This picture was taken by a couple in Maryland, USA and shows the moment when a bullfrog devoured a much smaller frog.  I love the comical look on the frogs face so thought it was worth reposting the article.

The figures which have been released recently appear to show a significant change in people’s attitudes to recycling when you consider that ten years ago only 14% of waste was recycled. It is in many ways easier to recycle now than it was ten years ago with most local councils offering doorstep recycling schemes. Our local council in Sevenoaks for example provides clear sacks for the collection of some items such as plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. Where they tend to fall short is the fact that they never seem to provide enough sacks and do not make it easy for people to purchase more. They also do not provide a collection facility for glass bottles relying on people to take these to the bottle bank themselves. There is no doubt, however, that the schemes do encourage people to think about what goes into the bin for landfill and we certainly recycle as much as we can, composting any organic matter for use in the garden and using the local recycling facilities where possible.

This is interesting its an initiative from a local council which could mean the energy generated by a crematorium incinerator could be used to heat a public swimming pool. The idea from Redditch Borough Council has been widely condemned as strange and some have described it as sick. Personally I think its quite a good idea. The heat generated by the incinerator would usually just be left to escape into the atmosphere so it does make sense to make use of it rather than to let it go waste.

According to this article low fat cheese is becoming increasingly popular. If the figures are correct sales of low fat cheddar grew by 10.4% over the last 12 months. The growth in sales are contrasted with a fall in the sales of mature cheddar of 3.8% and medium cheddar which fell 3.7%. The change appears to suggest that consumers are more worried about their health and are choosing to move to lower fat alternatives. Personally I find that many of the low fat varieties lack the flavour of matured cheese so will be sticking to the full fat cheeses.

According to this article British women have the dubious honour of being the fattest in Western Europe. Figures have shown that British women have on average the highest BMI out of the 19 western European countries. British women had an average BMI of 26.9 up from 24.2 in 1980. Other highest scoring countries included Russia with an average of 27.2, Israel with 27.3 and Malta with 27. On average women in the USA were still fatter with an average BMI of 28 but on the whole the figures show that the British population is getting fatter. With the rising weight issues also come other health problems such as diabetes and the number of people with uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Some of the big supermarkets have been insisting that abattoirs fit CCTV to monitor conditions in the stunning and killing areas. Morrisons, M&S, Waitrose, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s have responded to calls from the charity Animal Aid that CCTV images in abattoirs be independently monitored. According to this article Animal Aid has previously revealed incidents where equipment for stunning animals was used incorrectly and animals were ill treated. Although the supermarkets have not admitted that any animal cruelty has gone on in abattoirs that supply them it appears they are now starting to take animal welfare more seriously perhaps led by consumer demand.

According to this article the World Wildlife Fund have recently launched a PDF like file that can’t be printed. Called the WWF it is effectively a PDF file with just one difference, that it cannot be printed. The file can be read by most PDF viewers, however, to create a WWF file you need to install free software. The idea is that it will encourage people not to needlessly print documents. It seems a bit pointless to me when you can already disallow printing of PDF document in the options. Presumably if you do really want to print the file you will still be able to take a screenshot of the page and print it as an image.

They might look cute and furry but unfortunately mink cause quite a problem in Scotland. They are an invasive species imported from the US when they were farmed for their fur. Escaped mink, however, have found their way into the local environment. Their presence in Scotland has had a devastating impact of the local wildlife especially creatures such as water voles.  Conservationists are now running a mass removal of the creatures from rivers. When areas have been cleared of mink the wildlife does quickly start to recover. Although the process of removing mink is lengthy it is hoped it could soon be rolled out across other parts of the UK.

This is interesting its a new milk bottle which has been created by a Suffolk company. It looks just like a regular milk bottle but when you have finished with it is can be broken down and completely recycled. It has a cardboard outside and a plastic inside. When the bottle is finished the plastic inner can be taken out and the cardboard put into the normal recycling. Although there is still some plastic contained in the packaging it is much less than a conventional bottle. It has recently been trialled in a number of small shops but it is hoped it will be rolled out across bigger supermarkets.