Less Pollution

Plastic and shale gas from the US

July 23, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the BBC’s programme “War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita, Series 1, Episode 3” and was shocked by many things, but none more than the fact that the UK is shipping in US gas (from US fracking) so that we can make more and more plastics in the UK. I didn’t realise there was such a strong link with the plastic we use every day and shale gas. Now I feel quite sad, and I wonder if people are aware of the connection between plastic and shale gas.

US Gas from fracking in the UK!

Firstly I’m shocked that US gas from the fracking of their own land is being shipped to the UK. Even as the Scottish government is strongly debating whether to implement a complete ban on fracking in the country, they are allowing gas fracked in the US to come into Scotland. The UK has areas like the North Sea and the Norwegian Continental Shelf right near by, so why don’t we take advantage of that? I’m sure it’s all because it’s cheaper, but cheap is not always good (see – Is “cheap” the right direction?). Cheap means somebody is making more profit out of it, but doesn’t mean that the value of humans and the value of the environment are being adequately taken into account.

INEOS is the company that was highlighted in the programme on BBC, and they seem to be proud of bringing in US gas to their Grangemouth facility in Scotland. In the links and quotes at the bottom of this article, you’ll quickly get the impression that the owners of the company are making big profits out of plastic and shale gas and they’ve convinced the government to keep their hands off by talking about preserving jobs and supplying UK manufacturing.

An evil plot to pollute the world

June 20, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

Let’s imagine we live in a beautiful world without pollution, with plenty of fruit to eat and clean running water in beautiful streams. Everyone is happy in this beautiful place. Now, enter an evil mastermind who wants to ruin everything. What plans could he hatch to pollute the world and ruin it? Well, pretty much what humans have been doing for the last 100 years would work. Sounds like a plot for a 007 movie, and it would be amusing if it didn’t feel so true.

The plot to pollute the world

The evil mastermind hatched a plot to pollute the world. He wanted to bring the world to an end and have everyone else in the world help him do it without knowing. His first plan was to dig up enormous amounts of coal from under the ground and start burning it in large furnaces all over the world, and have people pay for it! He started industrial and technological revolutions and convinced people that all this new technology will make their lives easier (it won’t! – he loves it when he can fool people). The real reason he wants them to desire new technology is because it requires extra energy and they’ll need more and more coal-fired power plants.

Next he invents the “steam” engine. This is brilliant marketing because “steam” sounds clean but, in reality, this is an engine that burns more coal. In every possible situation, people all over the world are now wanting steam engines so they can be part of the industrial and technological revolution. More and more coal is being burnt and the skies are getting more polluted. [Read more…] about An evil plot to pollute the world

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

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…

Mobility Lab and Amazon Plastic Packaging

November 18, 2018 by Peter Leave a Comment

I was completely shocked recently when I ordered a “Mobility Lab” mouse from Amazon and the package arrived with so much plastic packaging. It’s really awful, so unnecessary and none of it recyclable. In this case, Mobility Lab and Amazon plastic packaging is so bad, they should both be ashamed, and governments need to step in and stop such usage of plastic.

In the images below you can see that seven independent pieces of plastic were used to package the mouse. Really over the top. Not good Mobility Lab and not good Amazon!

I’d purchased the “Mobility Lab ML301884 1600 DPI Wired Optical Mouse for Mac and PC – White” from Amazon. I’m a little disappointed that I bought a new mouse made out of plastic and I didn’t try to find a second-hand one somewhere, but at least I hope the mouse will be used for a long time and won’t be discarded any time soon.

But the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging that came with the mouse is just crazy. Mobility Lab added five pieces of plastic packaging! They could have got away with none with just a little effort. Then Amazon added two more pieces, and again both were not necessary.

The real problem is that it’s just too cheap to use plastic for packaging like this, but it’s quickly suffocating the world. Governments need to step in a ban new plastic. At the very least, they need to put high taxes on new plastic production and use the money for tax rebates for companies working on plastic recycling methods. Maybe that would stop Mobility Lab and Amazon plastic packaging overuse.

Harrogate Spring Water and recycling

October 31, 2018 by Peter Leave a Comment

I was flying on a short flight in Europe recently and, I’m sorry to say, that I needed some water so I bought one (as you have to do on flights these days) from the flight crew. I know, it’s in a plastic bottle that’s just going to get thrown away (sorry planet!). The bottle I received was from Harrogate Spring Water and I was surprised to learn that it was 50% recycled.

This made me feel somewhat better as Harrogate Spring Water was using 50% materials that had already been recycled. That’s great and they need applause for that. If everyone did that it would be a great step forward.

However of course, we’d like companies to go even further. Why can’t they move to 100% recycled plastic? I’m sure one of the arguments would be the cost and that this might make them uncompetitive compared to other companies who just don’t care about the environment. This is exactly why I believe there should be a total ban on new plastics (as I discussed in my post – Ban New Plastic). This would be the most effective way to protect the world, by ensuring that we don’t create any more new plastic – we’ve already created more than enough.

We could go even further and claim that any government that does not ban the creation of new plastics (excluding any compostable plastics of course) is blatantly failing in its duty to protect the people of their country and the world. This might sound harsh, but I think it’s completely fair. The time to act is now. This is not saying we can’t use plastic, just that we’ll have to recycle the plastics we already have when we do want to use it.

For now, let’s applaud Harrogate Spring Water for voluntarily using 50% recycled plastic in their water bottles (as does Wenlock Spring Water). That’s a great move and we need to challenge all companies to do the same and to strive for the magic 100% recycled point.

Ban New Plastic

October 14, 2018 by Peter 1 Comment

One of the things that’s worrying me more and more as each day goes by is plastic. It’s everywhere and there are more and more reports on TV (and everywhere) about the huge problems disposed plastic is causing for the world. So, I keep wondering why the world can’t just ban new plastic. That might sound extreme, but it makes plenty of sense to me and it would definitely work.

I’m not talking about banning plastic completely, which would be impossible. But what if, from today onwards, all the plastic used by corporations had to be recycled?

Plastic is a huge problem

I was astonished when I read this article on The Economist – Only 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled. For me, the key details in this article are;

(obviously!) only 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled
Since the 1950’s, we have created 4.9 billions tonnes of plastic that is still in circulation (that is, not recycled or burned)
Our seas hold as many as 51 trillion microplastic particles

This graph from the article created some alarm for me;

[Read more…] about Ban New Plastic

Less Pollution

Plastic and shale gas from the US

US Gas from fracking in the UK!