Use 10 Percent Less

All things must change when the consumer changes

Less Waste

Nanabozho was fishing

by Leave a Comment

I’m half-way through reading a wonderful book by Robin Wall Kimmerer called Braiding Sweetgrass, and I fell in love with this story about Nanabozho. It’s the perfect story for use10percentless.com as it warns against taking and using too much. I hope Robin doesn’t mind me copying her story here and I hope you enjoy it.

Nanabozho was fishing - fish in the lake
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Nanabozho was Fishing

Nanabozho was fishing in the lake for supper, as he often did, with hook and line. Heron came striding along through the reeds on his long, bent legs, his beak like a spear. Heron is a good fisherman and a sharing friend, so he told Nanabozho about a new way to fish that would make his life much easier. Heron cautioned him to be careful not to take too many fish, but Nanabozho was already thinking of a feast. He went out early the next day and soon had a whole basketful of fish, so heavy he could barely carry it and far more than he could eat. So he cleaned all those fish and set them out to dry on the racks outside his lodge. The next day, with his belly still full, he went back to the lake and again did what the Heron had showed him. “Ahh,” he thought as he carried home the fish, “I will have plenty to eat this winter”.

Day after day he stuffed himself and, as the lake grew empty, his drying racks grew full, sending out a delicious smell into the forest where fox was licking his lips. Again he went to the lake, so proud of himself. But that day his nets came up empty and Heron looked down on him as he flew over the lake with a critical eye. When Nanabozho got home to his lodge, he learned a key rule – never take more than you need. The racks of fish were toppled in the dirt and every bite was gone.

Cautionary stories of the consequences of taking too much are ubiquitous in Native cultures, but it’s hard to recall a single one in English. Perhaps this helps to explain why we seem to be caught in a trap of overconsumption, which is as destructive to ourselves as to those we consume.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 2020, Penguin Books (first published in 2013, Milkweed Editions)

I love Robin’s comment that we’re “caught in a trap of overconsumption” and that hurts us as much as “those we consume”. It’s true – everything we do consumes some other form of life, which is fine but we should do it with respect and gratitude, and not take more than we need.

Robin’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, is such a joy to read with so many examples of indigenous wisdom (makes it obvious that we don’t have a lot of wisdom in our current culture). When I’ve finished the book, I’ll write a full review on my other blog – lifeintherightdirection.com – but I can already tell that this is a book that I’ll be highly recommending.

The front cover of the book Braiding Sweetgrass

References and Links

Olio – using less by sharing

by Leave a Comment

I hear many people argue that we need a new style of economy to replace our current sell-buy-use-discard economy (for example, see “The Story of Stuff“). There is talk of circular and sharing economies. Recently, I was pleased to find a sharing app called “Olio” that allows people to connect and share left over foods and non-food items. It seems to work well.

The Olio food sharing app

My first tests of Olio

I thought I’d test out Olio as I had some coffee beans and some soft-drinks that I didn’t need. Seven items in total. So I took photos and posted them in the Olio app. I don’t live in the centre of London and am a bit out of the way, but all items we snapped up by somebody nearby within 24 hours. That was a good result.

Somebody who wants the items sends me a message through the app. They say when they can come by to pick them up and it’s at this point that I give them my precise address. It’s great to see happy people arriving to pick up items that they’ll really use.

After this success, I tried some “non-food” items. I put a selection of excess dinner plates of ours on the Olio app and they did get taken by someone even though is took two or three weeks before that happened. Again, it’s nice to know someone is happily making use of these items that we no longer needed.

More about Olio

Here’s what Olio says about itself on the “What is Olio?” page on their website;

OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.

OLIO is super easy! To make an item available, simply open the app, add a photo, description, and when and where the item is available for pick-up.

To access items, simply browse the listings available near you, request whatever takes your fancy and arrange a pick-up via private messaging.

Here at OLIO we believe that small actions can lead to big change. Collectively – one rescued cupcake, carrot or bottle of lotion at a time – we can build a more sustainable future where our most precious resources are shared, not thrown away. Join today!

https://olioex.com/about/

Olio was started by by two women, Tessa and Saasha, a few years ago. You can read about their stories leading up to the start of Olio on their “Our Story” page. They are two people who haven’t done anything like this before and honestly seem like they just want to do something good for the world. In a few years, their app has grown in use to over 2.6 million people in 54 different countries.

