It has been too long since GC have put a post up on this website. Apologies for that, Cuckfield residents.
A drop in temperature and the Autumn leaves beginning to fall prompts the beginning of a new year for Greener Cuckfield. So to get started we have two events for residents this month.
This year our Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 21st September at 8pm where our committee members will give our reports and nominate and vote for the seats on our committee. Will there be a reshuffle? You will have to attend or stay tuned to find out. One thing I can report in advance is that we have opened up a new seat for a ‘Vice Chair’.
All are welcome to the Annual General Meeting and we would love as many residents as possible. So if you are interested in coming, please do get in touch with us via Facebook or email us at hello at greenercuckfield dot org.
Our other upcoming event is our Energy & More event on Saturday 14th October at the Rose & Crown.
This event is going to be really informal and is being held on the day of Cuckfield Local Market giving you all the more reason to come!
The idea is that you can just walk into the pub and talk to any or all of our local specialists that you want to. This is a great opportunity if you have ever wanted to:
try a tool share or learn about one
create a wormery for your compost
install solar panels but never known where to start
find out more about insulation and how you can improve your energy at home
use a refillery but never been to one, or perhaps you have never heard of one and want to know more
find out about biodiversity in your garden and Cuckfield’s surrounding woods
find out what is good to be doing in the garden during Autumn months
There are, of course, other reasons why this will be such a great event. Above are just a few examples. Whatever your reason, we hope to see you there.
Finally, as the winter approaches, we will be starting a series of talks that will also be in a relaxed and informal fashion. They will be on a different topic with a different speaker for each event. But again, more details to come in due course.
We can all be home scientists just by observing and recording what is going on around us. Many organisations rely on citizen science (aka crowd science) to get data. This data can make a real difference to where organisations might start projects, what they might ask the government to change and the money they might be able to get to fund their work.
You can have a major role in these citizen science projects. Right now conservation organisations across the UK are asking individuals like you to help them with their important conservation work. There is no way that without members of the public these groups can get a real picture of animal, plant or insect populations right across the country. Take a look at the studies you could be a part of right now:
Butterfly Conservation’s Big Buttery Count From now until 7th August Butterfly Conservation are asking you to spare 15 minutes to identify and count the butterflies and day flying moths in the area where you are. This could be out on a walk or in your local park or back garden.
Swift Mapper The RSPB together with other conservation groups are asking us to record swift numbers on their Swift Mapper. This time of year, you might hear the screaming of swifts up and down the streets where you live. These incredible birds travel all the way from Africa to nest here in the UK and the RSPB want to know if you hear groups of swifts (called a screaming party), if you know where there is a nest or even a swift nest box.
Great Eggcase Hunt If you are heading to the beach this summer, the Shark Trust are interested in the shark and ray egg cases you might find on the shoreline. Known as mermaid’s purses these fascinating egg shells can be seen all over beaches in the UK and will give the Shark Trust a good idea of how different populations of sharks and rays are doing in our waters.
National Bat Monitoring Programme The Bat Conservation Trust would like your help to keep a track of where the bats are hanging in the UK. They have a number of different monitoring projects they want you to get involved with. You can do a sunset survey, a night watch or a boost count if you have a bat roost near you. If you know how to use a bat detector – the device which can pick up the bats high pitched calls – you could also take part in a full survey.
Mammal Mapper If you love our furry four legged friends you might want to take part in the Mammal Society‘s Mammal Mapper app. You can record the signs of mammals – such as dropping, footprints or the mammals themselves, when out and about on a walk, run, cycle or even as a car passenger. The Mammal Society are asking all citizen scientist to help them collect this important biological data so they can keep an eye on mammal populations.
Every Flower Counts White clover, self-heal or something rarer – what wonders are cropping up on your lawn or greenspace this July? Take part in #EveryFlowerCounts to find out. It’s fun, free and helps Plantlife to better understand our grasslands. The second Every Flower Counts survey starts today and says it runs until the 17 July, though we believe you can still submit your results at the moment. No matter how you’ve been managing your lawn, or whether you took part in the first survey in May, you can still take part and find out how many pollinators are benefitting from the floral feast you’ve created. Click here to take part.
These are just some of the ways you can help conservationists across the UK to help protect our beautiful and diverse animals. If you come across any more then please comment on this blog and we can share. Or email us at hello@greenercuckfield.org
Please send your submissions to hello@greenercuckfield.org by 31 August 2022. We will announce the winners on 6th September 2022.
Two categories are Under 10s and 11 Plus
When entering please include the details below in the body of the email:
> Name of Photographer > Age of Photographer > Title of Photograph (if there is one) > Name of Photographer’s Parent/Guardian > Telephone Number of Photographer’s Parent/Guardian
Please also include NATURE COMPETITION in the subject line.
