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2015 Plastic free July Mongolia

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K., 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns, 6 archive Tagged , , 2 Comments

…..is hard. Here’s an update. So far we are totally about  4o items that contain some plastic and 4 plastic wrappers each.

It has been pouring down here (with a light dusting of snow – sigh!), so we have been sitting in a lot of cafes in an effort to keep warm and sometimes try to log on to what they advertise as wifi but is in fact an exercise in optimism. Something I am rapidly running out of.

When we sit we have to buy a drink. Here they serve milk tea. A confusing name because it contains no tea at all. It is a dash of milk a lot of hot water, a dollop of grease (butter?) and enough salt to make your lips twist. It tastes…..another sigh! I’ve tried, I really have – but I don’t like hot milk at the best of times. And these are most definitely not the best of times!

So we have been drinking a lot of plastic related beverages. Never a beverage from a plastic bottle! I’ll never sink that low but glass bottles with plastic lined lids, plastic lined cans and the occasional tea bag (which of course contains plastic).  You can find out more about these sneaky plastics here.

This adds up to around 2 items a day each.

When we have access to hot water we are making our own tea with loose leaves we bought in China.

For water we are using our Steripen to sterilize tap water.

But we have been trekking and camping in yurts so have had to buy some of our food. Outside of Ulan Batur the choice is poor. There are markets but they sell mostly pre packed processed food – plastic packed sweets, plastic wrapped processed sausages, instant noodles and packet soup. The only fresh food is weird buttery cheesy stuff that looks like grimy wax and tastes mildly yet unpleasantly of rancid butter. There are a few shriveled fruit and veg that are extremely expensive and meat. And lots and lots of meat. All around sheep are being skinned or carved up into bloody chunks. Furry feet are discarded on the floor, and once a sheep head staring up from the park bench where it had been absently left.

But we have had to eat something while huddled in our yurt and so we have bought 3 plastic wrapped loaves of bread and 3 packets of biscuits. Rather then leave them out in the national park rubbish bins I burnt the wrappers on the fire. There were simple polythene and so (it is claimed) safe to burn.

Back in Ulan Batur and our hotel gave us a sandwich for breakfast. It was included in the price and made as we thought in house. Today they served it in a plastic box. I ate it anyway. And I bought another packet of real coffee. Plastic packed of course.

Litter 

With all this plastic packaging hardly surprising then that there is quite a lot of plastic trash. Everyday we litter picked in the national park collecting huge amounts of bottles.

Waste disposal methods in the city also leave a lot to be desired. Plastic bags are dumped in the street to to be collected by truck at some point. Stray animals scrabble through it looking for food. Then bin men go through the garbage first looking for cans. Inevitably some plastic rubbish escapes in the process.

Check out our FB album for updated photos.

Posted by Planet trash on Sunday, 19 July 2015

CAMFORR Keep It Real Keep It Clean

So for Plastic Free July I am begging everyone to join in campaigning for real rubbish. You can read about it here.

Keep Our Glass

And asking folks to sign the petition asking Dairy crest to keep their refillable glass milk bottles.

In the pack

Rummage in our plastic free backpack here

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Stuffocation

by Posted in 6 archive Tagged 8 Comments

So sorry to have to do this via WordPress but every few minutes I get I am thrown off Twitter. Even more sorry to do it a day early but I don’t think I will be on line tomorrow and I want to get my ten pennorth in. Bit scrappy and not as clear as I would like, here are some rather jumbled thoughts on

Stuffocation by James Wallman

for the Twitter Sustainable Bookclub #susbc (What? Find out here)

In Stuffocation, James Wallman traces our obsession with stuff back to the original Mad Men who first created desire through advertising. He interviews anthropologists studying the clutter crisis, economists searching for new ways of measuring progress, and psychologists who link rampant materialism to declining wellbeing. And he introduces us to the innovators who are turning their backs on all-you-can-get consumption, and trading in materialism for “experientialism” – where they find more happiness, live more meaningful lives, and express status more successfully, through experiences rather than stuff.

My thoughts

When I was young and trembling on the threshold of life, minimalism was a design concept practiced by a cool elite who could afford to shop at Habitat. Then along came Ikea with its chuck out your chintz ads and do-it-yourself Billy bookcases. Suddenly we could all afford to live clutter free. These days of course minimalism is not just a design concept celebrating clean lines but a way life. Or rather several ways of life.

