The 46th Bedford Park Festival: June 16-July1 2012
Make Every Day a Green Day
sponsored by Powerday
We are delighted that the Festival will be opened by Radio 4's Alice Arnold (right), who was hailed as an anti-litter heroine last month by the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, and explained how it happened in the Guardian
(photograph by David Levene).
It's a great boost to our efforts over the years to Keep Green Days Green by recycling all the waste from Green Days weekend.
We are grateful to all the green organisations named below for their support in helping Make Every Day A Green Day. This year we have established a CycleZone to encourage cycling, backed by Hounslow Council. We also welcome community organisation Streetbank to Green Days on Sunday June 17th, which is running a free-to-enter photo competition. Do say hi to the Streetbank team and find out what they're up to! And
Greentomatocars is once again sponsoring our plants stall.
But we particularly welcome our new waste management partner and sponsor Powerday, one of the most reputable companies in this field. Powerday is a family-owned recycling and waste management company founded in 1980.
It uses the latest recycling technology to recover 100% from waste at the largest Materials Recycling Facility in Southern England.
For Green Days, it means we no longer have to separate the waste into different containers. All waste can be put in any bin without sorting, making it easier for everyone to put all their waste in a bin and keep the site clean.
Powerday will be providing free supply of waste containers and free waste removal. There will be six single-bin waste points at strategic points across the site. All waste will go to Powerday's local waste transfer station where it will be sorted and 100% recycled or used for energy. This means:
No Waste to Landfill
Greatly reduced transport
Cleaner and easier to manage site
A saving of £800 on last year's waste management costs
A team of two will be on duty all day to manage the bins. BUT REMEMBER: THE BEST WASTE IS NO WASTE. PLEASE DO ALL YOU CAN TO MINIMISE THE WASTE ARISING.
'Make Every Day a Green Day' over the years
For the past eight years, under the slogan Keep Green Days Green, the Bedford Park Festival has recycled all waste on its opening Green Days weekend, earning praise from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
For several years it did this thanks to the tireless work of Rima Jones (below right) and the active support of Grundon Waste Management. The Festival's campaign has always urged local people to look beyond the Green Days weekend and 'make every day a Green Day'.
One of the early green Festival sponsors was Eco, the ‘green’ shop and consultancy opened by Colin Firth, his wife Livia and her brother Nicola Giuggioli. On Green Night in 2008, Eco launched its own campaign to make Chiswick the first "eco-village", by banning plastic bags and encouraging local businesses to recycle their waste. See below.
Greentomatocars (right) sponsors the plants stall and in the past there have been stalls for Green Concierge Service and Hounslow's recycling team, and there's been a chance to win a new ‘green’ Bluemotion car from Volkswagen Chiswick.
Love London (formerly London Sustainability Weeks)
Love London is London’s greenest annual festival, celebrating projects and organisations that are making a real contribution to creating a more sustainable capital.
Green Dads 2009
The Green Dads Competition was organised by Turnham-Green ethical hampers and the winners received their prize on the Bandstand at Green Days, (right) from Michelin star chef Chris Horridge, with Natalie of Turnham-Green.
Green Night 2008
After Kew announced it was planning to do without plastic bags, we asked 'Can and should Chiswick go further?' Eco put forward a scheme to turn Chiswick into an eco-Village at the Festival's ‘Green Night’ on Thursday June 19th from 7.30pm at St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall (right).
The event brought together people, businesses and community groups keen to reduce Chiswick's carbon footprint, in an evening of lively debate and practical advice. There were stalls, refreshments and a presentation to the winners of Chiswick's Greenest Dad contest.
Green Night built on the success of the Festival’s ‘Green Days’ weekend - a two-day fete, funfair and craft fair, where all the waste is cleared for recycling.
“With fuel bills rocketing and much greater awareness of the need to protect the planet, lots of people have been asking what can be done here in Chiswick” said Torin Douglas, co-ordinator of the Bedford Park Festival. “We're bringing them together on Green Night – and we hope the combination of community groups, businesses, councillors and residents means we really can ‘make every day a Green Day’.”
Chiswick residents speaking on Green Night included: David Shreeve, director of the Conservation Foundation and environment adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury; Nicola Guiggioli, of Eco Age, the ‘green’ shop and consultancy, who is launching a campaign to turn Chiswick into an Eco village; local architect Oliver West, who is exploring the possibility of using solar panels on the roof of St Michael & All Angels’ Parish Hall to heat the church’s water; and Andrew Pears of the environment consultancy Kotuku, who asked 'how green is your water?'
Nigel Woolner of the Bedford Park Society presented the Society's new report,'A Greener Bedford Park', which explains how householders can reduce their carbon footprint in the first garden suburb. Copies will be on sale. There were also presentations by Hamish Phillips from Greentomatocars; the Green Homes Concierge Service, which advises people on sustainable living; and Karen Liebrich from the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden; and other local groups.
And the ethical food company, Turnham Green, announced the winners of its children’s contest to nominate ‘Chiswick’s Greenest Dad’.