We are so very pleased they have not been sent to landfill nor to be incinerated, and have instead been sent for recycling.  They raised £93.54 from the sponsor BIC for Herts Helping Homeless (NH Sanctuary) charity who will receive it later this year when claims time comes around!

From us to all that support our Terracycle project a big Thank you, and to all the Schools in the area with Eco Warriors that have chosen to work with us in this Writing Instruments recycling Scheme we say a big heartfelt THANK YOU!   And may we continue to choose the GREEN option as much as possible! Deolinda and Michael Eltringham
North Herts & Stevenage Green Party

The post Celebrating schools’ recycling in Zero Waste Week appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

Over the winter of 2022/23 members of the North Herts & Stevenage Green Party set up monitoring stations at several locations in Hitchin and Stevenage to measure the cumulative levels of Nitrogen dioxide. North Herts Council have only two stations and Stevenage Borough Council only one and so have a very limited understanding of the levels of Nitrogen dioxide to which residents are exposed.

Nitrogen dioxide contributes to acid rain, is an initiator of ozone, which is harmful to living organisms, and also reacts to form Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas far more powerful than Carbon dioxide. Levels of Nitrogen dioxide can also be considered a proxy for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5, minute particles which when we breathe polluted air get into our bloodstream and lead to serious health conditions.

The current UK Air Quality Objectives for Nitrogen dioxide are set at 40 micrograms/cubic metre of air and the results show that for most of the locations in Hitchin the levels recorded were at or below that level. However, for one location in Stevenage levels in excess of 50 micrograms/m³ were recorded^.

 Deolinda Eltringham, our Membership Officer and Green Party candidate for Hitchin Bearton in the upcoming local elections, has written a full report of the findings of the winter monitoring complete with maps showing the levels measured at each location in Hitchin and Stevenage.

Read Deolinda’s Report here

The post Levels of air pollution in Hitchin & Stevenage this Winter appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

Jim Borcherds has lived in Stevenage since 1989. He taught at Marriotts School for 12 years and now works as an Education Consultant supporting Secondary schools across Hertfordshire and beyond with their timetables.

For transport, Jim’s first choice is to cycle; the Stevenage cycleways were a big attraction when Jim and his wife chose Stevenage as a place to live and bring up their family. He believes that if we can enable more people to choose to walk or cycle then space on the roads will be freed up for those who need to travel in cars.

Will Lavin has enjoyed living with his family in the Purwell area of Hitchin for the last 7 years, since moving here from central London.

He works as a consultant in the city, but has also previously owned small businesses including a shop and a restaurant. He is acutely aware of the cost of living problems being faced both by individuals and by small business at the moment. In response, he campaigns for Green Party policies to increase both the minimum wage and universal credit, and to increase tax on the wealthiest in order to reduce inequality.

He is a founding member of the Green Party, and has held roles on the National Executive of the Party. He has also stood for Parliament on two occassions.

We would like to thank the departing co-chairs, Anni Sander and Hugh Parker for their outstanding service to the Green Party. Both continue to serve the party in other roles.

The post Local Green Party elects new co-chairs appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

If you’d like to increase your recycling beyond the standard kerbside collections, have a look at our interactive map of local recycling points to see what facilities are available near you.

The post Deolinda Eltringham, Recycling Queen appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

We are delighted to share the news that TerraCycle recycling facilities based at Our Lady’s Church in Hitchin have raised a total of £2781.00 between 1^st November 2021 and 30^th April 2022.

The following activities have contributed to the total amount which will be paid directly into the various charity accounts this June: Biscuit, Cakes and Bread:  £51.00 – Parish Hardship Fund
Tassimo, Kenco, L’Or :  £2550.00   – PHASE. The last few collections and includes a large apologetic compensation from Tassimo, for closing the recycling scheme.
Pens and Colgate:  £51.00 – Hertfordshire Homeless Help / Sanctuary
Pringles, Crisps, Pet (now closed):  £129.00 – Marine Conservation Society.

Our Membership Officer Deolinda Eltringham and her husband sent 22,270.214kg (over 22 tons) of waste for recycling with TerraCycle since December 2012.  This has raised funds for the following charities to date:

Fr. Jean-Marie’s Congo village project (paid to the parish):  £811.00 (2014-2015)

Helping Herts Homeless: £938.37

Our Lady’s Hardship Fund: £709.95

PHASE: £ 10, 073.60 

Marine Conservation Society: £1,389.40

The Parish is grateful to all who have come on the recycling journey with them, and contributed their “waste” to be recycled, repurposed, and kept out of landfill sites, and hopes that the community will support the remaining schemes and the new waste streams.