Initially minimalism seems to reject the accumulation of possessions for their own sake. A few simple, beautiful and practical things are all that are required. It is not a new concept. William Morris (1834-1896) the greatest designer and one of the most outstanding figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement famously said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”While not a minimalist in design terms, (most of those wall paper patterns are way too busy), his concepts are minimalistically modern. His design criteria was underpinned by political beliefs. He also said “Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.”

th-3His designs and emphasis on skilled craftsmanship were a response to what he considered the ugly issues of his day. It was an era where most people didn’t want to pay for quality and thanks to industrialization, mechanization and a cheap colonial workforce they didn’t have to. They could have loads of cheap, mass-produced products. Yes they were made in the most degrading conditions possible but no one really cared if they could lots of them. Sound familiar?

In his book Stuffocation, Wallman starts with a similar premise; that too much, badly-made, rubbishy stuff is bad for you. That constant consuming will never make you happy but instead leads to a kind of emotional malaise. That there “is a global, rich-world, middle-class clutter crisis”. That too much stuff is “bad for the physical and psychological health of a significant number of people.” The main culprit is “Mass-produced goods, which are the natural product of the system, are the worst of all. They are so stripped of meaning and novelty that they have little chance of genuinely exciting or inspiring us. ”

And finally

“The logical conclusion is one of the darkest sides of materialism: mass production and mass consumption, ultimately, cause mass depression.”

Blimey strong stuff.

And the reason we keep on buying these meaningless goods? They have been given a spurious glamour by spin doctors and ad men. Wallman argues that by the 1930s America was over producing. The dilemma was simple: either the farmers and factories needed to produce less, or people had to consume more. To make the people buy more, they would have to change behaviors and attitudes.

So they made products that didn’t last as long and then (insult to injury), encouraged people to replace them even before they wore out. To buy the new improved model. Often the only “improvement” was in how it looked. The latter is called fashion and has of been happening for ever as far as I can see. To be able to buy the latest fashion is of course an indicator of wealth and wealth means prestige. Buying new stuff indicates that you are rich enough to do so.

As I understand it, Wallman does not say that consumerism is absolutely bad. In fact buying more means we have more which means more jobs which means we have more. That “international trade, with materialistic consumerism at its heart, is pulling more people out of poverty around the world than ever before. Many, including the World Bank’s president, Jom Yong Kim, even believe that we may have virtually wiped out poverty by 2030. For this reason, materialism, fueled by people and nations wanting to keep up with their neighbors, was unquestionably the best idea of the twentieth century.”

The question seems to be how to deal with the unhealthy effects of having to much stuff while keeping a healthy market economy? To resolve the problems of mass production and mass consumption with out causing an economic crash.

He goes on to discuss the different kinds of minimalist. This is not a body of research more a collection of case studies. A kind of social commentary. This is my analysis of his studies.

The Many Ways Of Minimalism

Monk Minimalism the monk tries to reduce their possessions to the absolute minimum. They would be happiest with simple pallet, some robes and a rice bowl. They are into counting how much stuff they have. This kind of minimalism has a sort of spiritual overtone and not so good for continued materialism.

Green Minimalism where people have less because they want to consume less of the planets scarce resources. A political school of thought and pretty much opposed to continued materialism

Cant Be Arsed Minimalism. Why work harder just to get more stuff? Be happy with the minimum. Not so good for continued materialism but not necessarily a challenge to it either.

th-5Design School Of Minimalism. They like the look of it. They have no political or moral issues with stuff. They will buy stuff, use it, then throw it away just to keep the place looking uncluttered. When they need it again they will buy new. Excellent for continued materialism.

The Buy The Best Minimalism. Will only have a few things but they will be the very best quality items. Can be replaced with more of the best. Good for continued materialism.

The Memories Not Things Minimalism who replaces possessions with memories. Rather than buy another vase you go to the theatre. No kind of ethical  or political justification as such. This is Wallmans preferred option. Good for continued materialism.

So everybody can be a minimalist but for very different reasons. But will this really cure the “physical and psychological health of a significant number of people?”

It is an interesting read and a useful introduction to the many school of minimalism. Wallman illustrates that everyone from the deepest of greens to shallowest of designers can be a minimalist. But the reasons for being so are very different to the point of being ideologically opposed.

I am a mixed up minimalist. I am for example a Design School  Minimalist. People visiting my house say it will be nice when its finished. When I say it is, they look shocked and ask where my stuff is. I don’t want stuff.  I hate clutter and I look the look of clean spaces. But I would never discard a useful object. Indeed I find that idea offensive on so many levels that I now feel uncomfortable calling myself a minimalist. Basically I prefer to live this way and would be unhappy if I couldn’t but many people feel uncomfortable my “impersonal” house. So I am not sure that having stuff is all that is making people unhappy. There is more to it than an over abundance of ornaments. If people are buying stuff because they are unhappy that is of course a problem and possibly buying less stuff might make them look at the reasons for their underlying sadness. But that is as far as I would go.

