The Moseley Swap Shop

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

At The Moseley Swap Shop

Have u got anything you don't want? Or do you just fancy some new stuff for FREE? Then the Moseley Swap Shop is the place for you! Brought to Moseley by FOEcycle and REUSED. Don't miss first Swap Shop February the 27^th, at the Prince of Wales. It'll open at 12pm and finish around 5pm and will be appearing at The Prince of Wales every 4^th Saturday of the month!

Come along maybe after a visit to the Moseley Farmers Market, pop in to The Prince of Wales to get out of the cold and there you will find books, clothes, kitchen stuff, DVDs, Computer games, Ornaments, and anything you bring along to add! All for FREE This stall is entirely dependant on you getting involved, so come down and participate! Based on the online yahoo group Freecycle (now Freegle). www.IloveFreegle.org which allows you to place ads to get rid of things you don't need and respond to ads to get things you do, without money getting involved, well worth a look. The Moseley Swap Shop is your local alternative!

We all know about the 3R's, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, this is a great way to achieve all 3 of them on a Saturday afternoon in the pub and leave with some nice stuff! The stall will also be taking donations for Birmingham Friends Of The Earth and have promotional information available about the activities of BFOE in Birmingham, and other information about what Green alternative stuff is going on in Birmingham and how you can get involved if you're interested.

So don't miss out on the 27th of Feb because you won't be disappointed!

If you have any inquires please email me at fisher_woman@live.co.uk

Renewable Gas ?

We have tended to bracket gas, along with coal and oil, as the problem – “non renewable fossil fuels”. But natural gas is methane, a product of the decomposition of organic matter. It is a pollutant and a greenhouse gas when it leaks out of sewerage works and council landfill sites, but potentially it is a fuel. Can we turn this problem methane – which is currently an argument for incinerating waste - into a low carbon energy source?

National Grid has recently produced a study, which says that a substantial part of North Sea gas production could be replaced by controlled bio-digestion of wastes; domestic, commercial and agricultural. Dry gasification by heating in the absence of air may be useful for solids like timber. The gas could be injected into the existing gas grid. Half our domestic heating needs could be met in this way, says the report. It would all be recent solar energy, fixed by plants, potentially both low carbon and renewable. Anything that was once alive can be gasified, potentially. The only drawback is that all this carbon would go straight to the air and have no chance to be locked in the soil (as with composting).

Gas can be piped, stored, even compressed. All the systems to distribute and use it are already in our buildings. Most of the housing of the future is already built and what we see around us. We must insulate and use solar hot water, but will still need a store of winter heat. Renewable gas is well suited to this role. We can even make electricity with it, using combined heat and power boilers or fuel cells, which are starting to be available at domestic scale.

We usually think of renewable energy in terms of sun, wave and wind generated electricity, but most of our energy requirement is actually for space heating. Perhaps environmentalists need to talk more to the gas industry.
John Newson
See more at http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Media+Centre/PressReleases/02.02.09.htm

Lets hope its wind that gets the turbine moving and not hot air! - by Mary Horesh

I would like to congratulate Tesco for taking the first step to reduce their carbon footprint and install a wind turbine at the New Oscott superstore. An unusual step for a Local Shops campaigner! But I really do wonder if this is green washing at work or a real move to tackle climate change.

I would be interested in how much the other Tesco sites turbines actually contribute to the stores electricity? In an article I read in the Sutton Observer (21st October) the turbine is able to power 4 houses for a year, but no comparison was given for the contribution to the supermarket. I was unable to find any information in the documents provided. I wonder if that figure would be so impressive and would really illustrate how power hungry supermarkets really are.

On Tesco’s website they make some interesting claims like aiming to halve energy use by 2008- only got a few weeks to do it, and “Our UK stores use 50% less energy than they did in 2000”, which makes the cynic in me question, if its that easy to cut back, then they must be a very wasteful corporation.

However, putting my positive head on, I hope that installing the wind turbine is the first of many measures to reduce their carbon footprint at New Oscott site and that this is not just a very visible “token” to sustainability. I would hope that as condition of their application going through, that the store has to take further initiatives- visible and less visible.

There are many simple measures Tesco and supermarkets can do to improve their footprint such as more efficient lighting, by using more efficient bulbs, use of sun pipes which reduce the need for electric lights. Also open fridges are a huge waste of electricity, so installing ones with doors and covers would reduce it.. There are other major projects like CHP, bio-digesters and other initiatives that could be considered.

We need to make these companies that are “green-washing” their companies to stand up and really show what they are made of. See if the green is just skin deep!

So I would like to see as a condition of this application for a wind turbine that Tesco will do initiatives that have an overall approach at the site, starting on the inside and working out.