Transition Town Hastings and St Leonards Salon are very excited that Jeremy Leggett is coming to speak in Hastings. He will discuss his new book The Winning of the Carbon War – available to download for free online whose final chapter will coincide with the Paris Climate Talks in December – an event that has enormous significance for every living thing on the planet.
As many more new people attended we introduced ourselves and what our interests are:
SM- Too much packaging on food! Discussed the over use of plastic bags and so HEN campaign was mentioned. Hastings Environmental Network wants to start a Takeaway Packaging Campaign. Also, legislation will be passed on Oct 5th to have supermarkets charge for plastic bags. Food compost-where to put it? (Presently keeps it in freezer and a friend takes it away in bulk!) Would like to lobby HBC for food waste collection.
GH- Interested in everything TT/waste. Part of the problem is we’ve been brought up thinking a throw- away society was good, it created jobs etc.
FL- Just moved here as a HBC (Hastings By Choice), used to live in Germany where they had 9 bins outside for various recycling bits! Then lived in Manchester centre where there was no recycling at all…Interested in food waste collection too and in the sense of utilising left over but perfectly good food. Would like to form a partnership with COOP maybe, to use their food waste? (Rose Ratcliffe?)
KD- As an architect, interest in energy waste in buildings. Would be up for giving energy saving advice on old buildings.
David Almer- Interested in solar panels and other forms of renewable energy.
Tom- aerobic digester, small ones cost approx. £5,000, the problem is where to put them? Discussed how Government subsidies for renewables are being cut by about 90%. This will effect people’s investment in it in terms of buying into renewable energy and will impact the industry as many envisage their businesses ‘going under’.
AC- Heard on radio was saying Gov. subsidies too expensive as renewables have been so popular and proving efficient so too many people want the subsidies. (Wasn’t that the point!!).
William- Impressed by the book Waste by Tristram Stuart, William knows him and I thought we should connect him and Chris Coverdale together? Discussed how people are using old cooking oil to re-use and generate energy. Some guy from Rye is selling oil to takeaways, paying them back a bit to take away the used oil and then selling it on again as bio-deisel!!!
KD- talked about how to get oil tanks around Hastings for people to put their used cooking oil in, but it wouldn’t be enough for just residents it would need to be on a larger scale or not viable. And how would you police it? Someone will chuck something else in it. Talked about asking Southern Water to donate as they have problems with people putting oil down the sink-but it has to benefit people’s pockets for them to bother doing it?
Campaigns
Discussed Food compost campaign and talking to HBC
Discussed No Plastic Bags Campaign/helping HEN with theirs?
Discussed using food waste from supermarkets
Did you know that there are ‘Eco schools’ in Hastings and St Leonards? In a recent transition town energy group meeting Linda Jeal lead a discussion around the subject.
Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life.
Find out more by contacting the team.
Chris C- brought along some info on his take on waste which is very much about delving into the systemic issues around why and how we create so much waste and how we can change our processes in the first place to prevent waste. Life Cycle Analysis (L.C.A.); How do we alter the system process? Barr has stopped doing bottle returns (why?); Put pressure on businesses to use re-usable/refillable containers; Proposal: set up working group to propose laws to bring in re-useable packaging; Green Growth.
ACTION-Wants to research this more and create TT think-tank to lobby HBC, laws, policies etc.
Chris P- Composting (kitchen waste); Rubbish as a metaphor for the way we treat our environment in general; Mindfulness towards refuse and how we can help support this in wider community; HBC inaction on stated policy (pressure required). ACTION- Research packaging-free shops. Share shop (Frome) -research. The People’s Supermarket – check it out and share with others.
Tom R- Companies reducing their waste by doing things more online ie banks sending multiple statements. Was working with Richard Watson on getting funding for an Anaerobic digester (turns compost into methane gas)in Hastings area, many complications and needs £50-70,000 to set up. ACTION- Research community composting clubs
Alison- Community composting, getting HBC to let people use spaces in parks to grow food, saving them money, businesses could maintain ‘plot’ too and put ad up to explain. HEN (Hastings Environmental Network) is initiating a waste campaign focusing on Takeaway packaging. I think it would be good to ask to meet HBC to discuss how we can work together on waste issues, get community involved and save them money ie. growing food anywhere we can, letting people use spaces in parks to save HBC money, community compost bins, Share Shop (Sue Dawson/McManus?)- having a shop to share and borrow tools etc (with no rates or rent from HBC), etc more ideas please! ACTION-to research what Germany are doing. Contact Adam Clamp re packaging campaign- how can we help?
Ended with a sense that we wanted this to be quite a politically pushing group?
Next Meeting- Thursday 24th Sept 6.30-7.30pm at WRH
Right now renewable energy co-ops are unable to sell clean power directly to their neighbours. They have to sell their energy to a big power company for 4.5p, then buy it back for 15p or even 20p* – we at http://1010uk.org/ourpower want to change that.
We are collecting signatures to ask Amber Rudd to bring in a ‘right to supply’ for community energy groups. We are planning to put this petition on Amber Rudd’s desk in mid-July.
We believe that winning a ‘right to supply’ for community energy is the single best thing we can do right now to boost clean energy* and give more people a chance to benefit from it.
So if you want to buy your power direct from local wind and solar and stop the Big Six from buying your local wind and solar energy, and selling it back at 3 times the price-
Sign the petition to help make it possible!
http://www.1010uk.org/ourpower
On Saturday 18th April 2015 we had our visions event at the White Rock Hotel, a fantastic afternoon when more than eighty people came together to contribute ideas for a more sustainable town. Here is a taster of some of the ideas discussed, including a few quirky ones:
Food growing
Transport
Economy
Energy
Housing
Waste
Also, the presentations about Transition Town Lewes, Community Fruit and Veg Project, Trinity Wholefoods Coop, Energise Sussex Coast and a short film of a TED talk emphasised the power of community.
As such, it feels important to consider the following in the future work of Transition Town Hastings:
We were excited to discover lots of people at the event had valuable skills to offer and we hope to see these in action soon.
On Monday 25th May at 7pm there will be a core group Transition Town Hastings meeting in the Notley Room at the White Rock Hotel.
This meeting is for those wishing to be involved in deciding the next steps. We will be looking at how we form and facilitate working groups, develop projects and raise funds. (Photos © John Cole).
