Sustainability is central to survival.
Jonathan Porritt
More projects to reduce carbon emissions in Bovey.
Following Modbury's example, Bovey is going plastic-bag free! The reason is obvious. An average shopper using 300 plastic bags per year is responsible for 25kg of carbon, whereas a shopper using a single reusable cotton bag is responsible for just 0.62kg. 99% of carrier bags go into landfill, taking 500 years to degrade. And worst of all, plastic bags kill at least 100,000 marine birds, whales and turtles each year.
The new Bovey Town Mayor, Councillor Alan Griesiell has proposed that Bovey should become a 'Plastic Bag Free Zone' and we're right behind him. As our contribution to the campaign, we held a meeting on 12th September with Bovey traders to make them aware that the convenience of plastic bags comes at an unacceptable price. And we showed them samples of some environmentally friendly alternatives and where to source them. Now a working group of the traders has taken up the running and they're aiming to take Bovey plastic bag free in time for the run-up to Christmas. Brilliant!
How you can help. In
Ireland, a tax of 15cents per bag resulted in a 90% drop in plastic bag
usage, and raised 3.5 million Euros which was spent on environmental
projects. Bangladesh has banned polythene bags altogether while Taiwan
and Singapore are taking steps to discourage their use.
You can sign a petition at http://www.green-england.co.uk/plasticbagpetition to introduce a similar tax (to be spent on environmental projects) of 10p per bag in Britain.
We're currently investigating ways to reduce our dependence on the car, such as setting up a car share scheme for regular journeys. If you have regular work hours and travel to Exeter, Plymouth or Torquay, would you be willing to share a lift with someone else? If you're interested in carsharing, please email us, telling us the journey and the days you want to carshare.
Another good alternative for odd trips is the Moorcars car club, which is already operating successfully in Ashburton. It lets members hire cars by the hour, day or week. If there is enough interest locally, Moorcars are willing to expand their operation into Bovey Tracey. Check out their website to see how it works, and let us know if it might work for you.
Carbon offsetting is something we can all do to reduce the impact of our personal emissions on climate change. It's an easy way to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by the same amount that your activities add. Carbon offsets have rightly had some bad press and you should offset only as a last resort AFTER reducing your consumption as much as possible. We've teamed up with local woodland charity Moortrees. You can purchase trees from them that will be planted in woodlands around Bovey to neutralise the CO2 you emit.
Calculate how many tonnes of CO2 you've emitted here. You should plant four trees to offset one tonne of emissions. Then order the appropriate number of trees for the Bovey Carbon Sink here.
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