Home  Collections       Onsite         Special      Information  Links Contact  Home    About Us    Maps    Green Times    News    Press    Biodiesel    Poster DLs          Contact Us   Click For Enlargement Low Carbon Network    Information  GreenTimes           Here you can read Green Times Articles Please choose an issue or category below...... Choose an issue from the drop-down box then click Go:  Winter 2006Winter 2005Winter 2004Spring 2004Winter 2003Spring 2003 Choose an category then click Go:  GeneralCommercialGreenboxShabitat All Articles: Title : Christmas collections Category : general Issue : winter 2006 Happy Christmas from everyone at Magpie! This year we will be collecting as normal the week before Christmas (18th - 22nd of December}. There will be no collections the week between Christmas & New Year. Collections resume as normal week beginning the 2nd of January 2007.(If your box is normally collected Monday it will be collected on Tuesday for this week) We ask that all our customers are patient with us during this busy time. Title : The garden Guerilla's still swinging in action! Category : Garden Waste Issue : winter 2006 Did you know that Magpie can collect garden waste from any residents in the Brighton & Hove area? We charge £2 per bin bag or £10 a builder's sack for garden waste we remove. For large volumes of garden waste we will come and give you a tailor made quote for it's removal. All the garden waste is locally recycled into compost & woodchip at Brighton Community Compost Centre at Stanmer Organics. These products, along with seasoned logs are available to buy at our Shabitat depot. We also offer a quality garden maintenance service at competitive rates, recycling all the waste we generate. Call us on 684425 to enquire about our services or to book a garden waste collection. We will be running a Christmas tree collection service this year so when the festive season is well and truly over call us on 684425 & we can take away your tree to be recycled. Our charges are Small tree (under 4ft) = £5.00 Medium Tree (over 4ft) = £8.00 Large Tree (over 8ft) = £11.00 Title : Mobile Phone Recycling Category : general Issue : winter 2006 Get a new mobile for Christmas? Is the old one sitting in a drawer gathering dust? Magpie now has the facilities to pass the phones on, ensuring that they are either re-used in developing countries or recycled as much as possible. The batteries and chargers will be processed and reused/recycled. You can simply drop your old phone into our furniture depot or pop the phone, battery, old charger etc in a carrier bag, label it and leave it in your Green Box or with your Opt-in collection bags. We can also collect from Businesses, please call our Commercial Collections department on 685628 for more details. Title : Shabitat Category : Shabitat Issue : winter 2006 Run out of Christmas present ideas? Then visit our Shabitat depot for inspiration! We are open Monday to Friday 9.00am till 5.00 and 10.00am to 4.00pm on Saturday & Sunday. With quality used furniture, clothes, second hand books, bric a brac and what everyone really wants for Christmas - Bio-diesel! Please call 611511 for more information. Title : New Bicycle Workshop At Shabitat Category : general Issue : winter 2006 The idea of utilising the space above the existing workshop at Shabitat has been around for quite a while and has finally turned into reality. With the combined efforts of Magpie members Ollie, Mark and John together with a builder and myself, we have worked alongside to create a new floor for a bicycle recycling area. I've been rescuing and repairing all kinds of bikes since 1995 in London and brought my stock of parts and a few frames to Brighton in 2002. This (very healthy) obsession all began from finding a succession of dumped bikes. I was amazed how many good quality cycles and parts were (and still are) being chucked away. I've recycled dozens of machines ranging from old-style 3-speeders to featherweight single-speed racers to aluminum frame MTBs and currently have all kinds of weird and wonderful frames and spares. I can strip down frames when necessary, rebuild wheels, de-rust usable parts, then custom re-spray (orange and gold or copper looks fantastic) and embark on total rebuilds using all the best parts; although I mainly work on bikes which need less work! I've found that people either want "rough and ready" - to deter bike thieves, or "sleek and speedy" - with a serious D-lock! Prices vary considerably, but mountain bikes start at £35 and kid's ones from£15. All are test ridden and are guaranteed for 2 months. Bikes are definitly THE best way to get around in Brighton! Don't let your bike go to bicycle hell/heaven: I can give it a new lease of life! Visit me at the Shabitat depot on Lewes road! Mike The Bike Title : Commercial Waste Oil Collections 2007 Category : commercial Issue : winter 2006 In 2007 Magpie will be entering a new phase in recycling when we launch our commercial oil collection service. The collections at present will only be from commercial premises but hopefully in the not too distant future we will be able to extend the collection service to all our residential customers. The waste oil that is collected will be processed into bio-diesel by Viridine & will be on sale at Shabitat. We would like to express once more that we cannot take oil on any of our residential collection schemes. Please see our website for more information www.magpie.coop Title : Contact us Category : general Issue : winter 2006 For Green Box enquiries call 01273 684425 For Commercial or Opt-in enquiries call 01273 685628 For Furniture enquiries call 01273 677577 Email us at info@magpie.coop, visit us at www.magpie.coop Or write to us at Magpie Recycling Co-op