Good Luck everyone. We can’t wait to see your entries!
So please find below the whole talk kindly hosted and recorded by Fairer World Lindfield. I realise not everyone has a spare hour and twenty minutes to watch its entirety. So to save time, please find below the video a description of where to skip to, depending on what you are most curious about.
However, if you do have time to watch it, it is definitely worth it. Jen Gale has many easy-to-do ideas, tips and information relating to sustainability. She is also very down-to-earth and relatable.
skip to 2m 00s for MY STORY… An introduction of the talk called, Sustainable(ish) in Sixty Minutes and a little bit about the speaker Jen Gale including her accomplishments such as setting up an online community of over 60,000 taking part in imperfect eco action.
skip to 10m51s for THE PROBLEM Jen explains why there is such a great need for sustainability. Mostly explaining what is happening to our planet because of greenhouse gases. She summarises this into five key points relating to current climate change issues.
skip to 16m06s for THE SOLUTION Leading with the quote from Dr. Jane Goodall, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” Jen talks about how you can make a difference just by making better decisions more of the time. You do not need to bust a gut changing everything in your life for the good of the planet. You just need to take small sustainable steps that work with your life.
skip to 17m 0sec for THE POWER OF YOU This is where you can learn what the point is of taking those small steps even though others may not be. Jen elaborates on how and why you have power as a consumer, a citizen, an influencer and a change agent. Thus proving how your efforts to live more sustainably can have such a huge impact on those around you. She gives an example of her workplace when she used to be a vet. It really wound Jen up that there was no recycling and at first she didn’t say anything because she didn’t think she had agency to. However when she eventually did raise the issue, she was met positively by her bosses saying they were happy to do so if she could do some initial research. Point being: you can but ask if you want to make a difference.
skip to 26m49s for DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABLE(ISH) A term coined by Jen herself. It is the idea that we can be sustainable and live our lives. We just all need to realise that we are going to start from a different point and therefore will each make different changes.
skip to 29m45s for CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION A plethora of relatively easy tips and good ideas for things you can do at home and in your life to cut down your carbon emissions.
skip to 40m32s for ZERO WASTE(ISH) Jen illustrates why we need to prevent waste with some important and interesting facts. Such as the fact that the average person in the UK will throw away their bodyweight in rubbish every 7 weeks. The feature of this segment is the waste hierarchy that shows how to make putting waste in landfill bins a last resort. For example, she points out you can ask yourself how to refuse buying balloons for celebrations or how to reduce your consumption of fashion.
skip to 48m20s for PLASTIC-FREE(ISH) Ridding yourself of single-use plastic is a tough one for many. Yet so important for the good of our oceans and our wildlife as well as the carbon emissions. Jen puts forward the ‘BIG FOUR’ items that you can swap for reusable versions. She breaks down the issues of plastic production into four main points.
skip to 51m58s for FOOD Another hot topic, food waste is responsible for a quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions. One great highlight of this slide is Jen’s suggestion to have an ‘Eat Me First’ Box in the larder or fridge (or both) to help prevent food waste.
skip to 54m22s for AT HOME Top tips here for changes you can make at home. One of her easiest tips is for you to delete and unsubscribe from emails. When you consider that our emails are all saved on servers, those servers are usually powered by fossil fuels and regardless of how they are powered, they consume a lot of energy – it is a no brainer. You can do this simple task while you watch the television or while waiting for the kettle to boil.
skip to 1h0m52s for DO ONE THING The conclusion and the question: what one thing can you do today?
skip to 1h02m21s for QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Take advantage of Jen’s expert advice and information coming from her experiences and research. Questions include:
What media and methods has Jen found best to capture peoples imagination and inspire them to start an eco-journey? What do your children think of your sustainable activities? What tips do you have on moving your pensions? Where do you shop? How do you avoid the plastics?
If you liked this talk and would like to watch more of the talks from The Great Big Green Week with Fairer World Cuckfield, please go to their YouTube page where you can find talks on:
Peter and Chris from Fairer World Lindfield also run a monthly climate cafe that is worth following. Each talk is online and varies widely in content from sustainable living to how to compost to circular economy. We would love to put on some talks of our own in Cuckfield, so if there is something you would like to know more about, please do let us know via email: hello@greenercuckfield.org
Until we meet again, thanks for your time, Cuckfielders and Mid Sussexonians.
In May 2020, Greener Cuckfield hosted its first talk thanks to guests Colin McFarlin and Joanne Clayton. Unfortunately, we did not record it so here is a summary for your perusal.
Did you know that recycling is actually all about reselling? Selling your recycling brings in funds for our council and other councils around the country. On the other hand, sending recycling to Landfill is expensive and heavily taxed by our government. All topics of which we explored during our talk with Colin.
