Stapleford environment news from the 2G3S group

Nature Walk

The next walk, led by John O’Boyle, is on Saturday 17 June, meeting at 2pm on Mingle Lane in Stapleford at the path down to the Cemetery. There is land at the back of the cemetery that has been planted as a wildflower meadow, so come along and see the flowers and insects that can now be found there. See biodiversity in action! Wear suitable footwear and clothing, and walks are at attendees’ own risk.

Cycle ride

Next one is Monday 19 June. Join us for a leisurely ride on quiet roads and traffic-free paths of around 20 miles, to include a coffee stop. Start at 10am at Stapleford Pavilion, returning by about 1pm. Booking essential, at greener@sawston.org.

Dr Bike

The bike repair sessions are continuing on Tuesday afternoons, between 3pm and 6pm in the Slaughterhouse in Stapleford. They are always in need of volunteers to help out, to keep the sessions going on through the summer.

Great Shelford Repair Café

Our next Repair Cafe is at the Great Shelford Rugby Club on the afternoon of Saturday 15 July. We hope to combine this with a clothes swap or jumble sale to expand on the idea of making the most of what we already have, and reducing our impact at the same time. The event is listed on the Cambridge Carbon Footprint events web pages where you can also find details of other local repair cafes. There will be a link for booking in items for repair on the CCF site. Remember: Reduce, Repair, Reuse, or Recycle if all else fails.

What we can do

Hopefully you are adopting wildlife-friendly gardening in some way, eg by following No Mow May, feeding birds, growing nectar-rich plants. Get more ideas from the South Cambs Organic Gardeners Club (find on Facebook, or more details on our website). Don’t forget, if you saw flowers and insects on your unmown lawn, do send in pictures to our email address.

Many residents will have received a letter from James Littlewood, the CEO of Cambridge PPF, about the busway. Do consider helping the campaign if you can, more info at bw4b.org. And people living in Great Shelford and Stapleford have had the opportunity to give their views on the Neighbourhood Plan proposals. It’s important to use your voice when you can, don’t just think you can’t influence decisions and policies.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead, anthropologist.

And a heads-up for Plastic Free July. More information on their website, but for example you can pledge to avoid single-use plastic, or focus on takeaway items, and can pledge for a day, a week, a month – whatever you feel you can commit to.

Water. Now you’re watering the plant pots, think where the water is coming from. If you haven’t got a water butt, see if you can install one (or more) in the garden – even a shed roof soon fills up a butt when it rains. Use your washing-up water on any plants except vegs (soapy lettuce anyone?). Group pots together to reduce evaporation.

More generally, after a couple of dry winters (yes, even this last one) and last summer’s heat and drought, our aquifer levels are starting this summer in a depleted state. The pressure on our water supply is increased with house building, and it’s really important for our chalk streams, our wildlife, and our farmers that we don’t waste precious water. The water companies have a big job to do to stop leaks (never mind cleaning up the effluent, but that’s another story), and we need to do our bit too. Fix dripping taps, don’t flush the loo every time, keep a jug of water in the fridge so you have cold water ready when you want it and don’t have to run the tap for a drink, collect and use the water that you run while waiting for the hot tap to come hot, etc. And outside, don’t hose the garden if you can possibly avoid it, your parched grass will recover, and when replanting an area put in plants that like dry conditions.

If you are interested in green matters and the environment at all levels (individual, local, national, international), send an email to greengroupssss@gmail.com to sign up for our quarterly newsletter, or to get more information about our meetings. We are a friendly group and welcome anyone who wants to come along to one of our events or to find out more about how we can live more sustainably. Also see our Facebook page and our website (type 2G3S into Google and you will find us).

Helen Hale Posted May 16 2023

Stapleford environment news

2G3S update

Nature Walk

The next walk date is Saturday 20 May, meeting at 2pm at Little Shelford Community Orchard and Woodland. Come and see nature on your doorstep with John O’Boyle who is very knowledgeable about plants and wildlife. Wear suitable footwear and clothing, and walks are at attendees’ own risk.

Cycle ride

Next one is Monday 15 May. Join us for a leisurely ride on quiet roads and traffic-free paths of around 20 miles, to include a coffee stop. Start at 10am at Stapleford Pavilion, returning by about 1pm. Booking essential, at greener@sawston.org.

Book club reminder

Our next book club meeting is in the Rose at 8pm, on Thursday 25 May, discussing ‘Forget Me Not’ by Sophie Pavelle.

South Cambridgeshire Organic Gardeners

This is a new club set up by Helen Harwood and we are really pleased it has started. The first few meetings have been at Cox’s Close community room in Stapleford, and the next one is at 7pm on Monday 15 May. After that it is hoped to meet at Helen’s allotment or at other people’s gardens. The sessions will be very informal and friendly, and will include advice and ideas, and swapping seeds and cuttings. All are very welcome to come along, whether beginners at gardening, or old hands needing some ideas for gardening in a more organic and wildlife-friendly way.

Dr Bike

The bike repair sessions are now on Tuesday afternoons, not Thursdays as before, and between 3pm and 5.30pm in the Slaughterhouse in Stapleford. They are always in need of volunteers to help out, to keep the sessions going on through the summer.

No Mow May

A pristine lawn is a pretty sterile environment. As discussed last month, consider giving the lawn mower a rest to allow wildflowers to develop during May, then maybe even let it 'bloom in June'. You may be surprised at the number of nectar-producing plants that appear, to the benefit of bees which are important pollinators for our food plants. The Plantlife charity initiated the scheme and their web site gives more details, including the improvements to biodiversity. Note it's important to remove the cuttings after the flowering season so a thatch does not build up to suppress more delicate plants. To make the area look tidy, you can keep a neat edge around the site by conventional mowing. Look up No Mow May on the internet, or to find out biodiversity gains in detail look at the Plantlife site.

