The latest news, stats and facts on key environmental issues. The latest news from Sussex Green Living.

Help us in global recycling contest

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Press release – Help Sussex Green Living win prize through ‘liking’ recycling video

Sussex Green Living (SGL) volunteer Joy Carter has won Terracycle’s global #keepOnRecycling contest for her “how-to” film that inspires householders to recycle specific single-use plastics during the lockdown.

The film promotes the free recycling schemes run by SGL and Terracycle to avoid items ending up in landfill or being sent overseas by the Council to be incinerated.

Joy said: “Now that most of us are staying home we are generating a lot more waste than normal and it is an ideal time to learn what to do with items that can’t be put in our recycle bins”.

Help Sussex Green Living Go Global! 

Joy is donating the £80 prize money to the Horsham Community Fridge but has set her sights on the global prize and needs your support. The funds would enable SGL to set up a storage facility for all the recycling they sort through ordinarily on a weekly basis at the Quaker Meeting House.  To help SGL win, please watch, like and share Joy’s film on social media. https://www.facebook.com/SussexGreenLiving/

Carrie Cort, SGL founder, said: “We are delighted that the volume of recycling from the local community has increased so significantly – it shows how many people care about being zero-waste. However, we now need to expand our operation to avoid volunteers taking a bag loads of recycling home to sort through. Please support our film and help us win the Terracycle award”. Read more

Launch of two Horsham community forums

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Press release – Horsham Future Forum and Youth Eco Forum launching 2nd June 2020

Sussex Green Living launches Horsham Youth Eco Forum Zoom virtual weekly meetings

Sussex Green Living (SGL) are excited to launch the Horsham Youth Eco Forum as part of the development of Horsham Climate Cafe.

Since its opening in December 2019, Horsham Climate Cafe – a collaborative project established by SGL, Horsham Quakers and many volunteers – has wanted to offer a space for local young environmentalists to meet and share ideas. As we adapt to socially-distant lives, the community formed by HCC feels more important than ever, and the Eco Youth Forum will offer an opportunity for young people aged 11+ to connect on a weekly basis.

Both the climate crisis and the current pandemic raise big questions for the future of younger generations and it is important to be able to discuss concerns and to problem-solve in a creative and collaborative way. Sussex Green Living hopes that the creation of this forum will enable young people to tackle eco-anxiety with eco-action and being an essential part of the local green community. Read more

Get Creative for Nature Over Half Term

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Inspiring environmental art competition appeals for children and young people to get involved over holidays and the summer term. Thanks to a grant from The Boltini Trust, Sussex Green Living and the South Downs National Park Trust, which is the official charity of South Downs National Park, have developed this “Clean Up & Create” a Bright New Future competition for 5-16 year olds in Sussex and Hampshire.

Julie Fawcett, Chair of the South Downs National Park Trust, said “A key focus for the South Downs National Park Trust is to engage young people with this amazing natural asset on their doorstep with all its beautiful landscapes and wildlife.

“This competition offers a great way for children to get creative and think about ways we can conserve and enhance our environment in the years ahead. Young people are the future custodians of national gems such as the South Downs and this is a fantastic way to inspire them”

The aim is to encourage young people to design some artwork with a powerful message to raise awareness of the environment and represent the theme of a bright new future they want for the world.

There are two categories to choose from in each age group: Read more

Horsham Climate Cafe – the value of nature

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Horsham Climate Cafe – the value of nature All of us are experiencing the uncertainty the current pandemic has brought with it, alongside the forced physical disconnect from one another and our usual routines. However, while this situation has restricted us in many ways, it has also freed us in others. An overwhelming number of […]

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News from the Horsham Repair Cafe

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Sorry to say that the Horsham Repair Café will not be physically opening for our once a month repairs, refills and energy advice for a while. However we have reviewed the situation and are now going to trial a weekly repair service which will run alongside the household and personal hygiene bottle refill service. We can offer repairs to small electrical household and IT items only at the moment. This drop off and collection service will be offered each Saturday between 10-12 noon (with suitable covid social distancing and product handling restrictions).

Please book in your item by completing our online booking form here, we will then email to confirm the procedure and location for drop off. Please note that we are not able to repair any textiles for the foreseeable future.

