Guernsey Police issue fixed penalty notices for littering

May 13th, 2013 by Guernsey Police

Cigarette litter collected from Hauteville, St Peter Port on 3 May 2013 (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

Guernsey Police are planning to enforce anti-littering legislation by issuing fixed penalty notices over the coming few days.

The drive to reduce the amount of cigarette litter in St Peter Port is in direct support to the parish authorities who are concerned of the negative impression the litter gives to visitors and the cost of clearing the mess up.

Inspector Terry Coule of the Neighbourhood Police Team said “Guernsey is a lovely clean and safe place to live and we intend to work with the parish authorities to keep it that way.”

“Dropping cigarette ends is an offence for which you can be issued a fixed penalty of £70.”

“We will be out and about in St Peter Port tomorrow aiming to catch those people who continue to drop litter,” he said. Continue reading

Continued concern over incinerator emissions at Whispers Vinery

April 26th, 2013 by Paul Aitchison

A view of the Whispers Vinery chimneys off Rue des Goddards, Castel on 9 July 2011 (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

The privately owned and operated Whispers Vinery waste wood incinerator at Vazon Bay had operated from March 2011 but following complaints from local residents about pungent smoke, and following emission testing, the plant was shut down after three months.

In December 2012, the States of Guernsey gave the go-ahead for the waste wood incinerator to restart operations.

This decision may have been partly driven by a desire to divert 1000 tonnes of waste wood each year from the Mont Cuet landfill.

Valerie Cameron, Director of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation, assured local residents that the Continue reading

Guernsey Environment Department promoting four organised beach cleaning weekends

April 23rd, 2013 by States of Guernsey Environment Department

Pembroke beach, L’Ancresse, Guernsey (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

The States of Guernsey Environment Department is promoting four weekends of beach cleans for volunteers in 2013.

The first one takes place on Sunday 28 April 2013 starting at 11 am at L’Ancresse.

This is the Marine Conservation Society’s Big Beach Clean up which is sponsored by Marks & Spencer and will take no more than two hours.

This is a new event for Guernsey and everyone is welcome to come along and help out with the beach clean and a survey of the litter found.

Please give the Environment Services Unit a call on 717200 by 5 pm Friday 26 April 2013 if you plan to take part. Continue reading

The Guernsey Real Nappy Network offers a better alternative

April 2nd, 2013 by Guernsey Real Nappy Network

Some Guernsey mums have formed the Guernsey Real Nappy Network (GRNN) to raise awareness and promote the use and benefit of real nappies.

Too many people think of nappies as the synthetic disposable variety that are thrown in the bin after a single use.

By the time a child reaches two-and-a-half, he or she may have used 6,500 disposable nappies.

These days Real Nappies offer a much better alternative.

Also known as cloth nappies or washable nappies, they are far more user friendly and much more attractive, and no longer involve nappy pins, soaking buckets, and a flair for terry towelling origami.

Real nappies (please click image to expand – ©Emily Dodd (auntyemily) published under creative commons license))

They come in many designs, fabrics and fastenings that do an amazing job and also look and feel adorable. Continue reading

St Andrew’s Primary School pupils reuse and recycle waste resources

March 18th, 2013 by States of Guernsey Public Services Department

St Andrew’s Primary School Recycling Superhereo’s (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

St Andrew’s School pupils have been transforming into superheroes to come up with a host of waste-busting ideas.

The children, who have been learning about how the island deals with waste, were given a challenge to come up with ideas that a superhero could use to reduce rubbish and promote recycling and reuse.

They will be donning their capes and home-made outfits today to present their creations to Public Services’ Recycling Officer Tina Norman-Ross. These include leaflets, gadgets and posters.

Tina Norman-Ross, PSD’s Recycling Officer, said “the children have put a lot of time and effort into the challenges, and it is a great example to us all of the importance of how we deal with our waste.” Continue reading

Eleanor Foundation wants disused Guernsey bikes for new life in Africa

February 14th, 2013 by Richard Lord

Allister Carey of The Eleanor Foundation (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

The Eleanor Foundation, set up in the memory of Eleanor Carey, is launching an initiative to collect neglected or disused bicycles in Guernsey for shipment to Re~cycle in Colchester, where they will be sorted, and shipped to Africa.

