Cheltenham's wasteful Ladies

In Fathers and Sons, Turgenev wrote, "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound."

Only a couple of hundred yards from the Lansdown Community Composting base (now up and running at Well Close), this sight caught my attention yesterday as I biked past. The bins are at the back of one of the Cheltenham Ladies' College residential houses, Sidney Lodge. Not much attempt to separate waste there, I thought: what does the College say about recycling?

Looking at its website, the answer is "not much". There's an entry dating back 18 months or so: "The Sixth Form Environment Group has been trying to raise awareness about environmental issues to the younger girls in College... We hope through this system to make the girls take responsibility for their daily actions which ultimately shape our environment." And an Environment Week was held a couple of years ago. Could do better, I'd say.

Greenwash?

I've been thinking about this term (of abuse) as I have been doing the rounds of Cheltenham's eco houses and other buildings this weekend. Some of their owners have invited exhibitors to display their wares, and I photographed this "Krushr" device at the house of one of these.

The charming young lady gave us a demonstration: "see how it reduces the size of your cans and cartons," she enthused. The box however takes up as much space as a washing machine, and the cost? "£999 at John Lewis." I think I shall go on jumping on mine.

So, is there some absolute definition of "greenwash" we can agree upon? Or is it entirely dependent on whether one's a deep green or a light green?

At this same venue, one couple rolled up, and asked, "What's all this all about then?" When told it was part of the Eco Open Houses weekend, Mrs. turned on her heel and flounced off, saying "Oh, we don't do eco."

Rubbish photos

The Times has been interviewing Agnes, Caroline and me for an article about ways in which families argue over what it is to live the green life. It's been rather interesting, and today they sent a photographer along to try and secure an appropriate illustration for the forthcoming feature. We happened to be going over to Herefordshire to visit Agnes anyway, so it all fell into place.

And what more photogenic than Agnes on top of a rubbish bin?

Leckhampton warming

Our nearest Council tip is just up the hill from us here in Leckhampton. It's just back from the Cotswold edge, close to some old open-cast stone mines. On dog duty once more, I walked past it the other morning, and was appalled to see the remains of a truly vast bonfire.

And there was I thinking that all the garden waste we have been putting out in our green sacks was going to make compost!