Costs:

Electrical repairs – our volunteer repairer will assess the item and inform you if there is a need to purchase any parts. If you agree to the costs on collection you will be asked to pay for the costs, a voluntary donation to the Horsham Repair Café is optional. Read more

Pressing the pause button

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On Saturday 2nd May Dr Tony Whitbread spoke at the Horsham Climate Cafe to around 100 people using Zoom video conferencing. He spoke about positive impacts of covid on human attitute to nature and signs of the natural world recovering. This event was chaired and facilitated by Helen Whittington, Carrie Cort, Chloe Harrison and Vivaine Doussy. You can hear a podcast of his talk, see the global reach of this event and the Q&A here.

Tony shares his thought provoking insight with us here…..Nature seems to be blossoming while us humans are locked up indoors.  We’ve heard about goats taking over gardens in Llandudno in Wales and fallow dear wandering round parts of London.  There are elephants on the streets of Thailand, elephant seals in Argentinian suburbs and the penguins are taking back the streets in South Africa!  There seem to be more butterflies and the birds seem to be singing louder.  Is nature really recovering while we are locked up, is it the good weather, or is it just that we are taking the time to pay attention and notice what has been there all along?

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Tony Whitbread climate cafe session

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What is the Impact of Covid-19 on Nature? This was the burning question for all those who joined the Horsham Climate Café’s sixth (since lockdown) weekly Zoom meeting, which took place on Saturday 2nd May.

113 people booked from from all over the world including England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Uganda and South Africa (including 37 South East Climate Alliance members). They tuned in to hear special guest, Dr Tony Whitbread, President of Sussex Wildlife Trust, give an inspiring talk about how nature is blossoming with less human activity. He highlighted:

– the speed at which animals all round the world have expanded their ranges in to towns and cities

– the bluer skies and reduction in air pollution

– that people have slowed down and are noticing and valuing the beauty of the natural world

His insights prompted questions such as what can we do to engage our children in protecting the planet, should “ecocide” be unlawful, and perhaps the most pressing issue right now: how can we ensure the “nature recovery” continues post-lockdown?

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The Mutual Aid Movement

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Since we entered lockdown, community has become important to many of us in a way it was not before. The way we relate to one another has changed and, although physical contact outside the home is impossible, many of us are enjoying a greater sense of connectedness within our neighbourhoods than ever. In Horsham District, and all over the country, people are getting to know and support those who live around them. Whether this is as part of volunteer schemes providing vulnerable people with essential shopping, phone calls offering emotional support, or simply the weekly clap for carers, the networks forged between local residents during this time are vital and valuable.

As we adapt to the current situation, it is important that we also look forward to how we rebuild our lives in the post-covid era and we are conscious that this will not, and should not, mean returning to ‘normal’. The social connectedness that has risen ironically from a time of ‘social distancing’ is something worth maintaining, particularly as many will need support as they continue to isolate long after general restrictions are relaxed. Read more

Saving money through growing and swapping food

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On Saturday 18th April, Horsham Climate Cafe met for its fourth virtual meeting since lockdown began. One of the benefits of moving online during the COVID19 pandemic is the number of people able to join from further afield as we had environmentalists calling in from as far away as Ireland. With self-isolation set to continue and the weather still in our favour, the discussion focused around ‘grow your own’ as a money-and-planet-saving way to stay connected to nature during this time.

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Help fight against the “biggest ever” road building plan

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The COVID19 crisis has had tragic consequences for many, but one positive change that has been noted all around the world is the drop in air pollution due to huge reductions in transport use.
While Milan is making plans to take advantage of this situation to create a future that is less car-oriented, the Department for Transport here is preparing to unfurl 30 years’ worth of road building, likely to double UK car traffic by 2050. On 1 May 2019 UK MPs approved a motion to declare an environment and climate emergency and are aiming for zero emissions by 2050, how is this going to be achieved if we double the amount of cars on our roads?

