In honour of Go Green Week, I’ve asked some of my colleagues in RSPB Cymru to share with us what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference.
Mark Vercoe is our Conservation Officer (North Wales Futurescapes) and is a bit of a free-cycle fanatic! “We free-cycle and pass on items we no longer need, unless I can find an alternative use or up-cycle them into garden furniture. I found an old table with a broken top last year so replaced with old floorboards and it makes a grand table for the garden – great for having hosting loads of friends at our barbecues! We are also restoring an old Welsh miners cottage using traditional building materials and techniques, using lime plaster, mortar, dry stone walling and sourcing materials from reclamation yards.
Kim and Guiseppe Boccato are North Wales People Engagement Officers and would give ‘homemade’ Queen Kirsty Allsop a run for her money!“We love going to car boot sales, they are a great way to recycle and you can find some retro and vintage treasure in these places! We also love charity shops and love buying second-hand furniture and giving it a new lease of life – up-cycling is the new re-cycling.”
Lucy Johnson our Senior Community Fundraiser keeps her friends occupied with her recycling.“I do the usual such as recycling empty plastic, glass, paper and cardboard, but I also keep all spare buttons, clips and poppers form clothing and give them to my friend who turns them into quirky and bespoke cushion covers and teddy bears.”
Peter Jones is Conservation and Ecosystems Officer buys local.“I have been endeavouring – with mixed success – to grow own veg and some fruit for the last few years, for the majority of the time we buy from local farmers’ and producers’ markets. Otherwise, we buy food from local shops – five minutes’ walk away – rather than out-of-town supermarkets”.
Lisa Morgan is one half of our husband and wife reserve team on RSPB Ramsey Island of the south west coast of Pembrokeshire.“On Ramsey we shred all used paper and junk mail with a manual, hand-powered shredder (no electricity required.) This shredded paper is then used as bedding material for our chickens and lambs, saving us buying hay and transporting it to the island (saving money and fuel). When the bedding is cleaned out of the chicken coop and lambing sheds, it is emptied into our composting bin. Then after a year it is dug into the island vegetable garden to improve soil fertility. The vegetables from the garden and eggs from the chickens feed the wardens, who in turn visit the supermarket less often which means using the boat and car less and saving petrol.
Carly Jenkins is Youth and Education Officer and is getting married later in the year; here she shares some of her ‘green’ wedding tips with us.
Phil Pinder is Membership Development Officer and has shares his quirky green-isms here.
Recycle clothes: Wearing clothes that some would find a little 'over worn': (though not to work obviously!) the chances are that your partner will tell you when the environmental aspect of this practice is outweighed by not being able to walk down the street without getting coins pushed into your hands – or not being seen dead with you etc!
Transport: let the train take the strain and remember to grin, if you grin manically enough you get more room!
Food: Household members will soon alert you to lentil excess, NEVER, ever make Jerusalem artichoke and brussels sprout curry, this can lead to global warming, divorce and alienation from offspring.
The best green thing to do is smile, it un-nerves those who consume in order to get their fix of transient happiness (don't we all). The smile can also build bridges and bring people together, together we can change how we live, alone we just look a bit of a hippy and can be dismissed as a crank. Peace, love and lentils!