Ltd, Shabitat, Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 4AY Title : Christmas Collection Times Category : Recycling Collections Issue : Winter 2005 We will be taking a week off between Christmas and new Year. Collections will be as normal until 23rd December, then they'll stop for week and begin again on 2nd January 2006. We will be prepared to collect two weeks worth of recycling on the week beginning 2nd January. Title : Magpie online Category : Website Issue : Winter 2005 Check out our brand spanking new website. If you have any feedback about the site or if there's something you'd like to be included let us know. Thanks to James and co at GoodVibe75 who built, hosts and updates our website and provide IT support. Title : Opt-In Scheme News Category : opt-in Issue : Winter 2005 For all you opt-inners out there, there will be a price increase to £1.35+vat per bag from 1st January 2006. This will bring the prices in line with our other collection services. We'd like to save paper (and postage) and email your statments to you in the futre, but we need your help. If you have email facilities please tell us your email address. T: 01273 685628 E:optin@magpie.coop Title : Shabitat Category : Shabitat Issue : Winter 2005 There's a constant turnover of furniture in the treasure trove that is Shabitat. Come and visit us if you haven't been in for a while. There's now a big clothes section at the back of the shop featuring Left-Over Designs offering customised recycled clothing. We are also selling refurbished computer equipment at bargain prices. T:01273 677577 E:furniture@magpie.coop Title : Magpie At Work Category : Commercial Issue : Winter 2005 Hoorah! We've just signed up our 1000th business customer. If you don't recycle at work please consider using our services, our rates are competitive with refuse collection charges. Call us for a free information pack. If you do recycle at work please check our website at www.magpie.coop call us for an up to date user guide to make sure you're recycling as much as possible. T:01273 685628 Title : Stick With Us Category : General Issue : Winter 2005 Many of you will now be living in areas covered by the council's doorstep recycling scheme, and may be trying to decide whether it's worth while carrying on with Green Box. Whilst we are delighted that the council now accept a wide range of materials for recycling, we still feel that Green Box offers a valuable alternative. Green Box was set up to 'raise the bar' when it comes to recycling standards.We know that our role in the community is to stay one step ahead of the game, but to finance this we need to keep the customers we've got! Here's a few reasons to stick with us... •We can offer an 'overflow' service for those materials that the council don't collect (the opt- in scheme) • We will replace a missing box or collect a missed box quickly and without any fuss • We're not tied to government targets - as soon as a new material becomes cost effective to recycle, we'll introduce it to our schemes as a matter of principal. • The revenue from Green Box pays the wages for our fantastic staff - the Green Box crews work incredibly hard for low wages, because they believe in what they're doing. • The left over money goes into R&D for new projects - for example Biodiesel, which will be on sale again soon, research into recycling Hazardous Household Waste, and finding better ways of dealing with the plastics in CDs, DVDs, old vinyl records and videos. In addition to the fact that we're a worker's co-op run and owned by the staff, we offer a weekly collection and that we use electric vehicles whenever possible. Stick around! Title : Mobile Phone Recycling Category : General Issue : Winter 2005 Recently got a new handset? Is the old one sat in a drawer, gathering dust? Magpie now has the facilities to pass the phones on ensuring that they are either re-used in developing countries or recycled as much as is possible. The batteries and chargers will also be processed and reused/recycled. Used mobile phones have a small value, and any money raised from the collections (after the processors have incurred their costs) will be donated to Guide Dogs for the Blind. Just pop the phone, battery, old charger etc in a carrier bag, label it and leave it in your Green Box or with your Opt-in collection. We can also collect from Businesses, please call our Commercial Collections department on 01273 685628 for more details . Title : Dump The Dump Category : General Issue : Winter 2005 Residents near Magpies old site in Hollingdean are fighting the building of a waste transfer station and recycling facility on land alongside a junior school and business park. Their objections on health issues, transport/pollution problems and planning procedures are set out in fact sheets availible from www.dumpthedump.org.uk or email info@dumpthedump.org.uk Magpie maintains there are better ways for waste than those that rely on standing national waste policy (30% recycling and little encouragement of waste minimisation) and have objected to the Private Finance Initiative Waste Contract that is driving the waste strategy for Sussex. We do ask that you read the views of Dump the Dump and Onyx Southdowns on this matter and come to your own conclusions. Title : Creature Composting Category : General Issue : Winter 2005 Hundreds of school children throughout Brighton and Hove learned about composting last year thanks to a series of workshops led by a team from Magpie Environmental Trust (MET) on 'sustainability'. The trust is pleased to announce that funding has been agreed* for 2005/06 which will allow it a) to continue providing composting workshops, based on the MET composting factlife, for keystage 3 in secondary schools throughout the city. b) in partnership with BinArt offer primary