Monday 22 August 2011

To Landfill or not to Landfill - the story of a fridge freezer




I thought this might interest SEA members

Our 4 year old fridge freezer stopped working and we called in our usual repairer who told us it wasn't worth repairing, we needed a new one.
We thought about this, about the fact that it was still almost new, about how much landfill space must be full of almost new, but supposedly irreparable appliances. We decided that we couldn't just accept this advice. Instead we asked him who we could get a second opinion from, and to his credit he was happy to give us a name.

Steve, when phoned, said he'd have a look, there'd be a £20 call out fee and he might not be able to do anything. We knew that a new fridge freezer would cost hundreds of pounds, so we thought it was worth a go.

He could repair it. For a total of £60 we now have an appliance in full working order, we've saved ourselves at least £400 and at least as importantly there's one less fridge freezer in landfill!


Moral of the story: don't accept the first solution if it doesn't seem right!


PS Happy to give Steve's telephone number to anyone in the Saltash/Plymouth area who's in the same predicament!

By the way, Steve was meant to be going on from us to do another repair but the lady rang to say she'd decided after all 'just to get a new one', he says this happens all the time!











Sunday 14 August 2011

low impact living

Some of you may have read our Low Impact Living tips compiled by Claire James.

I recently came across this great resource for magazines on all types of LIL from wood crafts to wild food.Forom the Low Impact Living Initiative.

here's the link
LILI - magazines



At our Sea stall during The Churchtown Open Day we worked with children doing some really fun crafts including making spider webs, leaf printing and painting with home-made clay paints.

It wasn't just children who enjoyed the clay paints;many parents were fascinated to learn just how easy it is to mix up your own eco paints using just local clay and flour paste!




Monday 1 August 2011

Welcome to all

This blog is run by all of the SEA commitee who will post their own comments and information.Please bookmark it and return as often as possible!

Rebecca

SEA Chair

Tar Sands

An American hedge fund is about to break ground on a massive mining project that could poison a million people's drinking water and the headwaters for five major rivers. They want to create an open pit deeper than Niagara Falls and decimate thousands of acres of lush farmland -- and we have 4 days to stop them.


Highland's mega-quarry is smack dab in the middle of farmland the whole country depends on for food production. If built, it could poison clean ground water that feeds the lakes and rivers many Canadians use for drinking water. The quarry would require over seven thousand trucks to transport limestone each and every day, upping carbon emissions and requiring new roads to handle the exploding traffic -- further destroying the natural habitat of hundreds of species of animals. The city-sized pit would scar the land long after the mining was finished.


http://www.tarsandsaction.org/

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_quarry/97.php?cl_tta_sign=82b929276997396e04c3909a2983e628

International No Tar Sands Network The Ecologist
Barclays, HSBC and RBS linked to 'dirty money'

RBS’ activities in financing fossil fuel companies are characterised by the recent revelation they have provided French energy giant Total with more than £300 million in corporate loans since it started exploring tar sands development in Madagascar in 2008.


Badger Cull

We've got a couple of petions we'd love you to sign!
I dont know if you've heard of 38 degrees?
38 Degrees is the angle at which an avalanche happens. They are a community of UK citizens who act together to create an avalanche for change. They work together in their hundreds of thousands to defend fairness, protect rights, promote peace, preserve the planet and deepen democracy. 

I've followed theem ever since the governments plan yto sell off our forests was publicised and the latest petion is on the plans to shoot badgers in the South West to supposedly stop the spread of TB in Cattle.


Last week we voted to decide whether or not to launch a campaign to stop the government’s plan to kill badgers.  The results are in – 87% of respondents said answered “Yes” to the question “Should we work together to stop government plans to kill badgers?”
There’s been a big debate among 38 Degrees members about badger culls. Some of us believe killing badgers would be wrong under any circumstances. Some of us believe that if the science really proved that shooting badgers could make a real dent in the cow TB problem, it would be a tragic necessity.

But 87% of us agree on this: the government’s current plans to shoot England’s badgers simply don’t stack up. The government’s own scientific advisers warn that it won’t solve the problem of TB in cattle, and could even make it worse.

please sign the petion!

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/badgers-petition#petition