How green are the valleys?
Never mind “How Green Was My Valley?” – the Welsh valleys these days are bursting with green technology, from the Centre for AlternativeTechnology in Machynlleth to 
the development of low carbon technologies, all along the Hydrogen Highway to a green energy training centre at Tredegar.
The following video takes a look at the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (don’t worry, it’s in English):
Innovation in Wales
We find inventors in Wales showcasing their ideas at a seminar organised by the Intellectual Property Office at Cardiff City Stadium.
“Innovation is our watchword” is the slogan of the Global Academy, the University of Wales programme that supports projects aimed at improving innovation inWales through research, development and commercialisation.
The Welsh Assembly Government’s has a section of its website dedicated to providing support for business in Wales, a useful hub of information for budding entrepreneurs.
“Innovation is our watchword” is the slogan of the Global Academy
Reach for the stars
Wales’ first ‘space ambassador’, Cardiff University astronomer, Dr Paul Roche is on a mission to inspire the younger generation to pursue careers in the space
industry.
Women entrepreneurs are leading the way for female business leaders at the University of Glamorgan with an event organised by the Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub at the Glamorgan Business School.
It’s worth noting that the Welsh Assembly has plans for an electric and hydrogen vehicle refuelling network along the M4 corridor which could help it towrds its aim of becoming a hub for greetech development.
I have checked the website of a seminar organised by the Intellectual Property Office at Cardiff City Stadium and watched the video there. Not many inventions in terms of green tech there, but one actually caught my eye (if you are to watch it, need to wait for the very end, it is presented right at the end).
Those are cardboard boxes that are placed inside a shopping trolley, used as a replacement for standard plastic bags. Pretty cool idea, all is placed in order, nothing falling to sides. And the coolest thing about is this – they are of course reusable. I love such little inventions, they don’t require much of investment, testing, even skills. All you need is an innovative, ‘out of the box’ thinking mind. Thumbs up for the inventor of those!
This is quite impressive wherein an academic institution working with the government to put innovation at the forefront of low carbon technologies. I wonder if other countries have a similar approach in tackling green issues?
In my research, I found a similar venture in Australia. Here’s the link
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/newsreleases/detail?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=News_Releases_2010/News_Article_002050.xml&lu_lang_code=en
Here’s an excerpt:
“In achieving its goals, CEET will draw on Bell Labs’ decades of achieving breakthrough innovations and its extensive experience in managing collaborative research projects as well as on the University of Melbourne’s world-class research in telecommunications network infrastructure.”
It’s really inspiring that initiatives like these are being undertaken in response to the increasing need to develop green technologies. It’s now only a matter of sustaining such partnerships and ensuring that these ventures yield promising results for the people.
I have found this article on the subject of Wales going green:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/go-green/go-green-green-living/2009/11/23/all-food-waste-in-wales-set-to-be-recycled-91466-25228844/
“EVERY household in Wales will be recycling all its food waste within 12 to 18 months, says the chair of Waste Awareness Wales.”
The article is dated back to the end of November 2009. Anyone living in Wales actually? Or have any information on this subject? It is almost 12 months now, has anything changed during this time?
Hey Greg,
I live in Wales and the scheme for recycling food waste was started last year (2009) by the local authority, the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Initial trials worked well and this service was extended to my area earlier in the year. Each household was given a small caddy to keep in the kitchen, a roll of biodegradeable food waste bags and a larger caddy to keep outside and transfer the bags to. The large caddy needs to be put outside once a week for collection by waste management. This has meant that normal rubbish collection has now been cut to a two-weekly collection. As well as this, we have fortnightly collections of tins, paper, plastic, glass and garden waste. This has meant that I now only put out about half a bag of non-recyclable waste per fortnight!
The scheme is described here on the local authority’s website:
http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/living/environment/recycling_and_waste.aspx
I work in a local library that’s run by the same local authority and we’ve recently been given the extra job of dispensing all the bags needed for the different schemes. The rolls of food waste dogs (and dog poop bags) are handed out to residents free of charge, while they have to pay a small sum for the garden waste bags. There are two types of garden waste bags – you can get biodegradeable ones at 3 for £1 or large, heavy-duty hessian ones that are resuable, these are £1 each. Since having the bags delivered, we’ve actually handed out 8 boxes of rolls of food waste bags, so it seems that local residents are quite happy to take part in this scheme to cut down on landfill.
Actually Greg, there have been some improvements in Wales going green through recycling. Here’s the link to an article:
http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=5567&listitemid=55684
“However, the performance falls short of the Welsh Assembly Government’s target to recycle at least 40% during the period – a fact which Ms Davidson put down to the “terrible” winter which hampered collections across the UK”
Now, the weather is really something that not even government can willfully control, but the fact that they still made improvements speaks volumes in Wales’ strategy in addressing green issues.
Surely it is not Rob. It’s good to see those words from 2009 were not ‘just words’, but something is actually done in terms of going green in Wales.
“On 21 June 2010, Wales launched its new waste strategy, Towards Zero Waste. The strategy sets out a target of 70 per cent recycling by 2025”
These outlines were already mentioned in 2009 – see the article linked in one of my previous comments. Wonder how have politicians responded to that now – back in 2009 Wales Green Party leader Jake Griffiths welcomed the announcement, but said the Assembly’s target of 70% of household waste being recycled by 2025 was unambitious.