On 11th March they published Road Investment Strategy 2 despite requests to rethink this scheme in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Read more

Virtual climate cafe connecting people and planet

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Week 3 of virtual climate cafe

Local people removed from isolation for one hour a week through the virtual Horsham Climate Cafe. Saturday 11th April saw the numbers grow from 7 the first planning week, to 15, with 24 turning-in last week to learn about frugal and free wild cooking from Fiona founder of Earthkind and an eco art competition which Sussex Green Living are running with the South Downs National Park.  With lots of other exciting local and countywide ideas materialising.

The Horsham Climate Cafe normally pops up once a month at the Quaker Meeting House in Horsham, but quickly adapted with lockdown to go online using Zoom free video conferencing. Last week saw people from Horsham, Billingshurst, Lindfield, Worthing, Chichester, Peacehaven, Petworth and Leeds tuning-in! The aim is to remove people for social isolation for an hour a week to discuss ideas for supporting community and planet in this uncertain time. The organisers are very heartened to be receiving such a positive response and great engagement! Read more

Environmental education for lockdown victims!

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​​‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’

Educational competition for schools and children working from home!

Sussex Green Living in partnership with the South Downs National Park have just launched an educational competition called ‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’. It has been designed to provide a platform for raising awareness about the environment, littering and changes we could make to build a bright new future. The challenge​ is​ for 5 to 16 year olds to design a poster and or a piece of eco art and associated message, enable them to learn, have fun and get creative around the ​w​orld they want. There are 16 x £150 prizes to be won!

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Covid-19 crisis sees positive environmental impacts

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As previously discussed in our Covid19 crisis article, the world has seen a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of imposed self-isolation and lockdown guidelines, so we thought that it would be of interest to our readers for us to look into this change a bit deeper. We will also shed light on the importance of remembering sustainable living principles during this crisis. This is something all of us in the Sussex Green Living community, the Horsham Climate Cafe and Horsham Climate Cafe should remember.

Covid-19’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions

As worldwide air pollution is down, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has, in the last day, reported large decreases in air pollutant concentrations across Europe. As this is such an unusual and worrying time for us all, seeing a positive amongst all the negatives is inspiring.

With Wuhan’s smog depreciating significantly and reports of fish being seen in the waters of Venice for the first time in years, as well as a reduction of nitrogen dioxide across the world, these factors should prove to us all that small differences can create such huge environmental changes. Read more

Money Saving ideas at Horsham Climate Cafe

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Saturday 4th April the Horsham Climate Cafe will pop up as a virtual one hour event for the second week in a row. It will be running using a free Zoom video call every Saturday at 2pm during the Covid19 crisis and until further notice.

This Saturday there will be an opportunity for people to connect and chat informally around concerns, insights with  ideas for using materials around you, saving money and helping the planet. Fiona Hamilton who runs Earthkind a plastic free food refills service which pops up at the Horsham Repair Cafe, will be providing lots of money saving ideas around frugal and zero waste living, see below. She is happy to receive questions ahead of Saturday or on the day. Forward questions to ahead of Saturday.

Helen Whittington will talk about the new Horsham Repair Cafe cleaning and personal product bottle refill service she is offering during lockdown, as seen here https://www.horsham-refill.com. Carrie Cort, founder of Sussex Green Living will talk about a saving money through switching energy providers. Since running the Horsham Repair Cafe she has helped lots of people switch using https://bigcleanswitch.org/sussexgreen/, everyone has saved between £90 and £366 a year.

Enjoy Fiona’s ideas for saving money and living a more sustainable life here: Read more

Virtual meeting every Saturday 2pm offering community support

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Saturday 28th March saw the Horsham Climate Cafe pop up for the first time as a virtual gathering to discuss how people can continue to connect, support our community and share ways to save money through the anxieties and challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown.

In these precarious and uncertain times, we are all having to rethink our lifestyles and our priorities and are finding new and resourceful ways to adapt and form communities. These initiatives all feel very relevant to how we hope to approach the other global catastrophe of our times – the climate crisis. For this reason we feel that it is important that our plans for tackling the two are connected and that we continue to support one another to live environmentally conscious lives in the light of the current situation.

Although the Horsham Repair Cafe is no longer able to meet as a community, the refill service for cleaning products is still running with new social distancing measures in place learn more here https://www.horsham-refill.com.

