Sheffield Telegraph Column - 40th Birthday

This article was written for the Sheffield Telegraph for publication on 9th October 2014

As a two year old child in 1974 my attention wasn’t focused on the OPEC oil crisis, nuclear testing or the energy shortages caused by the 3 day week. But for Jude Warrender and other concerned residents, these issues inspired the birth of Sheffield Friends of the Earth. During my childhood, the group successfully campaigned to clean up our rivers, save endangered wildlife and protect peat bogs. Motivated by their work, some 18 years later, I joined the group so I could protect bees and support clean energy. Now, 40 years on from the inaugural meeting, we are hosting a party at The Showroom to celebrate our achievements.

The first part of the evening will look at our victories which have created green jobs and more solar power. I’m sure our campaigns to fit catalytic converters to cars and removing lead from petrol has improved the quality of Sheffield’s air. There’s progress too with the ozone layer – it seems to be recovering after we campaigned to phase out CFCs in the 80s. 

We’ve played our part in transforming recycling from a fringe to a mainstream activity. In the 70s we went from recycling 7 tonnes of glass per collection to providing a door step recycling service in the 80s. We couldn’t have done this without the help of Barney the horse from Heeley City farm and later an electric milk float. In 1989 we helped Sheffield to become an official “Recycling City” with collections to around 3,300 homes by a social enterprise. In the noughties, collections were rolled out to all households because we had successfully encouraged our politicians to pass the Household Waste Recycling Act.    

After my home was devastated in the 2007 floods I was pleased to see that our Big Ask climate change campaign had persuaded the government to introduce the 2008 Climate Change Act which requires the UK to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.  

It’s impossible to mention everything we have done, so why not join us on Thursday 16th October to find out more? It’s a unique opportunity to hear Friends of the Earth’s national director, Andy Atkins, who is joining us to give his vision for the future. The finale will be letting our hair down and celebrating the last 40 years with live music and a party. To purchase tickets or to find out more about our work see www.sheffieldfoe.co.uk 

PRINTED ARTICLE

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/columnists/forty-years-of-changing-the-world-1-6884857 

Environment group celebrates 40th birthday with a gala party

Sheffield Friends of the Earth Press Release

For immediate release
Contact: [Shaun Rumbelow, campaigner, 99999 999999 or xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx]

Environment group celebrates 40th birthday with a gala party

Sheffield Friends of the Earth will celebrate 40 years of environmental campaigning by hosting a gala party at the Showroom on Thursday 16 October from 7.30pm until 11pm.

Jude Warrender, founder of the group in 1974, will start the evening by talking about the group’s work during the 1970s and 1980s.  Shaun Rumbelow, a member since 1992, will continue the 40 year review from the 1990s to the present day. Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director, Andy Atkins, will finish the presentation by looking at what the future has in store for both people and planet.

Jude Warrender said “It’s amazing that 40 years on, the group I set up is still actively campaigning to protect the environment in Sheffield and around the world. We have helped to transform recycling into a mainstream activity and we’ve managed to persuade people not to buy goods made from endangered wildlife.”

Shaun Rumbelow continued, “I was in a pram when Jude set up the group in the 70s so I’m looking forward to finding out about the group’s early history. We hope ex-members and the general public will be able to make it to the event as it will be a fascinating journey looking back at many of our successes from helping to clean up Sheffield’s rivers and improving our air quality to introducing new laws to reduce our impact on climate change.”

The party will continue with a buffet and live music from a local folk band and “What 4” a cappella quartet. The Showroom bar will be open for drinks.

Tickets (price includes buffet) cost £10 and must be bought in advance by 10th October. Full details are available on our website www.sheffieldfoe.co.uk

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. Sheffield Friends of the Earth was formed in February 1974 by Jude Warrender.

