Content
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Discover our plans for making our Council properties more energy efficient
- Spotlight on Hop Oast: Reducing carbon emissions through tyre remoulding!
- Read the progress on our Hot Bin trials and why composting is good for the climate
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1-7 March: Food Waste Action Week: Join this week of awareness and action
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5-8 March: Kinder Spring - a free online sustainability event
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Weds 10 March: What can I recycle & where? A talk by the Horsham Future Forum
- See what grant funding is available to help you save money and make your home more energy efficient
- The first Community Climate Fund recipients share their thoughts on video
- Seal Spotting in the Horsham District
- Useful links
 We are making our properties more energy efficient
Rigorous new national targets introduced for green building revolution
The government has set out plans to radically improve the energy performance of new homes, with all homes to be highly energy efficient, with low carbon heating and be zero carbon ready by 2025.
All homes will have to meet these rigorous new energy efficiency standards to lower energy consumption and bills, helping to protect the environment.
Key requirements:
- All new residential buildings to be constructed to be highly energy efficient
- Building work in existing buildings must meet new standards
- Measures to tackle overheating in existing homes and drive down costly bills for families
What we are doing to make our properties energy efficient
- Our Property Services team have already made a start with this by upgrading our Museum and Art Gallery with a more energy efficient power supply and a digitally controlled heating system.
- We are currently conducting an audit of all our Council-owned buildings to provide detailed costs for retrofitting and, where practical, installing renewable / low carbon energy technology.
 Spotlight on Hop Oast: Reducing carbon emissions through tyre remoulding!
Hop Oast are now using remoulded (also known as retread) tyres on their waste and recycling vehicles as part of the Council’s corporate goal to tackle climate change.
These tyres are also more cost-effective, costing around 70% of the price of a brand-new tyre so reducing running costs for the department. It’s a win-win!
Why this supports our climate change agenda
The process of remoulding tyres, which is heavily tested and regulated by the ECE, saves 80% of the materials required to manufacture a new tyre, so significantly reducing the impact on the environment. Each tyre that is remoulded can save around 68 litres of oil and 44kg of rubber on every casing.
In addition, remoulding tyres reduces scrapping, exportation and incineration of worn-out tyres which can collectively release thousands of tonnes of CO2 into the air.
Hop Oast will also soon be trialling a new all-electric waste collection vehicle – watch this space for more updates.
Find out about our Hot Bin trial and why composting is good for the climate
Our Hot Bin composting trial is growing, with seven new households coming on board.
A Hot Bin can take anything from cooked food waste (including bones) to peelings, tea bags and egg shells, and turn it into rich compost by heating the waste up to 60°C. The result is a nutrient-rich compost for your garden.
Welcome to our new Recycling Champions, the White family, who received their bin recently. Here's what they had to say ahead of the trial...
"We’re relatively new to the composting scene and are really excited to reap the benefits of a hot bin and all that it can do! We have also been really enjoying the liquid gold coming out of the hot bin. Every week we get a good 1-2l of pure fertiliser pouring out from the tap, which we use to feed all the plants and trees beginning to show signs of life as we head towards spring."
Why composting benefits the climate
Compost benefits the climate in several ways:
- by reducing greenhouse gas emissions at landfills
- by promoting uptake of carbon dioxide by vegetation, and
- by making our allotments and gardens more resilient to the effects of climate change
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 Food Waste Action Week
1 - 7 March 2021
Join this week of awareness and action to end food waste.
Led by WRAP, Food Waste Action Week will explore the practical ways to drive down the amount of food we waste. Find out what you can do to help, and get lots of advice, tips and tasty recipes.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Wasted food accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions globally than all of the commercial flights we take each year.
- Each year, UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of food that could be eaten.
- If everyone in the UK stopped throwing away food for just one day, it would do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a whole year.
- If we all stopped wasting bread at home in the UK for a year, it could do the same for greenhouse gas emissions as planting 5.3 million trees.
Kinder Spring - a free online sustainability event
5, 6 & 7 March
Kinder Spring is a free online sustainability event with advice, information and fun for anyone wishing to make their home, garden or daily life a little more sustainable.
The event will take place on a special Facebook event page where you will find information and activities for those wanting to grow their own food, avoid food waste, make their homes more energy efficient, up-cycle furniture plus eco-friendly crafting ideas. There will also be a photography competition, 'Spring Clean Your IT' sessions and much more!
It’s all FREE of charge, though you do need to book tickets for the Zoom calls as numbers will be limited.
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 What can I recycle & where?
A talk by the Horsham Future Forum
Wednesday 10 March, 7-8pm. FREE
Confused by what you can & cannot recycle in your household bins in West Sussex? Want to do more recycling to help the planet?
This online talk will cover what can and can’t be recycled in your household collection bins, the TerraCycle recycling scheme from Sussex Green Living and the hard to recycle plastics which can be taken to the supermarkets.
Why Recycle?
As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change.
Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining, and processing of raw materials - all of which creates substantial air and water pollution.
Grant funding to help you save money and make your home more energy efficient
1. Green Homes Grant
The Green Homes Grant is available to all residents and covers up to two thirds of the cost of qualifying improvements to your home. It may help households save up to £600 a year on energy bills. The maximum value of the voucher is £5,000. The application deadline for this has been extended to March 2022.
2. The Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme
If your residents are on a low income and living in a property with low energy performance they may be eligible for a LAD grant. Please help to spread the word about this to the residents in your area.
There is up to £10,000 available per household to provide funding for solid wall insulation and heat pumps as well as other energy efficiency improvements such as low carbon heating.
Applications need to be in by 31 March 2021.
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The first Community Climate Fund recipients share their thoughts on video
You will remember that we launched the Horsham District Community Climate Fund in July 2020 to enable voluntary and community groups to develop projects to reduce carbon levels locally and improve our environment.
Five groups were successful recipients, coming from Horsham, Holbrook, Henfield and Steyning. Click on the links below to hear some of their views on the new fund.
The next round of funding grant applications runs from 5 April to 14 May 2021.
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 Seal Spotting in Horsham District
The Sussex Wildlife Trust has started a new blog to keep you up to date with the latest news, wildlife sightings and activities from the Wilder Horsham District team.
Their first blog post highlighted that until we get out and explore, we often don't realise how much wildlife is sitting on our doorstep. Michael Blencowe from the Trust set out to explore and uncover the wildlife of Horsham District when he came across a ‘local legendary beast’…the common seal!
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