Send in your photos of the wildflowers or insects that you see to our email address, and we can put them on our website or in the village magazines.

Biodiversity

You may wonder why people talk about wildlife-friendly gardening. The area of gardens in the UK is much larger than the area covered by nature reserves, so what we do in our gardens has a big impact on nature and biodiversity. If you liberally use weedkillers and pesticides these will go into the soil and seep into the ground water. Use low-key treatments that won’t have an impact on other species, or dig weeds out. Allow untidy corners where rotting wood can harbour beneficial insects, and build bug hotels from bamboo, dead leaves, corks, and so on. Grow flowers that pollinators love. Come along to the organic gardening group (see above) if you need advice.

More widely, you may wonder why people say biodiversity is so important, as important as climate change. You may think it’s irrelevant to you that a few species of insects in South America go extinct. But so many species have been lost or are endangered that the effects can’t be ignored. As David Attenborough has said in his excellent series ‘Wild Isles’, 97% of hay meadows in the UK have been lost in the last 60 years (mainly due to intensive farming); 60% of Britain’s flying insects have vanished in the last 20 years. These losses upset the balance of the ecosystem: food webs become broken, eg if there are no caterpillars of the type that a particular migratory bird eats, or they appear so early due to global warming that the bird may not yet have arrived back in the UK to breed and have young, then there will be a steep decline in the number of that species of bird. If nature becomes too fragmented due to loss of habitat then the different parts of the system can’t work together, as the parts are all interconnected, like the different parts of a car – the whole is much more than the sum of its parts, and each species is part of the whole system. The illustration shows the balance of the whole system very well. A balanced ecosystem with a variety of habitats and a large number of different species is more resilient to the impacts of climate change and will soak up carbon, and can help to mitigate the effects of temperature rises. The greater the diversity, the more secure all life on Earth is, including us. We need to look at ‘nature-based solutions’ to solve our problems, not assume the Earth belongs to us to do with it what we will.

Helen Hale

Posted April 6 2023

Stapleford environment news from 2G3S

Events coming up

Dr Bike volunteers continue to mend cycles at the Slaughterhouse in Stapleford every Tuesday afternoon, 3pm to 5.30pm.

Social cycle ride

Monday 17 April. Join us for a leisurely ride on quiet roads and traffic-free paths of around 20 miles, to include a coffee stop. Start at 10am at Stapleford Pavilion, returning by about 1pm. Next date 15 May. Booking essential, at greener@sawston.org.

Nature Walk

Saturday 22 April. Join John O’Boyle for an informal nature walk along Jenny’s path towards Hauxton, meeting at 2pm by the signposted entrance gate on Church Street, Great Shelford, opposite the junction with King’s Mill Lane. We hope you can get to the walk by foot or by cycle as nearby car parking is restricted. Wear suitable footwear and clothing, and walks are at attendees’ own risk. Next walk date is 20 May, at Little Shelford Community Orchard and Woodland. Come and see the nature on your doorstep!

Repair Café

Also on Saturday 22 April, 2pm to 4.30pm. Whittlesford is holding a repair café at United Reformed Church, Duxford Road, Whittlesford, CB22 4ND. Bring along your broken item and a skilled volunteer will help you fix it. They can tackle a wide variety of repairs, typically including clothes and fabrics, electrical items, jewellery and other items. They may be able to accept some items on the day, but please note that for electrical repairs in particular you need to book in advance. (Please note that they will not be able to replace cracked screens on phones or tablets). Details of the event and how to book an item for repair will be issued on the Cambridge Carbon Footprint website, and on the 2G3S website. Not only will you save the cost of a new item, you will be reducing the mountains of landfill we create every year.

Book Club

Our next book club meeting is in the Rose at 8pm, on Thursday 25 May, discussing ‘Forget Me Not’ by Sophie Pavelle. Come along if you are interested, or read the book independently if you prefer. It is an amusing account of her journey round the UK, travelling by an assortment of low-carbon transport options, to search out animals threatened by climate change.

How to reach a nature-friendly future with Philip Lymbery

If you are interested in the future of farming and food that is sustainable, the subject of the book by George Monbiot’s book Regenesis which the 2G3S book club discussed in February, you may be interested in this event. It will be on Wednesday 26 April from 7.30pm to 8.45pm at Jesus College. It will be a hybrid event, and you can find out more and book on eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-reach-a-nature-friendly-future-with-philip-lymbery-tickets-525770572937. Philip Lymbery is the Global CEO of farm animal welfare charity, Compassion in World Farming International, also Visiting Professor at the University of Winchester’s Centre for Animal Welfare, President of Eurogroup for Animals, Brussels, and founding Board member of the World Federation for Animals.

The Big One

When asked about Extinction Rebellion (XR), many people have said they support the cause but did not agree with disrupting ‘ordinary people’s lives’. You may have heard that XR has now decided to change tactics away from disruptive protests and towards a peaceful and community building approach. XR is inviting individuals and organisations of all kinds throughout the UK, to join them in a peaceful mass protest in Westminster in London between 21 and 24 April, to put pressure on the government to do more to address the climate emergency. We can’t solve the climate crisis by just individual action, the Government needs to step up and make green changes happen in all walks of life. If you feel you should do your bit, find out more at extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/. 2G3S members will be going so do get in touch if you are interested.

