Gödöllő Climate Club

15. December 2010.

Summary

Participants:

Márta Kaszap, Melinda Kovács, Richárd Szűcs, Csaba Laurán, Mónika Simó and Pál Simó, Edina Vadovics and Kristóf Vadovics, Gabriella Baranyi

During the meeting: exposition of environmental-friendly and energy-efficient products

1. Introduction of the old and new club members (Ricsi, who is Melinda’s boyfriend, interested in renewable energy resources, and Gabi, the new assistant of the Association GreenDependent.) to each other.
2. Csaba told us about his experience with the energy meter

• The telephone and internet modem used less energy than he’d thought, it consumed roughly 3 kWh in a month.
• In his household, the heating water pump used the most energy during this time, but this result depends on the weather, of course. Csaba will send us the energy consuption of the other household appliances.
• The other thing is that most appliances use different amounts of energy depending on the temperature for example (heating, fridge, etc.)
• At the end of the meeting, Edina and Kristóf took one of the energy meters, and Gabi took the other one. Next time they will report about the results.

3. A few questions emerged related to the heating:

• It does make harm to the underfloor heating, if the circulating pump is switched off, especially when the heating still runs, because the hot water is stuck in the pipes and it damages them.

• Is it better to turn down the convectors when we open the windows to let in some fresh air? Yes, obviously, because the thermostat senses the falling temperature and heats even harder during the airing, which is waste of energy by opened windows. The other advantage is that the smell of the gas doesn’t come in through the opened windows, when the heating in off .

4. Meanwhile, Edina and Kristóf raised an issue, namely some of our old household gadgets (radios, PC-s) consume energy even when they are entirely switched off (not in Standby stage). It is very important to pay attention to unplug them after use.
5. After selective waste collection (which is entirely voluntary in Gödöllő), we have much less non-recyclable waste left, but we have to pay for the transport of 110 litre waste every week. This means that the town doesn’t support selective waste collection, unfortunately. We think they should consider our efforts and reduce the fee we have to pay. Last month we agreed to measure the volume of this non-recyclable waste, we put in our dustbin. Here are the results:

• Móni and Pali (2 persons) produced about 110 litre waste in a month (which is quarter as much as in a usual household).
• Kristóf and Edina (2 persons) produced the same amount in every three weeks.
• Melinda and Ricsi (2 persons) had ~90 litre waste in a month
• Csaba’s family (7 persons) had 35-45 litre waste every week (~150 litre/month).
• Márti had a lot of extra waste this month, so she will tell us about the results next time.
• Franciska wasn’t present in the meeting, but she sent us her results: her family (5 persons) produced 22 times 16 litres waste which is ~350 litre waste in a month.

6. Kristóf inquired how we could get a smaller dustbin, which seems to be the only solution for us. It turned out, that one can claim for a smaller dustbin (80 litre, for reduced price), provided they have an official certificate stating that only two persons live in that house. The problem is more difficult than we thought...

Edina and Kristóf will write an article about this problem in the local newspaper, they will send it to us to check.

7. Meanwhile a few problems emerged, for example:

· The selective waste collection can only be achieved in a larger institute if the cleaning lady doesn’t mix the different types of waste when she takes out them. Unfortunately, this often happens, but there are good tendencies as well, for example special courses in selective waste collection for cleaning ladies.

· It could be useful to track down the selectively collected waste, because there are rumours about the waste ending up in a plant or a power plant where it will be burned.

· We may establish contact with the “Greenbridge program” who are the organizers of the selective waste collection in the Gödöllő area. We may visit their waste yard as well.

Other topics during the meeting:

1. Móni asked if it is better to spread the compost before or after ploughing. We agreed that it is better to do it before, but we have to pay attention not to plough the compost too deeply in the ground, so that the plants can reach the nutrients. If we fertilize the soil after the plants came up, it can be harmful (because the leaves can be burned).
2. Related to this topic: There are plant growing techniques without ploughing. For example Masanobu Fukuoka Japanese researcher invented a rice growing cultivation without ploughing, which is much better for the soil than the traditional techniques.
3. We talked a few words about how incredibly difficult to gain the bio qualification in Hungary, if we would like to switch to bio farming. After a lot of examination, there is a 2 or 3 years long transition period, when we have to farm according to the bio requirements, and only after this we can use the BIO title. There is a Hungarian journal related to bio farming, which name is Biokultúra. It appears in every other month. Every newspaper has a central topic, but there are many types of information and articles as well.
4. At the end of the meeting, we talked about the problems of the local, Hungarian products. It is not easy to decide what is Hungarian, because there are products, whose ingredients are from Hungary, and which are produced here as well, but there are many examples for products in which the ingredients originate from somewhere else, but these are produced in Hungary. They are planning to standardize the labels so that we can decide more easily what to buy.
5. The next meeting will be on the 19^th of January. We will discuss the following things:

· The results of the energy measuring of Edina, Kristóf and Gabi

· We will talk about the reading, which will be sent out by e-mail later. (According to our plans, we will previously choose an article or a short story for every meeting (related to the topic) and we will talk it over during the meeting.)

The setting up of the Gödöllő Climate Club was supported by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission in the framework of the “Changing Behaviour” programme.