In a UK first, Sainsburys supermarket stores will be taking out of date food that would previously have gone straight to a landfill site to be processed by Irish firm Food Surplus Management at its plant in Trim, Co Meath. There it will be turned into pet food, animal feed and others.

Sainsburys target is to have no food waste going to landfill by next spring, and no waste of any type going to landfills by the end of 2009. 

Well done Sainsburys! Good to see corporate business innovating in environmental waste management. The waste of food in my view is criminal. (The alternative is to hang out at my local Asda store before closing time and get all the food that is reduced to ridiculous prices like 5p for a loaf of bread!)

When I recently moved home the new house I am going to doesn't have a top up card meter for electricity but an old-style one which you have to read. This meant I had to phone Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) to start an account. Having done this I thought I would look up their web site to check out information about prices etc. On the home page was an eye-catching advert that mentioned renewable energy. Curious, I thought I'd check it out.

Clicking on the logo took me to another of their web sites called NIE Your Energy. It has information about renewable energy sources in Northern Ireland and their renewable energy tariff called 'Eco Energy'. They describe it as their alternative source of green electricity and to quote:

"for every unit of electricity you use in your home we will buy an equivalent amount of power from a local 'renewable' supplier such as a wind farm".

This is good news! Even better is that it the cost of a unit of electricity is the same as a unit of electricity  from non-renewable sources. They even provide a free Home Energy check from the Energy Saving Trust to provide you with energy efficiency advice for your home. The downside is that it's only available to 25,000 customers, so if you're in Northern Ireland get in quick! 

In the summer of 2007 a scheme between wildlife organisations in Norway and Ireland saw the re-introduction of White-tailed Sea Eagles to Ireland.

15 eaglets were reared in Norway and flown by plane to Ireland where they were released into Killarney National Park. The Eagles were prominent in Ireland but became extinct over the last 100 years or so due to trapping and shooting in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Now, a year later, they have been spotted in my neck of the woods at Clea Lake, County Down in the North of Ireland!