The world’s largest wind farm opens today off the coast of Kent. Yolanda and I followed the various news articles and learned that enough power would be generated for 200,000 homes.

Now to me that’s a big figure, but then I did a little research and realised there are more than 20 million homes in the UK, so it really is a drop in the ocean, this wind farm in the sea.

This made me think about the amount of energy I use and what more I could do to save energy. One of the more surprising tips I came across was that a modern laptop computer uses around 85% less energy than a desktop computer.

I made that switch, so I’m off to a good start. I always make sure I unplug my laptop when I’m not using it, I put it on standby if I’m just away briefly and need to come back as it takes no time at all to pop up all my work again, but more recently, I’ve been concentrating on trying to finish everything off that I need to do, so I can shut down, chill out and escape from cyberspace once in a while.

p.s.

I’ve been looking in to ways of producing my own energy. Yolanda says I should have my own wind farm, but I have to say I’m not sure she isn’t just being rude about my bodily habits.

I came across this interesting perspective on green efforts as I was surfing the web. I love the fact it points out that two people cycling a mile powered by cheeseburgers is the same carbon footprint as those same two people sharing a lift in an efficient car! No wonder my head spins from doing my carbon footprint equations….

Of course, it isn’t mentioning the fact that those two people would probably eat their cheeseburgers anyway, even if they weren’t cycling to work, and worse – because they didn’t cycle to work, they notice the pounds piling on so they get in their car again to drive another mile to the gym to work off the calories.  On the way home they are starving, after all that exercise on the fake bike at the gym, so they take a little detour – only a mile – in their fuel efficient car via MacDonald’s and treat themselves to another cheeseburger before bed.

You see…. they should have gone by bike after all.

Have you noticed that you can buy milk in a bag in some supermarkets now?

The milk bags are designed for use with a special milk jug and the idea is that it will reduce packaging – a saving of 75% compared to the plastic bottle. High oil prices mean that reducing the amount of plastic packaging is a very attractive prospect at the moment. And we are not just talking about reducing the amount of oil used for transporting the packaged goods to our supermarkets by reducing the weight of the packaging.  It is all too easy to forget that the plastic bottles themselves are made from oil.

The new milk bags are recyclable – you can take them back to the supermarket for recycling.

I still like to get my milk delivered in reusable bottles from the milkman but, for those that don’t have a doggy-choc carrying milkman, the bag and jug system seems like a good idea.

I was peddling my way to the recycling back the other day with a collection of junk mail and some old telephone directories, when I passed Bertram out for his morning walk.

I was sweating a bit because you know how heavy paper is and there’s quite a long climb up to the recycling bank.

Anyway, Bertram told me that he knew a way that I could save a few of those beads of sweat.  He’d come across this website called junkbuster.org.uk which helps you to send messages to six services that deliver junk mail or paper directories asking them not to deliver to your address. What a great idea!

When I checked out the website myself it said that 12,657 households have signed up saving 99,888 tonnes of  unwanted junk mail per year.  Now, that’s a lot of trees, I reckon.

McDonald’s is good at branding, very good. The Golden Arches are recognised around the world. But another result of being good at branding is that their rubbish is instantly recognisable too.  You can tell there’s a McDonalds nearby not just from the big M that you will see illuminated from a distance, but sadly also, from the trail of litter proudly bearing the brand name.

Is this something that McDonald’s are concerned about, I wondered?  So, I thought I’d Google them and find out.

On their website I came across this:

“Our standard restaurant training includes a strong litter management component, with McDonald’s staff conducting frequent clean-ups of our restaurant grounds and the public spaces surrounding our restaurant parking lots. We also encourage our customers to help us by participating in anti-littering programs, and we include anti-littering messages on many of our packages around the world. ”

There’s quite a lot of information about what McDonald’s are doing to ‘green up the Golden Arches’, but this particular issue is still clearly a big problem.

Their customers are not reading the ‘anti-littering messages’ on the packages before they dump them at the side of the footpath. So what more do you think McDonald’s could be doing to avoid litter? Should they employ people to do ‘frequent clean-ups’ beyond the confines of the car-park and their own grounds?  Should they put the ‘anti-littering messages’ boldly on the door where customers can’t miss them?

Maybe there’s a high tech solution around the corner…. imagine that… the packaging might have a secret number which when scanned will link to the CCTV footage of the purchase and the persistent offenders will find themselves in their own show on McDonald’s TV shortly before they are delivered their fine for littering. Hmmmm… Food for thought.