school children the chance to take a magical trip through the World of Creature Composting. With the help of Wellington Worm - (proprietor of the Compost Cafe) and his friends, the children will learn why they should be composting their food waste instead of throwing it in the bin. For more details or to book a workshop contact Magpie Environmental Trust email magpietrust@phonecoop.coop tel:0845 3454799 MET is a registered charity which aims • to increase knowledge and awareness of the principals and benefits of sustainability • to foster a greater participction in waste reduction, re-use and recycling • to encourage and promote action that will make a lasting improvement to the environment and society as a whole *funding recieved from the landfill tax via Onyx Environmental Trust and Brighton & Hove City Council Sustainability Grants Fund. Title : Run out of Christmas present ideas? Category : Shabitat Issue : Winter 2004 Then could we remind you that shabitat™ is open between 09:00 and 17:00 Monday to Friday and 10:00 to 16:00 on Saturday. Featuring quality used furniture and clothes, second-hand books and what everyone really wants for Christmas - Bio-diesel! Please call 01273 677577 for more information on all the Eco friendly products. Title : Chrismas Collection Times 2004 Category : general Issue : winter 2004 This year we will be collecting as normal the week before Christmas (20th-24th of December). There will be no collections the week between Christmas & New Year (27th-31st of December). Collections resume as normal week beginning the 3rd of January 2005. We ask that all our customers are patient with us during this busy time and would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Green New Year. Title : Business as Usual Category : greenbox Issue : winter 2004 The end of 2003 saw the introduction of the council's multi-material kerbside collection. Their black box scheme was first seen in West Hove and Kemp town. During the course of 2004 many more of you would have received information through your letterbox concerning the commencement of fortnightly council kerbside collections. Understandably, this has caused many of you some confusion. A large number of our customer base have contacted Magpie to express their concerns. These are three of the more commonly asked questions; Is Green Box continuing? Magpie will be continuing with it's weekly doorstep collections! We will continue to collect all paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, food and drink cans, drinks cartons, textiles, books and foil (garden waste and carrier bags by arrangement). All other Magpie services (i.e. Opt-in scheme, Commercial collections, Gardening and all Shabitat operations) will also remain fully functioning. Are Magpie working with the council? Magpie's Green Box is not working in partnership with the council's 'think inside the box' scheme! Although we were involved at the consultation phase of their kerbside collection scheme the council have not included Magpie in the collection of the recyclable materials. What shall I do? Use the council box or stay with Magpie? magpie would like to encourage you all to make your own decisions with regard to remaining with Magpie or putting "all of your recycling into one basket". Magpie currently remains committed to collecting your 11 materials from right outside your front door. We shall operate this service as we always have since 1996 on a weekly basis. We garantee that none of your recyclable materials will end up in landfill sites or contribute to the potentially environmentally hazardous route of incineration in the intended incinerator to be built near Newhaven. Being a cooperative you can rest assured that all 30 members of Magpie live locally and have a belief in community responsability for waste. magpie remains committed to the collection of your recylclables. All of you who continue to support magpie Co- operative shall be contacted shortly with regards to a Green Box restructuring strategy. As a pioneering cooperative Magpie wishes its customers views on how recycling is dealt with in Brighton to be heard. The restructuring possibility will also open up a greater potential for funding and enable a further step in the direction of zero waste. Title : Separation of materials Category : greenbox Issue : winter 2004 Although the majority of you seem to have firmly grasped the concept of separation of materials, some of you have not! A carrier bag filled with just paper takes a collector 2 - 3 seconds to empty into one of our huge paper sacks fixed to the back of our customised electric floats. A carrier bag filled with a mixture of paper, cardboard and drinks cartons (a particular common yet nasty combination) can take as long as 50 - 60 seconds (dependent on weather and the severity of the blend). If all our customers decided to refrain from sorting and separating materials our current two and a half hour rounds would take over two days to complete. So please, if you are one of the guilty ones, then all of us at Magpie shall forgive and forget if you add 'I promise to sort and separate my Greenbox recycling' to your new year's resolution list. Title : Gardening update Category : gardening Issue : winter 2004 The Green Gardening Gorillas service is going from strength to strength, some results can be seen on the website at www.magpie.coop/gardening.php. The service covers anything from garden clearance to landscaping and garden design including site specific furniture design and creation using reclaimed materials. All garden waste removed go to Beddingham for composting. Also, truck loads of soil conditioner can now be delivered direct to your garden. Xmas tree recycling - we can collect them for composting at £5 per tree. Free quotes for anything