Recycling clothes

Oxfam and M&S joined forces earlier this year to launch the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, the biggest programme in the UK to encourage consumers to recycle their clothes. The M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange was set up in January 2008 and has already raised a staggering £2m for Oxfam's charity work. Anyone donating an item of M&S clothing to Oxfam will receive a £5 voucher to use on their next purchase of £35 or more on a range of goods.

Turning books into trees

From my lunchtime scan of Metro: The artist who turns books into trees. Su Blackwell creates paper models from old novels. Her creations - which appear to grow out of the spine of the book - include forests, buildings, people and boats. They sell for up to £5,000 each.

Recycle Week 2009

Recycle Week 2009 takes place from 22-28 June. It's a campaign that wants you to do less, not more! This Recycle Week is all about the many, easy ways we can all waste less.

It’s easy to get involved this Recycle Week. We can all help by doing anything from re-using our carrier bags to recycling old electrical items – remembering to put as much of our recycling out, reducing our food waste and home composting of course! However you choose to waste less, it helps the environment and you might even save money in the process. To show how much we can contribute as individuals, the website includes a list of easy-to-achieve pledges.

USB-rechargable battery

USBCELL rechargeable batteries are a new concept in rechargeable batteries - you simply plug them into the USB ports on your computer to charge them up, then use them in your electrical gadget. With over 15 billion alkaline batteries made and thrown away each year - wasting resources, C02 and creating toxic landfill - it's good to come across an eco-friendly alternative. Even better when the eco-friendly alternative can be re-used hundreds of times and doesn't require a charger or adaptor cable, saving money, hassle and waste.

USBCELL batteries are available from Amazon and the Onya company (who also sell the Onya Weigh and wrapsacks).

How to be Super-Thrifty

I just read Kath Kelly's book 'How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day'. Mainly because I was curious to find out just what was allowed to be included in the £1, as I'd heard about it on the radio, and couldn't believe that this was possible. The book turned out to be an entertaining and informative read.

The feat - which started as a bit of a dare - seems to have taken place a couple of years ago, so perhaps Ms Kelly managed to avoid some of the food price rises. Rent wasn't included in the £1, but everything else was.... although some of the survival tactics were a little cheeky, like pinching newspapers out of other people's recycling boxes when they were left out on bin-day, to get the coupons to collect tokens for freebies. Other strategies, such as buying reduced price items in the supermarket and picking wild food were rather more familiar.

The author managed not only to survive - AND put on weight - but also to get in a couple of trips away without cheating, which was all very impressive on such a tiny budget. Internet sites that are of use to anyone wishing to live a more frugal - and green - lifestyle are listed at the back of the book, and include Freecycle, organic farm volunteering, and car-sharing sites.

The only snag is that the book itself has a hefty £6.99 price tag..... this seemed to jar with the spirit of the book - so I borrowed it from the local library for just a 25p reservation fee. Ms Kelly would be proud!

Would you wear recycled rubbish?

Using bottles that were destined for rubbish tips and landfill sites, designers at Debenhams have spent a year creating a 100% recycled women’s trouser suit for sale on the High Street. After being cleaned and having the labels removed, the bottles were melted down, then refined and woven into a soft, but hard-wearing polyester. Far from rubbish, the purse-friendly £55 suit - with single-buttoned jacket nipped in at the waist, subtle herringbone lining and modern boot-cut finish trousers – offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative for the office.

The truth about recycling

Taking part in the Carbon Fast for Lent? If so, this article from today's Guardian on The truth about recycling should reassure you to keep going, despite the growing backlash against recycling and the collapse in demand for recycled materials.

Recycle a pet?

If you don't want to adopt a retired greyhound (especially Dixie), then maybe you would like to consider adopting an unwanted chicken? The lifespan of an egg-laying battery chicken is 72 weeks, but a rescued 'ex-bat' can live for up to 10 years.

Time Travel: Is Life Without Plastic Possible?

Following on from all those reports about what plastic is doing to sea life (cf David Shukman's reports from Midway island in the Pacific), and how it is absorbing toxins which are then introduced into the foodchain, BBC reporter Chris Jeavans has taken on the challenge to spend the month of August without plastic. (Where she fails, she is collecting the evidence and comparing it against her usual amount of plastic, to see how much it is possible to cut down.) Cutting down plastic when you live a wasteful lifestyle already is probably pretty easy, but cutting it out entirely sounds like no mean feat & I'll be interested to read how she gets on.

Recycle Now Week

Somehow I didn't notice that it was Recycle Now Week until today! Never mind, there's still lots of useful stuff on the Recycle Now website to investigate. Although we recycle all we can in our household, I remain frustrated that I can't recycle drinks cartons (tetrapaks); the nearest place to do so is Melton Mowbray. Maybe we should all petition Charnwood Borough Council...