Charlbury Area Waste Action Group

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Up and Coming Events

Last updated 27 July 2010

On Saturday 24 July, together with ChOC and Sustainable Charlbury, CAWAG arranged a local meal before showing the film Food Inc at the Memorial Hall - it was a wonderful meal in contrast to a very thought provoking film. Read all about the evening on the Local Meal & Food Inc page under our Food section. This was our third community meal following on from The Big Lunch in July 2009 and the Spring Feast and Ceilidh held in March 2010.

Our Sharecroppers Gold cider was launched at the 2010 Charlbury Beer Festival and we had some very complimentary comments about it. You can hear a short interview about the cider on the Radio Oxford Joel Hammer's breakfast show (starts at 1hr 46mins) which was broadcast the following Monday morning.  

If you'd like a 10:10 tag made from a recycled jumbo jet (the one that was caught in the volcanic ash cloud) please send us an email or buy one at our stall at Street Fair in September.

ChOC will be showing the film Dirty Oil on Sunday 10 October 2010 which is our local event as part of the 10:10:10 Global Day of Action. The film shows the devastating impact of the exploitation of the Tar Sands for Oil in Alberta, Canada and the impact on the environment and the health of the local indiginous people.

Look out for and avoid palm oil in the food you eat. Palm oil plantations are fast replacing the natural rainforests of Indonesia - this has dire consequences for the Orang-utan and also for climate change.  Following Greenpeace's public campaign, Nestlé has agreed to the demands! and have come up with a comprehensive 'zero deforestation' policy to identify and remove any companies in their supply chain with links to deforestation, including the infamous Sinar Mas Group which is Indonesia's palm oil and paper giant. This plan still needs to be followed up with action, and The Forest Trust - an independent organisation - will be closely monitoring Nestlé's progress.  Nestlé, Kraft and Uniliver have all cut Sinar Mas out of their businesses but Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Pizza Hut are still involved - there's still a lot more to do before the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests is brought to a halt. Greenpeace have also actively campaigned against HSBC who were investing in the Sinar Mas Group but HSBC have now dropped all holdings in Sinar Mas from its global asset management groups.

After the hostile debate in the press about climate change it is now interesting to read in The Times how ExxonMobil gave £1 million to fund “organisations that campaign against controls on greenhouse gas emissions” – including several of those which made the outspoken attacks on climate scientists at the University of East Anglia.

Quite apart from climate change issues, there is no doubt that the world is facing a severe energy and resource crisis. Production of oil has peaked and we don't have an alternative energy supply to support our current lifestyles, let alone the developing western lifestyles of China and India. Back in 2006, the WWF reported on current UK lifestyles requiring the resources of 3 planets. For an amusing but serious view on ever growing economies, have a look at The Impossible Hamster. Look at the Links and External News page for links to interesting newspaper articles.

To quote Mahatma Ghandi "Be the change you want to see in the world.”

The 10:10 campaign was launched in September 2009. The aim of 10:10 is to get all of us, as people and organisations, to sign up to reduce our carbon emissions by 10% in a single year - this year - 2010. Oxford's Chris Goodall has written in the Guardian with ideas of how to reduce your carbon emissions by 10%.  Also check out CO2 What Can I Do? and Smarter Driving pages on this website for a host of great ideas from people in Charlbury.

For links to videos and analysis about the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen please look at the Climate Change pages on this website.

Since 1 February 2010, the Co-op has started collecting dead batteries for recycling - they now have a box on their counter - please tell us if you keep finding it full. Until now, only 3% batteries have been recycled nationally and the government hopes this to increase dramatically now that shops selling batteries are responsible for recycling them. Many thanks to everyone who used our CAWAG battery boxes at the Post Office, the Corner House and the School. Since November 2007, we have disposed of about 10,000 batteries for recycling.

Food makes such a significant contribution to our impact on the environment that we now have a new Food page with recipe suggestions from local people. Apple trees often bear large fruit crops every other year so, unlike 2008, we didn't have enough apples in Charlbury in 2009 to hold any Big Apple Take-Aways - hopefully they will be back in 2010. Charlbury Sharecroppers did, however, distribute apples from a location opposite the school and also at the Bring & Take in October. We also distributed loads of plums, damsons and greengages to people who had registered an interest in receiving them.

It's never too late in the year to start growing your own fruit & veg. This is the best way to reduce your food miles, reduce packaging, eat food in season and also eat healthier! Register with Charlbury Sharecroppers if you have more fruit and veg than you can cope with or would like to help pick fruit and veg that would otherwise go to waste, or if you have some garden space you'd like someone else to grow vegetables on, or if you are looking for somewhere to grow veg. We will help put you in touch with each other.  Robert Longstaff runs short courses about growing vegetables at Longworth just south of Witney.

Contact Lynne at the Good Food Shop (811157) is you have surplus garden produce you'd like to sell.

Use the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Quick Guide we distributed May 2008 for ideas about reducing your impact on the environment. Also check out CO₂ What Can I Do? for our growing list of simple ideas from people of Charlbury - many of which will save you money. Also tips on smarter driving to reduce fuel consumption. For more detail about specific items, use our on-line A-Z and for inspiration watch the "Story of Stuff" and "WakeUp, Freak Out - then Get a Grip". See the Climate Change page for other inspirational short films. Oxford City Council's excellent Oxford is My World guide is also an excellent source of information.

If you hardly ever use your telephone directories and prefer the on-line versions, did you realise you can cancel them? If everyone did this the resources saved would be mind boggling enormous. Cancel your BT Directory (or order one) by phoning Freephone 0800 833 400 Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm. Cancel Yellow Pages (or order one) by phoning Freefone 0800 671 444. Cancel Thomson Local (or order one) by phoning 01252 555 555 Monday – Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm. Please note that old telephone and yellow page directories are all accepted now in the WODC black recycling boxes or the paper skips.

By the way - if you already "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", then how about adding "Reforest" too? A donation of £25 to the Woodland Trust will enable them to plant 25 square metres of woodland in the UK which will capture 1 tonne of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the trees. Also sign up to Prince Charles' campaign to stop the destruction of tropical rainforests which in themselves are so important in protecting the world from further increases in carbon dioxide. The loss of the rainforests will dramatically make climate change worse and HRH The Prince of Wales made a keynote speech on 15 December at the opening ceremony of the High Level part of the UNFCCC Climate Conference in Copenhagen (watch video).

Borrow books from our Bookshare Library which can be borrowed at any time via the website - book of the month for February is Paul Roberts' excellent analysis of the energy crisis The End of Oil. New books are being acquired all the time, usually from Evenlode Books in Charlbury. Jon gives a good discount and delivery is usually the next day. So think twice before you order a book from other sellers on the web, buying from a local shop can be cheaper than the web, it benefits the local economy, you don't have to be in for delivery and you haven't caused so much cardboard packaging to be used. 

Buy one of the last few CAWAG jute shopping bags for £2, these are now only available at CAWAG events and all proceeds go to the school's Eco Project. You might also like to buy some of the CAWAG stainless steel insulated mugs illustrated with Charlbury Railway station, these cost £4 each.

Make an appointment to borrow the Low-Energy Lightbulb Library to find lightbulbs to suit all your light fittings or to borrow the wattage meter to find out how much energy various electrical appliances around your house actually use.

Click on the event below for more details: