Gloucestershire Connections

Working Wonders With Waste

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:50:00

by Mariyam Thomas

Indian company Thunk, is making fashionable products out of discarded rubbish while supporting underprivileged communities.

Thunk, a company in India, which was once a college project, is giving a new lease of life to tetra-paks, plastic bags, CDs, chip packets and other items that are usually thrown out. Suren Vikhash, a 24 year-old designer and entrepreneur, is using waste material to tailor durable and stylish lifestyle products, as well as home décor and furniture.

The Thunk process begins with waste management: the collection, segregation and cleaning of discarded products. The raw material is cut and shredded, before being woven with handlooms to make durable fabric. From this, the company produces stylish, colourful laptop bags, magazine holders, wallets, handbags and mobile telephone pouches.

TEDGlobal 2010

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:10:00

Headlines remind us daily of the political, economic and environmental woes facing the planet. But behind the scenes lie an amazing array of new ideas, new science, new technology, new social and political thinking, new art and a new understanding of who we are. When you put it all together, an entirely more hopeful view of the future emerges.

TEDGlobal 2010 is held over the course of four days in Oxford between the 12-16 July and will explore the surprising undercurrent of good news just below the surface of today's troubling mainstream media headlines....

Many of the remarkable architects of that future - those who are pushing the boundaries of what is known and expanding the possible - will join together, from all over the world, at TEDGlobal 2010 . Registration application requests are now open and you can find details on:

One Less Car

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:40:00

While talking about his theory of relativity Albert Einstein once said "I thought of that while riding my bike." Which only goes to prove that cycling can not only be an enjoyable activity, it can be a creative experience that can take the cyclist on voyages of discovery both through their environment and through their own thoughts.

1 Less Car is a campaign that is helping to promote a brighter and safer cycling environment for future generations to enjoy. Their hope is that for each bicycle on the road there may be one less polluting car driving around. This in turn can lead to less traffic congestion and an even safer road system for cyclists to use.
"We wanted to do something positive and useful to get more people to start getting out - playing, walking, cycling, hanging around, and making our communities safer by just more people being out on the street looking out for each other." say the campaign organisers.

Incentives for Green Power

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:40:00

The UK Government has just announced income tax benefits for all domestic power users who install wind and solar power and who feed their surplus back into the national grid.

In the Pre-Budget Report given by the Chancellor back in early December 2009 he announced the fact that the UK Government were considering not taxing income from renewable energy systems.. The Treasury have subsequently confirmed that both the generation and the export element of the tariffs will be exempt from Income Tax for householders who install systems mainly for use at home.

In real terms this means that people with a home wind turbine or a photovoltaic system that is capable of feeding power back into the national grid could be earning an average of £900 per year tax free. It is hoped that this will be an incentive to encourage average households to play a part in finding solutions to climate change by installing small-scale renewable energy generators.

Sustainable Celebrations

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:00:00

Tickets are now on sale for this years Wood festival, taking place in the beautiful surroundings of Braziers Park, Oxfordshire on 21st 23rd May. Wood is possibly Britain's greenest festival, powered completely on renewable energy, harnessing the power of the sun, the wind and even the people who attend the event (through a cycle-powered cinema and disco). There are composting toilets (no portaloos!) and a stage made of, you guessed it, wood. The organisers hope that the way the festival is run will set a standard and encourage other events to follow suit with greener production values. This year Wood will be piloting the Industry Green standard to measure its carbon footprint and other impacts in tandem with the charity Julie's Bicycle.

Included in The Sunday Times The best things to see and do in 2010, the event comes from the creators of Truck festival and could be considered it's folkier, cleaner and greener younger brother.

Gloucestershire Connections edition 107 (February-March 2010)

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:00

Click this link to download the February-March 2010 edition of Connections. (.pdf format, 1.6mb).

A Powerful Solution

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:50:00

An award-winning new home energy system could help us achieve a brighter, cleaner future say its developers, Disenco. Their unique alternative to the standard boiler is ideal for home use or small businesses. It is described as a micro-Combined Heat and Power (m-CHP) appliance and is based on a kinematic Stirling engine design. This engine drives a generator to produce 3 kW of mains voltage electricity and is capable of exporting this electricity back to the grid. Not only this, but its inventive process also provides heating and hot water. Its producers hope that each unit will provide up to 50% of a standard domestic user's electric supply and between 60-70% of their peak load heating and hot water needs.

This could significantly reduce a household's carbon emissions, as the generator is extremely efficient. "Unlike an internal combustion engine, where combustion takes place inside the cylinder at low efficiencies," explain its developers, "the Stirling engines are external combustion engines operating at high efficiencies. The cycle is sealed and contains a constant volume of working gas - commonly air, hydrogen or in our case helium. The cycle works by expanding and contracting the volume of gas caused by temperature differentials at either end of the engine and hence the engine has a hot and a cold end. The heating and cooling is supplied to the engine externally. The current heat source is provided by an external gas fired burner, transmitting heat through a heat exchanger to the volume of gas in the engine. Cooling is supplied by water cooled heat exchangers."

Happy Nappies

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:36:41

Knowaste, a Canadian company based in the UK, is at the cutting edge of the recycling world - becoming the first to be able to effectively recycle the plastics within children's nappies and other sanitary products.

There has been a considerable increase in the use of these throw away nappies and personal hygiene products over the last 20 years. In the UK it generates around half a million tonnes of waste each year in nappies alone. The recycling process, that Knowaste has developed, provides an environmentally friendly and cost effective solution for many different types of 'disposables' that are currently being sent to land fill. In doing so it is contributing to the global solutions for the current environmental waste crisis.

The company are keen to point out that we should not be 'land-filling' this waste because with the quantities mentioned it could take up to 500 years to decompose and there are important raw materials to salvage. They are hoping that its plant, opened in Birmingham in 2008, will lead the way in addressing this problem both nationally and internationally.

Fishing for Lyrics

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:00:00

British and Irish poetry.....online and out loud!

PoetCasting is an exciting internet project, revolutionising the way we think about the art of poetry. A valuable resource, it means that poets can now have their work both read and heard, all in one place. Already, there are more than 500 poems, uploaded by nearly 200 writers.

Created by Alex Pryce, the site promotes a diverse lineup of exciting voices. It aims to portray a side of poetry that is engaging and inspirational and an intrinsic part of learning about language.

Farming from the Heart

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:30:00

Groundbreaking Care Farming Initiative Launched in the West Midlands

A health and social care innovation has been unveiled, creating 20 working care farms across Worcestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire in the UK.

Care farms are social enterprises, that assist people with learning difficulties, individuals experiencing mental health problems, those who are recovering from substance misuse, excluded youth, the homeless and long-term unemployed.

By combining care with meaningful work in the supportive natural environment of farms, woodlands and market gardens, the scheme is offering many benefits. As farm helpers, participants are given a healthy daily structure, that builds confidence and supports people in the development of their social and practical skills as part of a working team.