Launch of Hastings Refill

23rd September 2018

Project aims to save people money and reduce plastic pollution

Saturday 22 September, 10am – 4pm, St Mary in the Castle, Hastings: Hastings Green Party and Transition Town Hastings [2] will be launching a new water bottle refill scheme for Hasting next Saturday (22 September) at the Ocean Symposium [3] at St Mary in the Castle.

Over fifty local businesses in Hastings have already signed up to the scheme.

Julia Hilton of Hastings Green party said: ‘The Hastings Refill scheme [4] is part of a nationwide initiative to reduce plastic pollution and save people money by encouraging them to carry and refill a water bottle rather than constantly buying plastic water bottles [5]. Wherever you see one of the blue ‘Free Tap Water Available Here’ stickers on display, you’ll know you’re welcome to ask for a free refill. Or you can download the app from https://www.refill.org.uk, which makes it quick, easy and free to find out where to refill on the go.’

Sarah Macbeth of Transition Town Hastings added: ‘We’ve all heard of the phrase; reduce, reuse, recycle. Often recycle is where the focus lies. But with this scheme, we’re going straight to the heart of the matter: reduce! According to recent research British households are failing to recycle as many as 16m plastic bottles every day – nearly half the total used [6]. By refilling bottles we can help reduce this waste while also taking away the need for recycling, itself a complicated process when it comes to plastics.’

Any café, restaurant or business with easy access to water can sign up to be part of the scheme, either using the online app at https://www.refill.org.uk or by emailing refillhastings@gmail.com.

NOTES

[1] https://hastings.greenparty.org.uk
[2] https://www.transitiontownhastings.org.uk
[3] The Ocean Symposium will run from 10am – 4.00 pm at St Mary’s in the Castle on Saturday 22 September. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-ocean-symposium-2018-and-marine-exhibition-tickets-46801977976
[4] https://www.refill.org.uk/refill-scheme/refill-hastings

[5] https://www.refill.org.uk
[6] ‘British households fail to recycle a ‘staggering’ 16m plastic bottles a day’, Guardian, 15 October 2016,https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/15/british-households-fail-to-recycle-a-staggering-16m-plastic-bottles-a-day

Sustainability on Sea festival this September!

30th August 2018

Transition Town Hastings and Energise Sussex Coast are jointly coordinating a new festival all about sustainable practices in the local area.

Join us on Sept 21-30 for some inspiring events including nature walks, talks, demos, debates and tips on reducing plastic, a DIY solar workshop and more. We are also proud to promote events by local groups such as Sussex Wildlife Trust, Surfers Against Sewage, OVESCO, Hastings Furniture Service and Pier to Eternity.

The aim is to promote a sustainable future encouraging positive behaviour change and supporting and promoting those who are playing their role towards this goal.

The festival finale event is a Big Green Fair on the Stade Open Space, Stade hall and Classroom on the Coast. The day will include talks, demos, art workshops, food workshops, bike checks, music, local information stalls and eco products for sale. Not to be missed!

See www.sustainabilityonsea.org.uk for more details.

Refill scheme in Hastings

28th June 2018

Along with Surfs Against Sewage we’re establishing a Refill scheme in the Hastings area. We’re asking venues, cafes, bars, restaurants etc if they will agree to refill water bottles for free in an aim to reduce the amount of single use plastic being used.

The Refill Scheme is taking the country by storm! Refill recently won Gold at the Global Good Awards for ‘Best Environmental Behaviour Change’. There are now over 1600 Refill stations across the country and that number is set to rise steeply as London joins the movement with the support of Thames Water and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Refill now have a new promotional video which had 150,000 views on Facebook in its first few days.

Refill Hastings now has 23 stations signed up and we will continue to sign up more. We are now receiving support from a newly appointed regional coordinator who is helping us with the formalities and a promotional plan.

We’ve just set up a Refill Hastings Facebook Page so do give us a like!
Don’t forget to download the Refill App to find all refill stations or to add one yourself! If you want to sign a venue up to the scheme do l et us know and we’ll give you a sticker for the window and the necessary info.

Writers in conversation at the Beacon, Hastings

27th October 2017

Join Transition Town Hastings and Energise Sussex Coast for an exciting evening featuring two writers with their eyes firmly fixed on climate change, the Anthropocene and, of course, language. Nicholas Royle and Alex Lockwood will be reading from their recently published books and will take questions around the topics discussed. The Beacon will also open their kitchen for a special vegan dinner that can be bought after when the conversation can continue.

