Dorset Greener Homes – Owners of over 40 homes across Dorset will showcase how to live with a lower carbon footprint: – some new builds, a few retrofits, and a lot of enthusiasm among the hosts (and visitors we hope). In some cases the low carbon lifestyles are as important as the buildings. An event organised by Dorset Climate Action Network

Three Turn Lyme Green supporters are taking part on Saturday and Sunday 25th and 26th September. Visit the web site to book the time of your visit. The homes are Shutters, Colway Lane and Anglers in nearby Tytherleigh.

A week of special events to get everyone thinking about climate change leading up the COP26

West Dorset Friends of the Earth have organised many events starting on Saturday 18th September – talks, plays, workshops. All details can be found on their web site.

This annual event is on Sunday, 23rd May. 10-11.30am This year you will need to sign up in advance to follow covid advice. Contact Krys Lavery on rnli1824@btinternet.com Have fun and show your love for our beaches.

We welcome Laura Noel, our new chair, and give huge thanks to Jo Smith Oliver who has been chair for 4 years. To read more, link to our May newsletter

Features steps to keep our beaches clean. Read all about it.

Want to learn more about air source heat pumps? Ground source pumps? And how about grants available for wall and roof insulation to make your home more energy efficient and save money too? These articles and others in our March newsletter.

Would you like to see a community-led electric car club in Lyme Regis? Or even an electric bike sharing scheme? The club would have electric cars available to book from as little as half an hour for an all-inclusive price from locations around the area. The e-bike scheme would have bikes that could be rented and returned also from locations across the area. Because they are electrically assisted, the e-bikes a great alternative to the car for shorter trips and mean you can tackle hills without breaking a sweat! Together, they would help tackle our town’s congestion, parking and pollution problems, whilst providing affordable access to zero emission vehicles for all. Interested?

To help us gauge interest in Co Cars coming to Lyme Regis, please take a couple of minutes to complete our short survey http://bit.ly/LymeRegisEV which will be live until 6th April.

If you would like further information on Co Cars or Co Bikes, visit www.co-cars.co.uk and www.co-bikes.co.uk. 

Our latest newsletter is out! It features e-bikes and updates on our Food Bank and Lyme Community Volunteers, ready to help during this lockdown. Also how to use our local Freecycle groups and a callout for interest in a car share scheme.

It’s your last chance this month to comment on the county proposals for its Climate Emergency Strategy and Action Plan.   The deadline is Wednesday 20th January. 

One important comment is to press the council to bring forward their target date to 2030 to be in line with our local council and also the vast majority of others.  Turn Lyme Green will be submitting comments.   Please take a moment to send in yours. Online, you can use the consultation form.  Tell them what you think!  It’s important to tell them you care and want them to get going on their action plans.  Here is a shorter, snappier version of the survey which can easily be accessed using a smartphone:

Making small changes and swaps to some of our much-loved Christmas traditions is easy and can also be fun and creative. Here are some top tips for keeping it plastic free!

The UK uses roughly around 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year, with 108 million rolls of wrapping paper nearly all of it can’t be recycled and ends up in the bin. It is often laminated with plastic, foil and other materials that are not paper and it often is contaminated with plastic sticky tape. So, what can you do?

1. Keep wrapping paper and gift bags or boxes from gifts that you receive and re-use them when giving your own gifts the following year. 
2. A great alternative is to use brown paper to wrap presents – this can be decorated with your own artwork, or messages, or tied up with string or re-use ribbons, or fastened with paper tape instead of plastic sticky tapes.
3. Many cards and gift-wraps contain glitters or other decorative materials that can escape into the environment and are not biodegradable, and find their way into our soils, river and seas.  These are best avoided.  If you really love glitter, there are biodegradable glitters available so you can still get creative!
4. Home-made crackers help to avoid the packaging, small plastic toys and games that are commonly found in shop-bought equivalents. This allows you to get creative with small gifts, jokes and home-made or re-used hats.  You can even go one step further and make them personalised. 
5. If you are still feeling creative, then maybe have a go at making your own decorations – knit stars, make pom-pom baubles from old wool or fabric strips or try paper snowflakes (cutting patterns on our website and Facebook page) all with the added bonus of being lots of fun to make with the kids!