Protecting Natural Capital

Of course, consumers sharing excess items is not of interest of the big companies selling them in the first place (see Business vs Exploitation). It’s a pity that, in general, throwing usable items into land fill and buying more new ones will improve the financial results of big companies. That’s the truth but it shouldn’t be so. We need to consider natural capital just as importantly as financial capital, and the Olio app is a step in that direction. The more we can share our excess items, the less we demand from nature to make new ones, and the less waste we create that, eventually, nature has to deal with somehow.

Related Links

The Power of Less – from Good Energy

by 2 Comments

The Power or Less – a video from Good Energy

I’ve been a customer of Good Energy for about 5 years now and I have to say they appear to be a good, responsible, renewable energy company. I don’t have any affiliation with them at all, and I’m receiving nothing from them for writing this article (they have no idea I’m writing it). When I saw that they had recently released this short, one-minute video, “The Power of Less”, and that its message was so closely aligned with the sentiment of “Use 10 Percent Less“, I just had to post the video here. It’s only one minute long – please take a look. [Read more…] about The Power of Less – from Good Energy

Fairphone – a better phone option?

by 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, I read an article about Fairphone in an edition of “The Big Issue” and I was fascinated. The first thing that caught my notice was that when Fairphone’s founder, Bas van Abel, first wanted to create a fair mobile phone, one of the first things he needed to do was pay a bribe in Africa to access a mine. I’d heard that the mines in Africa can be run in terrible ways for the local people (who are basically desperate for any money they can get) and this was, and still is, a major concern for me. Just because it’s in Africa and out of my sight, doesn’t mean I can just put this out of my mind and accept it.

Eventually Bas van Abel sourced ethical materials and the Fairphone dream was underway. This dream wasn’t just the sourcing of ethical materials, the bigger part of the dream was to create a phone that was modular and could be easily repaired by the owner using inexpensive spare parts. This is why the Fairphone is of interest here at use10percentless.com, it’s a phone that you’re intended to keep for much longer than the standard smart phones, hence less waste.

Obviously, I decided to buy a Fairphone. I wanted my usage of a phone to have less impact on the world. It wasn’t an easy choice because it also meant I’d be switching from an Apple iPhone to an Android based phone. I’d never used Android before. However, on the positive side, it worked out that I spent roughly half as much money on my new Fairphone compared to the iPhone I would have bought if I’d stayed with Apple. [Read more…] about Fairphone – a better phone option?

Buy local to reduce emissions

by Leave a Comment

Remember those old movies where rich families would have exotic fruits from half way around the world that had to be transported on those old ships? In some parts of the world, exotic fruits could be just bananas and oranges. It seemed so decadent for these rich families to have such things. Well, today, we all have exactly these things available in our local supermarket, and we think nothing of it. It’s our right. But the ubiquitous availability of such things is one of the important reasons why our atmosphere is getting so polluted. It’s worth looking to buy local and to eliminate as many things as possible that are shipped great distances.

I’ve been worrying more and more about the energy used to move produce about the world and I’ve taken two steps recently to use 10 percent less, or more.

Farmdrop – buying local produce

I’ve started using the Farmdrop delivery service (I have no affiliation with them at all) because they build agreements with local producers and have a “Sourcing Policy” that starts with “Prioritise Local” and the intention to source within 150 miles where possible and to never use air freight. Their website makes it easy to see where every option comes from and I like that. I now buy only fruits and vegetables that come from nearby counties in the UK and that makes me feel better. We’re currently getting delicious plums, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and cheese from local farms, among other things. [Read more…] about Buy local to reduce emissions

Shaving without plastic

by Leave a Comment

We are often caught in a trap of creating waste, paying too much money for unnecessary things, and not even realising there’s a less wasteful, cheaper way to go. Shaving is a classic case. We’re stuck in the disposable plastic world of shaving and have forgotten that there’s a simpler way. It’s crazy! It is possible to organise your shaving without plastic and it’s been around for centuries, and it’s cheap. Maybe all we can say is it’s less convenient, but it’s not really.

