After viewing a post by another Birmingham Recycled writer, in which he created a Wordle ‘word cloud’, I decided to make one myself!
Not that my blog is so simple that it can be summed-up by one solitary visualisation of course; but I thought it would be interesting to see which topics and ideas I mention most- especially now that I have made the shift from writing about living an ecological lifestyle to coverage of the 2010 elections.
Anyway enough with text, let’s get visual:
Perry Barr candidates for MP plus SU president and debate Chair 'Tom Tom'
Once again, apologies to those looking forward to my live streaming of the Question Time debate with Perry Barr candidates last night.
Even though I came with a fully-charged phone battery, it was too much for my poor Nokia 5800 to take and it died without properly configuring the footage- hence lost audio.
If it makes you feel any better, the mobile footage I took was on higher ed fees and not about environmental issues so not all that relevant to what I’m trying to do!
However, well prepared(ish) me also took a digital camera and managed to capture some extra video footage on the very brief mention of climate change at the hustings.
So, as an apology for the failure of my live streaming from the debate, I’ve put together a short video with this footage and uploaded it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!
Look out for a Birmingham Recycled article summing up last night’s happenings.
We’ve also now got our podcast about which political party would get our ‘green vote’ up on the site so have a listen to that as well!
Due to the wonderment of technology, I hope to be able to stream tonight’s Perry Barr constituency hustings from 5pm this evening.
The hustings, open to all members of the community, is being hosted at Birmingham City University in Attwood Building, room 040:
Student Union president, Tom Thompson (affectionately named ‘Tom Tom’ by students), will Chair the ‘Question Time’-style debate from 5 of the constituency’s candidates for election:
If the promise of free reign to ask the Perry Barr PPC’s anything you want and refreshments isn’t enough to get you down to Birmingham City University, Attwood Building, 040 tonight, then tune in here (this blog post) at 5pm and hopefully some footage of the hustings will be beamed right onto your computer screen!
In the meantime, ignore my previous (experimental) videos from my Qik channel!
Ladywood (picture from Birmingham Mail)
I have recently been appointed an editor for Birmingham Recycled‘s election team. I will be covering Birmingham’s Ladywood constituency and what the candidates are up to leading to the general election on 6th May.
I will be particularly interested in where the candidates stand on ‘green’ issues like transport, conservation and recycling.
As a starting point, I got in touch with James Robertson who is standing in the local elections for the Green Party in the Ladywood ward.
Mr Robertson, a Birmingham resident, is passionate about making the country more environmentally-friendly.
He believes that Birmingham has the potential to spark widespread change and has done much for his community.
Mr Robertson established and runs local recylcing website Freegle (formally Freecycle), where people in the area are given a space to advertise things they no longer need that others might- working to reduce the effects of our ‘throwaway’ culture.
James Robertson said:
‘I’m James Robertson standing for the Green Party in Ladywood ward in the local council elections. I am a Brummie born and bred and I am standing for the Greens because I think it is time to do something meaningful.’
‘I started Birmingham Freegle 6 years ago and from the one single, simple thing there are now 25,000 Brummies whose first instinct is to give an item away to someone else instead of throwing it into the tip.’
‘Birmingham is the biggest local authority in Europe and it would not take much to make us much greener: a council project to insulate all council housing would boost the local green sector and provide jobs in the city – as well as lowering our carbon footprint. That’s what the Green’s are all about: policies that make sense for the environment AND for local people.’
Hopefully, I should soon be interviewing Mr Robertson about his views on ‘green’ issues. I will also be contacting other condidates from Ladywood who are standing for the general election to quiz them about their policies and how environmentally-friendly they are.
Cadbury's Easter bestseller- The medium Creme Egg Easter Egg
So, I’ve just submitted an article for Birmingham Recycled concerned with Cadbury’s Easter egg packaging.
It’s Easter weekend and Cadbury have been promoting their eco-friendly chocolate ‘Treasure Eggs‘ which won a ‘Green Award‘ back in 2008 for ‘Best Packaging‘.
But have Cadbury done anything else in working towards an eco-friendly Easter since then?
In my previous post about Cadbury’s Easter Egg packaging, I outlined some information I received from the company about the Purple Goes Green initiative and what this means for Cadbury’s Easter products- mainly hailing the magnificant wonder product that is the ‘Treasure Egg’.
I found that it was unclear as to whether plastic used in their Easter products was recycled- even that used to house the Treasure Eggs.
I managed to track down a Cadbury employee who worked in the Easter egg plant, who was able to tell me that,
‘The plant runs all year round. As far as I know everything is recycled- cardboard, plastic and the chocolate!”The plant has now shut down for three months, as approximately £5 million is being spent on new machinery. The packing of the eggs will now mostly be done by robot, and automated machinery.’
She also told me that,
‘When up and running, next year’s eggs will contain no plastic at all inside the box. I know Cadbury do their best to keep packaging to a minimum’
Good news.
This follows Cadbury gaining a special mention in Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson‘s fourth-annual Easter Egg packaging report.
Cadbury were recognised for their efforts in reducing Easter egg packaging and their future plans, along with other confectionary companies such as Nestlé and Sainsbury’s own-branded eggs.
However, News Editor of Packaging News, Josh Brooks provides some interesting counter points to mull over in his article looking at Easter egg packaging and Jo Swinson’s report.
One such view, is his point that Easter eggs are gifts- and are packaged as such.
Jo Swinson criticises chocolate brands Lindt and Guylian as the worst packaging offenders. Take a look at these pictures:
On their websites, both Lindt and Guylian describe these particular Easter products as ‘gifts’. Guylian even describes the ‘gift wrapping’ (essentially packaging) as ‘sumptuous’ and ‘luxury’.
So, if we consider Easter Eggs as gifts, should we allow for gift-style packaging?
I mean, if you received your birthday presents unwrapped I’m sure you wouldn’t be a happy ‘Easter’ (sorry couldn’t resist) bunny!