All our recycling goes to the recycling plant (the MRF) at Ford, Nr Arundel. 69,800 tonnes of recycling are sold on to markets from all of your West Sussex recycling. Of that amount, last year’s numbers show that 46.05 per cent was paper and card and 30.6 per cent was glass bottles and jars. All recyclable and reused over and over again. However, 9.18% was contaminated and had a further journey to the MBT.
MBT is the West Sussex County Council (WSCC) plant in Horsham where all of our black bin waste goes. It is shredded and then mechanically separated into paper, plastic and metals. The plastics and paper will be turned into refuse derived fuel, fuel pellets for industry, and the metals will be sent for recycling. Any biodegradable waste will be sent to the anaerobic digestion tanks. The rest of the waste which is usually around a quarter of the total amount cannot be recycled and goes on to landfill. The good news is that this has gone down by nearly 3 per cent last year so we are on the right track.
Landfill Tax means that £96.70 per tonne goes straight to the government. If you are anything like me and a bit rubbish with visualising big volumes remember that one bin lorry can hold roughly 10 tonnes of waste. With gate fees and costs that means one bin lorry of landfill costs around £1,500 if going to landfill. Reducing landfill by 1 per cent would save WSCC £200,000. You can imagine the good we could all do with that money. Recycling in West Sussex saved our county council £5.8 million last year in avoiding Landfill Tax.
WSCC has many initiatives in the pipeline including facilitating clothing, food waste and absorbent hygiene products to be recycled. Post lockdown education is an important part of their plans. The team are hoping to offer educational talks to schools, colleges and groups as well as site visits to Ford MRF and Horsham MBT.
One project that has already come to fruition is that you can now recycle small electrical items with your rubbish bin. WSCC are offering discounted compost bins on their website.
Whether West Sussex recycling can get the amount of contaminated recycling down from 9 per cent to 6 per cent is largely up to individual households. It is in everyone’s interests to do so because recycling earns. The West Sussex County Council can actually profit from our recycling bins whereas it costs to recycle from rubbish bins.
Although West Sussex is currently doing well with a recycling rate of 53% (national figure 44.7%) we could still be doing better. From all that is disposed of in the black bins around 40 per cent of the total is food waste and 19 per cent is ending up in the wrong bin. So you can see by collecting food waste separately our households will greatly reduce the volume and smells in your black top rubbish bin.
Apart from knowing what to put in the right bins, we can help prevent waste by using other options. Wraps and packaging are a pest for most waste conscious people. One solution is Terracycling which means you can get rid of a lot of things that can’t be recycled at the kerbside For instance, crisp packets, cheese packets, plastic soap dispenser pumps, toothpaste tubes etc.
At the moment Greener Cuckfield only collects the crisp packets for the village. We are working on creating more convenient ways for residents to get rid of these items but until then you will need to drop to Joanne at Haywards Heath Recyclers. You do not need to sort these into separate bags for each product or material but do make sure that the waste you are bringing to Joanne are the right materials. Find Joanne on Facebook ‘Haywards heath Recyclers’ for full list and her address.
Did you know that plastic bags, bread bags are all the things you can now take to any major supermarket? Or that milk bottle tops can go to Cuckfield Local Market? The Tip is always good for getting rid of larger items or for a good spring clean but don’t forget you also have kerbside charity collection bags, Facebook, charity shops, eBay and repair cafes.
If you have any questions or you want to find out more about what to recycle have a look at Colin’s Facebook Group, ‘Colin Waste Prevention Advisor’ For those not on Facebook, you could also keep an eye on Cuckfield Life as Colin regularly writes articles with lots of facts that can increase awareness.
For a full overview of how to prepare your recycling check out this WSCC Recycling Page
Greener Cuckfield would love to hear from people who have recycling hacks and tips for their kitchen. Especially if it is a kitchen with small space. How do you sort and get rid of yours? Email hello@greenercuckfield.org and let us know.
Hedgehogs are very cute and cuddly but did you know that their numbers are going down rapidly? Read this guide to see how you can help hedgehogs.
A hedgehog has between 5000 and 7000 quills so why can’t they fend for themselves? It’s because we are bigger, and faster, and stronger. So yeah. Also, hedgehogs can’t see very well so they have to smell and hear their way out of a situation.
“A hedgehog has between 5000 and 7000 quills”
In the autumn try not to step on big mounds of leaves because a hedgehog might be hibernating in one. They are extremely adaptable so one might be living in your garden!
Guess what… Hedgehogs weren’t always called Hedgehogs! They used to be called Urchins which led to the naming of Sea Urchins! Also… If a hedgehog smells or tastes something really strong, it will attempt to cover itself in foamy saliva, much like a cat cleaning itself!