How I used to shave

I’ve been concerned about disposable (whatever that means!) plastic involved in shaving for many years now. Way back in 2007, I purchased a plastic razor from a company called Preserve because it was made out of recycled plastic already and because you only needed to replace the razor head when it got blunt. The idea was to keep the razor handle for a long time (I used mine for 12 years without the need to replace the handle) and only “throw away” the small head with the blades. The following three images are some photos of the razor I was using and its detachable blade head. [Read more…] about Shaving without plastic

Extinction of convenience

by 1 Comment

The human race today, even in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, is addicted to convenience. It’s this addiction that is bringing us down and, with all likelihood, be the main cause of our extinction. Due to our desire for extreme convenience, we use the resources of the world with gay abandon and create enormous amounts of pollution everywhere. In response to this, the world’s environment has been changing rapidly in recent decades, as if the world is preparing for the extinction of convenience, which includes us. Our only hope is to create an “extinction of convenience” of our own, and eliminate our insatiable desire for endless convenience.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, I see a persistent desire to get back to the ways things were even though there are plenty of fantastic examples of how things could be better. The skies are clearer because there are not many planes flying, pollution from our cities has dropped dramatically, nature in many parts of the world is springing back into action and local communities are becoming stronger all over the world, just to name a few. Do we really want to go back to the way things were? People are worried about the “economy” but we really need to build a new economy rather than simply return to the old one. [Read more…] about Extinction of convenience

Just don’t waste – Sir David Attenborough

by Leave a Comment

The amazing Sir David Attenborough gave us the very simple message of “Just don’t waste!” a couple of months ago at the BBC launch of the series “Seven Worlds, One Planet”. Here is what he said.

…the best motto to think about is not waste things. Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste paper, don’t waste food. Live the way you want to live but just don’t waste. Look after the natural world, and the animals in it, and the plants in it too. This is their planet as well as ours. Don’t waste them.

It’s such a beautiful summary of the sentiment behind the Use 10 Percent Less initiative. Modern life is very wasteful and we have been getting more and more wasteful, and more disposable, over recent decades. It’s really good to see that the disposable culture is being challenged very strongly now and that we might actually be able to start reducing our waste. [Read more…] about Just don’t waste – Sir David Attenborough

Disposable Batteries – what a waste!

by Leave a Comment

Disposable batteries obviously increase pollution and use up the Earth’s resources, but there’s really very little need for them. Rechargeable batteries are so good these days that it must actually be very close to the point where disposable batteries should be banned. I’ve been using rechargeable batteries for almost everything for 3+ years now, and they work well. There’s no need for disposable batteries.

 

First experience with rechargeable batteries

The first time I really looked at using rechargeable batteries was to power the external flash unit of a new Canon camera that I bought. The external flash unit took four AA batteries and I did a bit of research to see what professional photographers used for this purpose and I came across Eneloop batteries (note that I’m not deliberately promoting this type of battery – it’s just what I have experience with – there must be other good types of rechargeable battery as well). These worked great for the camera flash and, I learned over time, also seemed to work well on everything else. [Read more…] about Disposable Batteries – what a waste!

250 potatoes

by Leave a Comment

I was watching a episode of “Countryfile” on BBC television a few weeks ago (Nov 10th, 2019, it was their Autumn Special, originally aired on Nov 3rd, 2019) and was stunned to learn a surprising fact about 250 potatoes. Let me explain.

First, the programme showed a farmer who was cultivating his field with a large tractor with a large array of angled, metallic discs behind it, rapidly cutting through the soil and turning it over. Across the whole farm and as far as I could see, there was only bare soil that had been turned or was about to be turned. I was wondering what happens to any wildlife in the soil when this tractor comes through slicing everything up and why nature hasn’t had to do this sort of thing in all of history until now.

But then I learnt the first surprising fact. This farmer was preparing to sow a crop of barley, not for any food purpose, but in order to make beer. I was amazed at the size of the fields being churned up just so we can drink a glass of beer and I felt a little sad. All those trees had to be cleared and all of nature has to be sliced with rapidly moving metal discs, so we can drink beer (I like a glass a beer, but I still felt sad).

Next, they went to a farm that was harvesting potatoes. Again, it was a huge farm with rows and rows of mounds under which were potatoes ready to harvest. There were truckloads after truckloads of potatoes going back to the sheds.

And now the second surprising fact is that these potatoes were, once again, not being used to feed anybody, they were being used to create vodka! [Read more…] about 250 potatoes