No Mow May and Bloomin’ June

If you have a lawn and wish to help our wildlife this Summer, consider giving the lawn mower a rest to allow wildflowers to develop during May, then let it 'bloom in June'. You may be surprised at the number of nectar-producing plants that appear, such as orchids, to the benefit of bees which are important pollinators for our food plants. The Plantlife charity initiated the 'No Mow May' scheme and their web site gives more details, including the improvements to biodiversity. Note it's important to remove the cuttings after the flowering season so a thatch does not build up to suppress more delicate plants. Also to make the area look tidy, keep a neat edge around the site by conventional mowing, or maybe mow a path through? Look up No Mow May on the internet, or to find out biodiversity gains in detail look at plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/no-mow-may-how-to-get-ten-times-more-bees-on-your-lockdown-lawn. Send in to our email address any photos of the wildflowers and butterflies you see, and we can put them on our website.

Helen Hale

Posted March 9 2023

2G3S Nature Walks

Our Nature Walks are held on the 3rd or 4th Saturday of the month and start at 2 p.m. Walks are intended to raise awareness of local wildlife sites and associated fauna and flora. Participants are welcome to share their knowledge. All walks are at attendees own risk.

Here is a list of the walks planned for 2023:

Dernford Reservoir – 18 March
Jenny’s Path Great Shelford – 22 April
Little Shelford Community Orchard and Woodland – May 20
Stapleford graveyard meadow – 17 June
Nine Wells – 22 July
Bury Farm Track – 19 August
Wandlebury – 16 September
Wale Recreation ground and woodland – 21 October

Please remember that dates and details may change, so we advise participants to check the 2G3S web site beforehand.

Nature walk at Dernford Reservoir - 18th March 2023

Join me for an informal local nature walk around Dernford Reservoir on Saturday 18th March between 2-4 pm. The reservoir area has public access following amelioration of the former gravel quarry. There is a meadow flora around the reservoir and some interesting bird life.

Meet at 2 p.m. at the car park next to the reservoir off Cambridge Road just south of the village (Map reference TL471511). As you come out of Stapleford on the Cambridge Road you will see the Rose pub restaurant on the left. Continue over the road bridge and take the first right up the former quarry service road. Continue for 250m and the small car park is on the right.

Sturdy footwear is advised and appropriate attire for the weather conditions. Binoculars would be useful. Note these walks are intended to raise awareness of our local wildlife sites and share knowledge of the local fauna and flora, though you attend at your own risk.

John O'Boyle

Posted Feb 16 2023

Stapleford environment update - February 2023

Dr Bike ‘Making your bike better’ is run by volunteers at the Slaughterhouse in Church Street, Stapleford, and will now run through until at least Easter.

In our first sessions, until just before Christmas, we fixed numerous bikes, some only needing minor adjustments to get them into fine fettle, but common faults have been worn or corroded brake or gear cables, or just lack of lubrication. We can show you the required 22-point check, for your or your children’s bikes, and usually fix any issues. That knowledge should help you in the future. We’ve now even a supply of minor parts that are often all that is needed to make your bike better.

We’ve a band of experienced but amateur bike fixers, but also need more helpers to build up a team so we can run into the summer. For each session we need one experienced person capable of understanding and fixing those difficult-to find-issues, but we also need volunteers for the majority of minor fixes or adjustments - all that is needed is a little DIY skill, the right tool (which we have), those few spares, and our printed check sheet. If you’ve those sorts of DIY mechanic skills and can spare a Thursday afternoon just once each month, we need you.

For those of you with a bike that isn’t quite right, or a child’s bike that has seen better days, please bring them along and we’ll do our best to make them better. All we ask is that you follow our 22-point check, to help see how best you can maintain your bike, and that if adjustments or minor repairs are needed that you leave us a donation to help maintain our stock of minor parts and consumables.

We want to continue to run this service for those who live in our local villages, but this needs both customers, and volunteer helpers, to ensure better bikes for all in our villages.

This scheme is supported by 2G3S (Green Groups in Stapleford, Shelford & Sawston), as well as the local Repair Café organisation. We can be contacted via drbikestapleford@gmail.com.

Dates coming up

Repair Café at Great Shelford Free Church, on Saturday 11 February, 2pm to 4.30pm. We are grateful to the church for providing the venue for our event. Bring along your broken item and a skilled volunteer will help you fix it! We can tackle a wide variety of repairs including clothes and fabrics, electrical items, jewellery and other items. We may be able to accept some items on the day, but please note that for electrical repairs in particular, it is better to book in advance. (Please note that we will not be able to replace cracked screens on phones or tablets).

You will be able to book your item in via the booking link on the Cambridge Carbon Footprint web page

cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/events/great-shelford-repair-cafe-3/. Bookings will remain open until Tuesday 7th February, but may close earlier if we become fully booked. If you have any questions, please email southcambsrepaircafe@gmail.com. It's a free event but donations are very welcome. The repairers are brilliant and can fix a lot of things but there are no guarantees. Tea and cake will be available of course!

Planning meeting is on Monday 20 February at Cox’s Close in Stapleford, 8pm.

Book Club – our next meeting is on Thursday 23 February at 7.30pm, at the Rose pub in Stapleford. The book is George Monbiot’s ‘Regenesis: Feed the World Without Devouring the Planet’. You may have seen him at the recent Cambridge Literary Festival. Come along and listen to the discussion even if you don’t read the book, or read the book even if you don’t come to the meeting.

Helen Hale 2G3S

Posted Jan 18 2023

Stapleford environment update

Happy New Year, and let’s hope in 2023 the world makes some progress over control of global temperatures, climate justice for developing nations, and the decline of nature, despite a rather disappointing Cop27. Have you made any resolutions to “go greener”? For some tips, see takethejump.org/. To paraphrase:

Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste (contact COFCO for veg boxes, reduce packaging by using Green Weigh and local greengrocers)
Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year
Keep electrical products for at least seven years (and repair/recycle the old ones at a Repair Café)
Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years
Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not keep hold of your existing vehicle for longer (use the bus, share lifts, hire a car if you only need occasional use)
Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to a green energy, insulating your home, or changing pension supplier

In past columns and in our newsletters we have suggested all sorts of ways to reduce your own impact on the environment (reduce your carbon footprint). See our website for these suggestions. Even taking a small step will help.

