Couple Paid for Honeymoon Flight by Recycling

Sorry it's been very quiet on the blogging front. It's been quite hectic recently and I've not had much opportunity to post.
However, I was compelled to post (no matter what) when I came across a news story of a couple who paid for their honeymoon business class flight by making the most of Tesco's "automated recycling unit that gives loyalty-card points".
It's great to see an example of people who will go to such lengths- even though it's for their own benefit rather than the earth's. This kind of reward scheme is just what we need to help keep our planet tidier, and hopefully other companies and customers will follow suit.

Trying to recycle newpapers

It's amazing what can happen if you do make the effort to recycle:

Woman's recycling 'intimidation'

This woman was accused of fly tipping after simply taking some newspapers to a recycling bank:

"When my car was vandalised a couple of years ago it took three phone calls and a week to get a policeman round to my house but here we have a policeman coming round to my house with a recycling officer within less than half-an-hour"

How is this supposed to encourage people to recycle? It's ridiculous.

"Ms Kramer said she recycled her newspapers correctly, but now wished she had thrown them in a bin instead."

And I really don't blame her!

Eco Friendly Stationary

Stationary is something we use all the time in the office and at home, but do we really think about the impact it has on the environment when we throw it away?
Paper makes up around 60% of office rubbish, and yet it's so easy to recycle!

From wasteonline.org:

Waste at Work

This is a great webpage detailing how to keep the waste down, and recycle as much as possible.

Places to purchase recycled stationary (including recycled notepads):

Eco Store

Office stationary

Recycled stationary

Reusable Bags

We all know Marks and Spencer are now charging for plastic bags, which IS a good thing. I can't stand it when people complain about it.
But anyway, I can't see why all supermarkets nationwide aren't doing this. Just 5p a bag is all it takes. All of a sudden, people will start finding bags to bring along so they don't have pay that tiny charge. And if they've totally forgotten to bring their own bags, then 5p a bag isn't a wallet-emptying price to pay.

Here's an article from TreeHugger, explaining why Sainsbury's aren't doing this:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/supermarket_ban.php

Here's a quote from them:

"We did a 'pay-for' trial some years ago where we did charge the cost price for carrier bags to our customers, but our customers where not happy and complained."

So what? Let them complain. It really doesn't take a lot to bring your own bags. It's just something people will get used to. All Sainsbury's are worried about is losing a few lazy customers. But if every supermarket did the same thing, they wouldn't need to worry about losing them.

There's some really nice reusable bags on the market. My favourite ones are the Envirosax range, and you can even get pouches of multiple ones.

Here's their website: Envirosax website

Or if you're in the UK, you can buy them from here: Envirosax bags UK

A month without plastic

A month without buying anything with plastic almost seems impossible, but Christine Jeavens seems to be doing fairly well so far. You can read her whole blog here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/monthwithoutplastic/

I can understand her frustration with nappies (not that a have a baby myself) but I know how tricky it must be to go without the convenience and relative non-messiness conventional nappies provide compared to the reusable nappies.
Her posts are so interesting to read, and I can really see it inspiring at least some small amount of change in some people; perhaps some motivation to cut down on the amount of produce they buy that's either made from plastic or wrapped in it.

Eco Fashion

Previously I spoke of the obvious waste pollution that we all contribute to in the form of plastic.

But there's something else just as polluting that is perhaps not as obvious; the clothes we wear, and the way they are made.

The fashion industry has an huge impact on the environment. Many clothes are produced from synthetic materials which are made from environmentally damaging petrochemicals.

And even if we choose clothes made from natural materials such as cotten, this is often just as harmful to the environment. It takes three-quarters of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce the cotton for one pair of jeans.

To be sure you're buying clothes that don't impact negatively on the earth, buy clothing made from organic cotton. Organic farming releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions into the air and uses 50 percent less energy.

Here are some great places to buy eco-friendly clothing from:

http://www.green-uk.co.uk/
http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/category/fashion/
http://www.adili.com/

Recycling plastic

There are so many different types of plastic floating around, and the UK generates 3 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, of which only 7% is recycled.

The main types of plastic are:

• HDPE – (High-density polyethylene - Opaque bottles such as bottles for milk and washing-up liquids)
• PVC – (Polyvinyl chloride - Transparent bottles including bottles for squash, mineral water and shampoo. Also food trays and cling film)
• PET – (Polyethylene terephthalate - Transparent bottles, with a hard moulded spot in the centre of the base such as fizzy drink bottles. Oven-ready meal trays are also PET)

The unfortunate case is that most of all the 50 types of plastic can be recycled, it's just that councils aren't giving people the means to do that. Most councils are only accepting certain types of plastic bottles, and we really need to be recycling as much waste as possible.

This is an interesting article from the BBC:

A month without plastic

Christine Jeavans is going to attempt to go a month without buying anything that uses plastic. I think this is a fantastic idea, and it will be very interesting to see how she gets on.

Recycled paper and notebooks

Here's some great news from the BBC:

Jersey government recycling

This is fantastic news; imagine if all government departments (and across the UK too) embraced this way of using recycled paper as a standard.
I think that buying notebooks made from recycled paper is definately the way forward, as well as recycled general paper and notepads. There are some great websites out there that use recycled products in their stationary:

Notebooks with photographic covers featuring endangered species

Recycled notebooks from the Sukie and Remarkable brands

I just hope that buying products like these becomes the norm, because we all really need to become more aware of what's happening to our planet. These kind of notebooks help to spread that message.

Why I'm writing this blog

Hi,
My name is Stephanie, and like most people, I'm concerned about the environment and particularly with my home land, Britain.

The thought that UK households only recycle 10% of their waste really depresses me. 90% of waste gets dumped in landfill sites, which means that if we carry on the way we're going, eventually there won't be much room left to dump it all.

With picturesque parts of Britain already being built on to allow for our expanding population, I really despair at the thought of our entire country being suffocated by a growing problem of waste.
Which is why I'm writing this blog with the intention of informing people about recycling and finding eco-friendly products made from recycled waste.
I welcome comments and suggestions, so please feel free to comment.