Here’s some more information on what the scheme accepts and how to donate it:

The post Recycling with TerraCycle – Raising Funds for Charities and Protecting the Environment appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

Last week thousands of people took part in The Big Plastic Count. We should all be looking to reduce our use of single use plastic. Unfortunately, there are many items in our shops that are still wrapped in plastic. This cannot be recycled at home. For example, it is often difficult to buy fresh fruit and vegetables without them being wrapped in a soft plastic bag.

About a year ago, the Co-Op started a soft plastic recycling scheme, this initiative was soon followed by other supermarkets. This scheme now allows us to recycle almost any soft plastic at many supermarkets, for example crisp packets, food and pet pouches, plastic wrappers, any plastic film and any plastic bag.

The more soft plastic we take to the supermarket for recycling the less will go to general waste saving disposal costs for both for Stevenage and North Herts councils.
Hopefully, the more supermarkets have to dispose of, the sooner we will be able to buy more products without the single use plastic wrapper.

Please note that much of the plastic that can be taken to supermarkets still says on it “Not currently recycled”, “not to be recycled at home” or similar. Do take a look at the collection points at supermarkets and their websites to check what you can put in their soft plastic recycling units.

Jim Borcherds
Green Campaigner in Stevenage

The post Recycle your soft plastics: and encourage supermarkets to use less appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

It was interesting to read that of the two pledges that the Chair of Stevenage Labour Party, Jim Callaghan, chose to promote in his letter last week, one of them was “a vow to protect free parking in the High Street”.

This does not fit well with Stevenage Borough Council’s aim of becoming net zero for carbon by 2030. Transport is one of the biggest issues we must deal with if we are to address climate change.

We need to encourage the use of buses, cycling and walking in and around Stevenage so that many more people do not need to use a car for journeys that they are currently making. That is surely where the emphasis should lie, not on protecting car parking.

It does however reflect the true nature of the current administration which has overseen the removal of the Green Bike racks from the Old Town High Street, the last two were removed on Sunday 15 April and relocated to Hampson Park and the shop on Fisher’s Green Road.

This makes a mockery of the statement published in the Council’s Climate Change Annual Update of October 2021 in which it states: SBC ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2020-2021 New eye-catching cycle ranks and storage facilities in the Old and New Town centres – the very cycle parking it has now removed.

Quoting the result of a recent survey conducted by the Council; “Almost half of the respondents stated that the new green bike racks should remain as they are” – so much for listening to the public.

The bike racks have been removed before any replacements have been put in place.

Where are cycles supposed to be parked in the meantime?

Jim Borcherds

Green Campaigner in Stevenage

The post Green Party campaigner challenges Stevenage Labour over cycle parking facilities appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

Action needed to reach Net Zero by 2030

 In October 2020 one of our Stevenage members, Jim Borcherds, was invited by Stevenage Borough Council (SBC) to join a Citizens Panel on Climate Change. The panel was professionally moderated over four short sessions. The first two sessions were taken up with expert presentations while the last two were used by the participants to develop recommendations based on what they had heard. The speakers included the SBC portfolio holder for Environment and Regeneration; two primary school educationalists who reported younger children’s views and thoughts on Climate Change; speakers representing North Herts Friends of the Earth, Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the University of Hertfordshire chair for Planning and Urbanism.

Jim says he found the Panel very worthwhile and stimulating. He says that all 23 participants were fully engaged and felt their views had been heard. He is very disappointed though with SBC’s reaction to the Panel conclusions and recommendations. SBC reported the Panel’s four headline recommendations but haven’t published the report, in fact, it has only recently been released to participants as a draft and is marked ‘for internal use only’.

The Panel’s headline recommendations were:-

1. Zero Food Waste Town
2. Establish a collaborative framework to achieve sustainable infrastructure to reduce pollution
3. Improve communications and recycling awareness incentives to public and commerce
4. Implement climate emergency education and create awareness for Stevenage residents, businesses and visitors

Not only have these recommendations not been implemented but the full conclusions of the panel’s deliberations have not been published. For example, no mention had been made of the recommendation for lockable bike shelters located at key sites around the town. Jim did challenge the Council at their meeting in July 2021 on the lack of progress and was told that the Council, together with Herts County Council, were working on the Council’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan.  In a detailed written response SBC stated that details of the cycling hangers had been widely communicated in various consultation documents and directly with interested groups. In addition, it was stated that the October 2021 update to the Climate Strategy would detail the panel’s findings and how they were being incorporated into actions in 2021/22. However, a search of the SBC website found no evidence of this. Jim points out that it was envisaged that there would be ongoing engagement between the Panel and the Council, but this too has not happened.  SBC is a member of the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership with 11 other local authorities but, except for ‘sustainable development’, SBC contributions to this group’s website all date from July 2020.

