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When Only The Best Is Good Enough
“There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need, but not for man’s greed” Mohandas K. Gandhi
The hottest topic around these days is that of the environment and sustainability. Global warming is a real threat, with the possibility of future generations suffering for our excesses.
In recognition of this serious situation, our parent company JARM Amusements are committed to becoming the most environmentally friendly funfair operator in the U.K. We are currently at the stage of formulating our upcoming policies depending on what is available with current technology. We have already identified a number of strategies that can be used to make our operations greener, and we are currently in the process of implementing these. Other methods we would like to use are still either prohibitively expensive or just not possible with the state of current technology. These we will monitor and implement as soon as they become realistically achievable. A full copy of our policy is supplied with the safety dossier presented to our clients at each event, along with our current action plan which explains in detail the active steps we are taking to implement the policy. In the meantime a summery of the policy and plan is listed here;
1) Recycling
We are having a number of mobile waste recycling points constructed. We will use these at our events to enable members of the public to easily separate recyclable waste such as aluminium cans, and place them into the requisite waste bin. We are negotiating with a number of recyclers to take our waste such as cans, plastic bottles etc. Hopefully this will help to reduce the amount of landfill created by our events. A number of local gardeners have agreed to take the used coffee grinds and teabags from our coffee carts, it seems that they are perfect for composting! Our range of catering carts will each have their own dedicated recycling bin to ensure the waste they create at each event is recycled.
2) Biodegradability
We have identified which of our consumables it may be possible to replace with biodegradable alternatives. Products such as cups for our coffee carts, or plastic bags for the candy floss carts could be replaced, whilst we prefer recycling, we realise that many people would leave the event with some of the potential waste and dispose of it themselves, by ensuring they take degradable candy floss bags, if it ends up in landfill it takes between 4 months and 4 years to degrade, compared to possibly hundreds of years for some plastic items.
3) Bio Fuels
This is one strategy that we would like to implement, but is proving problematic at the moment. It is difficult to obtain accurate information from engine manufacturers about just how much biofuel their products can tolerate. Various sources of information quote that a standard unmodified diesel engine can run off 100% bio diesel, whilst other sources claim the maximum is B5 (a 5% biofuel, 95% fossil fuel blend). When you realise that the original engine developed by Rudolph Diesel actually ran on peanut oil, it makes sense that diesel engines should be able to use bio blends, but until we can ensure that our engines will not be damaged by this move we are having to hold off for the time being.
One move that we can make is to switch our fuel card providers to the RIX Petroleum Green Card. Rix have a number of filling stations dispensing B5 blend diesel. If you have to purchase normal diesel from another filling station, RIX offset this by ensuring an amount equivalent to your purchase is placed into their standard outlets. Although this is only a small step (5% bio fuel) it is still a move in the right direction.
4) Energy Efficiency
We replace things like light bulbs on our attractions on an ongoing basis. We have committed to any replacements being more energy efficient than is currently the norm. We have already replaced things such as 500 Watt halogen bulbs with a mixture of 300 and 150 watt alternatives. We view this as a stop gap measure however, as LED technology becomes affordable we will begin to use it as standard
5) Cleaning Products
We have already replaced our hydrocarbon cleaning products (used for cleaning oil or diesel spills) with a totally environmentally friendly, fully biodegradable alternative. Where it is possible to do so, we will replace other cleaning products with their biodegradable alternatives.
6) Waste Paper
Our office initially used around 25,000 sheets of A4 paper per annum. By replacing many of the documents we sent out with their PDF equivelents, we reduced this last year to 15,000 sheets of paper. By talking with our clients and obtaining their agreement to receive documents in electronic format, we hope to reduce this to below 10,000 sheets by the end of 2008.
At many of our events, we are using a standard advertising board that is undated, this allows its re use in subsequent years and again reduces the amount of paper potentially ending up in landfill.
7) Fairtrade
Although not strictly a sustainability issue, we have already switched our coffee carts and candy floss carts to Fairtrade only products. Other Fairtrade items will be sourced and used as and when they become available.
A range of Victorian style catering carts, candy floss, espresso coffee, crepes, ice cream, available in Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, Yorkshire, the North East, Cumbria and all of the United Kingdom
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