[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Recycling]
Sainsbury's to switch tomato packaging from tins to Tetra
Sainsbury's says its new tomato cartons will reduce packaging and carbon emissions, but critics warn the move may also increase landfill
Rebecca Smithers
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 11.51 GMT Article history
Tinned tomatoes are one of the most popular staple ingredients in our store cupboards, handy for whipping up spaghetti bolognaise or adding to soups and stews. But now Sainsbury's supermarket is to switch its "Basics" range of tomatoes from tins to cardboard cartons, in a move that it claims will cut half a million kilos of packaging every year.
The tomatoes are the most popular non-fresh item in its stores, with around 22m tins sold every year. Sainsbury's started selling food in such "Tetra Recart" packaging in 2007, but says this is the first time cartons have been used for tinned items in such large volumes.
The switch will go some way towards helping the supermarket achieve its target of reducing packaging by a third by 2015. This move alone will reduce carbon emissions by 156 tonnes per year.
Stuart Lendrum, Sainsbury's head of packaging, said: "This type of carton is a strong challenger to the traditional tin can in many ways, and may well pose a threat to its dominance over the coming years. As they can be packed more tightly, more will fit onto a lorry meaning fewer journeys are required to move them around the country."
While cartons are lighter than tin cans and can be recycled with over two-thirds of UK councils, the Metal Packaging Manufacturers' Association questioned Sainsbury's latest move, claiming that waste to landfill could rise as a result. In a statement it said: "Cans have the highest recycling rate of any packaging material in Europe. In the UK two-thirds of food cans avoid landfill completely and are recycled. What's more, metal is infinitely recyclable – it can be reused again and again with no loss of quality."
[Environment > Wildlife]
Biologist prepares to film black bear giving birth in wild for the first time
Lynn Rogers sets up camera outside den in Minnesota woods to film Lily the bear give birth to her first cub
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
For a bear living deep in the woods in Minnesota, Lily is about to have a very public delivery of her first cub.
Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute has rigged up a webcam at the entrance of the bear's den, ready to capture the first footage of a bear giving birth in the wild.
Anticipation of the happy event — which could occur any day now — had already gained Lily the bear more than 18,000 friends on her Facebook page by Friday morning.
The project, undertaken with documentary maker Doug Hajicek, marks the culmination of Rogers' years spent trying to get close to black bear in their native habitats and observe their behaviour.
In Lily's case, it was almost natural to have Rogers at the birth.
She is the daughter of Rogers's most trusting research subject – June – and he has watched her since her own birth. A BBC film about Rogers' work last year, Bearwalker of the North Woods, showed the bear patting Rogers. "We have known Lily since she was a cub. When the litter was born I spent many hours with a videocamera to the entrance of her den."
Lily is now three years old – the normal age for a bear to first give birth. It is not entirely certain she is, or was ever, pregnant.
But Rogers – who visited Lily in her den on January 11 and has been watching her on the webcam – says there are some suggestions she might be in the advanced stages of pregnancy.
"What I am seeing is a lot of re-arranging of the bedding, a lot of licking of her nipples and her genitals," he said. "Yesterday she was intensely licking the bedding."
However, he was equally concerned about a pregnancy loss. Bear pregnancies are delicate events, and he feared Lily's den might have been disturbed by fishermen.
Whatever happens, years spent trying to gain Lily's confidence means that it will likely be captured on the webcam.
The familiarity helped Rogers and Hajicek rig up equipment at the entrance to Lily's den. "The camera is right here," he said. "Between putting the big clunky camera in and the cameraman standing behind me, it scared Lily. She got up and left the den."
The pair moved away, and Lily eventually returned. "Another bear would have left the den and taken off through the woods," Rogers said.
He said he hopes the publicity will help cure the public of their distrust of black bears. "A lot of people are falling in love with her."
[Environment > Wildlife]
Asia's greed for ivory puts African elephant at risk
Slaughter by poachers intensifies as governments seek to increase legal sales
Robin McKie
The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010 Article history
There has been a massive surge in illegal ivory trading, researchers warned last week. They have found that more than 14,000 products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants were seized in 2009, an increase of more than 2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007.
Details of this disturbing rise have been revealed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading ban. Implemented on 18 January 1990, it was at first credited with halting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants.