And yes I am a Memories Not Things Minimalist. I do think that experiences are better than stuff but if that means flying to Paris every weekend then I don’t. I think that is just another form of consumerism and as unhealthy as any other kind.

I am also a green and can’t be arsed minimalist but I don’t believe I am any greener than a green who hoards everything because it might come in handy. With stuff or without I think greens are more content because of their ideology. They tend to be less selfish, more responsible and inclusive. Even those with the rainbow mobiles, dream catchers, wall-hung tree-of-life bedspreads and bloody fairy lights. If you are of an environmental disposition you try not to over consume but that needn’t stop you having a hundred spider plants.

Brave New WorldBrave New World

Wallman quotes Brave New World which reminded me that I hadn’t read it in a while. I downloaded it free from Project Gutenberg . Loved it. Written Aldous Huxley and published in 1932, the novel is about a benign but negative utopia where mass consumerism and controlled hedonism keeps the genetically modified inhabitants healthy, content and soporific. Full of fantastic snidey digs.

“Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes”

And this

“strange to think that even in Our Ford’s day most games were played without more apparatus than a ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting. Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness. Nowadays the Controllers won’t approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.”

Sound familiar?

Looking forward to what everyone else thinks. Once again I am using my twitter feed app so please use the hash tag #susbc. Then even if I can’t access twitter I can see what you say.

Live Twitter Feed

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Why not charity shops…

by Posted in 6 archive Tagged , 6 Comments

The first book I read for the Twitter Sustainable Book Club (the what? Find out here) was a timely one. Recently I have thinking about  how to dress sustainably and plastic-free. When discussing sustainable clothing, buying second-hand, along with clothes swaps seems like a no brainer. Of course buying from charity shops is a greener option and from the plastic-free point of view ideal in that it is packaging free. But how sustainable is it?

I have my doubts that buying second-hand helps reduce consumerism. Rather it creates another market but this time for second-hand goods. Furthermore you cannot influence, with your purchasing power, how the clothes were made and by whom. Buying second-hand clothes made in sweat shops is not to my mind guilt free merely because they are second hand..

And there are other issues which have been well documented in this easy to read case study..

Clothing Poverty – The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes by Andrew Brooks

“Following a pair of jeans, Clothing Poverty takes the reader on a vivid around-the-world tour to reveal how clothes are manufactured and retailed, bringing to light how fast fashion and clothing recycling are interconnected. Andrew Brooks shows how recycled clothes are traded across continents, uncovers how retailers and international charities are embroiled in commodity chains which perpetuate poverty, and exposes the hidden trade networks which transect the globe.”

The following summary is way too simple but basically this is what is happeningshopping

Fast Fashion

Those in the richer countries are encouraged to buy and discard clothes on a regular basis a movement described as fast fashion. We wear a lot of clothes. Here are a few statistics

  • The major products consumed were: 420 thousand tonnes of trousers, T-shirts and pullovers 530 thousand tonnes of carpets
  • From 2001 to 2005 spending on women’s clothing grew by 21% and that on men’s by 14%. During the same time – as the end of the quota arrangement approached in 2005 – prices actually dropped by 14%
    Consumers in the UK spend about £780 per head per year, purchasing around 2.15 million tonnes (35kg per person)

You can find more statistics here…

A few months later those new clothes are discarded. Most are thrown away but a small percentage are donated to charity shops. However charity shops can only sell a percentage of those clothes back to U.K. customers. The demand simply isn’t there. So they sell the unsold clothes to international clothes traders. These clothes end up on third world markets.

So clothes are made in the third world then transported to the first world to be worn for a limited time before being given to a charity who sell it back to the third world. These are sold to private market traders who sell them back possibly to those who made them!

Amongst other things Andrew Brooks argues that this impacts adversely on the development of local textile and clothing markets. Both in Africa and at home. It certainly impacts adversely on the environment!

You can see more posts on this here 

Charity Shops & Over Consumption

I have long considered giving to charity shops to distract from the problem of overconsumption. For many gifting good quality clothing justifies buying more. Which does nothing to address the issue of buying too much. At worst it adds a kind of beneficial, even charitable gloss to going out shopping. But while mine is a gut feeling Andrew Brooks explores this in-depth and comes to similar  but far better documented conclusions.

