Waste Prevention : The key to a resource efficient and sustainable society.

Waste prevention initiatives aim to reduce the amount of waste generated as well as the toxicity in its contents. This is extremely important for the environment, but also for individuals and businesses and it plays an important role in the creation of a resource efficient and sustainable society.

The planet has finite resources and it is estimated that it would require the resources of three Earths for future generations to exist with the same level of consumption that we currently do in Europe. The ever increasing population is going to need to implement vast change in the way that resources are used and waste prevention action is going to be key in achieving this.

There has been a large increase in recycling and people are more aware than ever of the benefits of recycling wherever possible. Though this is without a doubt a positive action, waste prevention is better, as it seeks to reduce waste even before the point of recycling and use of any other solution.

The hierarchy for waste as set by the EU Waste Framework Directive.
Prevention is shown as the first step and most desirable, with disposal being the least desirable waste solution.

Reducing waste can start from the very beginning at the point of manufacture. This is known as "pre-waste" and examples include reducing the quantity of waste such as product size, to re-usable packaging as well as changing the content of materials and products to remove harmful substances that are damaging for the environment as well as human health.

Over the past few years, you may have noticed foods you buy in the supermarket are aiming to cut out excess packaging and are making a big point in advertising this fact to the consumer. One of the examples I noticed most recently, was the bizarre looking new "Quavers" multipack, that I first thought resembled baby wipes or a nappy pack when it caught my eye. PepsiCo advertise this "30% less wrap" as making the product more convenient at home and easier to store in cupboards, however it certainly serves as a form of waste prevention and will also save money due to less materials being required.

Reducing packaging is waste prevention during manufacture, the less material used leads to less overall waste.

Individuals changing their habits and behaviour as consumers is another important part of waste prevention. This can involve avoiding over-buying and being more thoughtful about what food is definitely needed and being mindful of expiry dates to avoid food waste. Other examples can be getting items such as electronics fixed rather than throwing them away and buying a new one. We can definitely all do our bit in this area!

There is no single action that will fix the impending waste problem. Governments, businesses and individuals are all going to need to take steps to change the way we use resources and switch to more efficient and sustainable practices.

Recycling is great, but prevention is better!

More information on waste prevention can be found here:

http://www.prewaste.eu/
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/prevention/

"London breaches annual pollution levels" - Contemplating green ideas and potential solutions.

According to new data, parts of London have already breached the EU hourly limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution. The EU has set an hourly limit of 200 micrograms of NO2 per cubic metre of air and this may only be breached 18 times annually. However, it was just over a week into 2016 and locations in Putney and Chelsea and Kensington had broken the limit for the 19th time.

This is not a new occurance as the UK has been in breach of the NO2 pollution limits for 5 years and as such was taken to court last spring and subsequently ordered to draw up an action plan to tackle the air pollution problem.

Around 30,000 people in the UK die prematurely each year due to particulate pollution according to figures released by Public Health England. This figure, however, has not been revised to include the health impacts of NO2 which has been linked to respiratory and heart problems.

2010 nitrogen dioxide levels in London shown in map form.

Nitrogen dioxide is a gas that is mainly produced by motor vehicles and although the human health impacts of this pollutant are known, it has been difficult to find sufficient evidence to determine the mortality rates and impacts of NO2 specifically, when people are also being exposed to particulate pollution and various combinations of other harmful gases.

So what can be done?

Some cities like Paris, have introduced Odd/Even schemes which serve as an access restriction. Vehicles are regulated by their number plates and whether the number ends with an odd or even digit. In addition to the odd even scheme they also implement speed restrictions and free public transport is available during the days that the alternating numberplate scheme is being enforced. Encouraging more people to use public transport can be a very positive way to tackle air pollution by decreasing the numbers of vehicles within the city.

Green roof, green wall and other foliage installations can be very good for improving air quality. Trees, shrubs and turf have been shown to remove pollutants as well as smoke and dust from the air. One tree can remove 26 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere anually which equates to approximately 11,000 miles of car emissions.

A Chicago study estimated that 1,675kg of pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulates were being removed by 19.8 hectares of green roofs annually in Chicago. Green roof installations are already being implemented in London. I got the opportunity to visit a variety of completed roofs that have been put on numerous Transport for London properties and depots when I carried out a work placement with them. My project was on the biodiversity benefits of the green roofs but these sites also play an important role in saving energy and countering air pollution which is why they are becoming increasingly popular in the capital.

The green roof at 55 Broadway, (TFL headquarters at the time of the project).

Overall, it is going to be very difficult to solve a problem like this, especially for a city such as London. Schemes are being put in place and green solutions are becoming more popular, but the fact is, in the whole of the EU the population of London is huge in comparison to other capital cities. In 2014 the official population of London was over 8.5 million people and this is followed by Berlin, the second largest city in the EU, with around 3.6 million people. Perhaps the problem lies with the UK being too London-centric, and therefore the only way to reduce pollution as a result of such a dense population, may be to further encourage and promote the use of other major cities and relocation, through better funding and improved infrastructure.

Discovering New Species - 60 African Dragonflies!

A couple of days ago the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced 60 new African dragonfly species had been described. Dragonflies are freshwater species and indicators of healthy ecosystems and so play a very important role considering freshwater habitats such as wetlands are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. With these new discoveries, the number of known species of dragonfly in Africa has now risen to 760. However there are likely to be even more than this! It is estimated that only a fifth of all species on the planet are currently known. This includes animals as well as plants. The IUCN predicts there may be up to 9 million species in total on Earth.

The IUCN will now work to assess these newly discovered species for rating on the Red List of Threatened Species so that conservation efforts may be applied.