See the event page for more details and a link to book tickets.

Don’t miss the bus on climate change: make pensions fossil free!

13th September 2017

On Saturday 23 September campaigners from across East Sussex will be boarding one of the Big Lemon’s sustainable buses for a one-day tour of East Sussex, taking the message about fossil fuel divestment – and the Divest East Sussex petition – to Hastings, Bexhill, Hailsham, Eastbourne, Seaford, Crowborough, Uckfield and Brighton.

If you’d like to come and see us off on the day – and take part in the photo call, featuring one of the Big Lemon’s sustainable buses – then please meet us by Hastings pier at 9.15am on Saturday 23 September.

“If we want to avoid 2C, we have very little time left. The public should be very concerned.” – Adrian Raftery, co-author of the recent scientific paper ‘Less than 2 °C warming by 2100 unlikely’, Nature Climate Change, 31 July 2017.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

We’ve already seen global warming of over 1 degree centigrade.

The resulting climate change is now leading to increasingly severe impacts – from rapidly melting sea-ice at the poles to 50 degree heatwaves in India and drought in California. The UK is also seeing serious impacts – with increasingly severe flooding in almost every region and country in the UK in recent years – and it’s going to get much, much worse.

Unless, that is, we take action NOW to ensure that most of the known deposits of fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) are left in the ground unburnt, and replace them with cleaner sources of energy.

LET’S NOT MISS THE BUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) currently has £150m of local people’s pension monies invested in fossil fuels. These investments are a disaster for the climate as well as a financial risk for local people’s pensions.

Hastings Borough Council, Lewes Town Council and Brighton & Hove City Council have all called on ESCC to get rid of these investments (‘divest’).

Add your voice to the calls for divestment by signing the petition to divest the East Sussex Pension Fund and join us on 23 September if you can (see below for our schedule).

Together we can send a strong message to the ESCC that it’s time to move our money away from the problem and into the solutions.

More info here.

Save the date! 1066 Energy Campaign Launch

7th August 2017

Join us for our Big Happy Sun-day on Sunday 10th September 10am–4pm, outside the Stade Hall in Hastings Old Town. A day of family fun and celebration as we launch the 1066 Energy Campaign for Local Energy.

The jam packed day will include free interactive games for children such as solar boat making, cycle powered smoothies, toy car racing and our solar cinema! This will run alongside fun for all the family such as a morning salute to the sun yoga session, music, singing, massage, giveaways and more.

Transition Town Hastings is part of the group launching the 1066 Energy campaign for local energy to power the local economy.

Contact kate@energisesussexcoast.co.uk for more details or visit www.energisesussexcoast.co.uk

Recycle Food Waste Petition to HBC

31st July 2017

PROVIDE SERVICES TO RECYCLE FOOD WASTE IN HASTINGS

Food waste:
– smells, attracts vermin and seagulls, and contributes to CO2 emissions in landfill sites.
– could be turned into valuable compost.

Hastings Old Town residents said in recent surveys that not knowing what to do with food waste was one of their main local concerns.

Lewes District Council will save 4000 tonnes of CO2 over 5 years by recycling food waste. They will also produce soil conditioner from the waste that can be sold to bring money back into the community.

We call on our Council to provide regular food waste collection services for Hastings residents. This will reduce the problems of bins attracting seagulls, reduce CO2, and encourage people to reduce their own food waste.

Sign the Petition to Hastings Borough Council now

Image © Beccy McCray

NEW – relaunched energy group!

10th July 2017

Following the Community Energy Fortnight speaker event, the relaunched transition community energy group met on 6^th July at the White Rock Hotel. The meeting was on an appropriately beautiful sunny day in the White Rock hotel which overlooks the sea and generates some of its power with solar panels on the roof. In this spot, we couldn’t help but be inspired by the potential we have locally to use the energy of the sun, sea and wind to power our town.

The group concentrated on visioning what we would love to see in our local area, with ideas ranging from becoming ‘Silicon Seaside’ and encourage cutting edge renewable energy tech innovation to the local area, to becoming the first seaside town with a pier powered on renewable energy. Please take a look at the minutes to read the full list of ideas. We would love to hear your thoughts, feedback or any useful contacts. Even better we’d love to hear them in person at the next meeting!

