Water from Hotels

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions 4 Comments

I do a lot of travelling and I love a hotel that offers me a water bottle refill or tap water with my dinner. Here are a few interesting schemes…

CELEBRATE SAFE WATER FOR TOURISM

Being a DrinkWater partner means that your organization has committed to being part of the global network focused on reducing plastic water bottles through the implementation of drinkable water technologies.  It represents being green, and environmentally aware of your global impact.  Through the use of our products we measure your impact and help you attract more customers who are environmentally focused.

DrinkWater is the global network promoting safe water for tourism. We monitor reductions in single use plastic water bottles and help you measure your environmental and sustainability benefits for a clear competitive advantage.

WHOLE WORLD Water

Their scheme is very practical….

Are you in the hospitality trade? Do you want to reduce your plastic footprint? Would you like to help those without access to clean drinking water while you do it?

Have a look at this project……

IS A HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM CAMPAIGN THAT ADDRESSES THE FACT THAT NEARLY 1 BILLION PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN AND SAFE DRINKING WATER.
We estimate that with scale we, as an industry, can contribute $1 billion dollars per year to alleviate this global issue. But, this is much more than a fund raising initiative. It is a revolutionary, creative way of thinking, a new way to do business and a replicable
model designed to combat environmental, health and economic issues. It will deliver huge, radical, positive change while driving a more robust bottom line. It’s simple, easy to implement, measurable and bankable.
Most importantly, it will be the first time that a single industry has united on a non-competitive platform, taken action and eradicated a major global issue.
1 Become a member of WHOLE WORLD Water
2 Replace commercially branded bottled water with filtered water – filtration systems run around $400 per month, and the reusable glass bottles cost $4-$7 each.
3 Sell the bottled water for $ (whatever price point you are comfortable with) and contribute 10% of the proceeds to the WHOLE WORLD Water Fund. 100% of the monies raised will be invested in clean & safe drinking water projects and innovations locally, and globally.

The filtration system and bottles pay for themselves usually over a period of 3 months, and our members have realized an income increase up to 25%, proving that environmental and economic progress are not mutually exclusive. You will witness a more robust bottom line, and become part of a global marketing campaign built on solutions, transparency and action with the potential to raise more than $1 billion annually in the fight for clean and safe water for everyone. This is a truly sustainable solution!
wholeworldwater.co

For more visit the website

More

If you are not in the hospitality business but want to do all that any way, check out the fantastic Give Me Tap scheme

 

boat powered by rubbish

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged 26 Comments

Ocean Ambassadors Mr Midwood and Take Three, Tim Silverwood sailed into town in a boat powered by trash.

“We put solid plastics in one side and use heat to gasify them, turning them back into liquid – their oil-based form,” Mr Midwood said. “It’s a great way to turn plastics into a positive product. We can use the diesel we produce to power the ship and then sell leftover fuel.”

They are using Japanese-designed Blest technology which turns plastic into oil

Ocean Ambassadors  advocate and educate on this technology as a solution to island nations as it provides a real-time solution to effectively processing these “waste materials” locally and providing an end product that has a high demand in all locations.

As it is a low-sulfur burning content fuel and recorded as environmentally friendlier than standard diesel, we feel this technology offers us an option for the time being before we phase into plastic alternatives that are bio-based.

 

post

Water Bottle Bans

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions 7 Comments

It shows how divergent our culture has become when many are trying so hard to cut foolish and polluting consumption habits, others make money selling fresh air. Please support the former and let’s hope the latter is an elaborate joke – perhaps done by performance artists.

San Francisco

San Francisco has just become the first city in America to ban the sale of plastic water bottles. Over the next four years, the ban will phase out the sales of plastic water bottles that hold 21 ounces or less in public places. So not all water bottles only the small single servings but a start. You can read a full article about it here

Eaton Hotel suspends bottled water

This is great news, a hotel suspending bottled water in favour of refills

Eaton Hotel, Hong Kong has invested on the installation of an eco-friendly drinking water purification system that allows glass bottles to be re-used and suspended the use of plastic bottled water.This is a great initiative and should save 350,000 plastic bottles each year from landfill, a positive result for our environment. Copied from aquafil

Concordia University banning bottled water

if only more colleges would do this……Vending machines to be bottled-water-free – NOW – Concordia University.

In the Hospitality Trade?

1 Become a member of WHOLE WORLD Water
2 Replace commercially branded bottled water with filtered water – filtration systems run around $400 per month, and the reusable glass bottles cost $4-$7 each.
3 Sell the bottled water for $ (whatever price point you are comfortable with) and contribute 10% of the proceeds to the WHOLE WORLD Water Fund. 100% of the monies raised will be invested in clean & safe drinking water projects and innovations locally, and globally.

Great Ozzy Campaign

Watch it and laugh….kinda like buying bottled water

Bottled Air??? 

And while that was meant to be a joke, these loons in have taken to selling heavily packaged fresh air

“Two entrepreneurs are capitalizing on air pollution problems abroad by selling people bottled fresh air from the Canadian Rockies.

“Essentially we’re selling air,” Troy Paquette, one of Vitality Air’s Canadian co-founders, told CBC’s The Current. “Clean, beautiful, fresh Banff mountain air.”

