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Scrubbing away

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up Tagged , , 1 Comment

In my opinion you can use natural products most of the time but occasionally synthetics come into their own.

This is especially true if you are cleaning tiles. Here steel scourers can leave black marks and luffas and natural bristles may not be quite strong enough. A plastic scourer can be a god send here.

Look, someone got clumsy with the Danish wood oil and It sticks to tiles like a good ‘un. Here you need something strong enough to clean off the oil without scratching the wooden upstand. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA I used the plastic scouring cloth… courtesy of Ecoforce.

It is made in the UK from 100% recycled fibres and the packaging is compostable cardboard.

Even better the 93% of the cardboard packaging is recycled materials. But best of all the display hanger is also cardboard and not an attached plastic hook.

All good points….

They also do a sponge scrubber – a scouring pad with a sponge backing. In their own words they “found out that every company manufacturing foam products have tons of clean, unused foam going to landfill every day. We rescue and grind up these bits of foam, compress them together and the super absorbent recycled EcoForce sponge is born.”OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I had no call to use these so I can’t tell you how they perform, but I guess as well as any other synthetic sponge scourer.

However, this is a semi disposable product. Whereas pegs and washing lines ( see previous review) have a good long working life and can possibly be recycled, these have a much shorter life span and will not be recycled  – which  raises questions:

Is this a justifiable use of plastic that would otherwise be trashed? Well I suppose if it was going in the bin any way then yes… but talking of bins..

What happens to the finished pan scrub? How do I dispose of them? Well I can’t. As they don’t biodegrade I cannot compost them,  they cannot be recycled so cannot go in the green bin and  I don’t fancy burning them. So they have to go in my black bin to be collected and specially disposed of by the council. Hmmmmm.

So to conclude nice packaging, properly labeled, the product locally made from recycled materials; when I need a plastic scourer I would choose these.

BUT I would advise you to try one of the natural alternatives first.

You can find more pot scouring options here

You can read my other Ecoforce Reviews here.

 

 

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Everlasting Litter

by Posted in 2 BAD PLASTIC Tagged , 3 Comments

Because plastic is so cheap we use it for just about everything. The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today. (WRAP) and much of that has been used to make disposable packaging and products. It is cheaper to give away a new cup every time then to collect and wash re-useables. Supermarkets can afford to give out bags so that shoppers need not limit their purchases. Fast food outlets can serve food to go in throwaway containers with one use cutlery.

in the UK  we generate 3 million tonnes of plastic waste annually 56% of which is used packaging, three-quarters of which is from households. (waste on-line)

Because plastic is a synthetic substance, it doesn’t biodegrade. While every other thing on the planet is decomposing most plastic remains unchanged.

Here’s how long it takes for some commonly used natural products to biodegrade, when they are scattered about as litter:

Paper ~ 2-5 months
Cotton rags ~ 1-5 month
Natural fiber rope ~ 3-14 months
Orange peel ~6 months
Wool socks ~1 to 5 years
Leather shoes ~25 to 40 years
Tin cans ~ 50 to 100 years

But because plastic  is man-made, the natural enzymes and the micro organisms responsible for breaking down organic substances do not recognize most plastics – whether they are derived from oil or plants. Find out more here.

Which means it cannot be composted, or left to rot where it is dropped, like organic rubbish.

Plastic Litter

Every bit of plastic litter HAS TO BE PICKED UP and specially disposed of, which doesn’t always happen, is expensive to do and each disposal method has its drawbacks. Burning plastic can release extremely toxic chemicals so has to be done with care, put it in landfills and it just sits there and recycling is not always an option nor is it always cost-effective.

Worse still we use plastic for fast food packaging, sweet wrappers and disposable cups – things that are used for minutes before being discarded. Things that end up as litter. Because it is made out of plastic, and has a life span of decades, it is now everlasting litter.  Not suprisingly plastic litter is increasing exponentially and with dreadful consequences.

Visit our FB  gallery of world-wide plastic pollution to see more.

 

 



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Timber talk – how much do we import….

by Posted in 3.6 Good to know Tagged

It would be lovely to replace all that plastic with natural products but could we really do that?.. well only by using someone elses wood and shipping it in..

