Peter

Plane Pollution – a huge problem

May 28, 2019 by Peter 2 Comments

I was doing some gardening early on Monday. It was a beautiful morning and when I looked up, I was startled to see so many plane trails in the sky. In fact, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and everything I could see was caused by plane pollution. It was really surprising, and got me thinking about what a problem plane pollution is and why we generally just ignore it.

This prompted me to investigate a number of articles on the internet (you can see links to all these articles below along with the most interesting quotes from each). It’s clear that plane pollution is one of the major problems we’re facing as humankind, and we need to do something radical and quickly. [Read more…] about Plane Pollution – a huge problem

Ironing – why do we do that?

May 19, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Have you ever stopped to think why we do ironing? Why do we iron and press our clothes? I’m sure you’re all thinking that it’s because we need to get the wrinkles and creases out. Sure, but why is that important? Why is that we are not acceptable human beings if our clothing isn’t pressed? Surely this is just a symbol of status and it’s quite ridiculous.

If we didn’t have to iron and press our clothes, we’d actually be using less of the worlds resources;

we wouldn’t be wasting energy (mostly electricity) on heating up irons
we wouldn’t have to make irons (mostly made in far away countries, using metals and plastics, then wrapped in plastic and a box and then shipped all over the world)
we wouldn’t have to make ironing boards
we wouldn’t have to dispose of old irons and ironing boards
companies couldn’t sell the vast range of aids and sprays that they do
we’d have more money and more time to devote to better things

Reforestation is working!

May 13, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

This is great to see. It looks like reforestation is working!

I read an article in forbes.com by Trevor Nace that explains how NASA says the Earth is greener today than it was 20 years ago. That’s a real surprise, but a very pleasant one. But an even bigger surprise that a lot of the thanks has to go to China and India.

Why is this a “Use 10 Percent Less” issue? Well, simply because humans use too much of the Earth’s surface. We have destroyed large amounts of forests, and this is not just a recent phenomenon. All of the farms that we see in the countryside, that may have been there for many generations, were naturally forests and woodlands. The human use of natural land for profit growth is putting too much pressure on the world. We have to use less of the Earth.

The following map shows, in green, areas that are greener today than 20 years ago and how large parts of China and India and much greener. [Read more…] about Reforestation is working!

Recycled and recyclable

April 23, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Here’s a really good example of recycling. It’s a product from Ecover where the cardboard packaging was already 100% recycled and is also recyclable. Recycled and recyclable – that’s great.

This product from Ecover was their All-In-One Dishwasher Tablets. Yes, I know it’s bad that I’m using a dishwasher as I’m sure it would create less impact on the environment if I washed the dishes by hand. But remember that one of the main ideas behind Use 10 Percent Less is that you don’t have to go from zero to hero in one huge step. If the whole world can start reducing consumption by just 10 percent, right now, that would be a tremendous relief for the planet and the environment.

[Click on the images to see them full-size]

Non Recyclable Packaging

April 3, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Do you ever bother to look at the back of the package you’re buying to see its recycling status? Even better, it’s good to check if it’s already recycled. I’m constantly amazed how often the packaging is clearly labelled as non recyclable packaging. In the UK this is defined as “not currently recycled”.

This is so bad. We all know about the plastic crisis the world is facing – how can it still be legal for companies to produce packaging that can’t be recycled? We know that Two Farmers have solved this problem and are using compostable packaging, so there should be no excuse for big name companies, like Kettle, to use non recyclable packaging but they do, as you can see here.

[Click on the images to see them full size]

And, as you can see below, there are ultra-cheap Cheese Puffs from Happy Shopper that also come in non recyclable packaging. That just shows how cheap this packaging must be. I’m sure that using recycled or compostable packaging must be more expensive and that’s why it’s avoided.

Greta Thunberg UN Speech

March 17, 2019 by Peter 3 Comments

This is awesome! A 15 year-old school girl from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, telling United Nations (UN) leaders the truth right in front of their faces, and she doesn’t hold back.

Watch this three minute speech here, or read the full transcript below.

Greta Thunberg talks so clearly and accurately and says so many things the senior UN officials really wouldn’t want to hear. Some of my favourite things she says are;

“we have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable that may be”
“you are too scared of being unpopular”
“you are not mature enough to tell it like it is”
“I care about climate justice and the Living Planet”
“our civilisation is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money”
“the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few”
“you have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again”
“we have come here to let you know that change is coming”
“real power belongs to the people”

Recycled Toilet Paper

February 27, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Everything should be recycled. Really it should. We can’t afford to keep making new stuff and just throwing nearly all of it away into landfill, that makes no sense. One thing that should be very easy to buy is recycled toilet paper, and it is. Here’s just one example from the Ecoleaf range of the Suma Cooperative.