The Horsham Climate Cafe will take place via Zoom every Saturday at 2pm for about one hour anyone is warmly welcomed to join the virtual space, it is free and requires no software download. Read more

Appeal for homes to help our recycling volunteers

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Pack crisp packets flat condensed in a shoe box

Press release

Sussex Green Living appeals for homes to help keep single use plastic recycling going in Horsham District

Sussex Green Living is appealing for help in the homes with single use plastic recycling during the covid19 crisis. Since 2012 Sussex Green Living with the help of lots of volunteers have been recycling specific single-use plastics. The materials are sent to and recycled by a company called TerraCycle.

Carrie the founder of Sussex Green Living is appealing for help “Over the last year the volume of donations has grown 10 fold, we have a wonderful team of volunteers we call the SGL Wombles who were helping sort every Wednesday afternoon at the Quaker Meeting House”, she continues “We had to make the decision to stop those team sorting sessions last week”.

Two volunteers are going to try to keep the lesser volume now being received, sorted and dispatched to TerraCyle. Helen Whittington, the onsite warden of the Quaker Meeting House will daily clean the handles on the bins in the meeting house garden, this being the main drop off location in the district (although there are six other parish locations and schools who also collect). Joy Carter, endearingly called chief Womble is going to remove the recycling to a remote location (using personal protective gear) and then trying to sort after 72 hours. Read more

Los Cedros Reserve – An update and photos from our friend Nicola Peel

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Los Cedros Reserve – Andean cloud forest of Ecuador – UNDER THREAT

Our friend Nicola Peel has sent us an update and some incredible photos from her visit to the Los Cedros Reserve in the cloud forest of Ecuador which is now threatened by gold, copper and molybdenum mining.

Read more

Hope must come out of Covid19 crisis

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Next Horsham Climate Cafe 4th April will be online

Press release

Horsham Climate Cafe gives inspiration: people take stock and change habits

The speed at which Governments, organisations and institutes around the World are reacting to the Covid19 pandemic gives the organisers of the Horsham Climate Cafe hope. It shows that when faced with an emergency the world can mobilise resources and political will in the midst of the crises.

An unexpected but positive spin-off is that the world has seen a huge dip in global greenhouse gas emissions since the devastating Covid19 virus and fast mobilisation of community collaboration and support.

Carrie Cort, the founder of Sussex Green Living and co-founder of the Horsham Climate Cafe said “The UK often blame China for its huge carbon footprint but a lot of our clothes and goods are made cheaply and imported to the UK.  We spent £44.7 billion on imported Chinese goods in 2018 alone”.  She continues, ‘All this manufacturing of cheap goods and shipping around is a hidden carbon footprint which the UK should take responsibility for.  It also means we’ve become dependent on China for manufactured goods, which leaves us vulnerable in times like this.”

Horsham Climate Cafe is normally at the Quaker Meeting House on the first Saturday of each month, on Saturday 4th April at 2pm it will use Zoom or Skype free video conferencing, enabling people to attend from their homes. Read more

Horsham Climate Cafe

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Our Corona Virus Action Plan-

Horsham Climate Cafe goes online

We hope you will all be delighted to hear – The Horsham Climate Cafe will continue throughout the current social distancing and quarantine measures! We’re now switching to online meetings using Zoom (see joining instructions below!), a FREE and easy to use video chat and video conferencing service. Please feel free to join any of our sessions to continue to be involved, or use this as a great chance to see what we’re about for the first time (all from the comfort of your own home!). Until we can resume our physical meetings, please do pop in on us – we are running EVERY Saturday at 2pm for an hour – we’d love to see you there! In our sessions, we like to talk about pocket and planet-saving ideas for the community (all quarantine friendly ideas, of course!). See below for the exciting schedule for our planned sessions so far…

Read more
Toby Phillips www.tobyphillipsphotography.co.uk

Repair Cafe unites community and sows seeds of change

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© www.tobyphillipsphotography.co.uk

Behaviour change can be a daunting prospect, unless it happens in easy steps, with tangible and immediate benefits. Getting together to fix stuff is an instantly appealing answer to reducing waste, but Horsham District resident Carrie Cort has discovered that setting up a regular repair café has brought dividends and benefits to the community that neither she nor any of those involved could have imagined.

