Having picked up your £10 compost bin (see previous article), why not come along to Transition Bookham's September open meeting, on Wednesday 21st, when Catherine Porter of SITA (pictured above, second from left) will be talking about 'Home Composting'.

For those without a compost bin, there'll be a chance to win one, and there will be some free seeds and information material on offer as well.

The venue is St Nicolas Church's Pastoral Centre (at the rear of the churchyard, path behind the bell tower or beside 'Heads Up' barber in Church Road - beneath the green arrow on the map), Great Bookham, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

On Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March, 28 homeowners throughout Surrey will open their doors to the public, to share their knowledge and experience about making their own homes more energy efficient and ecologically sustainable. Homeowners will be able to report on how these changes have affected their fuel bills, and the comfort of their homes.

Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns at the global environment charity WWF, said "WWF is pleased to see so many green homes opening their doors to inspire others". This event has been organised by Action Surrey, in partnership with local environmental volunteer groups across the County.

To find out more, and to book free tickets, please visit the Action Surrey website.

Transition Bookham's monthly open meeting for February 2011 is next Wednesday, the 16th, and we're very fortunate to have Carmela Tomkins (who worked with Surrey waste partnership, in support of the 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign) coming to talk to us about reducing food waste.

With 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink going to waste each year in the UK, come and hear what Carmela has to say, and see her demonstrating ways to use up 'leftovers'.

As usual the meeting is from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at St Nicolas church's Pastoral Centre (in the rear corner of the churchyard, accessible from the path behind the clock tower, or the alleyway next to the new barbers in Church Street), in the centre of Great Bookham.

BuyMyTronics is a US company that offers cash for gadgets - wherever you are in the world. They promise to resell, refurbish, or ethically recycle your gizmo. Unfortunately, outside the US you have to pay for postage.

According to this report on the BBC's web site, smart electricity meters in UK homes won't help reduce electricity usage (and thereby bills and CO2) if they do not have a display! What a shocker!

Luckily, the ones we lend out for free do!

Surrey Waste Partnership are reviewing their Plan for Waste Management in Surrey and want you to help shape it. Please take part in their public consultation between 17 May and 12 August 2010 and tell them your views.

Do mention the need to encourage waste reduction, in the first instance, and the requirement for plastic recycling collection, perhaps in place of the now removed bottle banks. This could be provided by Recresco, who currently just collect Tetra Paks.

On Saturday 3 July North Leatherhead Community Group is undertaking `The Big Tidy Up' and is looking for volunteers to help out with litter picking from 10am until 4.00pm. If you would like to get involved, meet at the Tesco's entrance to the woods at 10.00am.

This promises to be a fun day out for all the family ending in a free BBQ at 4.30pm at the Fire & Iron Gallery. There will also be prizes, stickers, food and drinks through out the day. The Group is looking for the local community to come with their family and help whilst having fun. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about the area, hidden to many, that is full of history! Prizes will be awarded for the most unusual item found and maybe, just maybe, there will be gold in the woods! Everyone is welcome, even if you can only spare 10 minutes.

The area behind Tesco's in North Leatherhead holds many historical remains, from the Romans to an old brick works that used to be on the site many years ago. There have been lots of remarkable finds, including Roman coins. Since then litter, fly tipping and years of mess and grime have blanketed the area, making the land look unsightly and deterring visitors. However, underneath lies a wonderful woodland with many rare plants and invertebrates, waiting to be uncovered.

`The Big Tidy Up' is organised by North Leatherhead Community Group and supported by Tesco's, The Fire and Iron Gallery, Mole Valley District Council, Mole Valley Housing Association, Crime Disorder Reduction Partnership and further supporters.

For more information and to get involved with The Big Tidy Up Please Contact Simon Woodhams, North Leatherhead Community Group Project Worker on 01372 361082 or email swoodhams.lcg@live.com

Precycling is all about cutting down on unnecessary waste, so you don't need to dispose of, or recycle, as much, thus saving resources, energy and the need to collect, sort and process recyclables.

Surrey County Council (SCC) announced in December that there are no longer plans to build Energy from Waste incinerators in Surrey. Instead they are planning an Eco Park in Shepperton that will have an anaerobic digester (AD) to handle all Surrey’s domestic food waste. SCC is already working with the District and Borough Councils on separate food collections which should be operating throughout the county by the time the digester is ready.

This is good news of course, but is it the best option? The Green Mole Forum has set up a group to study this and we have met the SCC manager responsible for developing these plans. We learnt that SCC has only studied a single site to handle all of Surrey’s domestic food waste, but agreed there are viable alternatives that they have not studied properly. Importantly they haven’t considered having a number of local AD plants instead of one big plant, nor have they considered commercial food waste or farm waste as a possible feedstock for the plants. Smaller plants have a number of advantages including:

We have recently taken a big step forward by commissioning a student at Surrey University's Centre for Environment Strategy (CES) to carry out a thorough study of large versus local AD plants. Using Life Cycle Analysis, a study technique for which CES has an international reputation, it'll work out the best environmental option and will be her MSc project.

An important early part of the work will be collecting data from Mole Valley’s cafes, pubs, sandwich shops, school canteens, etc. to estimate how much commercial food waste is produced. SCC estimate that it could be about the same quantity as the total domestic food waste.

Once again, the Woodland Trust are offering recycling facilities for your Christmas cards throughout January. There is a poster on the Epsom Tower noticeboard giving more details - cards can either be taken to WH Smith, Marks & Spencer or TKMaxx - or you can just leave them in the box in the Tower. The scheme ends on 31 January.

This is a great way of recycling your cards. Over the 12 years that the scheme has been running, 600m cards have been recycled. This has had two readily measurable benefits: firstly, 141,000 new trees have been planted, and secondly, 12,000 tonnes of paper and card have not been landfilled, thus saving 16,000 tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

The Woodland Trust's website (www.woodlandtrust.org.uk) also has an important reminder about reducing and reusing things  before we worry about recycling - these early steps in the waste process are even more effective ways of cutting down on landfill and reducing our carbon footprints. For reducing they suggest simply refusing plastic carrier bags wherever possible - something I'm sure that many of us do automatically now. For reusing we can support organisations such as Green Metropolis (an online second hand bookshop - www.greenmetropolis.com), but charity shops and high street second hand bookshops are non-online ways of doing the same thing. An "inhouse" way to reuse birthday cards is to either make "eco-cards" yourself, or pass them on to the Tots Alive! children who like cutting them up and sticking them - just leave any cards in the box in the Tower.

Another way to reduce, reuse and recycle is to learn how to knit or crochet, remodel your own clothes, or even just mend them by stitching on buttons and making repairs. If this appeals, Dorking Stitch Up could be the new group for you. They meet on the second Saturday morning each month in the Christian Centre in Dorking, see www.transitiondorking.org for more details.