Forestry Commission figures for 2004

Timber Imports

Apparent consumption is the amount of timber (measured as raw wood material equivalent underbark) used as wood and wood products by people and industries in the United Kingdom. It is calculated as total United Kingdom production plus imports, minus exports. This total does not include any allowance for recycled wood and paper that is recovered for use within the United Kingdom, but is reduced by the substantial net exports of recovered paper (see Table 3.3). Apparent consumption also differs from actual consumption by the extent of changes in the level of stocks. It is not practical to collect information on actual consumption.

UK production of roundwood totalled 8.6 million m3 WRME underbark in 2004. A further 52.0 million m3 WRME underbark of wood and wood products were imported to the UK and 15.6 million m3 WRME underbark were exported, giving an apparent consumption of 45.0 million m3 WRME underbark.

 

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Wasting away – how much rubbish do we create?

by Posted in 2 BAD PLASTIC, 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged , 1 Comment

Whats new in the bin – check back here for updated rubbish factoids.

“Discarding many human-made items, from plastic straws to nuclear waste to nail polish, rank as events at the same space-time scale as massive earthquakes and global climate change. Since the 1930′s, humans have been making geological garbage.”
read whole article

Plastic Stats

Nappies, tampons and wet wipes – dirty!

Nappies The liner or topsheet - made of the plastic polymer polypropylene - sits next to the baby's skin and ...
Read More

Disposing Of Plastic

In this post you can read about the many ways we dispose of plastic. Most plastics are made from oil ...
Read More

Reports & Statistics Index

Post Index Wasting Away - how much rubbish do we create globally Definitions You can find definitions, clarifications and explanations here ...
Read More

Food Waste

Almost 50% of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK comes from our homes. We throw away ...
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Plastic Trash By Country

Statistics can be wobbly and there will be discrepancies between reports but even bearing that in mind it is obvious ...
Read More

Weee / Electronic Waste

 Between now and the end of 2020, WRAP estimates that electronic products purchased in the UK will total around 10 ...
Read More

Latest waste stats

A staggering eight million metric tones of  are discharged into the oceans each year from the world’s 192 coastal countries, according to an international study published in the journal Science in February, which was based on 2010 data.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-spanish-fishermen-sea-bounty-plastic.html#jCp

April 18, 2008 and the Ocean Conservancy released a report based on their beach cleanup efforts. On one day 380000 volunteers picked up six million pounds of rubbish data sheets ahowing rubbish break down by type location and source are available to download

Each year 400,000 tonnes of carpet waste is buried in UK landfill
*Based on the Carpet Recycling UK annual survey in 2013 which collected self-reported figures from carpet recyclers throughout the UK and an estimate of incineration of carpets by local authorities.

Carpets are made from natural and synthetic fibres, which still have a value once the carpet is no longer wanted; they can be used in a wide range of applications from sports surfaces to insulation.

Carpet Recycling UK is a not for profit membership association working to increase the recycling of carpet waste across the UK

The 2.5 billion synthetic cups thrown away in Britain every year are made from a mixture of materials which prevents them from being recycled alongside paper and cardboard. Daily Mail

A report conducted jointly by the Alliance for Environmental Innovation and Starbucks found that 1.9 billion cups were used by Starbucks in 2000.[5] In 2006, Starbucks reported that this figure had grown to 2.3 billion cups for use at their stores.[6]

http://sustainabilityissexy.com/facts.ht…

At the University of Washington, a college of roughly 42 thousand students, the Housing and Food Services Department estimates that 5000 paper coffee cups are thrown away every school day.
http://sustainabilityissexy.com/facts.ht…

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Monomors and Polymers

by Posted in 1.2 Plastic The Product Tagged 4 Comments

We are going to start right at the beginning – before plastic there were polymers – before polymers it was monomers..

A monomer is a molecule that can join with other molecules to form a chain of molecules.

A chain of monomers (or molecules) is called a polymer.

So, a polymer is a chain of repeating monomers or molecules.

A polymer is a large molecule that is made out of many smaller molecules that are joined together by covalent bonds. It may also be called a macromolecule.

Polymers may consist of just one type of monomer or many different monomers. But the pattern must repeat

So a polymer is many  monomers or small molecules, joined together in a repeating pattern. The pattern has to repeat a number of times, (a minimum of 500 was one number I read)

Chains of polymers then bond or stick together to form stuff like cellulose, the woody stuff in plants.

Natural polymers are created as part of ongoing biological processes – cotton is part of a plant, wool is grown by sheep and leather is the skin of what ever unfortunate animal.