This is a wonderful opportunity for Guernsey residents to clear out their sheds, garages, and outbuildings of unwanted and disused bicycles. The initiative launches on 23 February 2013.

Since 1998 Re~cycle has shipped over 43,000 bicycles to 15 African countries.

Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, The Gambia, Zambia, Liberia, Uganda, and Malawi have been the main countries receiving Re~cycle bikes. Continue reading

Cheap food isn’t to throw away

February 9th, 2013 by Richard Lord

Seeing destitute people at Victoria Station in London rushing by outdoor tables of eateries and snatching disposable plates of leftover food abandoned by paying customers is a reminder of how many people are perpetually hungry. Many of us take food for granted.

About one third of the weight of Guernsey’s household waste is made up of food waste. Some of this weight is vegetable peelings but much of the weight is food that has spoiled.

Guernsey’s household food waste is currently left out on the street for collection largely in black bags where it is vulnerable to gull and cat attack. These animals rip open the bags in search of food and leave a mess on the pavement, which is time consuming to clean up.

A gull rummaging through household waste on Pedvin Street, St Peter Port on 7 May 2012 (click image to expand - ©RLLord)

This problem is heightened during the longer daylight hours of spring and summer when gulls raise their young.

The cost to dispose of household food waste at the Mont Cuet landfill in 2013 is over £152 per tonne, which adds up to a total Continue reading

Whistling could reduce number of nappies going to Mont Cuet landfill

February 1st, 2013 by University of Gothenburg

Child on the beach (click image to expand - image ©Iju published under creative common license)

Western babies are potty trained at a later age these days and generally need nappies until an average age of three or four.  The situation in Vietnam is just the opposite.

Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, followed 47 infants and their mothers in Vietnam for two years to study their potty training procedure, which begins at birth and generally eliminates the need for nappies by nine months of age.

Not only does eliminating the need for nappies save money and remove one practical chore for parents, but the baby’s ability to control its bladder improves efficiency and reduces the risk of urinary tract infection.

The technique is based on learning to be sensitive to when the baby needs to urinate.

“The woman then makes a special whistling sound to remind her baby,” Anna-Lena Hellström said.

“The whistling method starts at birth and serves as an increasingly powerful means of communication as time goes Continue reading

Black plastic has nowhere to go in Guernsey but the Mont Cuet landfill

January 27th, 2013 by Richard Lord

Accumulated over 56 days by a family of four, 85 pieces of black plastic packaging that can no longer be deposited at Guernsey's bring banks for recycling (click image to expand - ©RLLord)

At the end of November 2012 the States of Guernsey Public Services Department changed the labelling of the bring banks accepting plastic, and specified that black plastic would no longer be accepted but all other clean, food container plastic (not Styrofoam food trays, film or plastic bags) would be accepted at Guernsey’s bring banks.

Sign on a plastic bring bank showing what can and cannot be put into it (click image to expand)

The former requirement of searching for triangles and numbers embossed on plastic packaging to determine if the plastic can be deposited at Guernsey’s bring banks is no longer necessary. Continue reading

Supermarket plastic bags do not help protect our precious sea life

January 24th, 2013 by Richard Lord

Five pence may not seen like much money to pay for the convenience of a thin-film plastic shopping bag but in a resource constrained world avoiding this superfluous purchase has many benefits.

Plastic bags thrown out with one bag of household waste in St Peter Port on 23 January 2013 (click image to expand - ©RLLord)

Supermarket plastic bags that are purchased are usually used for a very short time, and although they can be reused, most end up in the waste stream, where they go to landfill to decay over many decades; or worse, they blow around the countryside.

Some of them end up in the sea where they have killed and injured marine birds, turtles and cetaceans.

There’s an irony to the very noticeable bright green ‘forever fish’ plastic supermarket bag that is entering Guernsey’s household waste stream. Continue reading