FROM FIXING LAPTOPS TO HELPING THE PLANET

Carrie set up Sussex Green Living in 2012 and the same year attended a West Sussex County Council waste prevention advisor (WPA) training where she met and became good friends with another voluntary WPA Jill Shuker. In 2016 they organised their first textile up-cycling workshop as part of a Horsham festival, hoping it would encourage teenagers to learn how to sew and adapt clothes as a sustainable antidote to fast fashion. ‘It attracted children of all ages’, says Carrie. This workshop and later textile upcycling workshops resulted in a group of creative textile volunteers. Read more

Climate change forum “Food for thought”

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POSTPONED DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS. WE WILL ADD A NEW BLOG WHEN THE DATE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED

Date and time: Friday 13th March 2020 7.00 pm

Venue: Pulborough Village Hall, Swan View, Pulborough, RH20 2BF

This is the second in a series of climate change forum events in Pulborough, the first event in October was an outstanding success and packed out the village hall, learn more here. Come and learn about the problems and solutions of the food industry………

7.00 – 7.10 pm        CHAIRMAN Geoff Barnard, Founder Greening Steyning

7.10 – 7.25 pm        INTRODUCTION: THE FOOD CHAIN Tony Whitbread, President Sussex Wildlife Trust

7.25 – 7.40 pm        SOIL HEALTH Dan Osborn, Chairman CPRE Sussex, the countryside charity

7.40 – 7.55 pm        FARMING Philip Lymbery, Chief Executive Compassion in World Farming Read more

Want to visualise a positive planet in 2040?

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An award-winning film called 2040 is coming to Horsham and Lindfield in March and April, book your tickets now! It is a compelling vision…. come and let yourself be inspired.
Award-winning director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them into the mainstream.
2040 is an Australian documentary that takes a solutions-based approach to how we can, using the technology we already have, mitigate the enormous global issues we currently face. The main themes/solutions looked at in the film are around: empowerment of women and girls; marine regeneration; regenerative agriculture; renewable energy; and circular economy. It’s a story of hope, and a powerful tool to encourage people to take action – you can take a peek at some of the amazing things the Australian release has achieved so far in this video.

Read more

Recycle bin

More single-use plastic recycling

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Other ways to recycle more single-use plastic:

In addition to the single use plastics we recycle mainly through TerraCycle, the following plastics can be dropped off for recycling at the major supermarkets: 

– All plastic carrier bags, except biodegradable or compostable bags

– Breakfast cereal liners

– Shrink wrap & ring joiners from multipacks of water, cans etc

– Frozen food bags, e.g. bags for frozen vegetable, chips, etc

– Dry cleaning bags/bags covering new clothing

– Magazine and newspaper wrappers

– Bags for fruit and vegetables

– Bubble wrap

For online shopping deliveries, many supermarkets also allow you to hand your unwanted bags back to the driver for recycling. Read more

Horsham Climate Cafe

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Our Launch!

We were thrilled to launch our Horsham Climate Cafe on Saturday 7th December 2019. As well as locals and school/college pupils, among those attending the cafe’s launch were county and district councillors, Horsham District Council chariman Kate Rowbottom, and parliamentary candidates for the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, Peace Party and the Conservative Party. The Green Party, Liberal Democrat and Peace Party candidates all signed a pledge to take action on climate emergency, as well as inviting the public to Vote for the Planet and Climate Action in the forthcoming election.

Mock up newspaper from 29th Decemeber 2029!

Carrie also presented her ‘mock up’ newspaper dated December 29 2029, the headline reading – ‘Horsham District achieve zero emissions by 2030’ (what a dream that would be!). She said: “It is important to sow seeds of change, show people what the district could look like and inspire them to move in that direction and fast” – check out the full press coverage here. Together, we can help move the community towards a zero carbon Horsham District, and make this headline a reality!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling inspired to get involved?

We are always looking for volunteers, so get in touch or come and meet us and see how you can get involved! Join us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or sign up to receive our latest news (it only takes two seconds to add your email address – simply click on black ‘Follow‘ tab on bottom right of this screen!). Feel free to also send us an email using our contact form, or come and say hello at our events like the Horsham Climate Cafe or the Horsham Repair Cefe!

“Inspiring sustainable living in Sussex”