Environment Monday - The Hottest Summer on Record - A guest blog by Ben Samuel

Ben Samuels

By Ben Samuel

I can safely say that it will be the hottest summer breaking records yet again. Without even looking it up, because such is the pace of global heating. Our borough is no different. Mill Hill is no different.


The other day I was at a gardening customer, dealing with the moth that only eats box. Picking through, they can be manually squashed. Others might use insecticide. It’s a form of chemical warfare against insects. I don’t know if many people think about it, that these chemicals might effect the environment too. Glyphosate, whose trademark name goes as Roundup, is a weed killer available to garden amateur consumers and councils alike. Barnet Council passed a motion with a diluting amendment from the Conservatives, following a campaign by Pesticides Action Network. Though called pesticide-free, they’re not campaigning for their total elimination, just to stop the blanket spraying that might go on, the squirting of the herbicide weedkiller on our pavements. I see it as a political signal from the suburbs, that the countryside needs to be managed in a different way too: to end the chemical warfare. I have a friend who is seriously allergic to these chemicals and could die from a very dilute exposure a mile away, and gets very sick. By law, those spraying should notify her by calling her before doing so, so she can stay inside for that day. Barnet Council don’t bother. We heard all this at Barnet Council’s environment committee, who invited her to speak for 7 minutes. The Conservatives tabled a motion to further cut the speaking time at these meetings. It’s very difficult to speak because as ordinary people we have to read hundreds of pages of reports and   agendas and meet the deadline and give them written notice what we’re going to say.

Anyway, the third environment issue I want to raise on this blog is the fact that many local residents get their food in plastic packaging. Food waste and plastic packaging all add to the stream of domestic waste and this is a problem. Many years ago I took a degree in chemistry. No matter how great the end of pipe filter, that they put on the North London Incinerator expansion, it’s not as good as producing less burnable rubbish in the first place. If indeed our rubbish goes into the incinerator, not all of it will disappear at the end. Any Bachelor of Science of Chemistry graduate with honours can tell you that rubble won’t burn, no matter what technology will use. You just take it in the truck half way across the North Circular Road, Up the A10, load it into the burner and set it on fire. The energy recovered from the rubbish then heats up the rubble, in stead of generating heat or power that can be of profit to the North London Waste Authority. What happens in reality is that there is an economic incentive built into the future operation of the burner, to send more recyclable stuff to not be recycled into useful materials. The plastic burns and additives sort of melt down and it all turns into a toxic ash. If I were to dump the rubble from my little home refurbishment in Summer’s Lane municipal recycling centre, they would probably recycle it for me, turning it into new aggregate, but charge me for doing the right thing. I’m not very pleased with the way the Government rewards me for trying my best to recycling properly. So my number one tip is buy less stuff.

Lately it’s at a meeting of Barnet Rebels – the local group of extinction rebellion – that Roger has suggested Barnet Rebels contribute a guest blog to Environment Monday. There may even be one coming up not about environment, from a retired teacher. Some of the local group were involved centrally in the protests for London Climate Week which we code-named Operation Mushroom. We pledged to go on tax strike until the GLA stopped putting money into un-sustainable projects: The Edmonton Incinerator, and the Silvertown Tunnel and associated concrete works. Actions Barnet Rebels propose to do locally to tackle the Earth Crisis. Something at Brent Cross?

A transport related bicycle swarm World Car-free day is September 22nd Guerilla,  gardening group– to green our surroundings up and provide a habitat for natural creatures A packaging action – to give local shoppers in the supermarket to leave their unwanted packaging tobe sent backNorth London Uprising – We want our brown bin food waste recycling collection brought back! I hope to have more debate around the North London incinerator project, because there are a lot of complex options and arguments swirling around the internet!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Samuel is a Barnet Resident, member of the Barnet Green Party and supporter of the Extinction Rebellion Campaign.

The Barnet Eye welcomes guest blogs. Why not use our platform to make your case at The Barnet Eye, Click here to send us your submission. 

You've Bin Conned!!! Tories break their election promise after three weeks

Tory Pledges

Three weeks ago the Barnet Tories won a spectacular election based on the premise that they'd keep the weekly bin collections. What they didn't say is that rules and conditions apply. As with many things to do with the Barnet Tories, *Conditions may apply. 

In this case, there is a fairly major condition. They are proposing to cancel all collections of food waste and all the of garden waste for the winter period. The justification for doing this is that there is a lower volume of garden waste produced in the winter. For many keen gardeners, the winter period is one of intensive preparations and reconfigurations of gardens. Whilst plants are dormant, old flower beds, shrubs etc can be removed and replanted. Now residents will be faced with a situation where once your bin is full, you are stuck. One does not have to be a genius to figure out that when the service restarts, many bins will be full to bursting and that rounds will take far longer top complete. How long will it take to get the service back to normal.

The council has also announced that the dedicated Food Recycling scheme is being abolished. Sadly rather than creating energy through anaerobic digestion processes, it will now be sent to be burned, producing emissions. I m concerned that Barnet may be increasing its contribution to Greenhouse and CO2 emissions.

The council are also removing the small recycling bring sites, which are designed for residents of flats with no access to recycling sites. One of the reasons they cite is that causes fly tipping. To quote the report

"While the Bring Bank service provides a means for a limited number of residents to recycle who may not have direct access to a household collection (such as residents of flats that are not served using communal recycling bins) the service also generates significant costs to the Recycling and Waste, and Street Cleansing operations due to the need to regularly clear fly tipped materials that arise around the banks."

This is a calamitous example of things not being thought through. Let's take a step back. At present, fly tippers are concentrating activities in localised spots around the bins. Not ideal, but as they are all in one spot, manageable. Without the recycling locations, the flytippers will not disappear, they will simple do what other flytippers are doing on a regular basis and pick another spot, usually a secluded spot on one of Barnets picturesque country lanes.

I have submitted three questions for the committee. I know that our councillors find such public interest boring, but some of us do consider it important (Mr Frost is the council officer responsible for collating questions) - You can read the full report here.

Dear Mr Frost,
I have three public questions for above listed meeting.
1. With regards to removal of recycling drop off points. One of the justifications for the removal of this service is that the sites are used for flytipping, which is adding costs to the budget. It seems unlikely that flytippers will desist in their activities, just because the recycling points are removed. The most likely result is an increase in flytipping at secluded spots and areas of natural beauty. This will have a greater impact on residents and will most likely increase costs, as the chaotic nature of the distribution will make it more costly to remove and more impacting on residents. Has any risk assessment or study been conducted to assess the relative costs of clearing up such randomly distributed waste vs the cost of regular planned cleaning of the drop off points? What are the comparative figures.
2. With regards to the suspension of Green Bin activities for three months, has any study been performed as to whether when the services are resumed, how long it will take to clear a three month backlog of waste? Does the council expect all green bins to be fully emptied in the first week of resumption.
3. With regards to the abolition of the existing food recycling scheme, please can you supply the comparative estimated impact on CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gasses as a result of the planned change. Will the changes attract any additional greenhouse taxes gas taxes?
Regards
Roger Tichborne
PS I do hope that the administration does not find these questions too boring and can make time in their busy schedules to provide full and comprehensive answers