Boiler Infographic 2010 for the UK

A better way to build houses – A great letter to the Guardian

It’s depressing that Tristram Hunt’s critique of the government’s approach to housing (Comment, 17 December) rings so true, but this should not obscure the opportunity we now have to think afresh about how to meet the nation’s housing needs, while making better use of our scarce land resources.

Strong land-use planning controls which restrict greenfield development and reinforce green-belt protection should underpin future housing. We need to build on the earlier emphasis on urban renewal and understand better the long-term costs of urban sprawl – not least in terms of carbon emissions.

There remain vast areas of brownfield or previously developed land across the country, enough to provide more than 1m new homes and presenting a huge opportunity for environmental improvement. Read more…

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Conservative government says they would bring back weekly bin collections and promote recycling without penalising people

Labour has presided over the slow death of the weekly rubbish collection. Ministers and their quangos have successfully bullied 225 councils across the country into adopting fortnightly collections, with 20 million people in England alone now deprived of a basic weekly service. There is even serious talk by the government’s bin quango, WRAP, of a move to monthly collections.

What has become clear is that after more than a decade of Labour rule the voice of the people is being disregarded. Research by Ipsos-MORI has found that 73% of the public who currently have a weekly collection oppose the introduction of fortnightly rubbish collections, and only 14% support fortnightly collections. Yet the government still presses ahead with culling this vital service, without any proper debate.

To add insult to injury these cutbacks have been against a backdrop of council taxes more than doubling in the last decade. So you pay more and get less under Gordon Brown. Labour ministers claim that this is a matter for “local discretion”, yet Whitehall guidance recommends that the bins are emptied fortnightly, and councils are financially penalised if they keep weekly collections. The government’s own waste prevention strategy explicitly advocates cutting the scope and frequency of bin collections. Read more…

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Green power from household waste

Household rubbish should be used to produce green power rather than being sent for recycling, according to energy experts.

home waste recycling by 2013?

At a briefing today to launch a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on dealing with waste, the authors said that converting waste could provide up to a fifth of the UK’s electricity needs in future and help the country meet its renewable energy targets.

But environmentalists have voiced concerns over the report, insisting that recycling rubbish is still the better option in terms of tackling climate change.

The UK produces more than 300m tonnes of waste every year, enough to fill the Albert Hall every two hours. Most of this is buried in landfill, though new EU legislation will require a 50% cut in the practice by 2013. Read more…

For more eco news check out GoEcoGo.

The Building Green Top 10 Products 2008

BuildingGreen, LLC, publisher of Environmental Building News (EBN) and the GreenSpec Directory, announced its seventh annual Top-10 Green Building Products during the 2008 Greenbuild Expo in Boston.

GoEcoGo - Green News and lifestyles

Integrity Block is a compacted-earth block used as a cost-competitive replacement for concrete masonry units. The blocks contain up to 60% pre-consumer recycled content and about half as much Portland cement as standard concrete blocks do. They take 40% less energy to produce. For more information, see www.integrityblock.com.

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