bags or plastic bins. Don’t put it out in the normal black bin liners or the councils brown garden waste sacks as these are not collected within the scheme but with the normal refuse and end up in landfill.

Garden waste is collected on your existing fortnightly recycling collection day. Just put your bags out with your cans, bottles and paper.

The original instructions stated that only 3 bags would be collected from each property. At the present time there is no limit to the number of garden waste bags that will be collected.

Finally, whilst you can still take your garden waste to the civic amenity site we wish to reduce the environmental impacts of driving to the tip. It is more environmentally friendly to use the garden waste collection system in Colchester.

If you need any further clarification contact Colchester Borough Council on 01206 282700.

The market has not operated for over a year - it closed when the main market was relocated, but following numerous requests from the public we have tried to find a new venue.

Although the Arts Centre is not located in a prime shopping area of Colchester it is only a few metres from Head Street and very close to major bus routes and car parks. So it is easy to get to.

If you care about supporting our local farmers, buying high quality fresh food that seems to have more flavour than the equivalent imported items bought in Supermarkets or you just want to know where you food has come from and how it is produced then please come and support the market. It will only succeed if those who care about these issues use the market.

The first market has been hastily arranged but will consist of about 10 local producers selling a wide variety of locally produced food. It will be opened by deputy mayor John Bouckley at 9am.

If the market proves successful it will be held on the first Friday of every month from 9am to 1pm.

The other major event en-form is organising is the Colchester GM debate. We are keen to ensure the debate provides a forum for all viewpoints to be aired and will consist of 6 speakers representing a range of views.

The debate will be held on Tuesday 8th July at the Town Hall, Colchester from 6pm to 9.30pm. It will be open to everyone and you can just turn up on the night. However, it would help us if you could let us know if you intend to come.

Full details of these events can be obtained from en-form on 01206 367776 or from the office at 15 Church Walk Colchester. 

One of the best ways to do this is to get on your bike. For those of us who keep meaning to do it - what are you waiting for?

Not only is cycling good for you by keeping you fit, it is also free and good for the environment.  

From the 14th June the following events will be held in Colchester to encourage us all to cycle more:  

• Saturday 14th June - Bike Week info stall next to River Island, Lion Walk shopping precinct
• Tuesday  17th June - Breakfast on the Wild Side (further information e-mail Andrew- Sustrans Path Ranger on sootallures@yahoo.co.uk
• Thursday 19th June  - CCC Wivenhoe Trail Ride and Chip Supper meet at Colchester Town Hall at 6.30pm.
• Saturday 21st June - Ride and picnic to Layer Breton via National Cycle Route One.

These events are being organised by Colchester Cycling Campaign (CCC) and Sustrans with help from Re-cycle and en-form and form part of National Bike Week which runs from the 14th to 22nd June. For further information take a look at www.bikeweek.co.uk .  

As part of Bike week, en-form will be opening its new bike park where you can leave your bike during opening hours (Mon - Sat 10am to 5pm).   For further information about cycling in Colchester go to www.colchester-cycling.org.uk      

This month we would like to tell you how to save money and help the environment at the same time.

Over the next few weeks every home in Colchester will receive a home energy survey form. When you receive the form please take just a few minutes to fill it in and return it in the freepost envelope.

The completed survey form will provide very important information on energy efficiency in the borough of Colchester which will help determine energy policy in future years.

More importantly, it will allow a very easy to understand report to be sent back to you showing how energy efficient your home is at the moment, what improvements you could make and how much they will cost. The best bit of all is that it will show you how much money you could save by making the improvements and what grants are available. Some improvements cost nothing or very little.

As a further reward for returning your completed survey form you will receive a voucher for a free energy efficient light bulb worth £4, which over its lifetime will save you up to £50. Not bad for 5 minutes of your time.

You can bring your voucher along to us at en-form, 15 Church Walk, Colchester and exchange it for your free light bulb.

For more information on energy efficiency or this scheme please contact Sue Cornwell from the councils Warm Homes Project on 01206 282541 or pop in and see us at en-form.

Essex County Council will again be providing a Free pack of real nappies. Disposable nappies are a big problem in Colchester after being placed in your dustbin there are enough disposable nappies to fill three refuse trucks per week. This costs council tax payers around £42,000 per year in disposal costs.

After being placed into landfill disposable nappies take around 500 years to decompose and breakdown this means that every single disposable nappy 'disposed of' in a hole in the ground is still there! Landfill space is being used up rapidly and the only other option for 'disposing of' disposable nappies is for incineration with all the problems that brings with it.

No doubt parents want the best for their children, to achieve this we must pass on a healthy environment for their future. One way of helping to achieve this is by switching to reusable nappies. They have benefits for parents, with potential savings of several hundred pounds for the first child and even more for the second, for babies (comfort), for the environment (less waste to be disposed of).

So what will you choose 8400 disposable nappies or 24 reusables?

Finally, on the 27th April a one day compost bin sale will be held at Sheepen Road car park where you will be able to buy a bin for only £5. To find out what to do with your bin come along to the Composting Road show at Lion Walk on the 2nd May.

For further information on any of these events please contact en-form on Colchester 367776

Introducing the en-form team - by Nicola Thompson - March 2003

There is a centre located in Church Walk, Colchester which is run by a team of dedicated volunteers, trustees and me (the centre manager). The centre is called en-form (Colchester’s environment centre) and for those of you who do not know us, we are an information centre, open to the public.

There is a centre located in Church Walk, Colchester which is run by a team of dedicated volunteers, trustees and me (the centre manager). The centre is called en-form (Colchester’s environment centre) and for those of you who do not know us, we are an information centre, open to the public.

We are here to help you find the answers that you are looking for when it comes to environmental issues and to recycle various household items.

The centre is just one service we provide in Colchester; we are involved in many other interesting projects. Some of these may very well crop up from time to time in this very column such as the local Farmer’s Markets, recycling initiatives and community events.

We are here to help promote the growth of pride for the town of Colchester by improving the aesthetic and physical environment.

So keep an eye on this space for news and reviews on climate, health, transport and other environmental issues and how these relate to you.

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