Smith Electric vehicles

http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com/

I came across this firm when I was reading an article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8114470.stm) about a government sponsored electric vehicle trail. The firm is providing vehicles Government's Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme. They produce a range of commercial vehicles including a minibus and use Lithium-Ion Iron Phosphate battery technology.

The electric car trial is described in this article


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/23/uk-electric-car-trial

Minicab portal

I've discovered a minicab portal that lists mini cab firms by borough. I'm not sure about their data quality - there's a mix of '020' and '0208' spellings of phone numbers. Also, there are several non-geographic phone numbers listed - I wonder if some firms have got themselves listed in Barking & Dagenham even though their vehicles aren't based here.

I'm not sure that boroughs are a terribly helpful way of dividing up the information - people are likely to just want the nearest one to them.

Of course in an ideal world there wouldn't be dozens of phone numbers. Customers would just book centrally and the nearest available and suitable vehicle would be assigned and dispatched. That would be most efficient and user friendly, but we have to have competition and a bewildering listof companies/phone numbers.

http://www.londonminicabnetwork.com/barkingdagenham.htm

Recycle Week 22 - 28 June

http://www.recycleforyourcommunity.com/

Yet another recycling website! There's a competition to win a bike. The answers are supposed to be on the site, but I can't find one of the three.

Wheelie bin roll out (ha ha)

http://www.wastewatch.org.uk/page/4811

After a successful pilot, Barking and Dagenham's houses will be issued with wheelie bins - one grey for rubbish and one green for recycling. Maybe those who are daunted by the prospect of two wheelie bins can come to an arrangement with a neighbour if their waste volumes don't merit such a lot of capacity.

Presumably those of us in flats with shared wheelie bins will have a similar arrangement.

Hydrogen Car

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/hydrogenpowered-car-makes-debut-1706673.html

Several newspapers covered the launch of another hydrogen fuel cell car. This Riversimple Urban Car ticks several boxes, being made of carbon fibre and powered by fuel cell and electric motors. Also it is "open source" that is, designed collaboratively.

The car will be available for leasing rather than selling, which is a step forward as the split incentive is removed - both lessor and lessee will want the car to be economical over its whole life and not just to have a low first cost - but a fixed monthly fee will make people drive it more to get their money's worth. A pay as you drive cost model would be better and the next logical step would be to have the vehicles available for hire, of course, so that they're not sitting around doing nothing most of the time like most privately owned cars.

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/ I noted the Honda Clarity back in 1998. It doesn't seem to have taken the world by storm - maybe because it's $600 pcm to lease.

If the government really wanted to do something about pollution from motor vehicles it would be finding ways of getting refuelling stations out there to support hydrogen vehicles.

Financial crisis

Join with me in calling this a financial crisis and not an economic crisis. The economy isn't only about money. Look out of the window - everything is still there. The earth's natural resources are still there. The financial system is basically a gambling game - and it's that game that's gone wrong. What's this got to do with sustainability? Well, we all have to take part in this game. We have to go to work and earn money to buy products and services to keep other people in work so that they can buy products and services, and so on. And it's no good making durable products, because that would put people out of work and they will no longer be playing the game, so we have to make products that won't last ("planned obsolescence") to keep the cycle of consumption going.

People aren't starving in this world because there isn't enough food. They just haven't got the money to buy it. Having plenty of something is not good for the monetary system. If there's enough food for everyone then there's no "market" for it. To have a "market" you have to have people trying to outbid each other for scarce resources. Polluting (say) the water supply is good in this set-up as it helps make safe water more scarce and therefore it can have a market value.

This is completely nuts. If we can raise enough food for everyone, surely we have a moral duty to? Surely we have to preserve and conserve the abundant, but not unlimited, resources of the planet?

Bygone Barking By Bike

We had a good turnout for the 10th Bygone Barking By Bike - our local history bike ride. Many thanks to historian Colin Ramage for his talks each year and for spending his speaker's fee on drinks for all afterwards. There are some photos of the ride here:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cardinal1962/Bbbb16June2009

Kerbside textile recycling collection

The "Top" textile recycling Collection scheme was started by the Osborne Partnership in Dagenham in a small area but has now covers the whole borough. To use the service, put your textiles for recycling in a bag - but NOT the orange recycling bag - and contact 020 8596 9999 to arrange collection.

At the green fair in Barking on 13 June special bag labels were being given out - but I'm sure they're not necessary provide you label the bags clearly.

Also of course there are bring sites for textile recycling, for example at Tesco's Barking superstore and in Salisbury Avenue j/w Greenslade Rd. The link takes you to a list of bring sites in LB Barking and Dagenham.

The following things are acceptable for textile recycling in LBBD:

Clothing for rewearing or recycling
Pairs of shoes, boots, trainers etc
Bags (hand bags, school bags, luggage etc)
Towels
Household fabrics (duvet covers, curtains)

But not:

Duvets
Blankets
Pillows
Cushion covers (!)