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Watch'ya folks.

All Things Good is back….again.

Like the 'flu, hanging around, but instead of being a nasty bug, we are here to brighten up the shortening days…giving you handy tips and thought provoking snippets about how to make good choices as you go about your daily business.

One of our regular readers was terribly upset last month, having been urged to observe PeaceOneDay on 21st September (he went out and fought his way through the aisles of the local supermarket in protest)….but no apologies from the Wasteminister…a harsh task master indeed, may our crusade continue.

As always, if you want to stop the bus cos you wanna get off, email thewasteminister@green-solutions.com to let us know. Otherwise, pass this forward and don't forget to cc the Wasteminister when you do so.

As Fleetwood Mac like to sing 'Don't stop thinking about tomorrow'

From all in Wasteminster

In this issue of All Things Good:

Let's Go MAD

Go MAD is a good game….what you do is make someone else - your neighbour, your friend, someone in your family - to change their behaviour for the better and then they should be encouraged to help someone else to go MAD.

Personally, the Wasteminister is going to try to convert a neighbour to recycling…a raging party animal, the number of bottles regularly chucked in the rubbish bin are enough to make one shed a tear…so to horse, to horse.

Write to the thewasteminister@green-solutions.com and let everyone know how you went Made A Difference.

CRAZY innit?

Wasted Space?

Now then - hands up who voted for Pop Idol? Big Brother? Restoration?
Did you participate in the very important poll on www.green-solutions.com about recycling in the Soaps (if you didn't get there now…time is running out and your country needs YOU to vote)
Here is another one….vote on the greatest wasted space in the UK…..www.wastedspace.org.uk

And Finally…What you have all been waiting for….nominations are now being accepted for the 2003 ORB awards.

Would you like to nominate any of your friends/colleagues/compost bins or even yourself for having demonstrated some Obsessive Recycling Behaviour this year?

Divulge all by writing to thewasteminister@green-solutions.com Entries must be genuine (no cheating now) and must be received by December 1st - giving you almost two months to get started/elaborate on your stories etc.

It will be difficult to make the award ceremony as exciting as last year (certainly by the photographer's standards anyway…) but we will think of something.

Come along now…the judges are all ears or eyes or whatever….

The Best Things in Life....are free

The Wasteminister apologises that this again is another London opportunity, but can't resist…the Museum of London is holding an exhibition called 'Urban Grime'. It covers a range of subjects, from transport to air pollution, recycling to green space issues. On now until late November….its free and ever so interesting.

The Science Museum has a pretty good permanent display on recycling so WHY DON'T YOU….go and make the most of the best things in life.

That's all folks...

thewasteminister@green-solutions.com

Green Tips

SAS Airlines collects enough aluminium drinks cans off flights in a year to make 75% of the metal needed to build a new McDonnell Douglas MD-90 airliner.

The USA is the least generous spender on world aid, donating only 0.01% of its national income.

Refrigeration accounts for around 20% of energy consumption in the average European home. In many supermarkets and retails outlets this figure is up to 70%. Remember to cut down on your electricity bill by regularly cleaning the bars at the back of your fridge - dust is expensive to heat!

In his or her lifetime, the average meat eater consumes the equivalent of 760 chickens, 20 pigs, 29 sheep, five cows and half a trawler-load of fish. If you can…buy British, nicely brought up, kindly caught animals and fish if you can.

Londoners are more likely to die as a result of traffic pollution than in a traffic accident.

This week there has been yet another ministerial visit - this time to a very interesting place in Tottenham, North London. CREATE is a social enterprise which exists to provide technical training to the long term unemployed, provide high quality domestic goods to people at reasonable prices and to solve some of the ever growing problem about what to do with our fridges, washing machines, computers, TVs etc

Electrical appliances collected by local council pick ups or are 'damaged stock' from the likes of Dixons are taken to the CREATE workshop, where they are put through a rigorous testing and repair programme, before being sold on. All products have a one year warranty with a cheap extension option.

Trainees, having received the right training and gained the appropriate qualifications, are then helped to secure a job, thus reducing the number of unemployed and solving a waste problem at the same time.

There are two main CREATE centres in operation - the one in Tottenham and another in Liverpool…if you want to find out more visit www.createuk.com

CREATE -ive thinking heh?

Reply - your feedback

My daughter has just got herself a wee pony, and there is frantic activity at home to make sure that Pony and rider are been kept fit and well.

The outdoor school that is on the next door farm (and the gallops) has recently been resurfaced with a shredded tyre/ sand mix, which apparently is an amazing surface as an all weather gallop.

I'm not sure of the ration of sand to tyres, but the colour of it would suggest rather more tyres than sand, so when you next have to change your car's tyres think of it as an investment in the pony's feet!!!

Better than burning them anyway.

Indeed it is…we will see more and more products made from tyres over the next few years - pavement materials, road surfaces, play surfaces, road cones, mousemats, pencil cases, sleeping policemen (the ones that slow cars down….not the ones not on the streets…all made from tyres).

I live in a small village in Yorkshire and after years of transporting my recyclables off to the local Civic Amenity Site, we are now getting a paper and glass bank for the village in the pub car park.

This idea is catching on…it seems.

Re-spond...your questions answered.

Q. As a youth group we are keen to get ourselves a can crusher. Where can we buy one?

A. Yet another avid can crusher (someone won an award for that last year, I seem to remember)…well, you can get them in a number of stores now - but easy hits are Centre for Alternative Technology www.cat.org.uk (phone 01654 702 400) or www.naturalcollection.com (phone 0870 331 3333) or Lakeland www.lakeland.com. Happy Crushing…!

Q. They say I can use my Orange Sack now, but how do I get hold of them?

A. Here we have a delighted resident of LB Hammersmith and Fulham…the catch all orange sack scheme has been expanded to all households served by a kerbside collection. If you live in H & F and haven't yet received your bags…call the hotline on 020 8753 1100…NOW.

Q. I have a selection of stylish lumberjack shirts and other assorted bits and pieces of clothing that unfortunately are now too dilapidated for a man about town in the smart capital to wear. I was hoping that you might know of a charity that rather than cutting up fine and useful clothes would actually send them to where they might be worn.

A. My oh my…what a smart man indeed. Any undamaged clothes should be washed and taken to your local charity to shop. Generally speaking, if the clothes aren't suitable for that shop, they will join items collected through clothes banks which are located around and about; all clothes which are collected in them head off for sorting - and are separated into 'quality for on-sale' either in the UK or overseas, for use in humanitarian situations and really worn clothes will be sent to be shredded and made into clothes, rugs etc. www.traid.org.uk is a good site to find out more about one charity doing good things with old clothes.

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Editorial By: The Wasteminister Images From: www.freeimages.co.uk