2. More information about our 40 years of campaigning can be found in the Star’s Retro feature. http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/nostalgia/retro-a-friend-in-need-to-city-for-40-years-1-6433723

3. Background information for Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director.  http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/friends_of_the_earth_appoi_18032008

4. More details about the event can be found on our website www.sheffieldfoe.co.uk or http://sheffieldfoenewsletter.blogspot.co.uk/p/40th-birthday-party.html

5. Pictures of our group’s activities from the past 40 years are available on request.


PRINTED ARTICLES

Sheffield Telegraph - Thursday 18 September 2014

Local Environmental Group Celebrates 40th Birthday with Free Film Festival

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release
Contact: [Shaun Rumbelow, Sheffield Friends of the Earth Spokesperson, 99999 999999 or xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx]

Local Environmental Group Celebrates 40th Birthday with Free Film Festival
Sheffield Friends of the Earth is celebrating 40 years of environmental campaigning by organising a free month long film festival at the University of Sheffield’s Arts Tower from Thursday 8th May.

Members of the public are invited to watch a range of films including “Trashed”, “Gasland2”, “More Than Honey” and “A Fierce Green Fire”. A short video of our 40 year history will be screened before each film.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth’s spokesperson, Shaun Rumbelow, said “We are delighted to invite members of the public to our free film festival to celebrate 40 years of protecting the environment.  With celebrities like Robert Redford, Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep narrating the films we are sure this event will be popular”.

Shaun continued, “At the moment our group is campaigning against fracking in the local region so we are really pleased to be showing Gasland2. It will help the public discover what has happened to people’s lives and the environment where fracking has already taken place”.

A long standing member of the group for over 20 years, Shaun Rumbelow said, “Our own film celebrating 40 years of campaigning looks back at the work we have done to make Sheffield and the world around us a better place, from saving the whales and wild animals to reducing air pollution in Sheffield and providing better recycling facilities.”

The films will be shown on the following dates in the University of Sheffield’s Arts Tower, Lecture Theatre 3. Doors open at 5.30pm for screenings to start at 6pm.
Thu 8 May - Gasland 2
Thu 15 May - Trashed
Thu 22 May - A Fierce Green Fire
Thu 29 May - More Than Honey

More details about the films and the event can be found on the Sheffield Friends of the Earth website. www.sheffieldfoe.co.uk

ENDS
 
Notes for Editors
Gasland 2
In this explosive follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film Gasland, filmmaker Josh Fox uses his trademark dark humour to take a deeper, broader look at the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil, now occurring on a global level (in 32 countries worldwide). Gasland 2, shows how the stakes have been raised on all sides in one of the most important environmental issues facing our nation today. The film argues that the gas industry’s portrayal of natural gas as a clean and safe alternative to oil is a myth and that fracked wells inevitably leak over time, contaminating water and air, hurting families, and endangering the earth’s climate with the potent greenhouse gas, methane. In addition the film looks at how the powerful oil and gas industries are in Fox's words "contaminating our democracy".

Trashed
We buy it, we bury it, we burn it and then we ignore it. Does anyone think about what happens to all the trash we produce? We keep making things that do not break down. We have all heard these horrifying facts before, but with Jeremy Irons as our guide, we discover what happens to the billion or so tons of waste that goes unaccounted for each year. On a boat in the North Pacific he faces the reality of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the effect of plastic waste on marine life. We learn that chlorinated dioxins and other man-made Persistent Organic Pollutants are attracted to the plastic fragments. These are eaten by fish, which absorb the toxins. We then eat the fish, accumulating more poisonous chemicals in our already burdened bodies. Meanwhile, global warming, accelerated by these emissions from landfill and incineration, is melting the ice-caps and releasing decades of these old poisons, which had been stored in the ice, back into the sea. And we learn that some of the solutions are as frightening and toxic as the problem itself.

A Fierce Green Fire
The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep, the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2012, has won acclaim at festivals around the world.