But the recent growth in the far east's appetite for ivory – a status symbol for the middle classes of the region's newly industrialised economies – has sent ivory prices soaring from £150 a kilogram in 2004 to more than £4,000.
At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa's elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world's largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter.
"It is a really worrying situation," said Richard Thomas, director of Traffic, the group that monitors trade in wildlife. "However, it is not absolutely clear what should be done." Indeed, the issue is so confused that a conflict over the ivory trade is expected at March's meeting of Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
A key source of contention will be the future of legitimate stockpile sales of ivory that have been permitted by international agreement. Killing elephants for their tusks is illegal, but selling ivory from animals that have died of natural causes has been permitted on occasions. In 2008 a stockpile of tusks – from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – was bought by dealers from China and Japan. The sale, of 105,000 kilograms of ivory, raised more than £15m.
But now countries including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo are to call for a ban of these stockpile sales at the Cites meeting. They say such trade – albeit sporadic – only increases demand for ivory goods and is responsible for triggering the recent rise in illegal trade and the killing of thousands of elephants across Africa.
This point is backed by shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert, who recently returned from a visit to study the impact of ivory poaching in India. "On the 20th anniversary of the international ban on the ivory trade, we should be taking a stand," he said last week. "Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade, we should be choking demand, not stoking it."
But countries such as Tanzania and Zambia, which have some of the worst poaching records in Africa, want a relaxation of ivory trade regulations at Cites so they can hold their own stockpile sales. They say the tens of millions of pounds that can be raised will help them fund rangers who can protect their elephants.
"Unfortunately the evidence is not clear whether stockpile sales increase demand for ivory or help to control it," said Heather Sohl of the WWF. "We have had recent stockpile sales of ivory – and poaching has increased dramatically. But other factors may be involved. Many African countries are suffering terrible drought and local people are desperate. Killing elephants brings money, alas."
Killing for tusks is a particularly gruesome trade. Elephants are intelligent animals whose sophisticated social ties are exploited by poachers. They will often shoot young elephants to draw in a grieving parent, which is then killed for its ivory. Estimates suggest more than 38,000 elephants were killed this way in 2006: the death rate is higher today.
[Environment > Recycling]
Sainsbury's to switch tomato packaging from tins to Tetra
Sainsbury's says its new tomato cartons will reduce packaging and carbon emissions, but critics warn the move may also increase landfill
Rebecca Smithers
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 11.51 GMT Article history
Tinned tomatoes are one of the most popular staple ingredients in our store cupboards, handy for whipping up spaghetti bolognaise or adding to soups and stews. But now Sainsbury's supermarket is to switch its "Basics" range of tomatoes from tins to cardboard cartons, in a move that it claims will cut half a million kilos of packaging every year.
The tomatoes are the most popular non-fresh item in its stores, with around 22m tins sold every year. Sainsbury's started selling food in such "Tetra Recart" packaging in 2007, but says this is the first time cartons have been used for tinned items in such large volumes.
The switch will go some way towards helping the supermarket achieve its target of reducing packaging by a third by 2015. This move alone will reduce carbon emissions by 156 tonnes per year.
Stuart Lendrum, Sainsbury's head of packaging, said: "This type of carton is a strong challenger to the traditional tin can in many ways, and may well pose a threat to its dominance over the coming years. As they can be packed more tightly, more will fit onto a lorry meaning fewer journeys are required to move them around the country."
While cartons are lighter than tin cans and can be recycled with over two-thirds of UK councils, the Metal Packaging Manufacturers' Association questioned Sainsbury's latest move, claiming that waste to landfill could rise as a result. In a statement it said: "Cans have the highest recycling rate of any packaging material in Europe. In the UK two-thirds of food cans avoid landfill completely and are recycled. What's more, metal is infinitely recyclable – it can be reused again and again with no loss of quality."
[Environment > Wildlife]
Biologist prepares to film black bear giving birth in wild for the first time
Lynn Rogers sets up camera outside den in Minnesota woods to film Lily the bear give birth to her first cub
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 January 2010 00.05 GMT Article history
For a bear living deep in the woods in Minnesota, Lily is about to have a very public delivery of her first cub.
Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute has rigged up a webcam at the entrance of the bear's den, ready to capture the first footage of a bear giving birth in the wild.