including bulk garden waste collections please call 500021 now. Title : Got a Big Garden? Category : gardening Issue : winter 2004 Then you need a ONE TONNE water butt! Complete with tap, it will hold 1000 litres of water - that's three times more than a normal barrel. Previously used for bio-diesel storage - a non- toxic and biodegradable alternative to fossil diesel. Price £100 including delivery call 677577. Title : Builders Sacks Category : general Issue : winter 2004 Do you have any old builders sacks or other large, robust sacks that you don't need? Then please call the Commercial office on 565642 and we can arrange to collect them free of charhe. Title : Are You in Pain? OUCH! Category : general Issue : winter 2004 Michael Pearce has been a member of Magpie Cooperative for over 5 years. He runs the Opt-In Scheme and is actively involved in collections. Michael is also a 5th year student of osteopathy at the London School of Osteopathy in Whitechapel, London. Michael is offering all Magpie customers a free 15 min informal consultation to discuss any aches or pains they may have. Simply phone 01273 690793 or 07775573436 for your free consultation. If a treatment is appropriate and you decide to book with Michael a further £5 discount will be made on presentation of this ad. Happy Christmas! Title : Hill o'Beans Category : general Issue : winter 2004 The Open Market on London road now has an organic pulse refill service. Call John on 07816 773822 for more information. Title : Christmas Collection dates Category : Collections Issue : winter 2003 Everyone at Magpie would like to wish all our customers a merry Christmas and a happy, ecologically sound, minimal waste New Year. ***Christmas Collection dates*** This year your Christmas collection dates will be as follows: Monday 22nd - Mondays' rounds as normal, plus Thursday's rounds. Tuesday 23rd - Tuesday's round as normal, plus Friday's rounds. Wednesday 24th - Wednesday's rounds as normal. So your normal collection days are Thursdays or Fridays, your box will be collected on the Monday or Tuesday before Christmas. Collections start again on Monday 5th January 2004, when your collection days will be back to normal. As usual we will make a superhuman effort to collect your box on your designated day, but with the Christmas excess we will be stretched to the limit. So please be patient, we will get to you eventually! Please, remember to keep PAPER SEPERATE from CARDBOARD. Title : Introducing Shabitat, Magpie Furniture Reborn. Category : Shabitat Issue : winter 2003 The Magpie Furniture warehouse at Saunders Park, off the Lewes Road has been relaunched. Featuring the usual quality used furniture and clothes. A green arcade stocking eco- friendly products and recycled goods in bulk, cheaply. With stock from Ecover and the Real Nappy Network, Planet Fuels BIO-DIESEL and the Green Dragon second hand book shop. Also worm and Bokashi composting demonstrations can be viewed. The warehouse is open 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, and 10 to 4 on Saturday. So come down and browse at Shabitat - the fun, friendly and affordable antidote to disposable consumer culture! Title : Drinks Cartons Update Category : collections Issue : winter 2003 Our drinks carton collection scheme is going from strength to strength. Magpie is the first recycling group in the country to collect these cartons from a domestic source, continuing to push the boundaries. At present we are collecting around 4000 cartons a week, which is still less than one per house. So come on you can do better than that! While I'm at it, please make sure you rinse, squash and seperate them from cardboard, thank you Title : The Green Dragon Book Shop Category : Shabitat Issue : winter 2003 The Green Dragon Woodland Project opened it's new bookshop on Saturday 4th October at Shabitat. It sells a large selection of quality second hand, salvaged and brand new books. Damaged books are pulped for paper (reducing the demand placed on trees) and the rest are sold to raise money for planting trees on degraded agricultural land and protecting the biodiversity of existing woodland. Our own survey of 100 local charity shops showed that only 2 recycle unsold books. Green Dragon provides the opportunity to reduce this negative impact on the planet by prioritising the re- use of good books and selling them on - turning words into woods. From contemporary fiction to timeless classics, country - crafts to cyberpunk, fairy tales to quantum mechanics, philosophy to gardening - we stock and supply great titles - some out of print and hard to find, others just published and at a fraction of their normal retail price. Green Dragon is always pleased to recieve unwanted books - please leave them (carefully wrapped and labelled "Green Dragon") in your Magpie green box, or better still, bring them to the shop or phone us to arrange a collection. Green Dragon would like to thank Magpie and their customers for their enthusiastic support of the Woodland Project. Green Dragon Woodland Project is a non-for-profit Worker's Co-op registered as a Limited Company. Tel: 01273 884857 or Email: info@greendragonwoods.org.uk for more info. Title : Also new at Shabitat Category : Shabitat Issue : winter 2003 Reclaimed and sustainable timber furniture, made on the premises, commisions taken. Come and see Sam in the workshop. Call 07900453492 or email scat218@tiscali.co.uk Title : 'Bag it and Tag it' scheme update Category : green box Issue : winter 2003 Some of you have been involved in a trial scheme earlier in the year, requiring you to bag then tag your excess recycling. This trial received a very mixed reaction. A folloe uo phone survey revealed that people were split 50:50 in their opinion of the scheme, with most of the people