More Than Honey
More Than Honey brings sharply into focus our current bee crisis where numerous colonies of bees have been decimated throughout the world with 50% to 90% of bees having disappeared over the past 15 years. With one in three mouthfuls of the food we eat and 80% of plant species dependent on pollination, the honey bee is as indispensable to the economy as it is to man’s survival

PRINTED ARTICLES

Sheffield Star - Wednesday 30 April 2014

Letter: Recycling & Incineration 1

Letters Page Article to Sheffield Star (February 2006)
Recycling & Incineration

Dear Editor

I welcome the Star’s comment that we as a nation produce far too much waste.  However I beg to differ that Friends of the Earth’s stance against incineration is an extremist view.  It has to be remembered that incinerating waste only disposes of 50% of the problem.  The ash created by incineration takes up 40 to 50% of the landfill space of compacted unburnt waste.  This incinerator ash waste doesn’t show up on domestic waste statistics as it’s counted as commercial waste.  Incineration at first sight appears to be an ‘all consuming’ disposal method, but the reality for Parkwood residents, is that it is not.  Although ‘energy from waste’ incinerators produce energy, this is only a tiny fraction of the energy needed to make the products from the raw materials.  Manufacturing newsprint takes over two and a half times the amount of energy generated by burning it; glass 30 times and aluminium 350 times.  It is far more energy efficient to recycle waste.  Burning waste, particularly plastics, unlocks the carbon from the fossil fuels used to make them, thereby producing carbon dioxide and contributing to climate change.

Incinerating waste can hamper waste reduction and recycling.  Incinerator operators typically require local authorities to supply them with a minimum amount of waste to burn over a long time – in Sheffield’s case this is now 35 years.  Because of increases in recycling, the incinerator will have to import waste from other areas in South Yorkshire.  The Bernard Road incinerator will indeed become the dustbin of South Yorkshire.  Then we have the ongoing problem of what to do with the ash and this is a very real problem for incinerator operators.  I haven’t even mentioned the air pollution caused by burning mixed waste.  The area around Bernard Road already suffers from high nitrogen dioxide levels from road traffic and the incinerator only serves to make these levels worse.  Dioxin levels are also increased; these are very long-lived toxins, which can be deposited over a very wide area.  Friends of the Earth actively opposed the building of this incinerator and would not wish any area of the country to be blighted by these inefficient, ineffective, polluting dinosaurs of waste disposal technology.

The only way forward is to reduce the amount of waste we generate, by refusing to buy over-packaged goods, reusing cartons and plastic bottles, buying recycled/second hand materials and repairing faulty items rather than putting them in the bin.  If we recycle the rest we will actually generate less waste than an incinerator creates in the ash it produces.   87% of our waste can be recycled.  What a pity Onyx only offers the monthly doorstep collection of paper and card.  We would all recycle so much more of our waste if there was a weekly collection of our paper, card, metals, glass, textiles and plastics.  Reduce, reuse and recycle is the only direction to go in if we want a planet fit for our great grandchildren to enjoy.

Yours sincerely

Maureen Edwards
(Sheffield Friends of the Earth)

Letter: Lib Dems and the Green Vote

Letters Page Article to Sheffield Telegraph (Sent 22 June 2004)

Lib Dems and the Green Vote

If the Lib Dems want to convince voters that they have sound green credentials and the potential to put them into practice, as stated in last week’s Telegraph, then they will have to try a lot harder than they did at the recent Council elections. Sheffield Friends of the Earth wrote to candidates asking them to support three key environmental policies: a GM free Sheffield, a high quality doorstep recycling service, and better facilities for walking, cycling and public transport. We received support from 23 Green Party candidates, 5 Conservatives, 3 Labour, 2 Independents, 1 Democratic Socialist Alliance, and 1 Lib Dem (thank you, Councillor Ali Qadar!).