2. If you know there is a hedgehog living in your garden and you want to help feed it leave it dog/cat food not milk as it damages their digestion system.
We are so lucky in Cuckfield to have two beautiful woods right on our doorsteps. In both New England Wood and Blunts Wood the bluebells are on the very verge of exploding into their annual sapphire blue. Bluebells flower anytime between mid-April right to late May depending on how mild the weather has been. They are quite early this year so can be seen right next to white wood anemones, vivid yellow lesser celandine, and the beautifully fragile looking light pink cuckooflower. The cuckooflower (aptly named for Cuckfield!) seems to be more abundant this year than last year when my daughters and I were taking our Covid exercise in New England Wood nearly daily, watching the seasons pass. This year there are large sun-speckled patches of the pretty flower near the banks of the stream in Blunts Wood, a habitat they prefer. Also known as lady’s smock, the cuckooflower blooms from April until June which coincides with the arrival of the cuckoo from sub-Saharan Africa.
Whilst thinking about cuckoos I came across a tracking project run by the British Trust of Ornithologists. One particular bird, named PJ, is as I type, in Southern Spain and has flown all the way from Angola, through Gabon, Togo, Ghana and crossed the Sahara Desert. PJ will finally make it to Suffolk where he will breed before turning round in July and making the whole epic journey back again – awesome. I know cuckoos get a bad reputation for using other species nests and parents to bring up their own oversized chicks, but you have to respect such an incredible journey. Hat’s off to PJ! https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project.
I haven’t heard a cuckoo yet this year, but I think I spotted another of the epic travellers last week – a swallow. My very favourite arrival though, is the sickle shaped form of the swift. Incredibly swifts make their 5000 km migration from West Africa to the UK in only five days – swift indeed! When the young start flying in June and July you might hear their high-pitched calls (screaming parties) as they swoop and roll over our gardens and roads. My Dad’s garden in Warninglid gets a particularly exciting aeronautic display each year. If you are lucky enough to live near a swift nesting site or see a screaming party the RSPB would love to hear about it. Numbers of swifts have dropped over the last decades and mapping where they nest can help organisations such as RSPB and Action for Swifts work out which areas need protection and where to provide nesting boxes.
Jump to Recipe In the hopes that I can have my sewing friends over again soon, I’ve been brewing various concoctions with which to ply them, including naturally carbonated drinks made with my turmeric bug. As with a ginger bug or sourdough starter, microbes on turmeric and in the air, even on your hands, transform simple…
On average, clothing and textiles will make up roughly 2 per cent of your annual footprint. However, the footprint of fast fashion buyers is thought to be five or ten times that. The good news is that we can still get our shopping fix and look fabulous without destroying the planet. Here is some ideas to slower living
BUY SECOND-HAND
Right in our little village we have Edit Secondhand. The best thing about shopping second hand is that you are not directly supporting things like animal cruelty, child labour and you are saving beautiful garments from going to landfill. Another practical aspect with this store is that it specialises in quality, luxury brands so the items should all be built to last: the definition of sustainable!
If the items are out of your price range, there are plenty of great online second-hand shops including Brighton based Beyond Retro and Oxfam.
REPAIR AND REWEAR
If your clothes need repair, don’t throw them away. You have options. There are quite a few repair cafes not too far from Cuckfield. For example, Horsham Repair Café offers a free monthly repair service and – with the help of their textile volunteers – you can even learn how to do some creative upcycling for yourself. Even closer we have Hassocks Repair Café every fourth Saturday of the month, and one in Burgess Hill due to open once restrictions allow.
CLOTHES SWAP
Although unlikely you will see any clothes swap events in the flesh until the coronavirus pandemic is over there are new digital options available. Swopped.co.uk offers a point system whereby you can gain points for items you send in and spend them
BUY ETHICALLY SOURCED
New online shop Cuckfield-based Blossom & Roar focuses on offering brands that are sustainable and practice ethical retail. These are beautiful designs from small and independent companies. Your wallet will a lot lighter after shopping here but as fashion queen, Vivienne Westwood, famously said, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.”
GET SOME ADVICE
If you are planning on a spring clean and a complete wardrobe overhaul, there is a local service called Finely Tuned Wardrobe that offers styling advice and a reselling service with sustainability in mind. For the latest advice and news on ethical fashion, it is always worth checking out Ethical Consumer. This magazine covers more detailed insights broad range of topics from the slow movement to how current consumer trends affect our planet.
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These are just some ideas to get started with slower movement in fashion. There are too many to mention in one post just as there are too many shops and organisations moving away from fast fashion. Perhaps the above suggestions seem a bit overwhelming but even if you just made one change, you would be reducing waste in landfill and subsequently carbon emissions.
If sustainable fashion is something you are passionate about, we would love to hear from you or do feel free to comment below.
Greener Cuckfield 