One of the new species of Dragonfly, a Robust Sparklewing (Umma gumma).Fun fact: It was named after the 1969 album by Pink Floyd.
Photo by Jens Kipping.

When people hear that a new species has been described, it is often expected they must have been discovered in the deepest jungle or an inpenetrable forest. However, often new species can be found by finding genetic distinctions between species that were previously thought to be the same.

Even so, it was only in 2013 that an entirely new bird species was discovered in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, with a population of 1.5 million people! The Cambodian Tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk) is in the warbler family, and became one of only 2 bird species to be found solely in Cambodia.

The Cambodian Tailorbird.
Photo by James Eaton.

Discovering new species can be done by anyone with a keen interest but is an incredibly long process. If a person believes they have come across a new species, they must first check that it has not already been described. This could involve genetic testing and studying its DNA as well as studying existing museum collections. Many wonder what the point is, for example, do we really need to find and name the estimated 90% of undiscovered fungi species, or the other 50% of all algae species? But many of these species could turn out to be incredibly useful to us. This could be in the form of food, pollination, water cleaning as well as medicinal benefits. If the variations between species can be identified, it will allow us to find any benefits and preserve these benefits, as well as preserving the natural world.

More information on the 60 new dragonfly species can be found on the IUCN website here:
 http://iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/news/?22353/60-new-African-dragonfly-species-described

Tromsø, Norway, 2015.

Firstly, happy new year! I am resolving to keep my blog up to date and to write more frequently, as there is definitely plenty going on to talk about!

I ended 2015 with an amazing trip to Norway, up inside the Arctic circle. I stayed in Tromsø and took trips out in the area including an Aurora Borealis hunt and a whale watching boat trip.

A tiny Norwegian house amongst the mountains.

Norwegians have been whaling around Tromsø from as early as the 10th century and it is an activity still carried out to this day, except exclusively hunting Minke whales in the North. These days whale watching trips are increasingly popular, and most ships out there such as the boat I was on, are shooting with cameras rather than harpoons, helping to make ecotourism a thriving industry.

The boat ride was great fun and the scenery was beautiful, but on top of this we were also lucky enough to see Humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Orca (Orcinus orca) thanks to our knowledgeable guides from the Tromso Friluftsenter.

Orca pod. 

Orca, or Killer Whales, are the largest species in the oceanic dolphin family and can be found in all of the oceans. The population off the coast of Norway is estimated to be between 500 and 1500.

The Orca here are often following the large amounts of Herring that make their way up the coast of Norway in the winter months. As a result, November - February can be some of the best times to see them in Tromsø.

Adult and calves. 

 

Humpbacks are a species of baleen whale and are a highly migratory species that can also be found in all of the oceans. Coincidently, I also saw a Humpback mother and calf on a boat trip in South Africa back in 2012.

Humpback Whales.

Synchronised swimming!

 

Attempting to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is something most tourists try to do whilst they are on a trip to northern Norway. It is not guaranteed, and the weather, such as cloud cover, can be one of the most obstructive elements when trying to view them.

The lights are the result of gas particles in the Earth's atmosphere colliding charged particles released from the Sun's atmosphere. These particles from the Sun's atmosphere are usually deflected by the magnetic field surrounding the Earth, however the magnetic field is weaker at the poles and it is when these particles make it through and collide with Earth's gas particles that the lights can be seen from the reaction. The northern lights are Aurora Borealis, and the southern lights are Aurora Australis. Aurora being Latin for the Roman Goddess of the Dawn, Borealis meaning northern and Australis meaning southern.

Credit: Arctic Guide Service

There is no definite time that you can guarantee the lights will be stronger or most visible. It has been discovered that the activity is cyclic and peaks every 11 years, but the last peak was in 2013. The best chance you have is to go to areas of low light pollution on a night with a clear sky. Our trip had pretty bad weather and was 8 hours long, and we drove around in a coach heading to the darkest areas where the clouds were seperating. We caught some glimpses of the lights with our naked eye that were bright and then faded away and managed to have a few decent pictures at the end!

Both companies I used were excellent and i'd recommend them if you are taking a trip to Tromsø, however there are numerous good and different guides offering various excursions and activities depending on what you are looking for.

Our whale watching guide: http://tromso-friluftsenter.no/
Aurora Chase: http://www.arcticguideservice.com/

    

( Please feel free to use any of my photographs, but credit would be great, thanks! )

DIY Pond Update - Dragonflies!

 The pond is flourishing and many of the tadpoles have now turned into froglets, which can make for a perilous journey when walking up the garden to view the pond with the little frogs adventuring all around the lawn. At this stage there are tadpoles and froglets in varying stages of development and most of the first froglets to appear have now left the pond it would seem and started to disperse.

 

The pond has also attracted dragonflies, which have been mating on the pond. Most of the those I have photographed appear to be Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) with a couple of Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) also spotted on plants around the ponds edge!

Large Red Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

The larvae these mating pairs (pictured below) will produce will benefit from the submerged oxygenating plants I originally put into the pond and help to create a healthy habitat.

  

 

 I am very pleased the pond is attracting other wildlife, despite originally being designed to save the plague of frogs that had appeared! It gives a lot of enjoyment, going out to look at what is happening and seeing if anything new has appeared. I really would recommend getting a pond in your garden if you have the space for it and an interest in wildlife, I have spent numerous occasions sitting outside and watching all the goings on in there! As well as this, over the past century so many ponds have been lost, usually due to being filled in. By creating a pond for wildlife in your own garden, it will help replace lost habitats for species such as dragonflies and create a healthy network around the country, as well as providing a fantastic place for you to observe and enjoy in the comfort of your own garden.