who didn't mind the tags not actually using them and most complaints coming from customers who regulary produce much more than a greenbox full. As such we will not be continuing with this scheme. We would like to put the subscription charge up but feel that with the present climate of change in the local waste industry we would loose more customers and therefore income, than any financial benefits we might gain. However our costs continue to rise please feel free to increase your own subscription or maybe make a donation Title : Changes to how we deal with plastics and cans Category : collections Issue : winter 2003 Due to West Sussex collecting more materials, we have had to stop taking our plastics and cans to Sompting for mechanical separating. We now have to hand separate and then bale the plastics. Therefore we have to ask you to remove the tops from your plastic bottles to simplifie the baling process. Please remember that we collect your greenbox by tipping it upside down into another, slightly larger one. This means that we only have to make one journey to your box. To help us improve our efficiency, please bare this in mind and refrain from piling stuff up on top. Also make sure your materials are washed and separated into tied carrier bags. Title : Garden Guerrillas Category : general Issue : winter 2003 Magpie is proud to announce the launch of it's new Gardening Service. Our enthusiastic, highly trained and well-equiped team of specialists is ready and waiting to spring into action in your garden. We are offering a broard range of services as you can see - Garden Waste Clearance/General Maintenance - For example leaf collection (for these long autumn months); removal of unwanted garden waste for composting, and general trimming, pruning and tiding. Garden Design/Landscaping - Resident experts ready to turn your garden into an Eden - from design to realisation. Custom Built Furniture - Our furniture maker can create chairs, tables etc to your site-specific design from reclaimed wood. Charges for these various services will be individually assessed and agreed with the customer depending on various factors - for more infomation please call 01273 50021. Fancy dress will be worn on request Title : Confidential Secure Shredding Service launched Category : collections Issue : winter 2003 There has been a great deal of media coverage recently about 'identity theft'. This is when unscrupulous villains manage to get hold of your personal details from bank statements, receipts, utility bills etc and essentially take over your finances. Taking out loans, getting credit cards and running up huge depts, all without your knoledge until it's too late. But don't worry, Magpie has the answer. Brighton and Hove Council already use us. We can come and collect your sensitive documents, shred themthen recycle them for £1.50 (+vat) per A4 size bag. All you have to do is call to ask for some special bags to be delivered, and when you have three or more full bags call the office to arrange a pick up - you would have to be in to sign for the pick up. For more information or to join this scheme call 01273 565642 Title : Co-operative Savings and Loans Category : general Issue : winter 2003 Magpie customers may be pleased to know that there is a thriving Credit Union in the city. The Savings & Loans Co- operative is owned and controlled by its savers (members). It specialises in providing financial services to the hundreds if not thousands of local people who are unable to open savings accounts or borrow money. Because of this different and more responsible ethical approch the Credit Union is supported by the City Council and New Deal for Communities (eb4U). Any profits made by the co- operative are returned to members to be spent in local shops and kept in the community. Why not contact them to become a member, open a savings account or get a no obligation loan quotation. Call 01273 626855 or email enquiries@cbhcu.org Title : providing shoes for the homeless Category : green box Issue : winter 2003 magpie have recently started to sort out good pairs of shoes to give to the homeless via First Base, part of Community Base on Queens Road. So if you are putting any footwear into your greenbox, please keep them in pairs by tying the laces together or putting them in a bag Title : The Opt-In (bag) Scheme Update and Competion Category : opt-in Issue : spring 2004 As the Opt-In Scheme enters it's third year Magpie are pleased to announce that we now collect a total of 12 materials: plastic bottles, food and drink cans, paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, garden waste, books, foil, textiles, drinks cartons (tetrapaks), confidential waste (for secure shredding) and information technology equipment (working or not working). Magpie continues to be focused on increasing the number of materials that we collect. Many of the roads in Brighton and Hove have some form of council - tax funded recycling scheme. If you currently have access to one of these then remember that Magpie is still able to collect any material that the council does not. Magpie would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to talk to your neighbours and friends about the recycling schemes that Magpie offers: Opt - In, Greenbox, Gardening and our Commercial Collections from local businesses. If a customer signs up to any one of these schemes and mentions your name then you will automatically be entered into our summer prize draw, where you could win a fantastic recycling-type prize (to be announced closer to the date of the draw). If two new customers mention your name then you will have two entries, doubling your chances, and so on. So get chatting to your friends and neighbours and you could be the proud owner of the 2004 Opt-In Shceme's