Musings on recycling on Earth Day.

As you may or may not know, today is Earth Day.  I seem to recall turning off the lights for an hour last year, or was that just me?  (trying to read stories to my son with a wind up torch, lol).  We haven't done anything special this year, but the fact of it being Earth Day reminded me of a visit we took recently to a local amenity site.

We were taking some garden waste for green recycling and some other bits and pieces, and for the first time ever we saw them moving some of the general waste rubbish (that's the stuff which is picked up on bin day and would normally go to landfill , but here in Berkshire we are lucky (not sure if that's the right word or not) enough that it all goes to a waste to energy incinerator)

It was a truly epic site, quite apocalyptic.  There were two or three enormous diggers with huge scoops that were scooping up great mountains of rubbish and moving it around. The scoops were so big that one of them had a double mattress on the arm which must have flipped up, it was just casually lying there.  It felt like some kind of post apocalyptic dystopia, or a scene from the film Wall-E.  The amount of waste was astonishing and I just couldn't get over the fact that it was all being thrown away.  There was just so much, and so much that looked like it could have been re-used.  Plastic bags torn open and their contents spilling everywhere, household food waste, bits of fabric, and a hell-of-a-lot of plastic packaging.

I left with mixed feelings.  I was torn between feeling like I would never throw a single thing away again EVER because I just didn't want to partake in this entropy any more; and feeling like really what was the point, what was the point in washing and sorting and recycling all our waste when the impact our family would be making was so microscopic it was almost negligible, it seemed futile and it was completely impossible to live in this day and age without producing eipc amounts of rubbish.

However I then stumbled upon a wonderful blog called Trash is for Tossers and I was like "oh, it is possible".  The blog's author Lauren Singer lives a zero waste lifestyle which I find so inspiring and beautiful. I can definitely do more to reduce the amount of waste I and my family.  I don't think we would be able to go totally waste free because it seems we don't have access to the sorts of amazing food places that she has where you can take a load of glass jars and cloth bags, fill them up with food and leave with no plastic (that's never going to happen at Tesco)  but I can certainly try and reduce our impact. It's a similar mindset to veganism/vegetarianism, the difference we make to the big picture is probably very small but it is still something, and I believe that our actions, however small send out positive vibrations into the world which can transform into something much bigger.

So here is to small acts, on Earth Day, maybe we can't save the world ourselves, but each person taking little actions adds up to something truly epic.

What I am Currently Reading: Revolution in a Bottle by Tom Szaky

I recently borrowed this book from my local library more for the green credentials that the business advice.   I found it a really enjoyable book and would recommend it to anyone interested in "green" businesses.

 

This easy to read book tracks the exciting adventure of the author from broke student to successful business man.  I found the story entertaining and enlightening.  He includes all sorts of facts about recycling, rubbish and waste and comes across as a very likable person.  I liked his passion for creating a product with low impact on the environment and his ingenuity at making it into a financial success.  I did feel slightly uncomfortable with the way he got-into-bed so to speak with large corporations such a coca cola, but I could see his reasoning because although he was sleeping with the enemy (the rubbish producers) he was creating a positive outcome for the environment.  Perhaps this is the way more "green" companies should go instead of fighting against the big businesses?  I am not cure, but it certainly got me thinking.

The only chapter of this book that I didn't like was the last one where he talks about how to run a successful business.  I felt like if I had wanted to know how to start a business I would have bought a proper business manual not a personal success story, I was much more interested in HIS story than his tips for starting and running a successful business. 

Having said that I did find reading about his experience inspiring and it did make me fantasise a little about starting my own "green" or "eco" business. It is that sort of book, it gets you excited.

I would highly recommend this book as an interesting, entertaining and captivating read (I read it in about a week!) but not as a business advice manual. 

Crotchted Dish Cloths

As you may have noticed I don't like throwing things away unnecessarily, I hate waste, especially the non-biodegradable variety, so after years and years of using those nasty little yellow sponges with the scourer on one side. They always wear out really quickly and I had visions of these tiny particles of plastic entering our waterways and the stomachs of fish, and potentially our stomachs when we eat the fish, so I decided it was time to get eco and make my own dishcloths.  I knew people did it because I had seen them for sale on Etsy, but being short of money I decided to have a go at making my own with simple cotton string.

 Old cloth vs new

I crocheted a few lines (pretty badly) but came out with a perfectly serviceable dish cloth and have been using it effectively for the past few months.  It has lasted waaaay longer than a sponge and gets the grime off just as effectively. 

 Old fraying cloth

Now my crocheted cloth has started fraying and coming apart to it was time to crotchet another.  As you can see my crotchet skills have not improved that much since the last one, but this one too is perfectly serviceable and the old one is now lying happily in the compost heap waiting to become plant food for my veggies!
I am very happy with my environmentally friendly, free dish cloths and don't thin I will be going back to plastic sponges any time soon.

 

 

Lovely new cloth! I think you'll agree the crocheting is neater but I still managed to lose a few stitches along the way, hence the bizarre shape!

I can't be the only one out there who makes their own dish cloths?  What material do you use?  How do you keep those edges straight?

Using my voice regarding supermarket waste

In recent times I have become more and more concerned about the waste that my small family of three have been sending to landfill, or rather to the waste-to-energy incinerator that disposes of the waste in my borough  (which still produces toxic air pollution and toxic waste that goes to landfill).  Perhaps it is having a child and one on the way that makes me think about what the world will be like for them when they are grown up, I really don't want to leave a planet filled with toxic waste, pollution and mountains of non-biodegradable plastic.
I recently read that in America one ton of waste per person is disposed of every year and that so much rubbish has been discarded irresponsibly that there is a massive floating gyre of plastic the size of Texas swirling around the Pacific Ocean.  In fact 25% of all plastic ends up in the sea*. 
We are lucky enough to be able to buy a lot of organic food from the True Food Co-op, where we can buy most of our groceries loose and thus take home no plastic packaging to put out with our rubbish, unfortunately it isn't always convenient to go there and I often end up doing my weekly shop in a supermarket, more specifically Sainsburys.
Obviously some waste is recyclable, our local council recycles paper, card, tin cans and plastic, but only plastic in the shape of bottles which was the main focus of my dilemma, so much food, particularly organic food at Sainsburys comes in plastic wrapping, bags or trays and the only thing for it is to send it to the waste-to-energy incinerator.  I felt so unhappy about this that I decided to collect a weeks worth of plastic and return it to the supermarket because I read that supermarkets have a legal obligation to dispose of their waste responsibly.  It would also be sending them a message that I am not happy about the amount of waste that surrounds their food.
By the end of the week I had a good carrier bag full of non-recyclable plastic waste including things like fruit nets, plum punnets and cereal bags and today I took it back to the store.
I was really nervous because I didn't want to be laughed at, but also didn't want to be thrown out of the store!  I asked to speak to the store manager who came down and I expressed my concerns to him (Martin), I expressed particularly how the bag contained the waste from just a family of three and to think about how much there must be from all his customers combined, he listened carefully and took my name and number so that I would get some feedback after he passed on my complaint to their head-office. I told him that I realised that my small action probably wouldn't have much effect but I felt that I needed to say something.  I was polite and calm and didn't get aggressive or angry. 
I am really pleased that I did this. I know that I am only one small voice but if someone doesn't speak up then who will? 
I intend on emailing Sainsburys with further comments to reinforce my message.  I really do want someone to take note of this issue as it really can't continue.
Have you ever taken peaceful action against an organisation that has acted in a way that you disagree with?  What did you do?  What was their response?

 

Just some of our non-recyclable waste

*Revolution in a Bottle - Tom Szaky