Synthetic Polymers

Synthetic polymers are, as the name suggests, manmade. The key point here is that though the base material may be a natural product such as oil, the polymers derived from it are not. They are not the result of a natural process but have been created artificially.

Monomors have been isolated and then rearranged in new groupings to form new polymers in a precess known as polymerisation. Read more about it here.

 

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Seed Compost

by Posted in 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged , 2 Comments

Want to make your own plastic-free compost for growing seeds in? Using only this years fallen leaves?
OK its not a quick process, you are planning 2 years ahead here, but it is free – cash free as well as plastic free. Well if you use a metal bin.

Gather up the  fallen leaves
Keep them dark and dry for a while

I use a bin with a tight fitting lid and leave them for 2 years. If I was a real purist I would use a metal bin. However I actually use a plastic bin because that is what I have got.
You can also use a plastic bag. Gasp.

The result is a fine crumbly mould that can be used for your seedlings. Really it’s as simple as that – but for those of you who like know more there are detailed instructions here and here

More

We love composting. You can see all our composting posts HERE
And all our gardening posts HERE

you can buy galvanised bins like these from Amazon and  eBay

 

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Laundry

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 House, Office & Garden, 3.2 How To...plastic-free Tagged , , , 7 Comments

Laundry Liquid & Fabric Conditioner
ECOVER  do a
LAUNDRY LIQUID,
FABRIC SOFTENER,
You can get your plastic bottle refilled. 
To find where Ecover have a refill station check the  postcode search on their site

If you cant get to a Ecover refill station try getting a refill by post….

Splosh

This is an online refill service.
Some products come in soluble pods which you drop into water; others in plastic pouches which can be sent back to be refilled or recycled.
Splosh also claim that the postal packaging for the starter kit and refills are plastic free. Though according to some reviews they come with some plastic.

Read more about cleaning product refills here e http://plasticisrubbish.com/2014/12/14/u-k-europe/

Hanging Out

Pegs, Peg Baskets and Washing Lines

N.B. I got sent some Ecoforce stuff to review. They supply a range of household cleaning and laundry products made from recycled plastic.
I agreed because while I dont think recycling is the answer it can be part of the solution and one way to deal with all the waste plastic we have created, most of their stuff is made in the UK making it even a better recycling option and the disposable product packaging is pretty good.
And I think with damp damp laundry sometimes plastic products may be preferable so they might as well be ethical plastic options. And it gave me the opportunity to compare and contrast options.

Pegs

Wooden

I use wooden pegs. I bought them ages ago. They came in plastic packaging. Obviously my wooden and steel pegs represent a pressure on natural resources. And there is no denying they get a bit mucky and fall apart quite easily. I don’t know where they are made, or from what kind of wood.

The plus point about my wooden pegs is that when they do fall apart and they end up lost in the garden they will naturally biodegrade. Plastic pegs of course don’t.

Plastic

If you really want plastic pegs you can try these by Ecoforce. I like that they are 93% recycled plastic and (so far) very sturdy. They don’t use steel which I like. I worry about how much steel we use. They are made in the UK which is nice and local. On the down side they do come in a plastic bag. The bag is clearly marked with a plastic code which is good, but made of a type of plastic rarely recycled in the UK – not so good.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
I would feel much happier about this product if the throwaway part the packaging was compostable.

Peg Baskets

Metal

I keep my pegs in a peg basket which hangs on the line. Mine is an enamel bucket with holes in the bottom. I bought it from one of those gimcrackery shops that sell arty gubbins. I dont think the quality is of the best as it is getting a bit rusty.

Plastic

Apart from the rust, I cant really think of any reason why you would prefer a plastic peg basket but if you do the Ecofriendly peg basket is a good choice.

As with the pegs it contains 93% recycled plastic, seems sturdy and made in the Uk. Also, whoop, whoop, it is packaged in cardboard and better still the display hanger is made of cardboard.
It bugs me so much when I see cardboard packaging with a plastic hook attached to hang the item – one of those tiny unmarked pieces of plastic that are so hard to dispose of.
The basket is clearly marked with a recycle code so it can be recycled again.

Eco friendly clothes line »
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
I don’t have a drier and when I do have to use one, in the depths of winter say, I go the launderette. For environmental reasons I choose to mostly air dry my washing line. Our business means I do a lot of drying. My washing line is an important bit of kit and sad to say I have found a plastic washing line to be the best for the job. It gets very wet where we live and natural lines soak up the water, never dry out, then start to grow mould. A plastic line can be quickly wiped dry and doesn’t get slimy.