mystery prize. Magpie would like to take this opportunity to thank all recyclers for the efforts you make to reduce, reuse and recycle your waste. Your efforts are not in vain, every bottle, newspaper or other item placed into a Magpie recycling bag rather than your bin bag, is one less item thrown into a filthy great hole in our beautiful earth. One less item to toxify the soil for future generations. One less item requiring a replacement to be manufactured from our depleted natural resources. Thank you for your support, from all of us at Magpie Title : Beverage carton Update Category : greenbox Issue : spring 2004 We first announced to you that we were starting to take beverage cartons in the spring 2003 newsletter. Last July we sent 19 bales to be processed which weighed 1600kg. This worked out to about one per customer per week. The amount of cartons we collect has been increasing since then as more and more of you realise that you can now put liquid cartons in your Greenbox. Our second delivery of 35 bales was made in January and weighed 4540kg. That's around 6000 cartons per week, not bad, but still room for improvement! Title : 'Green' Greenbox Category : greenbox Issue : spring 2004 As some of you will have noticed our local authority is already, is about to, or is soon to be offering a 'free' multi material kerbside collection of recyclables in your area. We are currently collecting questionnaire results from our past and present customers in several areas where the Council are already offering a comparable service. The results of which will help us to investigate the effects the council's schemes are having on us, show us how we are performing and help us to ensure that the kerbside recycling you pay us for is the most environmentally friendly and sustainable one that we can. Magpie will carry on offering our cheap, regular, reliable and environmentally sustainable service in all areas of Brighton and Hove. Magpie continue to research into the collection of new materials and collection methods and will, of course, inform you of any changes that will effect you. Title : Re-Use IT! Category : general Issue : spring 2004 IT equipment is everywhere, almost every house has a computer now, and constant improvements in technology mean that system upgrades are getting more and more frequent, and components that were all the rage yesterday are today obsolete. In view of the new WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive legislation that is due to be implemented from the 18th August, Magpie is launching Re-Use IT!, an initiative that aims at curbing the amount of IT equipment currently landfilled from the Brighton and Hove area. Magpie customers will now be able to dispose of their old computer equipment in an environmentally sound way!! We are setting up a scheme to recycle the individual materials, but, given the energetic and financial costs of such an operation, we feel that machines or parts that are still workable should be reused instead and redirected to the local community. This new scheme will see that computers collected by Magpie which are still usable are donated to EBITS (East Brighton IT Support), a community project based in Whitehawk. Ebits provides affordable technical support and IT training to residents of East Brighton and local businesses, carrying out repairs and donating PC's to members of the community, with priority given to socially excluded, families on low income and the disabled. Ebits will accept any pentium 1 system or higher, RAM Dimms, monitors, keyboards, mice, power supplies and cords less than 5 years old, and licensed software. Collection charges will be a flat £5 for a complete system and up to £3 for individual components. Equipment can also be donated directly to Ebits (obviously free of charge). Dor enquiries, or to arrange a collection, ring 01273 565642 or email: info@magpie.coop For queries and info about ebits, ring: 01273 606993 or email: ebits@btconnect.com We can now also collect other electronic equipment, not fridges and freezers, for up to £5 each, depending on size; florescent tubes, at £1.50 each: and batteries at £1 for 10 (minimum of 10). Please DO NOT put any of these out with your Greenbox. Call the office on 565642 to arrange a collection. Title : Ruthless Month Category : greenbox Issue : spring 2004 For the next month we are having a clamp down on customers who repeatedly put unsorted, unwashed and generally unpleasant green boxes. If your box is unsorted you will get a reminder through your letterbox, but if it is seriously messy and smelly, your box will be left unemptied and a record kept. Serial non- sorters will then be contacted. We ask that all customers wash, sort and sepatate the contents into its different materials: paper and cardboard must be separated using paper or plastic bags, or tied up with string/tape. Glass, cans, plastic bottles, foil and drinks cartons must all be separated into loosely tied carrier bags. Dry textiles, we can not take wet textiles, should be tied up in a bag ti keep them dry. All must be left in your box by 8.30 on your collection day. Please don't use black bin liners. By doing this you make it easier for our collectors to process your box quickly and effectively. Also, may we remind you that the Greenbox scheme is a 'kerbside' scheme. So if you are able, please could you leave your box on or as near to the pavement as possible. Our collectors pick up upto 500 boxes a day and that is an awful lot of basements to be running up and down! Thank you for your custom and your co-operation from the Green Box Team. Title : Final Whinge Category : General Issue : Spring 2003 Please, please, please can we remind you to sort and separate your materials, paper separate from card in bags or tied with