TRT Extra (Autumn 2007) - Sustainability
Additional information on articles in the "Sustainability" section of Three Rivers Times.
Tree Mythology
The Ash - Fraxinus excelsior:
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In British folklore the ash was credited with a wide range of protective and healing powers, frequently related to child health. New-born babies were given a teaspoon of ash sap and ill children were passed naked through a cleft in an ash tree or sapling, to cure them of ailments.
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In some parts of England, children used to bring a twig of black-budded ash to school on Ash Wednesday. Children who failed to remember to bring this to school risked having their feet stamped on by the other ash-twig-bearing youngsters!
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The Ash tree has traditionally been seen as essentially 'feminine', known throughout folklore as 'The Lady' or 'Venus of the Woods'.
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The Ash can also be known as the 'tree of life' in Norse mythology, as its limbs were seen to form a link between the Gods, mankind and the dead.
The Beech - Fagus sylvatica:
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The beech tree is often regarded to be the 'Mother of the Woods', as it protects with its substantial canopy and nurtures by offering food that can be eaten in a raw state.
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One of the Celtic traditions associated with the beech tree, is for people to tie wishes to their branches, in the hope that those wishes would be collected by the 'Wishing Fairies'.
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Fallen beech branches were believed to be invitations from the Wishing Fairies, encouraging people to submit a wish. It was thought that the branch, once pushed in to the earth, would be collected by the wishing fairies and carried deep into the underworld, for the Fairy Queen's consideration.
Plastic fantastic..?
Is the future of your town or village plastic bag free?
Earlier this year, Modbury in Devon became the first High Street in Europe to go plastic bag-free, after all 43 shops in the town signed up to a scheme to ban plastic carrier bags. Now residents in the town use a Modbury 'Bag For Life' to do their shopping and purchases are wrapped in cornstarch paper, cotton or cloth.
Did you know:
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Each year, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed world-wide. That works out at over one million per minute. Billions end up in landfill or as litter each year.
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On average, people use each plastic bag for 12 minutes before discarding it.
It then lasts in the environment for decades, polluting our food chain,
waterways, soil and killing animal and marine life.
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The average shopper uses 342 plastic bags per year and is responsible for 25.14kg of CO2, whereas a shopper using a single reusable cotton bag each year is responsible for just 0.62kg.
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The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to around nearly 100million tonnes today.
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An estimated 56% of all plastics waste is used packaging.
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Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
Residents can do their bit by choosing to use stronger re-usable bags for their shopping, or simply re-use disposable bags.
Three Rivers is the top recycler in Herts.
More on the web:
www.plasticbagfree.com