the wastelands

Some time ago, Heather blogged on a device called a Mooncup . I had heard of it before and had only thought about it vaguely without coming to any firm conclusion about it. It sounded a little complicated and perhaps a bit messy and using normal sanitary protection is a no-brainer at my age!
With my new found look at environmental concerns and waste, I decided to revist Mooncup and investigate a little more thoroughly. I concluded that there was no real reason why I shouldn't give it a go. And the thing that swung it was that although they cost £20, they are on 3 for 2 at Boots. Having 3 daughters, I reasoned that I really ought to be doing the "mother-daughter thing" and telling them about Mooncup young in order to "save the planet"!
I went to Boots, got three and am now currently using mine. Although it has been only a day, it's working well and I recommend buying them. It isn't disgusting, it is a trifle fiddly but then if you are used to using applicator-less tampons then you should be ok.

Many farms (here is a local one) have bypassed the middle man of supermarkets to sell their produce and have come up with a popular service delivering boxed seasonal organic vegetables. This was an inventive way to bypass the stranglehold that supermarkets have over their suppliers and a good way for customers who are wary of supermarket ethics to support a local business. Listening to Radio 4 this morning drew my attention to the fact that both Sainsbury's and Tesco are developing their own schemes. The words "muscling in" spring to mind. What is alarming too is that there is no sign of this as a news item on the BBC website; it's a non-story.

Sainsbury's SO organic box will initially go on trial at the end of August 2006, available to approximately 500,000 customers in the East Midlands and Anglia

whereas Tesco is

Launching in early September the box scheme will initially be trialled in the south London area.

From the dating of the web pages, Sainbury's just managed to get their announcement in first. Tesco however were probably already in the process of cooking up the scheme because of course, they wouldn't want any other organisation to be making money that rightfully belongs to them.

A government think tank is recommending that councils should be given the power to charge households for the non-recyclable waste they get rid of. The Institute for Public Policy Research says this is the only way to improve the UK's poor recycling record (18% of waste in 2003-04). Only Greece and Portugal have worse recycling rates in Europe. IPPR director Nick Pearce said that for the new system to be fair, rubbish collection would have to be removed from the council tax.
It seems the variance in council success rate is quite dramatic: St Edmundsbury, in West Suffolk, recycles 50.64% of its waste. Newham, in London, recycling only 6.23% of waste. A difference of 44% is extreme to say the least.
In Germany where some local areas charge around 18 pence per kilo for waste not recycled pay as you throw has boosted collection of recyclable materials to more than 65 per cent.

England's top five recycling councils
St Edmundsbury: 50.64%
Forest Heath: 48.59%
South Cambs: 46.80%
Lichfield: 46.35%
Harborough: 46%


England's bottom five recycling councils
Newham: 6.23%
Tower Hamlets: 7.35%
Liverpool: 7.63%
High Peak: 9.82%
Wirral: 9.93%


The East as a region tops the recycling percentage chart with 29.4% of waste recycled (2004/5) (The North East percentage was at the bottom with 15.3%)

IPPR report and BBC news story

"By 2016, there will be 1.5 million people working in the United Kingdom but living overseas, using Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted as commuter terminals - predicts a report from the Future Forum, set up by travel firm Thomson."
Carrie Frais, a television news presenter in London says that other euro-commuters shuttling between Barcelona and London include lawyers, designers and people working in internet-based jobs.
The report includes a list of hotspots likely to be in this international commuter belt - Barcelona, Palma, Marrakech, Dubrovnik, Faro, Alicante, Verona, Tallinn, Pula and Valencia. These are all based on the availabilty of cheap flights and with the premise that experts indicate that house prices are set to rise by 50%.

BBC article here

I realised that just going about my usual morning ablutions, I have used 10 preparations.

• shampoo
• conditioner
• shower gel
• toothpaste
• mouthwash
• saline solution
• contact lens solution
• deodorant
• moisturiser
• soap
  

I have yet to put on make-up (eyeliner and mascara) and haven't used perfume.

Hygiene is a huge industry. My equivalent 200 years ago would not have used all those items. Socially I need them all but environmentally, what is the impact of me consuming in this way at least every other day?

This is a new magazine that is delivered to "over 10,000 homes and businesses in your area every month". It is very proud of the fact that it is printed on 100% recycled paper using biodegradable vegetable oil based inks, so much so that it declares it on the cover and then again in the editor's piece at the front of the magazine. I'm unclear why this magazine exsists apart from being a green (and seemingly new age) lifestyle read.
One article from The Green Grocers talks about company ethics.
Ecover is owned by the Sorensen group who own Group 4, "the world's second biggest security business". It is poor on environmental reporting and their are concerns with human rights abuses. As alternatives to Ecover products, Bio-D Toilet Cleaner and Earth Friendly are recommended.
Green and Blacks is owned by Cadbury's so that's now a no-go and if you thought that you'd be safe with Divine chocolate then think again as it is part owned by Nestle and L'Oreal. The best ethical choclate now is Plamil.
The Body Shop is owned by L'Oreal which has poor records in human rights and animal testing.
The piece finishes with the tough choices we all make when spending our money. If something is ethical but not fairtrade, travels thousands of air miles or isn't organic, where do our consuming priorities lie?
Some interesting websites include ethiscore and this blog from someone who rejected a consumerist lifestyle for a month.

I have re-used 2 of the carriers and one broke and is beyond repair.
So:
1st carrier= 2 shopping uses= dead and disposed of
2nd carrier= 2 shopping uses= still going strong
3rd carrier= 1 shopping use

Also an interesting article today in the Independent about Tesco offering Clubcard incentives in bringing their own bags to shop.

Britain's biggest supermarket chain said yesterday that from 14 August anyone reusing old carrier bags would receive extra points in its Clubcard loyalty scheme. Tesco - regularly damned for its record on the environment - aims to reduce the number of bags it gives away annually from four billion to three billion by 2008. But environmental campaigners described the move as "PR spin".

We went to Wymondham Waitrose today on our way back from Old Buckenham and because I hadn't brought my normal collection of shopping bags, I got three flimsy plastic carrier bags. I thought it would be good to blog what happens to them here. In the meantime here are some related plastic bag facts:

Shoppers in Britain are estimated to use up to 20 billion plastic carrier bags a year.
Only one in every 200 is recycled
Each takes about 100 years to degrade.
Carrier bags make up 0.3% of household waste sent to landfill
35% of UK plastics consumption is represented by packaging
Plastics consumption is growing about 4% every year in western Europe.
One tonne of plastics is equivalent to 120,000 carrier bags.
A report on the production of carrier bags made from recycled rather than virgin polythene concluded that the use of recycled plastic resulted in the following environmental benefits:
* reduction of energy consumption by two-thirds
* production of only a third of the sulphur dioxide and half of the nitrous oxide
* reduction of water usage by nearly 90%
* reduction of carbon dioxide generation by two-and-a-half times
A different study concluded that 1.8 tonnes of oil are saved for every tonne of recycled polythene produced.
290 bags for every person in the UK are given away every year by supermarkets

Sources of information:
plastics recycling
defra
BBC

This BBC article discusses the amount of food and packaging that is wasted by supermarkets, manufacturers and sandwich chains when it is thrown away, unopened and uneaten.

FareShare have a history of taking some of the surplus and distributing to the needy but "In the past, we might have been offered 100 pallets of some type of food by a manufacturer - but we could only take a quarter. So now we want to be able to take all of it - and offer them different ways of disposing it," says the charity's spokesman, Alex Green.
The idea is that if the food isn't eaten then it could be composted and the packaging recycled. There are also some plans to look into using food waste to generate energy.