string or tape, and plastic bottles separate from cans in bags. Also, Greenbox is a kerbside collection, so if possible could you please leave your box out as near to the kerbside as possible. Both these factors enable us to make the service as efficient as possible, allowing us to collect as many boxes as is humanly possible in the time available. Your supreme efforts are much appreciated. Thank you very much. Reminder: We collect as normal on Bank Holidays, so put your box out by 8.30 as usual. Title : Earthship Update Category : Earthship Issue : Spring 2003 Earthships are buildings which are constructed mainly from re-cycled materials including tyres, cans and bottles. They are self-sufficient in water, electricity, heat and sewage, making them affordable and sustainable to build and run. Two and four day courses are now available if you wish to learn more about them and take part in the building of the first official one in England. The courses start in April and will be running through until July. Booking forms are available from www.lowcarbon.co.uk, contact us on training@lowcarbon.co.uk or tel: 0870 765 9896. Title : The Green Dragon Woodland Project - Turning Words into Woods Category : Green Dragon Issue : Spring 2003 In the last 50 years 50% of Britain's broadleaf woodland has been cleared for intensive farming, road building and development. Between 1990 and 2000, 1000 billion acres of woodland has been lost world wide - that's one seventh of the world's forest. [Forest Stewardship Council] The Green Dragon Woodland Project is a new Brighton based, not-for-profit worker's co-op that collects and sells good quality books to raise money to protect existing British woodland habitat and replant trees on degraded agricultural land. Green Dragon is the only woodland scheme of it's kind - there is no national policy to recycle unwanted books and most end up gathering dust on shelves or going into the rubbish. In our own survey of one hundred charity shops in this area only one recycles unsold books, the rest send theirs for incineration or landfill. By ensuring books are re-used, Green Dragon reduces the negative impact on the environment while directly regenerating and protecting bio-diversity. Watch out for the Green Dragon Book Bus and market stalls, in and around Brighton and at special events nationally. If you have books to give Green Dragon or would like more information about the scheme contact them on Tel:01273 884857. Or email: greendragonwoods@yahoo.co.uk RE-USE - RECYCLE - REPLANT Magpie will now sort any books that you put into your Greenbox and make them available to Green Dragon, provided the books are dry and in good condition. Title : Biodiesel for Brighton Category : Biodiesel Issue : Spring 2003 Biodiesel is a renewable, carbon neutral, biodegradeable substitute for fossil diesel that will run in any diesel engine. It contains no sulphur or heavy metals and has been shown in numerous studies to reduce exhaust pollution by up to 90%. It is made from either waste or new vegetable oil, which is then chemically converted to extract the Biodiesel. The residue from the process has a number of uses, and can also be composted. We are well on the way towards establishing a local plant, which will produce Biodiesel that meets European and International fuel standards, helping local people make a genuine choice about the impact that they have on the environment. Magpie is working on this project with Blooming Futures, a Brighton-based co-operative that converts petrol vehicles to run on LPG and diesel engines to accept unconverted vegetable oil. Together we hope to demonstrate that cutting-edge environmental solutions can be practical, affordable and easily incorporated into every-day living. For more information on Biodiesel, check out www.Bloomingfutures.com or try a search online. To contact Blooming Futures, either use their website or call 01273 571201. If you wish to contact us about this project, please use email, or call 07769971339. The plant should be set up in a few months, so watch this space! Title : Recycle your Garden Waste Category : Green Waste Issue : Spring 2003 Magpie will be continuing to run a garden waste collection service in Brighton and Hove this year. The scheme is separate from the green box collections because our floats are currently at full capacity with the materials we collect. There is a charge of £1.25 per bag of garden waste collected. You can order special tags by sending cheques for £5 (4 tags) or £10 (8 tags) to the green box office, then simply call 01273 500021 when you want your garden waste to be picked up from your doorstep. For larger amounts of garden waste please ring the office and we will send someone to your house to quote on its removal. (Why not try www.ericthepanda.co.uk for environmentally friendly, rot proof plant support made from recycled plastic.) Title : Bag it and Tag it Category : Green box Issue : spring 2003 Magpie is currently running a trial scheme on a selection of roads in the Greenbox catchment area. We are proposing to charge customers for the amount of recycling that they put out. Customers will pay the standard subscription fee, which will cover the cost of one Greenbox full of sorted and separated materials plus the occasional extra carrier bag. Any extra will be charged for separately. The subscription fee, which has remained £1.23 for four years, covers the cost of collecting one Greenbox worth of materials plus the occasional overspill of a bag or some extra cardboard.However, due to new materials being added and people recycling more and more, many customers are regularly putting out two or three boxes worth. This success has led to us becoming overloaded and the income not covering the cost of recycling all the