Dr Bike, our bike repair shed in the Stapleford Slaughterhouse, was very busy before Xmas, and I hope if you’ve visited you have been enjoying riding your revamped bike. Do think if you can offer occasional help, to enable the repair sessions to continue.

Re-imagining Our Future… Together, Sunday 15 January, 3pm to 6pm. We have been liaising with Haslingfield and Harlton Eco Group and Eco Whittlesford to organise a family-friendly event aimed at bringing together people from neighbouring villages. The purpose of the event is to bring our communities together to help inspire each other, learn from what we are all doing and explore opportunities for synergy. We are aiming for it to be a fun afternoon with films; an 'imaginarium' arts/craft exercise based on the work of Rob Hopkins; games for kids; and a Veganuary-inspired Feast. There will be displays from groups around Cambridge. The event is at Whittlesford Memorial Hall, free tickets via Eventbrite on our Facebook page, or see the poster elsewhere in the magazine.

If you haven't heard of an 'Imaginarium' before, Rob Hopkins gave an excellent talk last year to Transition Cambridge on the importance of working towards a better future, by first imagining what it should look like. Here is the link: youtube.com/watch?v=0LP51zazIto. Rob has been very involved in the Transition Town movement, and you may have heard of the scheme in Totnes which has a local “Totnes Pound” to help local money be spent locally. He has a positive view of what people can do when they get together and think and imagine what kind of world they want to live in, which starts the thinking of how to get there – things don’t have to be the same old same old just because they’ve always been done that way. If people have the time and space to let their imaginations start, and see examples of what can be done, then things can begin – our Bike Shed is a start!

Helen Hale

Posted Dec 5 2022

Stapleford Slaughterhouse: A volunteer-run bike repair shed

A small group of volunteers is using the Old Slaughterhouse, next to the Three Horseshoes pub in Church Street, as a community bike repair shed.

We will do, for free, ‘Dr Bike’ type safety checks, together with adjustments and minor repairs for a donation. This is an initiative by members of 2G3S, with support from local Cycling UK members and the local Repair Café organisation. Stapleford Parish Council have kindly allowed the use of their Grade 2 listed building for this purpose. In the first instance sessions will run every Thursday between 3pm and 6pm until 15 December.

We expect to continue in the New Year, but it will depend on demand and volunteers. Drag that bike out of your shed or garage, bring it to us, and hopefully we can show you how we make it easier and safer to ride. Whether you ride regularly or irregularly, we will try to improve your bike with our simple checks and service. We cannot do major work, but normally it is only a series of simple things that are needed to make a bike serviceable and easier to ride.

For those with a little skill we can easily show you how to do those important basic ‘Dr Bike’ checks, with help from those with decades of fiddling with cycles. Please do bring your bike along, and at the least we can pump up your tyres, adjust your brakes, and do a little lubrication, making your bike easier and more pleasant to ride (we don’t have the skills to deal with hydraulic brake or electric bike issues). You will also get an opportunity to see inside this historic little local building.

To contact us, email drbikestapleford@gmail.com or fill in the form at https://tinyurl.com/2yx7kyzw or just come and pay us a visit when we are open. With a little more volunteer help, even just once each month, we hope to extend our service in the New Year.

Posted Nov 18 2022

Re-imagining Our Future… Together, Sunday 15 January, 3pm to 6pm

We have been liaising with Haslingfield and Harlton Eco Group and Eco Whittlesford to organise a family-friendly event aimed at bringing together people from neighbouring villages. The purpose of the event is to bring our communities together to help inspire each other, learn from what we are all doing and explore opportunities for synergy. We are aiming it to be a fun afternoon with films; an 'imaginarium' arts/craft exercise based on the work of Rob Hopkins; games for kids; and a Veganuary-inspired Feast.

At Whittlesford Memorial Hall, free tickets via Eventbrite on our 2G3SFacebook page soon.

Posted Nov 18

2G3S update October 2022

What we’ve been up to

The talk on 5 September, ‘Heat Pumps Explained’ by Warren Pope, from Peterborough Environment City Trust, gave a wealth of information and links to companies supplying equipment. For a full set of his slides see our website. Basically, he stressed that if you decide to go for a heat pump, use a MCS certified installer, and ensure their proposals meet the design spec MIS 3005 – that is a guarantee that their proposals will keep you warm and work well. He gave us details about costs, longevity, and space needed outside and inside the house for equipment. He suggested alternative low energy heating solutions, such as Warmstone, Laminaheat, and infrared heaters. He also discussed hybrid systems, such as a heat pump, topped up with another energy source for very cold weather. He advised that as the cost of electricity was high and very volatile at present it may be best to wait awhile before installing a pump system, but that in the meantime it makes sense to insulate your home (borrow an infrared camera from Cambridge Carbon Footprint to check where the cold spots are in your house) and to install solar PV if you can. That way you will save money on your energy bills and save carbon emissions, whatever energy source you use. Then if the electricity prices settle you can decide about a heat pump.

The Repair Café on 10 September, as part of Great Shelford Free Church’s Eco Festival, was very busy. Why don’t you bring along your broken electricals, household items, jewellery, pieces of clothing, etc to the next Café, and get a repair done for the price of a small donation rather than having to buy new? Future Repair Café dates are listed below, also details of how to book a repair slot. Plus there’s coffee and cake while you wait!

