Green future begins at home
Hot on the heels of St Patrick's Day, this week we examine two interesting green initiatives happening in Christchurch this month. One is Earth Hour - started in Australia and now gaining traction in New Zealand thanks to support from The Press. The other is a much more local effort, with Phillipstown couple Waveney Warth and Matthew Luxon aiming to reduce their rubbish to just one Christchurch City Council rubbish bag for the entire year. Yes, you read right, one.
There are plenty of things your household can do to reduce, recycle and reuse - simple things that do not take a great deal of time or effort. Christchurch City Libraries has a suite of sustainability pages, with heaps of useful information for those setting out to a sustainable future.
Reduce, recycle, re-use and re-home are the four cornerstone principles of Waveney Warth and Matthew Luxon's unusual challenge - using just one Christchurch City Council bag for the entire year. We meet the couple and find out what difference not going to the supermarket, using local retailers, and changing the way they cook has made to their lives so far.
 Earth Hour
Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming. This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Christchurch and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.
Did you know...
764kg of rubbish is generated by every person living in Christchurch each year. More than 50% of this could have been recycled or composted. New Zealanders use over 22 million plastic bags each week. Each one of these that ends up in a landfill is estimated to take 500 years to break down. Carbon emissions from the breakdown of paper, cardboard and organic matter in the landfill amounts to the emissions generated from 33,000 cars each year. The Christchurch City Council website has plenty of practical advice on reducing rubbish and recycling and composting for households, as well as Target Sustainability information for businesses.
Source: Christchurch City Council.
Photos of your favourite place can win you prizes
Young people aged 13 to 18 can win some fantastic prizes in the pulse digital photo competition. There’s two vodafone cellphones with $500 credit and three Telecom cellphones with $50 credit up for grabs – plus airtime vouchers as consolation prizes. Just send us a photo of your favourite place – where you went on holiday, a park, a beach – and go in the draw to win. It’s that easy!
Visit the pulse flickr to get ideas.
We recommend: Sustainability resources
Our online resources:
Our Internet Gateway recommends:
- Garden-NZ - Comprehensive gardening web site for New Zealanders.
- Best Gardening - Vegetables - Information for New Zealand gardeners from Best Gardening.com.
- Koanga Gardens - Source of seeds and plants from Koanga Gardens Trust which has been involved in the collecting, saving and distribution of many of New Zealand’s Heritage vegetable seeds and fruit trees. Also has information about heritage poultry.
- Seed Savers Aotearoa New Zealand - An organisation that facilitates the sharing of information and resources between regional seed saving groups.
- FAQs About Organic Food - Answers to common questions about organic food from Bio-Gro New Zealand.
 Organic Pathways - Gateway site to organics in New Zealand. News, gardening and shopping information, recipes, online shopping. - Energy Efficiency Show Home
A 40-year old house purchased by the Christchurch City Council to show what can be done economically to improve the space heating of a typical house of that age.
- ECAN Energy
From Environment Canterbury: includes information about the Clean Heat Project.
- Community Energy Action
A charitable trust that assists low income households in Christchurch to make their homes warmer, drier and more energy efficient. Site includes an excellent page weighing the pros and cons of various forms of heating and looking at the running costs of a range of appliances.
- Home Energy Check
- Sustainable Households
- Switch it off
Power saving tips for home, business and farms from Meridian Energy.
Browse the resources in our libraries:
We recommend: Online resources
Our online resources: What’s new on the blog
The Christchurch City Libraries blog is written for people who love books, movies and music and want to know about the latest developments and trends in the book world. Regularly updated and constantly fresh, the blog has plenty to offer avid readers and music fans. Recent posts include:
What’s new on the library website?
Suggest a theme:
We want your feedback on our editions - feel free to suggest a theme that you think other library users would find useful.
Next week: New look for library's teen website
Te Auaha / The Pulse has a new home and a new look. Next week we'll take a look at the new site and some of the great content it has for 13- to 18-year-olds. |
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Waveney and Matt's rubbish-free year