Vending machines are super convenient but how do they scope on the eco-friendly front? The machine runs on electricity, full time, to keep food or drink hot or cold. Not a great start. Hot drinks require disposable cups. Dum dum. Okay but that's something we can do improve and for the sake of coffee fiends and snackers on the run across the UK, thankfully someone already has.

The Save a Cup scheme started with the intention to help the vending industry take some of the responsibility for creating a more sustainable environment. It is now estimated that five billion polystyrene cups are used in the UK each year and the number of vending machines being installed in the work place is increasing. The good things is Save a Cup collect the discarded polystyrene cups (there's up to 20,000 tonnes of these cups made per year that are potentially available for recycling) and turn them into non-food related items like CD cases, coat hangers and garden containers. Save a Cup will collect the cups from the site on a regular basis and take them to a plastic recycling plant so it really couldn't be easier for the company or business who rents the vending machine.

A vending machine can also be recycled at the end of its life. The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive offer a collection scheme to help owners dispose of their old machines responsibly. Parts are then re-used in new machines. If they cannot be re-used then the plastic casing and wooden base units are recycled and the metals like copper and goal from the electrical components are reused. You can pretty much recycle 95% of an old vending machine which of course is pretty great really.

For more info on the Save A Cup scheme visit saveacup.co.uk

Everyone dressing in emerald, lime and leafy shades of green? Maybe for some but not for us eco savvy lot. There's no need to feel guilty about having the wedding you've always dreamed because you can actually do it just as splendidly without suffocating our earth with a massive carbon footprint. Unlike Liz Hurley who emitted as much CO2 for her week long wedding as an average Indian couple would in 120 years of life together. But before you think ‘well that's just way over the top' try this on for size - the average British wedding emits the same amount of greenhouse gas as ten flights to Thailand and back.

So how to do it green style and still make it your celebration of a lifetime beautifully white? Well you could start by finding a local venue - that is not flying you and all your guests to a tropical island. If you have relatives and close friends scattered across the world you could make your wedding a road show type celebration. The flying miles will be far fewer with the two of you than say ten plus it could double as a honeymoon. According to the BBC's green site Bloom this could cut your footprint by up to 90%.

Source as much as you can from local suppliers especially the grub which will ensure your produce is seasonal also. The same goes with flowers - there are still a lot of florists who fly their flowers in from the other side of the world.

Email invites. It may not be appealing at first but if you do it right it is a unique way to receive a wedding invite. Graphic design friends come in handy here - they can make you something more beautiful, possibly animated without the tree wastage.

The wedding gear and rings are high on the eco agenda. How does vintage, heirloom or locally designed sound? New diamonds are for the most part a big no no as the impact to the natural ecology is astounding not to mention the carbon emissions associated with plucking that shiny rock from its million year old home.

There are loads of ways you can create a gorgeous eco wedding you've just got to get creative and do your research. A Green Guide to Weddings by Jen Marsden is a good resource book to start your search with. It may be worth investing in a wedding planner such as Eco Moon who specialise in green weddings.

Whatever you decide we how your big day is beautiful.

The Soil Association released their Organic Market Report 2009 recently and it said that last year organic product sales increased overall by 1.7%. Given the turbulance of the economy that's good news for the organic industry because more of us are buying organic... right? Or is it simply that some of us are buying more and widening our organic purchasing scope.

The organic crusading charity also conducted an opinion poll and found that 48% of us are buying 10% or less organic goods. Thankfully, 25% of those consumers not currently buying organic food expressed they would like to know more about the benefits of organic. The Soil Association are intensifying their efforts to highlight these benefits by organising activities like visiting Greenwich Market (see blog on our Grow an Organic Pumpkin event) to talk to people direct - preaching to the non-converted so to speak.

New research is consistently appearing in the media about why organic is the answer to so many of our global problems. We're all on a continual learning curve. We have to be if we truly wish to engage in the all-important issues of climate change and diminishing non-renewable resources.

The dramatic decline of our bee population over the last decade has been making headlines particularly in the last few years which has seen a 10-15% drop in numbers. Our garden friends play an incredibly important roll in pollinating, not only our flowers and native lands but also our food crops. Because of disease, environmental threat and the use of killer pesticides their numbers have been dropping like never before.

Finally an answer comes in the form of a £10 million initiative by Defra (the Department of Environmental Food and Rural Affairs). The funds will be given to research teams across the UK who are part of the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership. This was essentially set up us respond and be better equipped with the changes in environment climate change brings.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn highlighted the importance of why it's imperative we save our bees: "Aristotle identified bees as the most hard working of insects, and with one in three mouthfuls coming from insect-pollinated crops, we need to support bees and other pollinators".

But green campaigners are already questioning how serious the governement are tackling this issue. Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said recently: "while new funding and new research are welcome, it will not help if the Government ignores existing scientific evidence that has led other countries to ban chemicals known to kill bees."

Existing, widely accepted scientific evidence has already prompted countries like France and Italy to ban bee-killing chemicals. It would be nice if we followed their lead. And perhaps some of that £10 million could be spent on an education programme to show us all what we can do in our own gardens to help the bees or designing bee nesters for household gardens.

What's Ecological Debt Day? Well, it's the calculated each year where the UK stops relying on its own resources and starts relying on the rest of the world to support itself. This year, according the nef (the New Economics Foundation), it was the 12th of April - Easter Sunday. That's two month's earlier than in 1961 and a month earlier than 1981. Basically, the day we live beyond our environmental means is arriving sooner in the year each one that passes.

The nef calculate this day by using ecological data from the last ten years to formulate a projected trend. Unfortunately the trend is that the UK is increasing its dependence on food and energy imports from the rest of the world. But not only are we looking outside for our resources we are, according the nef, ‘part of a bizarrely wasteful system of international trade.' The nef say that the latest research shows that just two years ago the UK exported 1.8 million tonnes of essential oils, perfumes and toilet preparations, at the same time as it imported 1.5 million tonnes of... you guessed it... essential oils, perfumes and toilet preparations.

Andrew Simms, policy director the nef, recently said to the Guardian that the nef calculated last year that we were about 100 months away from potentially irreversible global warming. On current trends, we're now only 92 months - or less than eight years. In his new book Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations, Andrew looks at these eco-economic issues in depth and offers some very sensical solutions.

All these latest calculations and research finding highlight to us once again how important it is to buy local where we can.