Future Events

Monday 3 October - our conversation evening will complement the one on heat pumps, and is called ‘Low-Cost Energy Saving Measures’ by Bart Hommels, who has retrofitted his own home and featured in Cambridge’s Open Eco Homes. 8pm at Cox's Close Community Room in Stapleford, just off Church Street (or people can log in via Zoom)

Read what Bart says in the latest 2G3S newsletter:

“My retrofit journey started when I got a home energy display. It made me acutely aware of our energy consumption and I was mesmerised by the stream of numbers. The game of bringing these down quickly caught on! It led to fitting solar panels a year later, another device producing many numbers to look at. When the opportunity arose to extend our 1940s semi, I wanted this to be the starting point of a whole-house upgrade instead of increasing energy consumption. Little did I know this would take many years to complete!

I managed the build and chipped in with specific eco jobs, doing a lot of homework to better

understand low-energy retrofitting practices. The result is almost complete, and I want to share my experience with you because, besides the lower fuel bills, I am over the moon with the transformation in comfort. In winter, we used to huddle in the living room and have blankets within reach, and in summer we would swelter. Now, the whole house is at an even temperature throughout the year: warm in winter and cool in summer, at a fraction of the carbon footprint.

With my talk I hope to enthuse, motivate and empower you to start retrofitting your home and begin enjoying the benefits!”

Saturday 15 October - the nature walk with John O’Boyle is at Dernford lake, from 2pm to 4pm. See our website for more details. For all our walks, sturdy footwear and appropriate outdoor wear are advised. These walks are intended to raise awareness of our local wildlife sites and are open to all.

Monday 17 October - social cycle ride starting from Stapleford Pavilion at 10 am. Join us for a leisurely ride on quiet roads and traffic-free paths of around 20 miles, to include a coffee stop. Returning to Stapleford by about 1pm. To book in email greener@sawston.org.

For cycle rides and walks, it is important that you are aware that you attend at your own risk. We do not accept responsibility for any accidents or mishaps that might arise during the activity.

Future Repair Cafes: St Ives 8 October; Chesterton 15 October; Cambridge city centre 29 October; Fulbourn 12 November. For more details and to book in repairs, go to cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/repair-cafes/ and click through.

Wednesday 2 November – 2G3S planning meeting for 2023 talks and activities. Please bring along your suggestions.

Other News

You will recall the climate conference Cop26 hosted in Glasgow last November – lots of fine words but not much action. Instead of insulating homes and speeding up renewables our government seems hellbent on increasing oil exploration, which will not provide any more energy for about 30 years and will increase climate change. The next climate Cop, number 27, is in Egypt this year. Developed countries need to commit more to helping less-developed countries deal with the floods, droughts, and other climate disasters that they suffer - we have all been moved by the plight of people in Pakistan who have lost everything, again. Around the same time there is Cop15 for biodiversity, where it is hoped that all countries will sign up to measures to reverse the loss of species eg to protect 30% of the landscape by 2030. As with mitigating climate change, developing countries will need support from the richer countries to enable improvements to be made.

If you are interested in green matters and the environment at all levels (individual, local, national, international), send an email to greengroupssss@gmail.com to sign up for our newsletter, or to get more information about our meetings. We are a friendly group and welcome anyone who wants to come along. Also see our Facebook page and our website (type 2G3S into Google and you will find us).

Helen Hale

Posted Sept 28

Stapleford environmental news from the 2G3S group

2G3S update

What we’ve been up to

At the first Repair Café in Whittlesford, which was lively and very popular, we had an information stall and met up with their green group, Eco Whittlesford. We look forward to working with them in the future.

We held another Fruit and Veg Swap at the end of August. Looking at the apple crops round here this year, we should have been holding an Apple Fair!

The Book Club met in August, discussing ‘A Bigger Picture’ by Vanessa Nakate, bringing an African viewpoint to the climate crisis. Last time people read ‘Doughnut Economics’ by Kate Raworth – a thought-provoking book, advocating a new kind of economics that doesn’t just think of growth and GDP. It needs to value human wellbeing and fairness and we need to live within the planet’s means.

Future events

Monday 5 September ‘Heat Pumps Explained’ by Warren Pope, from Peterborough Environment City Trust. Johnson Hall, Stapleford, at 8pm, or by Zoom.

Repair Café at Gt Shelford Free Church’s Eco Festival, Saturday 10 September, 10am to 2pm. To book items in for repair and find out more see our website.

Our next Nature Walk, led by the very knowledgeable John O’Boyle, will be on Saturday 17 September at the Wale Field in Little Shelford from 2pm to 4pm. See our website for more details. For all our walks, sturdy footwear and appropriate outdoor wear are advised. These walks are intended to raise awareness of our local wildlife sites and are open to all. For the walks, it is important that you are aware that you attend at your own risk. We do not accept responsibility for any accidents or mishaps that might arise during the activity.

There will be a Social Cycle Ride on Monday 19 September, starting from Stapleford Pavilion at 10 am. Join us for a leisurely ride on quiet roads and traffic-free paths of around 20 miles, to include a coffee stop. Returning to Stapleford by about 1pm. To book email greener@sawston.org.

On Monday 3 October our conversation evening will be ‘Low-Cost Energy Saving Measures’ by Bart Hommels, who has retrofitted his own home and featured in Cambridge’s Open Eco Homes.

Other news

Cambridge Carbon Footprint have published a Climate Change Charter with Cambridge City Council. As part of this they have distributed a map of recycling/reusing/repair facilities in the area. You may be able to pick up a paper copy in the library, or look online at cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/charter.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian on 6 August about ways to prevent drought, apart from 2-minute showers, water butts, reusing washing-up water to water your flowerpots, etc. For instance, beavers can be helpful in keeping a river’s water on the land rather than it rushing down a river towards the sea. With all the projected housing development in the SE the Government has to take action now to preserve our rivers and wildlife, keep our households supplied, and keep our food growing.