My bicycle cart isn’t much good on snow days.  I just keep getting stuck and the cardboard box gets all soggy.  Yolanda said I should use Shanks’ pony, but it seems a bit rude – I don’t even know the guy – so I think I’ll just walk.

I had a cool day out yesterday.  I went to see Yolanda in panto!
The crafty cat has been a  bit cagey about her panto role and it was all a big secret. She wanted to keep us guessing. I have to admit, I thought I had it in the bag. I was expecting Puss in Boots. As you can probably imagine, she had soooo bigged up her part. I should have known, but I was quite surprised when it turned out to be Snow White and no, Yolanda didn’t play the beautiful Snow White, nor did she play the wicked queen.  All Yolanda had to do was curl up on a chair and lick her paws occasionally.  Where’s the acting there?

Anyway, on my return I found I was a little peckish.  It’s hard work all that booing and hissing and shouting out ‘Behind You!’ So I decided I’d earned a little snackette. And so it was, that I happened upon a well known fast food outlet – the name escapes me but I’m sure it begins with B and has something to do with royalty.

I treated myself to some fries and a modest burger. – all in the name of research, of course. To my pleasant surprise I discovered that all the packaging – as it is made of paper – could scrunch up into a little ball and go on the compost heap.

I can’t wait to tell Yolanda!

Do you find that you are buying loads of little presents for friends?  Can you remember what you bought last year?  What do you get for them without it costing a fortune?

There are loads of cheap stocking filler Christmas presents in the shops to tempt us away from our hard-earned cash, but some of it is just rubbish and a few days after Christmas that’s where it will probably end up.

A few ways we can avoid the mountain of Christmas junk:

• Avoid stuff that will probably just break.
• Steer clear of stuff that has more packaging than product.
• Try doing a secret santa so that you can spend a little bit more on just one person but a lot less overall.  That way you can probably find something a bit more useful.

Here are a few ideas for a more eco-friendly secret santa:

• A wind-up torch – £4.99 from Amazon
• An elephant poo jotter – £3.99 from Oxfam
• A voucher for downloading music
• Lip balm or hand cream – look out for products in recycled/recyclable plastic bottles or pots like the ones at the Body Shop
• Chocolates, look out for recyclable packaging such as paper and foil and check out the fairtrade products

Are you dreaming of a green Christmas?

Oh dear! I’m being nagged to go on a diet. Yolanda thinks I’ve put on weight. But in my defence, I have to say, it is all in a good cause.

I have been carrying out some important research. As the season of excess is upon us I wanted to find out what a green-living, eco-loving dog like me can eat, snack-wise, while watching The X-Factor Final and the Queen’s Christmas message without getting the blues about excess packaging.

Today, I’ve decided that I love Smarties. They come in a groovy hexagonal box made of cardboard which is 100% recyclable. And what’s more, all Smarties are completely yummy. There are no yukky ones in there that will languish in the packet and get thrown away.

Do you have a favourite colour of Smarty? I know you probably think mine would be green. But, just to surprise you, I don’t mind sharing the fact that my absolute favourites are the blue ones.

Are you a sweetie lover?

I love sweeties. All kinds of sweeties. But I promised Yolanda that I was going to try to stick to eating sweeties that come in recyclable packaging.

So, that means I need to do a bit of research. What sweeties can I still eat?

I came across a box of Quality Street in Mr Smith’s Bin the other day. Couldn’t believe my luck, but there were still three sweeties in there (and a bit of orange peel and a banana skin – you have to take the rough with the smooth!). I put the orange peel and the banana skin on my compost heap. I hope by this time next year it will be fertilising my garden. Then I set about doing some serious research. The three sweeties were all blue ones. Clearly nobody in Mr Smith’s house likes the blue ones, but luckily for me they’re my favourites.

As I unwrapped sweetie number one – step one in my research is to check that I like them – I noticed the writing on the side of the box.

Did you know that you can separate the wrappers and put the foil bit into your recycling box like you would a drinks can? The outer wrapper can go in your compost bin. How cool is that?

The instructions for how to dispose of the cardboard box say: ‘Remove the window from the empty carton and put the window bit in the bin. The card can then be quickly and easily recycled. Simply put it in your local recycling bank or kerb-side recycling box.’

It is great that most of the packaging is recyclable or compostable. It is great that they tell you that on the box. But why do they bother with the window? Couldn’t they find a way to make that recyclable too?