The War against plastic waste

greenbee

I get my yogurt from the milkman. More expensive in glass than plastic, but really good yogurt (branded River Cottage, but made by Brown Cow). I used to use my easiyo to make my own (if I used a previous batch as a starter and made a new batch every 5 days I could keep the culture going pretty well) until I started travelling so much it didn't work.

Be careful buying bamboo clothing - the 'bamboo silk' is heavily treated, so not as eco-friendly as it first appears.

Being environmentally and ethically aware when shopping is difficult - mostly I find it ends up with my deciding I can't be bothered to buy anything!

euronorris

THIRZAH wrote: »

I can understand why people use disposable nappies.I used to hate washing cloth nappies.

I have used them with my daughter, though now she is potty trained and I'm tipping poo down the loo from a potty, I am wondering why I didn't use cloth nappies for her. I think it seemed a much more daunting task in my head, than it would have been in reality.


After a few swimming lessons, I invested in a cloth nappy for her. Swim nappies, as far as I could see, were only really there to catch poos (they certainly didn't stop wees from getting into the water). So it made sense to just have a cloth one instead that we could wash and reuse for each lesson. Sadly, it did come in a non recyclable plastic bag *rolls eyes*.


Now just to find a new home for the swim nappies.


Oh, and I have found an *almost* zero waste shop in my town. It offers the ability to purchase pulses, cereals etc in your own containers, so that's cool. Will have to check them out too

logderson

I'd love to organise a trip to Thailand to clean the beaches, it just sucks that it's so far.. It brakes my heart.

greenbee

Plenty of beaches here to clean...

Farway

greenbee wrote: »

Plenty of beaches here to clean...

I suspect your joke checker was switched off:D

jwil

I thought the programme was interesting, but it is so disappointing that they did not mention food waste at all.

Food waste has a higher carbon impact than plastic so by blindly removing plastic from all food we could find we are producing a lot more food waste and thus increasing the effects of climate change. Zero waste Scotland published an interesting article the other month, which says that the carbon impact of food waste in Scotland is 3 times that of plastic! https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/press-release/food-waste-worse-plastic-climate-change-says-zero-waste-scotland

Whilst there is undoubtedly food that does not need to be wrapped in plastic, there is some that a lot would be wasted if it was not. Cucumbers are a case in point - they go off within around 3 days without plastic, but last 10 more with plastic. That's a massive difference in terms of getting it to the shop and on our plates.

jwil

It's nice to see the discussion about clothing. I read this article the other month and whilst I was aware that clothing has a massive environmental impact, I didn't realise it was this bad!

http://www.cityam.com/275597/material-consequences-choosing-sustainable-fashion

• Textile production uses 4% of global freshwater abstraction
• It contributes nearly 10% of global carbon emissions
• It produces more carbon than aviation and maritime shipping
• Is responsible for an estimated 20% of global industrial water pollution

It's all well and good trying to avoid plastic, but it's a drop in the ocean environmentally if we are throwing food away and buying unnecessary clothing regularly, throwing it in the bin (all clothing can be recycled - even stuff that's not reusable), or even just have a wardrobe full of clothes that we never wear.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

jwil wrote: »

I thought the programme was interesting, but it is so disappointing that they did not mention food waste at all.

Food waste has a higher carbon impact than plastic so by blindly removing plastic from all food we could find we are producing a lot more food waste and thus increasing the effects of climate change. Zero waste Scotland published an interesting article the other month, which says that the carbon impact of food waste in Scotland is 3 times that of plastic! https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/press-release/food-waste-worse-plastic-climate-change-says-zero-waste-scotland

Whilst there is undoubtedly food that does not need to be wrapped in plastic, there is some that a lot would be wasted if it was not. Cucumbers are a case in point - they go off within around 3 days without plastic, but last 10 more with plastic. That's a massive difference in terms of getting it to the shop and on our plates.

There was a war on waste programme a couple of years ago with Hugh and they did speak about food waste on it. It was quite good and they had a website set up to go with it which had recipes and ideas on. It was quite disappointing to see the website no longer available after about a year of the programme ending. I'm a huge fan of hughs and think he is highlighting a very important problem but as with most things it seems like with these programmes it is just trying to get viewing figures on what ever the current hot topic is. As soon as something else comes along everyone will jump on that band wagon.

greenbee

Farway wrote: »

I suspect your joke checker was switched off:D

I'm at work. My natural assumption right now is that everyone is an idiot... :cool:

greenbee

Mummy2cheekymonkeys wrote: »

There was a war on waste programme a couple of years ago with Hugh and they did speak about food waste on it. It was quite good and they had a website set up to go with it which had recipes and ideas on. It was quite disappointing to see the website no longer available after about a year of the programme ending. I'm a huge fan of hughs and think he is highlighting a very important problem but as with most things it seems like with these programmes it is just trying to get viewing figures on what ever the current hot topic is. As soon as something else comes along everyone will jump on that band wagon.

There was also a thread on here about it somewhere. I think it's probably still going.

To jwil's point, you can always say there is more that could be done elsewhere that has a bigger impact in a different way. The plastic issue isn't just about carbon - in fact mostly it wasn't about carbon but about the issue of plastic fibres in the food chain, air and water. There are other issues around some of the chemicals in plastics leaching into our food which weren't addressed, but there is only so much information that people can cope with at a time.

There are lots of posts on the twitter threads about plastics saying 'become a vegan, that's more important'. But what is actually important is everyone doing something - whether it's using less plastic, eating less meat, generating less food waste or throwing out fewer clothes. One people develop one good habit they tend to develop others.

I've been low-plastic for years, and struggled at times. I also try to buy local and organic food, avoid a huge range of chemicals in toiletries and cleaning products, and tend not to buy new if I can find something second-hand. As far as clothes go, I buy what I need and wear it until I get objections

Buying plastic-free helps me avoid food waste. I only buy what I actually need, so its rare that I throw anything away.

Anything that anyone is doing to reduce their environmental impact should be applauded and encouraged. Telling people there's no point doing A because of B might stop someone making that first step to an overall change in lifestyle. So let's all try to find ways to encourage and support each other. Otherwise we might as well not bother ... after all, I'll probably be dead before the real environmental impact starts to hit.