We appreciate that elections are a busy time for candidates, so we would like to offer the rest of the Lib Dems another opportunity to tell us where they stand on these three key issues. Sheffield Friends of the Earth want to work with all political parties to promote policies that protect both our local, and global, environment. We support all local Councillors who are prepared to make a real commitment to green policies. Does that include the Lib Dems?

Steve Goodacre

Sheffield Friends of the Earth

Press Release: Sheffield Friends of the Earth call for better recycling in Sheffield

Press Release

For immediate release
 
Sheffield Friends of the Earth call for better recycling in Sheffield

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY [Saturday 5th June, 12 noon – 2pm, The Moor]

To mark World Environment Day on Saturday 5th June, Sheffield Friends of the Earth will be inviting the public to send a message to Sheffield City Council asking them to follow the lead of other councils and expand the city’s doorstep recycling collections. The environmental group has also invited candidates for the local election to the stall on the Moor so they can pledge their support for a better recycling service.

The UK currently languishes near the very bottom of the European recycling league table [1] - recycling just 12 per cent of the waste produced. Research has shown that doorstep collection of materials is the most effective way to increase a local authority’s recycling rates [2].

Sheffield Friends of the Earth is urging Sheffield City Council to follow Friends of the Earth's `best practice' code [3] to improve the collection service offered to householders and increase the number of households recycling. Measures include collecting a wider range of materials on a weekly basis, the provision of better information to householders and providing bins that are easy to store.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth campaigner Shaun Rumbelow said:

"Although we congratulate Sheffield City Council and Onyx for starting a doorstep recycling service, there is still a long way to go to improve doorstep recycling facilities. If we are going to tackle the huge mountain of waste that we produce and start to use products and materials in the most environmentally friendly way possible we need to be recycling and composting much more of our rubbish. Lots of other authorities around the country provide excellent recycling schemes. Our council needs to follow their example so that we have a recycling record that we can all be proud of.”

Research by Friend of the Earth shows that Sheffield only manages to recycle paper and card, whereas our neighbours living in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham are able to recycle four or more materials [4].

Shaun Rumbelow continued,

“Judging by the number of Sheffield folk using their blue bins, it’s clear that people are saying no to incineration and landfill and yes to recycling. We call on Sheffield City Council to step up its recycling efforts so we aren’t left behind our neighbours”

ENDS


Notes

[1]
Recycling rates from 2000
Austria 55%, Belgium 39%, Denmark 38%, Finland 26%, France 21%, Germany 45%, Greece 9%, Ireland 12%, Italy 16%, Luxembourg 34%, Netherlands 48%, Portugal 4%, Spain 30%, Sweden 29%, United Kingdom* 11%

*The UK rate is now estimated to be about 12 per cent.
Source publication: e-Digest of Environmental Statistics, Published September 2003

[2] “Maximising recycling: Tackling Residuals” – a report for the Community Recycling Network – available at www.crn.org

[3] Friends of the Earth’s best practice code for a doorstep recycling scheme includes the following features :

1. Weekly collection
2. Collection of recycling and residual waste on the same day of the week
3. Wide range of materials collected
4. Good customer care including regular information
5. Provision of an easily storable container
6. Collection of separated rather than commingled recyclables

[4] Yorkshire & Humber Doorstep Recycling data available at:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/evidence/recycling_yorkshire_humber.pdf

Contacts:

Steve Goodacre           steveg@doctors.org.uk              07890 374154 (any time)
Liddy Goyder               e.goyder@sheffield.ac.uk           0114 222 0783 (day time)

Sheffield FoE Website www.sheffieldfoe.co.uk
National FoE Website              www.foe.co.uk    

Press Release: Sheffield Friends of the Earth - Green Pledges

Press Release

For immediate release: Tuesday 01 June 2004

Sheffield Friends of the Earth - Green Pledges

Sheffield Friends of the Earth are asking candidates in the City Council election on 10th June to sign up to three Green Pledges to ensure that the new council will pursue environmentally friendly policies. Candidates are being asked if they will pledge to:

1.      Push for the Council to make the area GM free

2.      Ensure that everyone gets a high quality doorstep recycling scheme

Promote public transport, walking and cycling, whilst supporting measures to make our streets safer
Steve Goodacre of Sheffield Friends of the Earth said: “We want the City Council to pursue policies that benefit local people and protect the local environment, whilst making our contribution towards addressing global problems, such as climate change. Candidates can show that they are prepared to do this by signing up to these three pledges.”