Ecoforce Plastic line is 89% recycled plastic and like that it is made in the EC so fairly close to home.
But I HATE that the plastic line is wrapped in unidentified plastic wrap. Why? It’s a plastic line. And unidentified plastic at that. Booo.

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Some plastic facts

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies

Put together by Ecoforce

  • All types of plastic are recyclable.
  • Advantages of recycling plastic:
    – Conservation of non-renewable fossil fuel
    – Plastic production uses 8% of the world’s oil production, 4% as feedstock and 4% during manufacture.
    – Reduced consumption of energy.
    – Reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill.
    – Reduced emissions of carbon-dioxide (CO2), nitrogen-oxide (NO) and sulphur-dioxide (SO2).
  • The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today. (WRAP)
  • One tonne of plastics is equivalent to 20,000 two litre drinks bottles or 120,000 carrier bags (LINPAC )
  • The amount of plastic waste generated annually in the UK is estimated to be nearly 5 million tonnes. (WRAP)
  • The UK currently recycles approximately 24% of plastic while a European country like Germany recycles 44% (British Plastic Federation)
  • Plastic makes up 9% of average household waste. (WRAP)
  • All branches of Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer a plastic bag recycling service
  • 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
  • 1.8 tonnes of oil are saved for every tonne of recycled polythene produced
  • Over 50%% of litter found on UK beaches in 2008 was plastic litter, an increase of more than 120% since 1994.
  • 75% of post consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill
  • Around 45 billion individual items, approximately one million tonnes of domestic plastics, are disposed of every year in the UK (WRAP)
  • Every year an estimated 4.5 billion plastic bags are given away by UK supermarkets.
  • Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates 1 job, landfilling the same amount creates 6 jobs while recycling the same 10,000 tons creates 36 jobs.
  • Plastic bags and other plastic rubbish thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
  • Plastics can take up to 400 years to break down in a landfill.
  • If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just 1 day they would circle the earth.
  • In one year along, approximately 684,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions were saved by recycling the UK’s plastics, the equivalent of taking 216,000 cars off the road! (BPF).
  • There are about 1,000 milk jugs and other bottles in a recycled plastic park bench. (RECOUP)
  • Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours (Recoup)

 

The Rest…

by Posted in 3.6 Good to know, 5 Blog Social Media & Map 2 Comments

general greenery and chitchattery

Other useful information can be found here

Thinking about….

Black Pine Tar …. This is “The Finest Stuff” 100% Organic: Authentic Pine Tar also referred as Stockholm tar is a pure, natural wood preservative made in Sweden. Pine Tar has been used since ancient times for creating a water repellent vapor barrier on wood and rope and for its gentle antiseptic effect. Pine Tar is used for wood preservation on utility and fence poles, cottages, splint roofs, boats et cetera. Pine Tar is an excellent wood preservative and substitute for pressure treated wood. Works well for preserving wood used underground. Use this recipe to thin Pine Tar with Purified Organic linseed oil to obtain faster penetration and avoid stickiness. Apply warm if possible. Note: do not apply on skin

And

Do I keep the Blog?

So I used to do a monthly newsletter documenting each my plastic fails and successes.  But since but since the ...
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Vote between elections…

There was some information about junk mail here but it  has been merged with another post here. Talking of mail, ...
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The ban that didn’t?

Got all giddy when I read that Oxford Council were banning plastic takeaway packaging..... only to be disappointed. Very disappointed! ...
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composting as one…

Disposing Of Biodegradable Waste Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich ...
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In the back of the van…..Karen Cannard!

Last week our U.K. tour took us through Bury St Edmunds which pleased me more than I can say. Why the ...
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Apples with stickers? Nope, thats a laser tattoo.

You go to the supermarket clutching your cotton reusable produce bag to buy some apples Immediate eco dilemma. Can't buy ...
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Build / D.I.Y Index

Wire Wool Steel wool consists of fine strands of steel which looks a bit like wool. It can be used ...
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Who owns what

This infographic is from reddit  and I have no idea if it is true or not! But there is no ...
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Timber talk – how much do we import….

It would be lovely to replace all that plastic with natural products but could we really do that?.. well only ...
Read More

Is veganism the only green diet? Really?