Avoiding single use plastic is the best solution, but if you find that no matter how hard you have tried, you end up with a piece of unwanted plastic or plastic packaging, it is still possible to re-use or recycle most plastic items.  Wash them, re-use them, find a new use for them or if that’s not possible, recycle them responsibly. Enjoy!

Alison Johnson for Plastic Free Lyme Regis

And here is a wonderful pattern to make your own 6 pointed paper snowflakes.

We desperately need some good news and here it is!  Plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds have finally been banned.  This came into effect on 1st October 2020 and is a brilliant step towards reducing the use of single use plastics.  There is a host of alternatives, such as bamboo and metal that can be bought easily online or local shops that promote environmentally friendly products.

Dorset Council has published its draft Climate Emergency Strategy and Action Plan and wants to hear from individuals and organisations. We would like to encourage everyone to give their views using the online form and you can find the full document on the county web site. It is broken down into sections, including renewable energy, buildings, food and drink, transport, waste and water. The closing date is 20th January 2021. Turn Lyme Green will be sending a response to the proposals.

There are other ways you can find out more and voice your opinions. Dorset Climate Action Network (Dorset CAN) has recently been formed as an umbrella organisation for a host of environment groups in the county. Its first task is gathering views on the county consultation. TLG will be sharing its views with them.

Also Peoples Assemblies are being organised in November. They are holding 4 assemblies to get as many people as possible to attend: Sat 21st, Mon 23rd, Wed 25th and Thurs 26th. Detail from the Dorset Action web site. They write, “The consultation is our chance to tell the Council what we think of the action plan.”.

Our November newsletter is now out. A variety of topics, featuring ‘How and Why to Reduce Period Plastic’… and including ‘Stop Discharging Raw Sewage into our Seas and Rivers’, car share opportunity and films to watch.

Check out our October newsletter, featuring information on how to change your energy supplier to one offering green renewable energy to your home.

Volunteers needed for a number of projects.. see if any of these interest you. We are always happy to provide more information and welcome you.

URGENT Act by Friday 9th October !!!

Are you a customer of Southwest Water? Act now, apply for your FREE share in the company and have your say about how they deal with sewage coming into our seas and rivers.

Anyone paying their water bill to SW Water should have received a letter from them saying we can have a say . You get a free share – to use that share as a shareholder and therefore be entitled to vote and as a shareholder make your complaint to them about sewage in our seas  and rivers. More details here from Surfers Against Sewage.  

How to register for your share
On the main letter on the back page is your customer number and access code. You will need your National Insurance number too. They ask for your bank details to pay any dividend – this is normal and must be provided.

Then go here: Two parts to fill in – on the Date of birth – double click on the year on the calendar and it’s much quicker to fill in.

We only have until 9th October to claim our voting rights. Go to the Southwest Water web site.

What a great opportunity to make ourselves heard!

TLG and Plastic Free Lyme welcomed the Council’s consideration of a range of actions tackling environment issues at the Council’s recent meeting. Members approved a host of recommendations to support their decision to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. These included a training programme for councillors and staff led by Councillor Belinda Bawden. A report on the meeting is in Lyme Online.

There is much to be done and TLG is supporting projects to protect our environment. New members and expertise and interest are always welcome. Please get in touch with your ideas and hopefully as a new volunteer to help.
Email enquiries@turnlymegreen.co.uk

It continues to be so important to use your own refillable cups and water bottles. Yes, some shops were hesitant about refilling in the early months of covid, but most now do this gladly, supporting your efforts to re-use and avoid single-use plastic.
We are proud that so many local cafes and kiosks in Lyme support Refill, the popular national scheme. There is a mobile app which you can use to find a local shop taking part in the scheme started by City to Sea. Over 23,000 businesses are now members. Remember, you don’t have to make a purchase – each retail member is keen to show how they are doing their bit to protect our environment.

There is a great video on Plastic Free Lyme Regis’ site showing how this can be done.

a variety of topics, including where to find cloth reusable masks locally.

Our latest newsletter is out, featuring Rob Smith’s blog post – It’s time to write to your MP about a Green New Deal; Shop Locally; a range of local producers to support and how you can still use your refill cup for coffee in cafes… ‘Coffee a Go Go’.