For more information, contact:

Steve Goodacre 07890 374 154 or 0114 267 0508

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

GM free Sheffield

In March, the Government decided to ignore public opinion and safety concerns and announced its qualified approval for GM maize to be commercially grown in the UK. That decision could have lead to widespread GM contamination of our food, crops and environment. However, the company developing the maize, Bayer, withdrew the crop from the commercial market. Monsanto have since withdrawn worldwide sales of GM wheat.

Although the immediate threat of a GM crop being commercially grown in the UK has subsided, attempts to approve new GM crops and foods have not. Farmers have rejected them and the GM Nation debate showed massive public opposition to GM crops. However, despite Bayer and Monsanto withdrawing some of their products from the market, there's still a lot of marketing applications being presented to the European Commission.

High-quality Doorstep Recycling

Doorstep recycling services vary greatly throughout the UK. In some areas residents have a wide variety of materials collected and in others there is no collection scheme at all. Following the success of Friends of the Earth's Household Waste Recycling Act, all councils will be required to collect at least two recyclable materials from every household by 2010. This is a good minimum standard, but we think they could do much better.

Based upon research by Friends of the Earth across the UK, we have concluded that the features of good practice schemes are:

·         Weekly collection

·         Collection of a wide range of materials

·        Collection of recyclables and rubbish on the same day of the week


Safer Streets and Better Public Transport

Friends of the Earth are one of the groups involved in the Way to Go campaign. We want a transport system that is better for people, better for local neighbourhoods, and better for the environment. This can only be achieved by putting money into small-scale, neighbourhood projects, instead of massive road-building and road-widening projects, such as widening the M1 near Sheffield.

The kind of measures we want to see include:

·         Streets, lanes and paths in good condition, and pleasant for walking

·         A cycle-friendly road network

·         Services and facilities close to people, so they don’t need to drive

·         Networks of bus lanes

·         Safe routes to school

·         Lower speed limits – 20mph in residential streets

·         Quality standards that bus and rail services must meet

Press Release: Sheffield to become the rubbish dump of South Yorkshire

Press Release

For immediate release

Sheffield to become the rubbish dump of South Yorkshire

The waste strategy for Yorkshire and Humberside has recently been published and it has some worrying news for the people of Sheffield. It states that by 2015/16 the entire region will only need 5 incinerators of 150,000 tonnes capacity per year.  A quick calculation shows that if the proposed new 225,000 tonnes per annum incinerator at Bernard Road is working at capacity, it will be burning almost one third of Yorkshire and Humberside's household waste! This means that Sheffield will be importing huge amounts of waste from around the region.

It seems that ONYX, the private company that manages Sheffield's waste, and the City Council are determined to push ahead with this unwanted and unpopular incinerator. But at a regional level policy-makers are willing to listen to new ideas. The draft policy initially rubbished the Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) of unrecycled household waste, as an 'emerging technology' unlikely to be of use in the next 10-15 years.  After information provided by Sheffield Friends of the Earth, it now states the process is likely to become technically feasible and commercially viable and so offer a more sustainable option.  MBT can reduce the quantity and degradability of waste going to landfill.

It is to be hoped that Sheffield Council and Onyx take notice of the changes in this report.  Both parties need to reconsider the decision to saddle Sheffield with an expensive incinerator that will almost certainly become an unviable method of waste disposal within the next few years. Only a change to some form of small-scale local MBT plants will prevent Sheffield becoming the rubbish dump of South Yorkshire.