North Herts and Stevenage Green Party agree with Jim that SBC’s progress towards net zero is not matching the stated aspirations and more evidence of actions taken need to be seen to meet the Climate Emergency declared in 2019.

The post Stevenage Citizens’ Panel on Climate Change appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

In October 2020 one of our Stevenage members, Jim Borcherds, was invited by Stevenage Borough Council (SBC) to join a Citizens Panel on Climate Change. The panel was professionally moderated over four short sessions. The first two sessions were taken up with expert presentations while the last two were used by the participants to develop recommendations based on what they had heard. The speakers included the SBC portfolio holder for Environment and Regeneration; two primary school educationalists who reported younger children’s views and thoughts on Climate Change; speakers representing North Herts Friends of the Earth, Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the University of Hertfordshire chair for Planning and Urbanism.

Jim found the Panel very worthwhile and stimulating. He says that all 23 participants were fully engaged and felt their views had been heard. He is very disappointed though with SBC’s reaction to the Panel conclusions and recommendations. SBC reported the Panel’s four headline recommendations but haven’t published the report, in fact, it has only recently been released to participants as a draft and is marked ‘for internal use only’.

The Panel’s headline recommendations were:-

1. Zero Food Waste Town
2. Establish a collaborative framework to achieve sustainable infrastructure to reduce pollution
3. Improve communications and recycling awareness incentives to public and commerce
4. Implement climate emergency education and create awareness for Stevenage residents, businesses and visitors

Not only have these recommendations not been implemented but the full conclusions of the panel’s deliberations have not been published. For example, no mention had been made of the recommendation for lockable bike shelters located at key sites around the town. Jim did challenge the Council at their meeting in July 2021 on the lack of progress and was told that the Council, together with Herts County Council, were working on the Council’s Climate Strategy and Action Plan.  In a detailed written response SBC stated that details of the cycling hangers had been widely communicated in various consultation documents and directly with interested groups. In addition, it was stated that the October 2021 update to the Climate Strategy would detail the panel’s findings and how they were being incorporated into actions in 2021/22. However, a search of the SBC website found no evidence of this. Jim points out that it was envisaged that there would be ongoing engagement between the Panel and the Council, but this too has not happened.  SBC is a member of the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership with 11 other local authorities but, except for ‘sustainable development’, SBC contributions to this group’s website all date from July 2020.

North Herts and Stevenage Green Party agree with Jim that SBC’s progress towards net zero is not matching the stated aspirations and more evidence of actions taken need to be seen to meet the Climate Emergency declared in 2019.

The post Stevenage Citizens’ Panel on Climate Change appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.

We are delighted to announce that Anni Sander, the Co-Chair of North Hertfordshire and Stevenage Green Party, received a Green Award as part of this year’s North Herts Council’s Chair’s Community Recognition Awards at the ceremony held on Friday the 10^th of March.

These Awards recognise the impact and the work that individuals have done in our community and this was a great way to recognise Anni’s tireless and wide-ranging work on local green issues, while also raising awareness and community participation in reducing pollution and waste that comes from overconsumption.

Anni started Plastic Free Hitchin three years ago as an initiative to free Hitchin of single-use plastic and unnecessary waste. As part of this initiative, Anni worked with business and communities to make them aware of waste that results from their operations and help them find less damaging alternatives.  The local businesses that pledge to eliminate single-use plastic are honoured by the group as Plastic Free Champions. Plastic Free Hitchin also works with Hitchin Forum to support their big litter picks.

Two spin-offs emerged from Plastic Free Hitchin: Nappies library and Repair Cafe. The former is currently offering reusable nappies rental in Hitchin and North Herts. Repair Cafe has lined up cooperation with campaigns in Letchworth to raise awareness about waste. Repair cafe is a volunteer-run repair shop offering help in fixing items that might otherwise go to waste.

Anni joined the team running the Hitchin Reuse Group four years ago helping it to grow into a successful platform with over 5000 members. The Reuse group is a forum allowing members to share items and food, thus helping divert 100s of items from waste every week.

We congratulate Anni on this well-deserved award and wish her every success in her future projects!

The post Anni Sander wins Green Award appeared first on North Herts & Stevenage Green Party.