RIBI ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY GROUP

NEWSLETTER FOR CLUBS & DISTRICTS SEPTEMBER 2014

LET’S DO IT – CLEAN-UP DAY 13

SEPTEMBER 2014

Sorry this is very short notice, but we have

just been asked to support this project

which has been highly successful in a

number of other countries. We live in a

throw-away society and it is time we did

something about it. Those of you who

have been only holiday will, no doubt,

have come across beaches strewn with rubbish, the sea with plastic and indescribable items floating in it,

countryside with rubbish piled up where someone has indiscriminately tipped it. Have a look at their web

site www.youtube.com/user/letsdoitworld.

"LDIUK is part of the global umbrella Let’s do it! World: an international network of clean up campaigns.

Let’s do it! began in Estonia in 2008 when 50,000 people came together to clean up their entire country – in

one day! Today, Let’s do it! is a global network of anti-litter campaigns that has taken place in over 100

countries, engaging over 10 million volunteers. Litter is a problem we all share, and this has been expressed

in the response seen in other countries. In Romania, 250,000 people took part in the cleanup day, while

Slovenia inspired 289,000 to take action against litter. If you are able to join LDIUK on 13 September you

will be taking part in what could be the UK’s biggest volunteer action in history!"

It may be too late now for us to participate as the clean up date for us is the 13 September, but if you like to

pass this on to Clubs and Schools, maybe it is not too late. I am sure there will be another occasion next

year and we will try and get the information to you sooner. There is a useful poster which can be found on

http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c12a21f428ecf68a966fc3df6&id=1f17ed4331 THE WOODLAND TRUST Packs of 30 trees have now been sold out, but packs of 105 and 420 may still be available for planting this November if you apply NOW. Closing date is the 5th September. Free trees for planting for delivery in March 2015 will then become available in all categories from the 6th September. They have 4 million trees available over the next 4 years to be planted in memory of those who fought in World War One. Please look at the Woodland Trust web site for more details. ECO SCHOOLS

At the start of a new school term may also be a good time to see how your local schools are doing with the environment. You can ascertain from the Eco Schools web site whether the schools in your area have registered and at what stage each has reached, bronze, silver or green flag, and the date the school achieved that level. You may find that they have stalled at a particular level, and this may be due to the fact that the teacher responsible for the environment has left, and no-one has taken over. On the other hand they may have just achieved a new level recently which will show they are active. If you can, contact the teacher responsible and see if there is any help you can give them. You may be able to do a joint bulb

or tree planting by finding suitable sites through your Local Authority for example. There are all sorts of opportunities to help. Please see the leaflet on the RIBI web site. Have a look also at ECO ROTARY CLUBS which is based on the same idea and is aimed at encouraging Clubs to have at least an Environmental Officer, but even better an Environmental Committee carrying out projects in their community. For ideas on this, again see the web site.

COMPOSTING Soon the leaves will start to fall! If you have not already done any composting and have a bit of space to do it in your garden, this might be a good time to start. There will also be all the cutting down in the garden, and rather than just put everything into the brown bin or whatever your local Council collection bin is coloured for garden waste, you can make your own compost. The leaflet on the RIBI web site tells you what to do, what to put in it, and what mix you need. There is a certain satisfaction about being able to put your own compost round your plants to help them over the winter, and also use it for potting up. BICYCLE RECYCLING Bicycles are still needed and it is a simple task to collect 40 or 50 unwanted bikes which an then make a worthwhile number to be collected. We have had quite a few ‘yellow’ bikes from the Tour de France which we have managed to find a home for, but below is an interesting letter from Margaret Palmer-Jones which we have her permission to publish which reads:- ‘We spoke some time ago about needing bicycles to send to India to help diabetic children to access their clinic for medication and also to attend school and therefore have an education to help them find work. My granddaughter Lucy Laycock has received charitable status for the charity she has set up with friends, after she visited The Pendsey Trust in India three years so. She was so moved by what she saw that she felt she had to do something to help. As I told you this year’s big fundraising effort was to be accessing bicycles. You were able to suggest that I contact the Margaret Carey Foundation which I did and out of that contact 100 bikes are now on the way to India.’ This is a completely new outlet, as previously most have been going to Eastern Europe or Africa. Please see the leaflet on the web site for more details or contact me.

FRACKING Last month I said that I hoped to have available a Power Point Presentation and notes for Clubs to be able to

put on their own talk about Fracking. Unfortunately Keith Tovey, who was doing this for me, has been very

busy and also has recently had some investigative surgery in hospital. I hope he will be sufficiently

recovered to enable me to put it with the October Newsletter, so please watch this space!

EASYFUNDRAISING Just a follow-up on last month’s newsletter to see whether you have been able to register your Rotary Club

and begin having the benefit of money for nothing for your charity account. If you have, you need to get

your members on board to use the site. We are all rather lazy about doing anything about it, but it is so

simple, when buying anything on-line, to click onto the Easyfundraising site first and then they can link you

direct to the site from which you were going to buy, and a percentage of what you do buy is then credited to

your chosen charity.

RIBI WEB PAGE LINK http://www.ribi.org/members/humanitarian-service-programmes/community/environment-sustainability-group/environment-projects/ takes you direct to our web page on the RIBI web site. Copy and paste it onto your server. There you will find leaflets on all the subjects above as well as many others which I am sure you will find useful. I am still getting people telling me they are having trouble getting through to the new RIBI web site, so please feel free to contact me if you want any leaflets or information.

Where you are able to access the leaflet, if you need any more information, please contact the person, Club or Organisation named on the leaflet or me, Terry Knowles, Secretary of the RIBI Environmental Sustainability Group, 13a Old Barber, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 3DF E-mail :- TERUNA2@aol.com Tel 01423 525014 (Please note that I will be away from the 2

nd to 6

th September – at a Rotary Reunion!).