materials. therefore, we have had to look into new methods of collecting. The free, four week trial involves customers 'tagging' extra carrier bags together in groups of four or large cardboard flattened and tied with a special Magpie tag. If you have not received a letter or tags in the post then you are not involved in the trial. But do not worry, the results of this trial will hopefully allow us to extend the new system accross the whole Greenbox scheme. So the more you put out the more you pay. if you only put out one box a week, this scheme will not affect you. It should encourage you to minimize your waste whilst increasing our ability to recycle more materials, more efficiently. You will be informed if and when the scheme will be starting in you area. We currently charge £16 per quarter for our service (1.23 per week) which includes: A regular newsletter Research and development into collection systems and adding new materials to our collections. Magpie is actively working towards local reprocessing. This is more sustainable and creates local employment. An active campaingning organization working towards a sustainable future. Magpie is campaigning for Zero waste (this is zero waste to landfill or incineration). The most obvious reasons we have to charge for this service are: The materials we collect have no or very little financial value. We actually have to pay for the majority of the collected materials to be taken away! The haulage costs alone amount to over £120 per skip, skip rental op to £1.30 per day and a gate fee for each skip of up to £30 per tonne. So, for example, it costs us around £1500 per month to recycle your plastic bottles and cans. Our insurance has doubled this year, rocketing to £40000 a year! As a paying service we have to pay VAT. £0.18 of the weekly charge goes to HM Customs & Excise. Silly but thats the way it is! The cost of replacing lost/stolen boxes. We lose approximately ten per week @ £3.00 each. Title : Drinks Cartons Category : collections Issue : spring 2003 We are pleased to announce that we can now take drinks cartons as part of the Greenbox and opt-in schemes. This includes Tetrapaks, Tetrabriks, milk and juice cartons. They should be rinsed, flattened and put in a separate bag. The various plastic nozzels and spouts can be left on. We are still looking into the possibility of collecting plastic bags and batteries for recycling and will keep you informed of any developments. Watch this space! Also, coming soon to a doorstep near you, a printer and toner cartridge refilling service. Title : Non-Pollutor pays! (The principal this country is determined to adhere to ) Category : general Issue : spring 2003 (Disclamer, some of the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent those of the whole Co-op.) In a world beyond the county boundry there exists lands that charge households according to the amount of waste they produce. They ofer rebates and other incentives to the good citizens that 'do their bit'. Under the system here, the minority (as 30% participation is apparently enough) will be carrying an equal financial burden with the majority, in terms of the cost now and for future costs. For example: 1. The Private Finance Initiative (see other PFIs in transport, health, education and energy for how expensive these Hire Purchase schemes are) 2. Any taxes on incineration 3. The fines for failing on stricter reduction, re-use and recycling targets over the next 25 years 4. Claims for harm to the environment 5. Loss of benefits as other technologies become cheaper than incineration 6. Loss of income from jobs created through local manufacture using waste All this will be a burden on public funding that is based on an unfair local tax. You will pay it whether you fly-tip asbestos in a local school playground or create no waste at all. This is doubly unfair. A recent paper from the cabinet office encouraged local authorities to look at using local economic regulators to stimulate recycling. What an excellent idea. Is it original? To be a resident where the POLLUTER PAYS! Call 07775562980. Is that your money money i can smell burning? A new waste management company will soon be operating in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove following the official signing of a new contract. East Sussex County and Brighton & Hove City Councils signed with Onyx, 31st March to deal with the household waste that we all produce. The contract is worth nearly £1 billion over 25 years. Job Would you like to be part of our Commercial Collectors Team? Must be able to drive and have a good sense of humor! Call 685628 if you are interested. 28/04/2010 Shabitat Great news!! Shabitat is now open! We would like to thank people for their patience, please come and visit our newly refurbished and replenished shop! 24/06/2009 Click here for a full list  Greenbox / Garden 01273 684425 01273 680856 greenbox@ magpie.coop    Commercial / Opt-In 01273 685628 01273 680856 commercial@ magpie.coop    Furniture / Shabitat 01273 677577 01273 622415 furniture@ magpie.coop                       Green Days       Magpie offer a wide range of services to suit all your needs     •  The Greenbox weekly or on demand domestic kerbside collections     •  Collections from Commercial properties like shops, offices and hotels     •  Furniture collections, removals and storage     •  Shabitat, our well-stocked furniture warehouse     •  Gardening Services and Green Waste removal     •  Door to door canvassing and public awareness drives |     Home     |     Collections     |     Onsite     |     Info     |     Links     |     Contact Us     | The information and graphics on this website are the intellectual property of Magpie Recycling Cooperative Ltd™ Designed & Hosted by GoodVibe75.  All rights reserved 2008.