If you are interested in reading further on environmental matters, two books were recommended in the Cambridge Independent’s Summer Reads list: ‘Sacred Nature: How We Can Recover Our Bond with the Natural World’, by Karen Armstrong; and ‘Net Zero, Food and Farming’ by an East Anglian academic, Neil Ward.

If you are interested in green matters and the environment at all levels (individual, local, national, international), send an email to greengroupssss@gmail.com to sign up for our newsletter, or to get more information about our meetings. We are a friendly group and welcome anyone who wants to come along. Also see our Facebook page and our website (type 2G3S into Google and you will find us).

Helen Hale

Posted Aug 9 2022

2G3S update

We had a stall at the Shelford Feast on Sunday 3 July, and despite being next to the music stage we managed to share awareness of our activities, and also held a very successful bring and buy sale of toys, books, and household items.

A Repair Café was held on 30 July at the United Reformed Church in Whittlesford. If you missed this one and have some items for repair, there will be one in Great Shelford on 10 September. Our expert volunteers can repair jewellery, textiles, electrical items, household items, clocks, all sorts of things. For the latest updates/details on Repair Cafes in the area and to book in items for repair, go to cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/repair-cafes.

Future events

There will be a Fruit and Veg Swap session on Sunday 28 August from 2pm to 4pm, at Stapleford Pavilion. Come and swap your surplus apples for someone else’s courgette glut!

Repair Café Saturday 10 September (see above).

In time for the energy price hikes in the Autumn, we will be having two conversation evenings: Monday 5 September ‘Heat Pumps Explained’ by Warren Pope, from Peterborough Environment City Trust. On Monday 3 October our conversation evening will be ‘Low-Cost Energy Saving Measures’ by Bart Hommels, who has retrofitted his own home and featured in Cambridge’s Open Eco Homes.

Our next Nature Walk, led by the very knowledgeable John O’Boyle, will be on 20 August at Nine Wells Local Nature Reserve from 2pm to 4pm. See our website for more details. For all our walks, sturdy footwear and appropriate outdoor wear are advised. These walks are intended to raise awareness of our local wildlife sites and are open to all. After this, our next walk on 17 September starts at the Wale Field in Little Shelford. For the walks, it is important that you are aware that you attend at your own risk. We do not accept responsibility for any accidents or mishaps that might arise during the activity.

There will be cycle rides again from September onwards.

Other news

Read on the BBC News website on 5 July: Finnish researchers have installed the world's first fully working "sand battery" which can store green power for months at a time. The developers say this could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy. Using a silo of low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or wind. The sand stores the heat at around 500C, which can then warm homes in winter when energy is more expensive, or on dull days when there isn’t sun.

In this time of droughts, heatwaves, wildlife fires, floods, glacier collapses, depressing reports highlighting the gap between the Government’s words and their actions on the environment, you may feel powerless and depressed. But everyone’s efforts add up, so if you are interested in green matters and the environment at all levels (individual, local, national, international), send an email to greengroupssss@gmail.com to sign up for our newsletter, or to get more information about our meetings. We are a friendly group and welcome anyone who wants to come along. Also see our Facebook page and our website.

Helen Hale

Recycling:

Our waste collection service run by SCDC has one of the highest recycling rates in the country, but I know people get confused as to exactly what to recycle, and how. We’ve probably all been guilty of putting items in the blue bin, hoping they will get picked up by the recycling fairies – so-called “wishful recycling”. This can unfortunately contaminate other waste such that a whole batch cannot be recycled. Here’s a round-up of what SCDC can accept, and how to bin it for maximum recycling potential. Next month we’ll have information about the local specialist recycling services eg for crisp packets, toothpaste tubes, pens, duvets and pillows, and water filters.

What goes in my blue bin?

Paper; newspapers; magazines and envelopes; cardboard; cartons (eg Tetra Pak fruit juice cartons); plastic bags and film wrapping; plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays (excluding any black plastic which cannot currently be recycled); food and drinks cans; empty aerosols; greetings cards; wrapping paper (no metallic plastic); tinfoil and foil trays; biscuit and sweet tins; glass jars and bottles; shredded paper (must be bagged in a paper or clear plastic bag); metal tubes eg tomato puree.

Containers should be rinsed clean and dry. Squash plastic bottles and cans. Put tops/lids/spray triggers back on to jars and bottles so they don’t get lost during the recycling process, they will get found by hand sorting. Separate plastic wrappers from paper catalogues and so on, likewise for plastic windows that form part of a cardboard box. Batteries must not be put inside the blue bin but are collected for recycling: put batteries including AA and AAA cells, button batteries, size C and D and any laptop or mobile battery in a clear plastic bag and tie to your blue bin lid.

DO NOT PUT IN: black plastic food trays; metallic plastic wrapping paper or food wrapping like crisp packets; food; liquids; nappies; clothes, textiles or shoes (take to charity shops or clothing banks); expanded polystyrene or Styrofoam; foam/sponge; non-packaging hard plastic, eg toys and bowls; flat glass or mirrors; Pyrex; kitchen paper and tissues; dirty packaging; paint tins; baby food pouches; blister packs for pills; “compostable” cups or corn starch “plastic” wrapping (put into black bin or compost them yourself); plastic corks; paper with a plastic liner eg instant porridge sachets; trigger pumps with a metal spring in; fruit/veg nets; receipts; plastic toothpaste tubes.

More information at scambs.gov.uk/recycling-and-bins/.

Helen Hale

Posted March 7 2022

2g3S

Stapleford environment news

2G3S January 2022 update

It’s the new year again, and we have often in these articles given tips for how you can do things to help the environment. How about some green resolutions this year?