Back in the U.K and it seems everyone has gone vegan. But not only have they given up any kind ...
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Recycling Information on your products

by Posted in 1.51 Reusing & Recycling Plastic Tagged

Why so much information on my box of chocks? Well several materials have gone into packing those bad boys. The plastic tray in which they sit, the foil wrapping, the cardboard box and the Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene -BOPP  in which the box is wrapped. They all have to be identified.

In the UK, the Packaging Waste Regulations require “packaging ‘sellers‘, organisations that supply packaging to end-users / people or organisations that discard of the packaging, to provide recycling information to consumers”. That means they have to say wether it can be recycled, not that they are obliged to use recyclable packaging.

This is also known as the Consumer Information Obligation (CIO).

Find out more about what is required of packaging ‘sellers’.

The Green Dot licence DOES NOT represent compliance with the UK Packaging Waste Regulations because it does not mean that the product is recyclable. Find out what the green dot means here.

More

Find out which are the most commonly used plastics and wether they can be recycled in the U.K.  here

Of course we say composting is the answer. If it don’t rot, don’t use it!

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Some U.K. Recycling Stats

by Posted in 1.51 Reusing & Recycling Plastic, 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged , 2 Comments

Here are a few statistic to whet your appetite. There are plenty more throughout the blog.

Our previous work had suggested that bottled water production was an energy-intensive process, but we were surprised to see that the energy equivalent of nearly 17 million barrels of oil are required to produce the PET bottles alone,” Cooley told PhysOrg.com.

From Container Recycling

Around 899 thousand tons of PET plastic bottles were recycled nationwide in 2013, but more than two times as much PET was wasted: 2 million tons.*

*Notes/Calculations:

Recycled: (1,798 million pounds/2,000)*1,000,000 = 899,000 tons
Total: 5,764 million pounds produced
Wasted: (3,966 million pounds*1,000,000)/2,000 = 1,983,000 tons

Plastic Sats

According to the United Kingdom (UK) Government, in 2008 the total environmental cost of waste sent to landfill and incinerators within the United Kingdom (UK)was £211 million and £125 million, respectively. ( the big green book)

Daily Mail 7 September 2014

In September last year, England’s household recycling rate stood at 43.9 per cent – a decline from 44.1 per cent in 2012.

And according to Pledge4Plastics, the average UK home uses 440 plastic bottles a year, but recycles just 250 of them.

One in five people admit they don’t recycle fizzy drink or milk bottles, while a quarter don’t put juice or water bottles in the correct bin.

Some 5 billion plastic bottles were sent to UK landfill sites last year.

From Gov.UK 2011

In 2011 the UK disposed of an estimated 10.8 million tonnes of packaging waste, of which around 67% was recovered. In 1998 only 27% of packaging waste was recovered.

2011 recovery and recycling achievement data

Total packaging waste arising (tonnes) Total recovered/recyled (tonnes) EU Target (%) Recovery/recycling rate (%)
Paper 3,817,860 3,232,461 60 84.8
Paper composting 6,727
Glass 2,739,989 1,751,852 60 63.9
Aluminium 160,877 73,683 45.8
Steel 648,740 373,714 57.6
Metal 447,397 50 55.3
Plastic 2,515,809 609,910 22.5 24.2
Wood composting 442
Wood 1,023,939 600,276 15 58.7
Other 22,443
Total recycling 6,649,065 55 60.8
Energy from Waste 685,612
Total Recovery 10,929,657 6,641,896 60.0 67.1

More

Read more about

 plastic recycling

Staistics

Reports

 

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Cardboard Boxes With Plastic Liners

by Posted in 1.2 Plastic The Product Tagged , 6 Comments

The plastic free cocoa quest has suffered something of a setback.

Last week Mother came bustling in flushed with pride.“I don’t know what all the fuss is about”, she carrolled handing me a box of cocoa from Sainsburys.

Yes, a cardboard box, of cocoa.As if!

How many times have I told her “Squeeze and listen!”.

Most food products in cardboard boxes are further wrapped in plastic bags. To find out if this is so, you have gently squeeze the box and listen for the tell tale crackling of the plastic bag inside.

And yes, you look a right idiot in Supermarkets doing this

Sure enough the cocoa was further packed in a plastic bag – and not even one we can recycle.

Look here for other sneaky plastic.

Find out more about the cocoa quest here