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Lifestyle Too
Ups and Downs
A big thumbs up to the Municipal council of Finikas (Plakias), who despite having had no support from the Greek Recycling Company, has now decided to start their own recycling scheme. Initially limited to the Plakias and Damnoni area - where there are a lot of hotels and tourist businesses - people can leave recycling materials at dedicated collection points and a council truck will collect on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between
8am and 12 noon. The truck will also collect from local supermarkets. When the truck is full, it will be taken to the Rethymnon collection point in Tria Monastiria, from where it will be taken to the processing plant in Chania. If proven successful, the scheme will be expanded to other parts of the municipality.
Less of a thumbs up to the Rethymnon Municipal Council though, who has abandoned the free-to-use bicycle scheme. The scheme started off with about
125 bicycles, and when the Council decided to call it a day there was only one bicycle that was fit to be used. All the others are either broken or have been stolen. There is apparently no money in the municipal coffers to pay for the repair costs. Thinking about it, though, maybe this isn’t entirely the council’s fault. You can bring horses to water, but you can’t make them drink….
Circadian Rhythms
Many thanks once again to Uta Wagner - our local nutrition expert - for providing us with the following health care advice. Uta writes: ’For more energy try eating according to your daily circadian rhythms Like everything else in nature our bodies are subject to a biological rhythm. For example, our bodies absorb food best between the late morning and the evening. During the night the nutrients are then amplified and processed and in the early morning hours the organism removes residue and is waste oriented. The exact times vary individually, of course. Our energy capacity varies throughout the day. Our brain is designed to provide maximum performance in the morning between around ten and eleven. In the afternoon, between two and three the power curve dips a bit. Later on in the afternoon the body goes through a second high period. Then our power curve slowly and steadily decreases to a low at about 3 o'clock in the morning.
By choosing the type of food and the size of the meal we eat we can influence our performance. A snack in the morning may help to boost our energy levels. On the other hand, when we eat a large lunch that is too full of fat our power curve drops down even more sharply in the early afternoon. Five meals - three large and two small - spread out evenly throughout the day are the best way to help us improve our overall performance. In the picture above you can see in the different curves the influence of the food on our energy levels. Why not try to make your own power curve? Keep a record during the week of when you feel more fit or tired and see how this relates to the food you have eaten.’
Where Can I Recycle Waste Items?
Apart from using the blue and yellow recycling bins for household waste other items can be recycled as follows:
Disposal of broken electrical goods. There is a depot just outside town which will take anything ‘that had a plug on it’ (including washing machines and fridges). Drivers, take the National Road towards Heraklion in Misiria. Turn off the highway after about
100—150 metres, hang a right and you should soon see recycling bins etc. The depot is open from 6am to
3pm on weekdays, and from 6am to
12 noon at weekends. For further information call
28310 57940. For large objects that need collection call
195 from any phone.
Old telephones and small telecoms items. There is a green bin in the entrance of the main OTE office..
Batteries. various places in town including OTE, DEI, Germanos, Marinopoulos and Champion.
Old cars. DRAKOS on the left hand side of the National Road a short way out of Rethymnon (going towards Hania). They even pay you as they recycle the spares and give you a paper for tax purposes!
Used cooking oil: Four containers for used cooking oil have now been placed in Rethymnon. They are located at: the entrance to the industrial port (near old harbour); the South entrance to the municipal park; Agios Giorgos Church (Kallithea) and Kapodistriou street (also in Kallithea). Just open the lid on the top and pour your used oil into the container. The recycled cooking oil is going towards producing bio-fuel and soap.
