This week, Isle of Man Friends of the Earth secretary Cat Turner reports on greater availability of information and advice
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The Green Centre is a favourite hangout for all sorts of different people.
Jointly run by Zero Waste Mann, the Manx Energy Advice Centre, and Isle of Man Friends of the Earth, it’s based near to the entrance to the Iceland supermarket in Market Street, Douglas.
Until now, it’s opened up on Saturdays only, 10am until 2pm, although we’re usually there a good deal later, drinking tea and setting the planet to right.
It’s staffed by a hardworking team of volunteers who aim to provide information, advice and ideas for anyone keen to live a more eco-friendly life.
We’ve a brilliant lending library, on everything from composting to alternative energy, organic and forest gardening to ‘natural’ toilets and electric bikes.
You can even get morsbags and pocket ashtrays from us to help cut down on litter, and bring your old specs, batteries and inkjet printer cartridges for recycling!
We aim to make it a focal point for the Manx public, and businesses, to find help and information on issues such as waste, recycling, energy efficiency, alternative energy, composting and the protection of the local environment.
You can find out more about the organisations behind it at: www.meac.iofm.net; www.foe.org.im; www.zerowastemann.org
This year, we’re putting a big effort into increasing our profile and the number of people we speak to – both via our connections with government and through support for business initiatives and public engagement.
So, for example, we’ve been visiting schools and the Isle of Man College, where we were really pleased to discuss how young people can get involved in beekeeping and bee-friendly gardening, treeplanting, and environmentally friendly ways of getting around or saving energy.
We’ve also run a number of public events: readers might remember the terrific presentations by Eco-Island’s David Green, and Lagan Valley Permaculture’s Philip Allen earlier this year. And there’s more to come, in particular Zero Waste Mann will be screening the brilliant ‘Trashed’ in September. Plus we’re delighted that the brilliant Sarah Hendy has agreed to show some of her amazing trash-fashion, an inspired look at how one person’s waste can become another’s thing of beauty.
For those into such things, Vivienne Westwood wove discarded and shredded plastic carrier bags into her models’ plaits at this year’s fashion week – and they looked stunning.
Last week, we opened the Centre from 10am to 2pm on Wednesday and were really pleased at the number of people who came to investigate – with enquiries on bee-friendly planting, how to access real nappies instead of expensive and wasteful disposables, and what to do with foraged rosehips.
We plan to keep up the midweek openings. This week, Tuesday’s the day we’ll be there. And for the foreseeable future we aim to be open every Wednesday. The kettle is always on, so please come and find out what we have to offer – there’s sure to be something of interest!