Charity Shops & Poor Quality Clothes

I am not against the sale of second-hand clothing or the money raised going to charity. But only as part of a very different clothing cycle.I remember when charity shops sold good quality second-hand clothing from decades ago. You jumble salecould buy collarless granddad shirts and woolen overcoats as seen on the Smiths Basically dead mens clothes! Because back then most clothes were made to last a life time and only discarded when your granddad had gone to place where he wouldn’t be needing shirts.

Now charity shops are stuffed full of cheap and badly made clothes that are not much cheaper than Primark. It might be that I am shopping in the wrong area.When  I went on a trawl of charity shops in Tunbridge Wells they were posh! But generally the faster turn around in clothes means they are of poorer quality.  Andrew  Brooks who also documents this aspect of the clothing trade.

Charity Shops and Fair Trade /Environmental Issues

If you choose to buy secondhand you lose the chance to influence how your clothes are made by whom and out of what. Any purchase is a vote with your cash and an opportunity to influence the market. Buying second-hand clothes made in sweat shops, out fibres grown unsustainably, by unethical companies is not, (to my mind), guilt free.

Sustainable Clothes

So how can we clothe ourselves in a fitting manner

Fair Share Fabrics My Global Share

Before charity clothing shops can come back into their own, we need to tackle overconsumption and production of  poor quality clothes. Of course one mans over consumption is another’s nothing to wear so how to decide what is sustainable?

This is how the equation works for me

  • We cannot exceed current levels of production

  • We cannot expect others to want less than we have.

  • Therefore we can only consume our global share

Which works out at 11.74kg of fabric per person, per year. 3.8 kg is natural fibres the rest is synthetic fibre. You can check my figures here.

So I  use no more than my share of fibres and because I hate non-biodegradables I keep my use of synthetics to a minimum. The fibres I do use have to be sustainably sourced.

You can see how I manage with fabric rationing here…

Fine Quality Worn To Shreds

A very similar approach and one I really love is that of Mrs M. She buys quality clothes and wears them till they fall apart. One reason for that is that she only allows herself the amount of clothes she could have had under the war-time rationing system. And those clothes have to be ethically sourced. Her clothes have a value. Catch up with her fantastic blog here. 

patchingSharing, Swapping and Mending

Zoe too has some great tips for more varied ethical dressing including how to approach the tricky second-hand clothing issue

1. Use up or give away to friends / family / strangers (in this country) our unwanted clothes

2. Go forward with only:

  • buying really good quality ethically sourced long-lasting clothes containing only sustainable natural fibres and/or
  • buying or receiving unwanted secondhand clothes from family, friends and strangers and/or
  • making your own good quality long-lasting clothes from environmentally conscious and ethically sourced fabrics

3. Hire clothes that will only be worn once or twice e.g. suits and dresses

5. Swap clothes if you want a wardrobe refresh (whilst still in good condition) with others.

 

You can read more here  plus her great Clothing Poverty Review over here

 You can read more about my fair-trade, sustainable, plastic-free wardrobe here

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Chain Base

by Posted in 6 archive 9 Comments

About

Latest Plastic News

They also have the a range of plastic free products. Find them in our facebook gallery here

Other Products

From Louises database

Louises Data Base?
Louise Bayfields   “POSTIVE PRODUCTS LIST (UK) a list of High Street and Supermar-ket products that have no packaging or in some way help reduce packaging.”

The List
The original PDF will be updated as  Louise shops around so do check back there for updates. 
Remember not all stores stock all products. It might be wise to check ahead if you are making a special visit.
Once again thank you  Louise for such a fantastic resource!

Shopping Tips

If you want to buy loose, you will need to take your own reusable packaging – produce bags, tupperware even compostable disposables. You can find them here.

Sneaky Plastics

The plastic free freak should remember that
metal lids to glass jars are of course plastic lined .
Tin and cans including those for cosmetics are also plastic lined
Paper and foil wraps will be plastic lined.
Find other sneaky plastics here….

Choose Well
If you really can’t do without it and you have a choice a plastic wrapped products, choose to buy the one in simple plastics that can easily be recycled

More

see all our supermarket info HERE.
Find out more about the individual products here via the food index
Other places to buy unpackaged food are listed here

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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Huddersfield Queensgate Market

by Posted in 6 archive Tagged , 2 Comments

Queensgate Market has now closed. As it is an architectural landmark cannot be demolished but its future is uncertain.

From Kirklees Council website

Opened on April 6th 1970 the Queensgate Market Hall was built with a bespoke roof system of 21 asymmetric curved shells. The design allows for maximum light into the market and is considered to be the best example still standing of a retail market from the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2005 Culture Minister David Lammy listed the building as Grade II, stating, “It is an imaginative structure that combines innovative technology of its time to produce a dramatic space full of natural light with the striking focal point of the roof.”
The exterior of the building incorporates natural stone with exposed concrete and several art relief panels all individually sculpted by the artist Fritz Steller.

