Less Waste

250 potatoes

December 22, 2019 by Peter 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

Toothbrushes and plastic

November 12, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

I received this question from a friend, and it got me thinking about toothbrushes again.

“I’m trying to buy some plastic free toothbrushes. Have come across a number of options. Just wondered if you had done any research on this that you may want to share. Also wondered if you could help me with the difference between “nylon -6” biodegradable bristles and “nylon – 4”. Sounds like a con to me as nylon and biodegradable is surely an oxymoron.”

I haven’t really thought about toothbrushes for some time, ever since I started using a Monte Bianco toothbrush that I bought about 6 years ago now. It’s not that I’ve been using the same toothbrush for that length of time, but it’s because the toothbrush has replaceable heads. Yes, the heads are still plastic, but I’m throwing away much less plastic every time as the full handle is kept and I just pop a new head on it, and it’s still working fine after 6 years. Even better, Monte Bianco have replacement heads that have either “natural” bristles made from boar hair or traditional nylon plastic. I’ve used both and they both work fine, the only difference is that the boar hair ones don’t seem to last as long as the nylon ones. Also, I don’t know how the boars are treated when they harvest their hairs, and that worries me too. [Read more…] about Toothbrushes and plastic

Do less to save the planet

September 23, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

This title might sound like it’s contradictory to the theme of this blog, but it’s actually a fun play on words. I have to thank Tom Hodgkinson for the title. It’s all about the fact that just “doing less” will help save the planet. We do so many things that require more and more energy, so indeed there is considerable merit in the concept of aiming to do less to save the planet.

I first cam in contact with Tom Hodgkinson several years ago when I read his book “How to be idle” (see www.lifeintherightdirection.com/how-to-be-idle). It’s a good book and really opened my mind to the consideration that we don’t have to be doing things all the time and that there can be merit in simple idleness. That idea goes against everything we’re taught since we were about 6 or 7 years old and everything we see in the media, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just might be that many things we’ve been taught and see in the media are wrong.

Idler Magazine

For the past few months I’ve been a subscriber to Idler Magazine (part of Idler Ltd that Tom Hodgkinson has setup). This is a fun publication that I enjoy reading. It’s published every two months and reminds me to keep thinking about the value of idleness and to stop glorifying being busy and doing things non-stop.

Along with the magazine, I get regular emails from Tom Hodgkinson and a few weeks ago I received one called “Do less to save the planet”. I read this email and I thought it was great. I would have loved to reproduce his whole email here are it fits so well with the theme of “Use 10 Percent Less”, however Tom will only allow me to reproduce 100 words maximum, so I’ll work with that. [Read more…] about Do less to save the planet

Cashew Nuts – signs we need to change

September 9, 2019 by Peter Leave a Comment

This short news video from France 24 shows us what’s behind the cashew nuts we casually munch on in our comfortable homes. It immediately made me think that we need to reduce our overall consumption and use less. We consume things that appear cheap, and hence not so important, even though they can have severe effects on people we don’t normally see.

Unfortunately, I can only find this video on a Facebook site, so I can’t link it properly into this page. To watch the video, follow this link (or look at the static screenshots below);

http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=382690935702720

While I was watching it, I saved a number of screen shots which I’ve posted below in the order of the video, so you can get the gist of the video from these. India is the largest source of cashew nuts in the world, mainly supplying European and US demand. Removing the shells from cashew nuts is very difficult and there are acids inside the shell that badly affect the hands of the people doing it. They can’t use gloves because that slows them down. It’s very sad to see people having to work like this.

The video really emphasises to me how we can simply buy a bag of cashew nuts, take them home and enjoy them, without thinking for a moment what had to happen for us to enjoy this luxury. At the exact other end of the chain there are women essentially forced into intolerable conditions to remove the cashew nuts from the shells. They get paid very little per day (equivalent of 2-5 euros) but they say they have no choice as there’s no other work.

All this reminds me that having something cheap in our supermarkets is rarely, actually a good thing. Somewhere along the line, someone is being abused to make it cheap. See these other related articles;

What should we do now?

It’s Not all Rose Gold Straws and The Perfect Pantry

August 7, 2019 by Peter 2 Comments

Today we have a guest writer, Abi Jarvis, talking about some of her advice for using less. I find Abi inspirational. She’s a young person who’s really showing us all the way and I’m glad that she’s been able to write this post for us. Until I saw her post, I’d never heard of “Rose Gold Straws and The Perfect Pantry“, so I’ve been further educated by Abi. Many thanks.

Peter.

It’s Not all Rose Gold Straws and The Perfect Pantry

By Abi Jarvis

First, I would like to start with – THERE IS NO PERFECT WAY OF DOING THIS. Whether you’re lucky enough to live near a zero waste bulk buy food shop or not, whether you don’t have time to pre-make your meals for the week or you do, you do not need to be perfect at this, you just need to try. It’s not all Rose Gold Straws and The Perfect Pantry.

I’d definitely say, buy some kind of flask or Thermos for hot/cold drinks and foods. We drink a lot of tea and coffee as a nation, also as well as cutting down on waste it means you keep it hot/cold and it’s your personal container. I love KLEAN KANTEEN for their drink opening mechanism, also CHILLY’S BOTTLES are decorative but functional, and THERMOS make great long life containers.

Cut down on everyday plastic – bread, milk, fruit, veg, meat. An easy one would be buy bread from the bakery section in paper bags over pre-cut and overpackaged loaves, the bread is often of a better quality too. Sign up to MILK AND MORE (https://www.milkandmore.co.uk/) milk and juice delivery, use the drinks and then put the bottles back out for collection, think of all the plastic milk and juice bottles you go through. [Read more…] about It’s Not all Rose Gold Straws and The Perfect Pantry

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

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.

Sustainable Packaging

October 28, 2018 by Peter Leave a Comment

I bought some pool chemicals online a couple a weeks ago from a company called UK Pool Store and I was pleasantly surprised that there was no plastic in the packaging. They’d used just some paper based padding to protect the items. Unfortunately, these chemical products came in plastic containers, but that’s another story – everyone really has to use recycled plastics for containers like these, and that should be the law.

sustainable packaging — To be used again!

At home, we regularly send packages of artwork as a result of our fabhappy.com site, but we always use recycled products for the packaging. Every time we order something online, we keep the box and the materials they used for the packaging, and make sure they are used at least one time more.

When we have to buy something like packing tape, we use greenstat.co.uk to purchase recycled products. We’ve purchased their fully recycled plastic packing tape, their paper based packing tape and their fully recycled plastic bubble wrap, and we’ve been very happy with the quality and usefulness of these.

So it is possible to use recycled products for sustainable packaging, but it might be just a little bit harder, and therefore people will tend not to do it. That’s why such a requirement should be law. As I said in Ban New Plastic, the only plastics that should be legally allowed now are recycled plastics. We’ve made enough already and people just have to be forced to recycle what we have if they want to use plastics. There’s no reason that recycling should be “optional” or just “encouraged”. That’s a joke.

So thanks to companies like UK Pool Stores for not using plastic in their packaging (but let’s make the product containers out of recycled plastic, hey?), and The Green Stationery Company for making recycled options available to us. Sustainable packing is very possible. We don’t have to pollute the world even more just through packaging.

Less Waste

250 potatoes

Toothbrushes and plastic