Anticipation of the happy event — which could occur any day now — had already gained Lily the bear more than 18,000 friends on her Facebook page by Friday morning.
The project, undertaken with documentary maker Doug Hajicek, marks the culmination of Rogers' years spent trying to get close to black bear in their native habitats and observe their behaviour.
In Lily's case, it was almost natural to have Rogers at the birth.
She is the daughter of Rogers's most trusting research subject – June – and he has watched her since her own birth. A BBC film about Rogers' work last year, Bearwalker of the North Woods, showed the bear patting Rogers. "We have known Lily since she was a cub. When the litter was born I spent many hours with a videocamera to the entrance of her den."
Lily is now three years old – the normal age for a bear to first give birth. It is not entirely certain she is, or was ever, pregnant.
But Rogers – who visited Lily in her den on January 11 and has been watching her on the webcam – says there are some suggestions she might be in the advanced stages of pregnancy.
"What I am seeing is a lot of re-arranging of the bedding, a lot of licking of her nipples and her genitals," he said. "Yesterday she was intensely licking the bedding."
However, he was equally concerned about a pregnancy loss. Bear pregnancies are delicate events, and he feared Lily's den might have been disturbed by fishermen.
Whatever happens, years spent trying to gain Lily's confidence means that it will likely be captured on the webcam.
The familiarity helped Rogers and Hajicek rig up equipment at the entrance to Lily's den. "The camera is right here," he said. "Between putting the big clunky camera in and the cameraman standing behind me, it scared Lily. She got up and left the den."
The pair moved away, and Lily eventually returned. "Another bear would have left the den and taken off through the woods," Rogers said.
He said he hopes the publicity will help cure the public of their distrust of black bears. "A lot of people are falling in love with her."
[Environment > Wildlife]
Asia's greed for ivory puts African elephant at risk
Slaughter by poachers intensifies as governments seek to increase legal sales
Robin McKie
The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010 Article history
There has been a massive surge in illegal ivory trading, researchers warned last week. They have found that more than 14,000 products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants were seized in 2009, an increase of more than 2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007.
Details of this disturbing rise have been revealed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading ban. Implemented on 18 January 1990, it was at first credited with halting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants.
But the recent growth in the far east's appetite for ivory – a status symbol for the middle classes of the region's newly industrialised economies – has sent ivory prices soaring from £150 a kilogram in 2004 to more than £4,000.
At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa's elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world's largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter.
"It is a really worrying situation," said Richard Thomas, director of Traffic, the group that monitors trade in wildlife. "However, it is not absolutely clear what should be done." Indeed, the issue is so confused that a conflict over the ivory trade is expected at March's meeting of Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
A key source of contention will be the future of legitimate stockpile sales of ivory that have been permitted by international agreement. Killing elephants for their tusks is illegal, but selling ivory from animals that have died of natural causes has been permitted on occasions. In 2008 a stockpile of tusks – from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – was bought by dealers from China and Japan. The sale, of 105,000 kilograms of ivory, raised more than £15m.
But now countries including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo are to call for a ban of these stockpile sales at the Cites meeting. They say such trade – albeit sporadic – only increases demand for ivory goods and is responsible for triggering the recent rise in illegal trade and the killing of thousands of elephants across Africa.
This point is backed by shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert, who recently returned from a visit to study the impact of ivory poaching in India. "On the 20th anniversary of the international ban on the ivory trade, we should be taking a stand," he said last week. "Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade, we should be choking demand, not stoking it."
But countries such as Tanzania and Zambia, which have some of the worst poaching records in Africa, want a relaxation of ivory trade regulations at Cites so they can hold their own stockpile sales. They say the tens of millions of pounds that can be raised will help them fund rangers who can protect their elephants.
"Unfortunately the evidence is not clear whether stockpile sales increase demand for ivory or help to control it," said Heather Sohl of the WWF. "We have had recent stockpile sales of ivory – and poaching has increased dramatically. But other factors may be involved. Many African countries are suffering terrible drought and local people are desperate. Killing elephants brings money, alas."
Killing for tusks is a particularly gruesome trade. Elephants are intelligent animals whose sophisticated social ties are exploited by poachers. They will often shoot young elephants to draw in a grieving parent, which is then killed for its ivory. Estimates suggest more than 38,000 elephants were killed this way in 2006: the death rate is higher today.
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