The Hall has been haled by local architecture expert Adrian Evans as “A spectacular combination of architecture, engineering and art.”
For further information and images visit Huddersfield Gem

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C & D

by Posted in 6 archive Tagged

Find refill stores in
Cleethorpes
and bloggers in and around devon

What Are Refill Stores?
Bulk buy or refill stores are places you can buy food loose.You take as much as you want/need from a larger container and you can usually use your own packaging.


 Packaging
While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free and/or reusable bags.

Tare

The weight of the container may make a difference at checkout. Some shops  subtract the tare weight but other don’t. The tare weight is the weight of the empty container.

Towns

Cleethorpes
Spill the Beans St Peter’s Avenue #cleethorpes now have paper bags out as an alternative to plastic. If you’ve not been here PLEASE check if out! Loads of fab whole foods plus cereals Baking stuff and more #cleethorpes #discovernel #totallylocallynel

D is for Devon

Bloggers

Sarah from Devon blogs about living plastic free in this lovely part of the world. Read about it here.

More

Loose Food A to Z

Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged i.e rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres a list of towns with shops selling loose food.

Find A Milk Delivery Service With Glass Bottles Here 

Supermarkets

Sometimes supermarkets can surprise you – check out the plastic-free and reduced packaging products here.

Help Me

Please add any shops you know of in the comments below and I will incorporate them into the post.
Links to reviews particularly welcome.
Dont have a blog? Love guest posts…

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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U.K. Made stuff I have bought recently

by Posted in 6 archive

Guest Bedroom

Specifically designed for regular use, the Jaybe Crown Premier Single Folding Bed with Sprung Mattress achieves higher British, European and North American safety standards than normal domestic beds.

Key Features:
– Lifetime frame guarantee
– Suitable for regular use
– J-Tex® Sprung base system for durability, support and comfort
– Full depth spring interior mattress
– Exceeds British, European and North American safety standards
– High performance mattress fabric
– Sitable for use in contract environments (e.g. Hotels)
– British made

https://www.made-to-last.co.uk/jaybe-crown-premier-single-folding-bed-with-sprung-mattress.html

Swish Furniglyde Curtain Track

Swish Furniglyde Curtain Track

A fairly flexible curtain track suitable for Caravans, Motorhomes and Van conversions

from a manchester based camper superstore. https://www.camperlands.co.uk/swish-furniglyde-curtain-track.html

Swish Furniglyde

This versatile PVC track is suitable to use in awkward or discreet applications. Developed specially for use with lightweight curtains & nets up to 6.8kgs (15lbs) and can be wall or ceiling fixed without the use of fixing brackets . Can easily be trimmed to size for straight runs and can be bent into bay windows when face fixing only.

Note: Button hooks must be used when face fixing.

https://oomtoo.com/swish/

More info abut

Mascara

by Posted in 3.1 Personal, 3.7 Other Solutions, 6 archive Tagged

Pull off the silver casing covering the “well” of the mascara. Don’t be afraid to pull hard!

Mascara Refills Step 2

STEP 2

Now do the same for the mascara wand casing.

Mascara Refill Module Step 3

STEP 3

Unwrap your new mascara refill, and insert into each part of the casing. You should feel it “click” into place. The refill can be recycled, and your Kjaer Weis makeup is now ready to use!

Its seems that this comes in plastic free packaging and while the product its self is not plastic free, it is recyclable and represents a huge reduction in plastic. I am investigating. For more details visit https://kjaerweis.com/about/intelligent-refill-system

  • N.B.
    lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x
Join our Facebook group here

Plastic Aware Projects Archive

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies, 6 archive 1 Comment

Campus to track plastic use for new project Here’s an interesting report from the Daily Californian

English: Campus of the UC Berkeley in Berkeley...

English: Campus of the UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California, United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two weeks ago, the campus ( UC Berkeley)  secured funding for a zero-waste research center to study where waste on campus is coming from and what can be done to reduce it. The first action the center will take is adoption of the Plastic Disclosure Project, a worldwide initiative asking the business world to report and assess how much plastic waste it is producing.

The project was founded last year by UC Berkeley alumnus Doug Woodring, who witnessed the effects of plastic in local waters and at the North Pacific Gyre, an aggregate of plastic floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Woodring said the project is looking to work with businesses “to hold a mirror up to themselves” and address how plastic production and waste effect plastic pollution in oceans. UC Berkeley will be the first campus in the world to join the project.

Read the rest of the article here