Individual action

Consumer Guides

• Green Consumer Guide- news, info.
• Allthingsgreen – directory
• Green Choices – directory
• Guide Me Green – directory
• Living Ethically – directory
• Natural Matters – directory

General

• Carbon Rationing Action Groups.
• Downshifting week.
• Imperfectly Natural Woman – getting life right the natural way.
• The government’s Environment and greener living web pages.
• Allconsuming – why shopping doesn’t make us happy and what it does instead.
• The Story of Stuff American but a good overview video (20 mins), including why recycling is not enough.
• See MalvernTrail’s Sustained Visits page for local green and fairtrade shopping directories.
• Worcestershire County Council’s Green Directory.
• Hugg -a green version of Digg social bookmarkin.

Products

Garden, recycling

• Bubble House Worms, in Bransford just north of Malvern, and Wiggly Wigglers, based in Herefordshire, both make and sell wormeries which turn kitchen waste into compost.
• Green Gardener – biological control of pests, other garden products
• HomeRecycling – sellers of recycling bins
• naturebotts
• yourtomorrow ethical gifts

Low energy light bulbs

• BLT Direct
• ebulbshop
• Go Green Lights

Household energy

Southern Solar solar power installation has a Hereford office.

Food, Organic

Local producers, farmers markets etc. are listed on MalvernTrail’s Sustainable Visits page.

BigBarn helping people to find good, safe, accountable food from local sources.

Food Commission is campaigning for safer, healthier food.

Gardeners Box sustainable, organic gardening services directory and resources.

GreenVeg – Birmingham Vegetarian and Vegans’ news blog on environmental issues.

National Society for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

Organic Linker web directory.

Soil Association

Vegboxschemes Find your local vegetable box scheme, providing locally sourced produce.

Vegetarian Society.

Resource use, pollution

Say after me – reduce, reuse, recycle (in that order).

Reprodux Printers in Hereford (near the train station) have an environemntal bent, with recycled paper and soya based inks available. Unfortunately I find their new graphics-heavy web site unreadable. Not the cheapest printer around, but haven’t found anybody else likely to touch this ‘alternative’ approach locally.

Reuse

The Malvern Hills group of Freecycle is a very active online informal network where members offer things they no longer want for others to re-use, “whether it’s a chair, toys, a piano, an old door or computer”.

Freecycle also has a good set of web links, but it can only be accessed by members (there’s no cost to join).

The Network (Worcestershire) has closed 2008 – used to refurbish old electrical appliances.

Spokes, part of Workmatch, collects discarded or second hand bicycles for stripping down and rebuilding. Bases in Hereford, Ross and Kidderminster.

Worcestershire Resource Exchange (a ’scrapstore’ in Worcester) provides reclaimed materials for projects ranging from arts and crafts to allotment and DIY.

For other places which take items for re-use, see the How to Re-use section on Herefordshire/Worcestershire Mission Impossible site.

Recycling

Welcome to our Future is a local charity with some basic info on issues and possibilities under its Turn the World project.

Malvern Hills District Council runs kerbside recycling for plastics, textiles, paper, tins, with bottle banks and recycling centres in various locations. See their Refuse and Recycling web pages.

See Mission Impossible for more waste minimisation tips and help.

Transport

• Carplus is the umbrella body for car sharing clubs, promoting responsible car use. Nearest group Stroud Valleys?
• Local car lift-share sites: Twoshare, Worcestershire CarShare (a county council website), Carshare Gloucestershire.
• Other car share sites: Freewheelers, Liftshare, mylifts.com (rather gaudy), National Carshare.
• Environmental Transport Association is the only motoring organisation to campaign for a sustainable transport system. Provides cycle cover, including breakdown, too.
• Walkit.com Helping you find a city walking route. Started in London, also now covers Brum, Edinburgh and Newcastle.
• Cycling – see Cycle Malvern website.

Talking about sustainable living

• It’s Not Easy Being Green, info and discussion forum from former West Malvern residents the Strawbridge family, as seen on TV.
• GrownupGreen also has the strapline of Because It’s Not Easy Being Green – a site providing practical news and articles on trying to put green living into practice.
• Ecolocal.
• Green and Easy, a website offering ’simple steps to greener living’, information as well as products, operates out of Rushall (Herefordshire).
• Bean Sprouts A blog about “One family’s search for the good life”, but with plenty of links and useful info.

Green Burial

Some suggestions from Malvern Freecycle Cafe, Nov 06: Ecopod; Malvern Hills District Council on private burials; Natural Death Centre for directory of natural burial sites etc; the funeral directors in Old Street, Upton arrange ‘woodland burials’.

Willow coffins, which can be put to other purposes (e.g. linen chests) before final use, are available from a number of places, including friends in mid-Wales – phone Pippa Scott on 01686 420423.

There is an Association of Natural Burial Grounds. No info on its members on the website when we looked (May 07), but they may be able to help if contacted.