We would like to take this opportunity to welcome a new arrival to the café, Ronny, a chef with a passion for baking. Check out the new cake menu on page 10 to see what we mean! Below there's an interview with Michelle Brand, a local artist who has been turning empty plastic bottles into works of art, and on page 11 discover our exciting new Smoothie and Juice Menus. Once you've quaffed your mineral water, have you ever wondered what happens to the plastic bottle? You might think it ends up in landfill, but not so! Our plastic bottles have an altogether more glamorous destiny. Local artist Michelle Brand collects them from us to use in her work. Ronny tracked her down to find out more ……….

R: Do you work exclusively with plastic bottles?
M: At the moment yes. There is so much work to be done on this material regarding promotion, collection, and education, that I only have a limited number of hours where I can actually sit down in my studio and create art.
R: Are all of your pieces recycled?
M: There is a bit of confusion over the word recycled.  My work reuses the bases of  plastic bottles, (which extends the life of a mass-produced object). The remainder is then recycled.
R: What first gave you the idea to make functional art from consumer waste?
M: I was studying for a Bsc in Product Design and Development and investigating designing for second use. Once something is empty, does that mean it is useless? If something is useless should it be thrown away? Does empty mean redundant? Back then I didn't start out thinking 'what can I make from plastic bottles?'. I was interested in the fact that plastic bottles end their life in the bin, or as litter on our streets.

R: How do you feel about the increasing amount of packaging on today's products?
M: It's totally hypocritical! We can't talk about sustainability seriously if the packaging/ branding/marketing industry still produces such large amounts. It has to come from Government legislation, otherwise there is no incentive for packaging companies to change their ecological footprint. Some of the packaging exists to protect products during transportation, so if goods were made and grown locally it would help to reduce a lot of excess packaging. As consumers we can choose where we shop (support establishments who share the same values and goals), we can make a personal stand by refusing plastic bags (I think we all know how awkward and frustrating that can be!) and write to companies who continue to over-package their products. What would be really great, is if all those against excess packaging got together and went shopping en mass. Say 200 people from Manchester descended