Maureen Edwards, Sheffield Friends of the Earth Waste Campaigner, said: "If the new Bernard Road incinerator is built it could end up taking one third of the waste produced in the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside. This reallywould mean Sheffield becoming the dustbin of Yorkshire"

Contact details:                        Maureen Edwards

Sheffield Friends of the Earth Waste Campaigner

Press Release: Call on Sheffield MPs to Vote For New Recycling Law

Press Release

For immediate release: Tuesday 04 March 2003

Call on Sheffield MPs to Vote For New Recycling Law

Sheffield Friends of the Earth would like to congratulate Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allan after he promised to vote for a new law to ensure that every household in England and Wales is provided with doorstep recycling.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth are today calling for other local MPs to follow Richard Allan’s example by voting in support of the Doorstep Recycling Bill (officially known as the Municipal Waste Recycling Bill), which faces its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday 14th March.

The Bill has already received the support of a majority of MPs, but Sheffield Friends of the Earth wants local MPs to vote as well to ensure better recycling facilities for the whole of Sheffield. The Bill, being taken forward by Joan Ruddock MP, will guarantee doorstep recycling for every household in England and Wales if it makes it into law. The second reading on Friday 14th March is the crucial next step. At least 100 MPs must vote in favour at the second reading for the Bill to be passed.

The UK currently has an appalling recycling record, recycling just 12 per cent of waste compared to some European neighbours who recycle and compost more than 50 per cent. The Bill would reduce the need for deeply unpopular landfill sites and incinerators, and could help Britain become one of the best recyclers in Europe. According to the latest figures Sheffield County Council recycles around 5 per cent.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth's Recycling Campaigner Shaun Rumbelow said:

"We hope that local MPs will follow Richard Allan’s example, and will turn up and vote for doorstep recycling for every home on Friday 14th March. This country has an appalling recycling record, and this new law would ensure that Britain's recycling facilities match the best in Europe. But it will only become law if enough MPs turn up and give their support."


ENDS

Notes:

[1] See the full list of MPs who have said they will vote for the Bill at

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/resource/doorstep_recycling.html

[2] Attached is a Microsoft Word document sent to Sheffield Friends of the Earth in support of the recycling Bill by Richard Allan MP.


Contacts: Dr Elizabeth Goyder

07791 223367 (mobile)

0114 222 0783 (day time)

Press Release: Sheffield Near Bottom of Recycling league

Press Release: Sheffield Near Bottom of Recycling league

For immediate release: 27th August 2002

New Government figures on waste recycling put Sheffield City Council in 322nd place, out of 371 local authorities in the UK, with a recycling rate of only 4.4%. At the top of the table, Daventry Council are recycling 42% of their waste.

The UK league table is hardly the premier league of recycling. Overall in the UK we only recycle 12% of waste. This compares very badly to other European countries, such as Switzerland and Austria.

In 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio, world leaders pledged to reduce waste and introduce schemes to improve recycling. Ten years on, world leaders are meeting again in Johannesburg. Reducing the amount of waste we produce is one of the many important issues they will be discussing. Embarrassingly, the recent figures show that the UK has increased the amount of waste it produces over the last ten years.

Responsibility for increasing the rate of waste recycling lies with local authorities. Sheffield City Council are currently considering an application from the waste company ONYX to build a new incinerator at Bernard Road. Friends of the Earth believe that this new incinerator, if built, would remove any incentive for the City Council to improve its appalling record on recycling.

Steve Goodacre of Sheffield Friends of the Earth said-

"Responsibility for tackling global problems has to begin at home. Sheffield should be leading the way in reducing, reusing and recycling our waste. Yet the City Council seem determined to build an unwanted and unpopular incinerator for our waste."

Contact: Steve Goodacre steveg@doctors.org.uk

0114 267 0508

07890 374154

Source:

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/wastats/mwb0001/download/xlsdata/annexb.xls