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 10^th August, 7:30pm – 9pm at the White Rock Hotel where we will be voting on our ideas and selecting a few to start progressing. The meeting is open to anyone that would like to get involved in community energy, or just learn a bit more. More ideas can be added to the list so please get in contact if you’d like to add anything and come along to the meeting. If you are thinking about getting involved then please do! This is an exciting time in the world of community energy and there’s so much potential in Hastings and St Leonards for interesting projects which really make a difference.

For more information please email kate@energisesussexcoast.co.uk

Vote for Science Lab on the Beach at a local Tesco store

29th June 2017

Energise Sussex Coast is bidding to bag a massive cash boost for it’s ‘Science Lab on the Beach’ project from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to local community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

Energise Sussex Coast is one of the groups on the shortlist.

The Science Lab on the Beach will feature solar powered family activities, solar panel making, solar powered boat building for children, an energy quiz and more. We want to give local residents a taste of the amazing potential that sunny Hastings holds for changing the way we power our local area through more locally owned, community benefit renewable energy and greater household energy efficiency.

Richard Watson, Chief Executive of Energise Sussex Coast said:

“Hastings is one of the sunniest places in UK and we want every child in the town to be able to come to our science lab on the beach to have fun and find out how the sun can help us generate clean energy for the future.”

Voting is open in the following local stores throughout July and August:
Tesco Express, Battle Hill, Battle, TN33 0BN
Tesco Express, Fernside Ave, St Leonards, TN38 0UU
Tescos Extra, Church Wood Drive, TN38 9RB
Tesco Express, Lacuna Place, Hastings, TN34 1BP
Tesco Express, Little Ridge Ave, Hastings, TN37 7LR
Tesco Express, Old London Road, Ore, TN35 5BH

Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Lindsey Crompton, Head of Community at Tesco, said:

“We are absolutely delighted to open the voting for July and August. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see them come to life in hundreds of communities.”

Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp

Transition Town Hastings – The story so far

22nd May 2017

Hastings is well known for its passionate support of the environment, and for addressing the impact of climate change. We realise we are an important part of the solution – lead by example and show others what is possible. Transition Towns are now a global initiative encouraging communities to address the challenges they face by starting locally.

Transition Town Hastings was originally started in 2006, and gathered pace in 2015 when frustrations about an issue no government seemed to be taking seriously came to a head. The Transition Network or Movement offered a productive, all inclusive, a-political approach.

Over the last two and a half years, TTH has run numerous events to raise awareness of the issues. There was an initial Vision Day, on which the public were invited to come along and share their vision for a healthier, more sustainable Hastings. We’ve hosted a number of well attended ‘Pot Luck Dinners’ and shown many inspiring films including ‘Inhabit’ – an introduction to Permaculture which included a Q&A with the director Costa Boutsikaris, and ‘Demain/Tomorrow’ – a story presenting positive solutions to our ecological, economical and social crisis. We have also hosted inspiring guest speakers such as Jeremy Leggett (founder of Solar Aid), Pop-ups at St Leonards Festival, several swap shops and much more.

TTH started a Community Garden at St Leonards Warrior Square Train Station (North Side) which produced its first harvest last year. Feel free to come along to a gardening session (every weekend) to get involved, find out more or pick something for your dinner! There are many exciting plans for this year: the garden will be part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival which runs from 20th May – 4th June and on Sunday 4th June the station community garden will host ‘A Day to Clear Your Head and Clear Your Shed’ from 11-3pm. Donate an old rake or bring something unusual to plant something in. There will be music too.

TTH are also developing a project to tackle polystyrene take-away food packaging and the use of disposable plastic cups given out by local pubs during public holidays and events. We often see these littered on the seafront or on the beach, and when they get into the sea, they cause huge damage to marine life. We’d like to help local businesses come up with a solution.

All TTH projects rely on volunteers. We need a constant flow of people in order to keep these projects moving, so if you want to be a part of something special, either to volunteer on the current projects, fundraise or set up a project of your own please email info@transitiontownhastings.org.uk. Equally if you’d like to learn more about any of the above please visit our website www.transitiontownhastings.org.uk or email us at info@transitiontownhastings.org.uk
Find us on Facebook: Transition Town Hastings
Or Twitter: @TTHastingsUK