As you can see below, the paper is 100% recycled and sourced locally (for me that’s in the UK) and even the wrap that it comes in is made from potato starch and biodegradable. Going even further than that, Suma supports Treesponsibility and is a very socially responsible cooperative. It’s positive organisations like this that I’m happy to support. They’re showing the way for how all corporations could be.

You can see and read all the information from Suma below…

Recycled Toilet Paper – Information on the packaging

100% recycled paper

ecoleaf Toilet Tissue is made from 100% recycled fibre sourced exclusively within the UK. Manufactured from 60%+ post-consumer waste supple streams, collected by local authorities, kerb side collections and bona fide waste merchants. The remaining waste fibre is made up from UK manufacturers’ waste such as printers’ trim and greeting card manufacturers’ waste. No chlorine-based chemistry is used in the production process. Sourced and then manufactured in the UK, every effort is made to maximise loads and minimise road miles.

Soap without plastic

January 31, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

It’s hard to avoid plastic in general in today’s world, and it’s especially hard to find soap without plastic. Somehow, we’ve managed to convince ourselves that soap comes from the factories of large corporations and comes in disposable, plastic, pump-action bottles. That’s crazy!

Soap is actually pretty simple stuff and you can definitely buy it without the need for any plastic. We should all really get our soap without plastic pollution as part of the transaction.

I’m glad to see that more and more soaps are available in packaging that does not include plastic. It is possible to buy soap without plastic. All that’s needed is for the soap to be wrapped inside some paper and put in a simple cardboard box. Not even that is needed, but that’s a perfectly safe solution.

Examples of soap without plastic

One place that I’ve been buying soap from for the past 2-3 years is Maharishi Ayurveda (I have no affiliation with them, I just like their products) because they have nice, natural soaps. This example here is a “Vata” (lemongrass) soap from Maharishi Ayurveda that I really like.

Another example of some nice soaps I’ve bought recently have come from Trevarno Skincare (I have no affiliation with them either) who make some very nice natural soaps. They do make plenty of things in plastics as well, but the soaps I’ve bought from them have been very simply packaged in almost only a single piece of cardboard.

[Read more…] about Soap without plastic

Recycled Bucket – from tyre rubber

January 6, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Back in October, I argued that governments should Ban New Plastic because we can’t just keep bringing new plastic into the world until it suffocates. We’ve already made so much plastic that we shouldn’t need any more as we should be able to just recycle what we have. Well, one example of what can be done presented itself to me recently when I bought a recycled bucket made from old car tyres.

This bucket was made by Faulks & Cox Ltd under their brand Tyre Rubber and is made from recycled tyre offcuts. Not only has this bucket avoided the need for making new plastic, it really is a very good bucket. It’s the strongest bucket I’ve used (apart from galvanised steel buckets, but this tyre rubber bucket feels just as strong) and I feel very confident using it no matter what load is in it. That’s very different to some of those cheap plastic buckets that break from time to time (and just have to be thrown in the trash) when they’re loaded up.

On their website, Faulks & Cox Ltd describe the following advantages of their Tyre Rubber range;

The Tyre Rubber™ brand has a range of 35 rubber buckets, baskets, mangers and bins that feature:

– Made from recycled tyre off-cuts
– Strong beyond words
– UV & Frost Proof
– Safe for growing food
– Safe for animal water / feed
– Non-Toxic

Compostable Crisp Packets

December 26, 2018 by Peter Leave a Comment

We don’t think about crisp packets too often do we? We just enjoy the crisps, without realising that almost all crisp packets are not recyclable and will end up in landfill (or worse!) for a very long time. The good news is that a British company called Two Farmers has come up with a way of creating compostable crisp packets, which is fantastic, and they taste great too!

Compostable Crisp Packets

It’s amazing that a small start-up company in the UK has been able to beat all the big manufacturers to a compostable crisp packet. Amazing, but understandable. We’ll see later what’s really going on here.

On the Two Farmers website, they say this about their compostable crisp packets (I have no affiliation with Two Farmers – I just enjoy their crisps);

“Eco-Friendly Packaging
In a pioneering move for the crisp industry we package our crisps in 100% compostable bags. These will completely break down in a home composting environment in 26 weeks. We also package into recyclable tins. Just another way in which we give back to the countryside.”

It’s great to see that these crisp packets will break down in a simple home composting situation – no need for some sort of “industrial” composting to make them break down. Apparently, the packets are made from sustainably-grown eucalyptus wood pulp.

There has been a lot of pressure put on major crisp manufacturers, like Walkers, to ditch non-recyclable packaging. Walkers has said that they will be 100% recyclable, compostable or biodegradable by 2025, but this isn’t good enough. Apparently, Walkers make 7,000 non-recyclable crisp packets every minute, and they will make 28 billion more of them by 2025. Walkers have started their own recycling program, but this seems pretty lame and I can’t see it being successful. It appears to be just window dressing when they really could be tackling the problem head-on.

If the small Two Farmers startup company can make compostable crisp packets right now, why is Walkers putting it off until 2025? It’s not hard to understand…