1.Start the journey

The journey to sustainable living starts with a simple change. Try calculating your carbon footprint to identify where you can make changes that are easy or will have the biggest impact to start with. Cambridge Carbon Footprint (CCF) have a calculator.

2.Look after your health and the planet in the kitchen

Global food systems account for 1/3 of total greenhouse emissions and the way food is produced and transported can impact negatively on nature eg damaging the soil and biodiversity. Small changes can make a big difference to the environment and our health; consider reducing your meat and dairy intake: ‘red meat’s a treat’, or have a ‘meat free Monday’. Where possible consider buying locally produced, seasonal, unprocessed and organic food; use up leftovers. Find lots of good ideas and tasty recipes from Cambridge Sustainable Food. Sign up to Veganuary.

3.Reduce energy use in the home and save money

Simple changes such as remembering to put a lid on saucepans, turning off electrical items (not just using standby) and turning down the thermostat to the WHO recommended 18°C are free and easy habits to make. For lots of great ideas for personalised home energy advice look up CCF.

4.Use active or public transport where you can

Replacing short car journeys with walking or cycling benefits our own health, saves fuel and money, and improves air quality. How about replacing one car journey a week, or 10% a year, with cycling, walking or taking public transport?

5.Reduce, reuse, recycle

In that order! Everything we buy has an energy and resource cost at each stage of its production, transportation and disposal. The more affluent society has become, the more we consume, which means that each year we use up more of the planet’s resources than can be replenished. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date each year when our demand for resources exceeds what the planet can regenerate in that year. In 1987 the date was 23 October; in 2021 it fell on July 29.

So buy less stuff! Do you really need it? If so, can you get it secondhand or borrow/share? Think when buying something about whether it can be used lots of times and repaired. Even recycling has an energy cost so should be seen as a last resort. Make your own compost, reduce food waste and support the circular economy. Watch ‘The Story of Stuff’ film online for some inspiration.

6.Help wildlife where you live

One third of all major food crops worldwide are dependent on pollinators. Did you know that in the UK urban gardens total more hectares of land than all the nature reserves added together? If we all gardened for wildlife, just imagine what positive impact we would have, then add in all the land in verges, roundabouts etc. Native plants are best for native wildlife. Check out the RHS website for lists of pollinator-friendly plants for your garden/window box and other top tips, and The Wildlife Trusts for ideas on how to garden for wildlife. Simple ideas from mowing your lawn less to using rainwater make a big difference to the life in your garden. If you can plant a tree in your garden use the Woodland Trust’s guide to choosing one, if not consider sponsoring a tree in your community or with the National Trust.

7.Save water

Only 1% of the water on our planet is fresh, salt-free and available to us in streams and underground reserves. It is essential to life. We only drink around 5% of the water we use, the other 95% goes down the drain from showers, taps, laundries and toilets or into the garden. To get clean drinking water to our taps costs energy to extract it, pipe it, clean it and then pipe it and clean it again (hopefully!) before it heads back to the rivers. In Cambridgeshire the water is taken from the chalk aquifer, the ever-increasing demand for which is so high that not enough is left to flow down our rare and important chalk streams, causing them to dry up, which harms local biodiversity. Wash your clothes less often, flush your toilet less, have shorter showers, install rainwater butts. Check out Anglian Water’s Love Every Drop campaign for more ideas.

8.Consider green finance

How do you know that your money is not being used to fund industries you don’t agree with? Consider switching your current account to an ‘ethical’ bank or join a campaign to green your pension. Two websites with food for thought and ideas: Make my Money Matter and Tiny Eco Home Life.

Greenpeace have produced an attractive Guide To Life that is full of lots of tips and ideas too. Even if you don’t think you alone can make a difference, everyone’s little steps add up. From international agreements, to Government policies and investment, to local councils’ policies, to us individuals, we all need to do our bit.

Dates for your diary

10 January - Planning meeting

7 February - Talk by Camlets (LETS scheme, runs like a timebank, where people swap services)

12 February afternoon - Repair Café at Great Shelford Free Church

Helen Hale

Posted Dec 20 2021

Stapleford environmental news

2G3S newsletter

Tackling Climate Change and Biodiversity at a Local Level

Monday 6 September Talk by Pippa Heylings Chair of SCDC Climate and Environment Advisory Committee Member of national cross-party Climate Change Task Force for COP 26 7.30 pm Cox’s Close Community Centre, Stapleford (and by zoom)

We have all been scared by recent fires, floods and heat waves throughout the world, and by the message of the first part of the sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released on 9 August.

Pippa will lead a discussion on how we can respond locally, both as individuals and at a local authority level, especially in the run-up to the global climate summit COP 26 being hosted by the UK later this year. Contact us at greengroupssss@gmail.com to be sent the zoom link, or just turn up on the day.

Posted Aug 22 21

The Great Big Green Week, 18 – 26 September

The Great Big Green Week is a national week of activities promoting action on climate change. For more details, see here. To support this locally we are arranging various events including: • Litter picks in the local area weekend of 25/26 September. Litter picking can be fun - all hands on deck! Bags and grabsticks will be provided. Bring your own gardening gloves to protect your hands, and wear something green if you can. If you have noticed a particularly littered locality in the area, let us know and we will try and get there.

Fruit and Veg Swap weekend of 18/19 September.

A virtual interactive talk on climate change and climate justice to support developing countries towards zero carbon. Led by Katie Williams. We are still finalising details of these events - contact us by email or on our Facebook page.

Posted Aug 22 21

Film: The Sequel: What will follow our troubled civilisation? Thursday 4 November, 7.30 pm. Venue details to follow (see website)

This optimistic film imagines a thriving, resilient civilization after the collapse of our current economies, drawing on the inspirational work of David Fleming, grandfather of the global Transition Towns movement. It is based on his posthumously published lifework "Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It”. Opening with a powerful 'deep time' perspective, from the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, the film recognises the fundamental unsustainability of today's society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow?

Can we develop diverse, convivial and satisfying lives without economic growth? We encounter extraordinary projects and people from four continents, with contributions from Kate Raworth, Roger Scruton, Stephan Harding , Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rob Hopkins, Jonathon Porritt and Peter Buffett.

Posted Aug 22 21

News from Great Shelford Library

The Friends of Great Shelford Library are funding the purchase of a range of books on climate change and the natural world. Over the next year, we will be buying an eclectic mix including books by Mike Berners Lee, David Fleming*, and biologist E. O. Wilson; books on green growing, and "greenwash"; titles from the Penguin "Green Ideas" series; "spotter's guides" for people who want to explore local wildlife; and a range of children's books for younger readers. It will take a while to source and put the books on the shelves, but by autumn we hope to be ready to roll out the first books in a new display. Helen Harwood

Posted Aug 22 21

A plug for recycling electrical waste

New collection banks to help Greater Cambridge residents recycle more small electrical appliances have been set up in four housing developments.

The banks for old electrical items are being maintained by the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service – a partnership between South Cambridgeshire District and Cambridge City Councils.

Electrical items can’t be put into residents’ recycling bins, and households across Cambridgeshire throw an average of 2.6kg of them away in their black bins each year. In Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire this adds up to around 320 tonnes of e-waste which should have been recycled.

The new banks have been installed at Glebe Farm Drive, Hawkey Road, Osprey Drive and Fawcett Road on the Glebe Farm, Aura, Trumpington Meadows and Abode developments and are suitable for most small items which have a plug or a battery, including phones, toys, kettles and many more. The banks aren’t suitable for TVs, computers including laptops or large appliances such as lawnmowers though – and all these should be taken to a Household Recycling Centre.

The unwanted small appliances will be sorted for re-use and recycling by specialist company Wiser Recycling. Items that are undamaged, uncontaminated and repairable may be suitable for re-use within the UK. Wiser Recycling comprehensively tests the refurbished small appliances to ensure that they are safe and functional. Items that are unsuitable for re-use will get dismantled into their component parts. Many of those components are also suitable for re-use. For example, screens from broken monitors or power units from laptops. Items that fail the re-use screening are sent to local and national specialist operators who will recycle them into new substances or products.

Recycling e-waste is becoming more and more important as global stocks of materials like silver and lithium which are essential for components in mobile phones and other appliances are under pressure from increasing demand.

A grenade, toilet seat and disco lights are on a list of items that people across Greater Cambridge have wrongly put into their blue bins for recycling.

At the start of national Recycle Week, South Cambridgeshire District and Cambridge City Councils have released a list of the strangest things found inside residents’ blue bins.

The list also includes a decorator’s paint tray and rollers (both covered in paint), metal tape measures, wellies, bricks and a games console controller. None of these things can be recycled via the blue bin and led to recycling being rejected at the Waste Management Park where recycling and waste is sorted. Recent finds that have wrongly ended-up in the recycling plant also include car brake discs, a clothes horse, bowling ball, gas cylinders and lots of cuddly toys. All have come from the recycling wheelie bins of residents.

During Recycle Week this week, residents are being reminded that “it’s in our own hands” to decide how much to recycle and take action to protect the environment. Recycling that people across South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City put into the blue bin gets sent off to re-processors to be turned into new products, with the Councils receiving valuable income for each tonne. In addition to ensuring less ends up in landfill, this provides additional income to help pay for vital frontline services.
Getting recycling right

Latest research from Recycle Now reveals that more than 60% of UK households are now recycling more than they were a year ago because of environmental concerns.

The research shows that more and more UK households are recycling plastic drinks bottles, cleaning product, toiletry and shampoo bottles, amongst other items including glass jars and bottles and tin cans. Nearly a third of these people cite environmental concerns as the main reason for doing more and others attribute it to an increased awareness of what can be recycled. Whilst the research showed an increase in recycling, it also showed that UK households sometimes incorrectly put items like nappies, wipes and clothing in the blue bin.

Putting the wrong items in your recycling can mean your blue bin doesn’t get collected, causing an inconvenience. Worse still, it could mean that an entire bin lorry load of recycling gets rejected and ends up heading for landfill.

Here are some products that you may not have known you can recycle in your blue bin:
Clean tin foil. Save up small bits until you can scrunch into a tennis ball size. This keeps it all together as it passes through the recycling plant.
Aerosol cans. Ensure they are empty and don’t crush them. Metal like this is extremely valuable to re-processors and can be recycled endlessly.
Plastic bottles from toiletries and cleaning products – including bleach, shampoo, nail varnish remover, etc.
Cartons, e.g. Tetrapak cartons from juice, soya milk, etc.

Here are some products that definitely shouldn’t go in your blue bin:
Food and liquid remains. A quick rinse or a wipe is usually enough to make your recycling clean. A tip for jars is to half fill with washing-up water, screw the lid on, shake, and empty. Any leftover chemicals or oil should be taken to a Household Recycling Centre.
Batteries. If damaged or crushed, batteries can catch alight and cause fires in the back of bin lorries or at the waste management park. Please put them in a clear bag and attach the bag to your blue bin so they can be disposed of safely
Clothing and textiles. Take these to a clothing bank or charity shop. Even clean worn-out clothes have value and can be recycled this way for other purposes.
Nappies, wipes, sanitary items, kitchen paper and tissues. These are all too dirty and low-quality to be recycled.
Black sacks, even if they contain recycling. Put recyclables in the blue bin loose.

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