They are in talks with China. FFS, really hope I’m being hoaxed here!

bottled-air

post

a fine choice ltd.

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged 2 Comments

reusable environmentally friendly products that substitute disposable plastic products

I offer people an alternative to disposable products e.g. they can order a reusable glass straw to substitute disposable plastic straws or they can buy a BPA free stainless steel bottle instead of using disposable plastic bottles

I love all things natural, eco & healthy -Daniela Schaffri

Links: www.afinechoice.co.uk

FB a fine choice Twitter @afinechoice

Store www.afinechoice.co.uk

Please note

This post was written by the contributor. It is not a Plastic Is Rubbish review, does not represent my personal opinions and I have not used this product or service. Instead it is a PfU.K. Directory submission.

The Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their work not mine. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Follow us on facebook here

post

Local Shops

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses, 3.7 Other Solutions 5 Comments

I try to buy all that I can from independents by which I mean small businesses managed by their owners, that have a real shop, on a real high street. Local shops for local people. Here’s why…

A Tale Of Two Cities
In Huddersfield (yes, I know it’s a town and not a city), there are many local shops ranging from traditional grocers to Polish Delis by way of Asian, and Caribbean food stores. And, being as it is close to the countryside, farm shops and pick your own places. Add to that a covered market in the center, at least two local breweries, and our very own fair-trade coffee importers, Huddersfield is well supplied. Plus it is so small they are all within walking distance.

How different it is in Manchester that great sprawling conurbation and powerhouse of the North. In this huge and increasingly prosperous city there are whole areas with no shops at all. And lots more have only one “convenience store” selling mostly pre-prepared, processed, long-life food. There are surprisingly few high streets that still have shops where you can buy all you need to cook a balanced meal. Fast-food outlets, scented candles cafes and hairdressers yes! Butchers and bakers? Not so many left.
There are some of course. In the more affluent areas there are urban villages where you can get artisan bread and very expensive cheese and, (more useful and affordable), some frantically busy immigrant communities with numerous shops selling everything from yams to basmati.

But the rest is large housing estates studded with big supermarkets, chainstores and chain pubs. But so what? After all….

Supermarkets Are So Convenient
And they are much cheaper than local shops.
You can get all you need in one go, do your shopping all at once.
You can drive there… and park.
There is more choice
They are are open all hours so you can go after work.

All of which is true but consider what is being lost along the way. Supermarkets are killing the high street. Local shops are closing in their thousands because they cannot compete on the above terms. And all of those conveniences come at a price. It might not be apparent but it still costs you. There really is no such thing as a free lunch especially when its being brought to you by supermarkets.

Cheaper

Lets talk money first. As many people point out local shops cost more than supermarkets which is true but shop locally and you get that money back in other ways. Shopping locally is investing in your community. According to the Guardian, research by local authorities shows that for every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized business 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business. And the American Express High Streets Ahead study found that houses near high streets full of prospering small traders increased in price more rapidly than those else where. It is in your self interest to shop locally. Source -Guardian Newspaper. Source –Guardian Newspaper.

Over Purchasing
It seems that bulk-buy convenience, supermarket shopping makes you buy too much. Once in those huge malls of food, the desire to get the weekly shop done all at once is irresistible. After all that’s what you drove all this way for. And judging by the huge trollies filled to overflowing at the checkout, it leads to a kind of stockpiling frenzy.
Research shows that people are buying more food than they need, lots of which gets thrown away. Of course they might have bought this at local shops but as we do most of our shopping at supermarkets I don’t think so. Supermarkets encourage this overspending with a range of sophisticated techniques.
Read this report on how supermarkets entice you into spending more  or this 

Food Waste
Too much food leads to food being wasted which costs millions.

You can get all you need in one go and do all your shopping all at once. Which it seems may not be such a great way to shop after all.

I can drive there
And the point of local shops is that you can walk there. If you only want a loaf of bread and your centralised supermarket is is some distance away, you have get the car out, negotiate the traffic, avoid the rush hour, circle round looking for a parking space and walk through miles of aisles to find what you want. Is that really so convenient, labour or time saving?

And you have to have a car which is another cost in itself. More importantly you are dependant on the car. And that can be a problem if the car is at the garage or you can’t afford the petrol. But worst of all this dependance on transport results in food deserts.

Food Deserts
The lack of local shops and centralizing the shopping experience into a few widely spaced super stores leads to the development of what is now termed food deserts.
J BAINES writing in 1973 (The Environment) first applied the term desert to the urban environment to describe a culturally sterile area so lacking in certain facilities that normal social interaction no longer took place “The large suburban estates that are a recent feature of the townscape are epitomized by the regular rows of similarly styled houses that have earned for themselves the title of suburban deserts.  They often lack the shops, churches, public houses, and social centers that allow a community life to develop”.
Food desert was first quoted, by S CUMMINS (British Medical Journal, 2002, Vol.325, p.436) when researching into life on Scottish housing estates. It is now used to refer to areas where people cannot access sources fresh and varied food.Food is imported into such places to be sold from large centralised trading places or supermarkets as we know them. They can then benefit from the economies of scale that make them so cheap. Competition forces most of the local shops to close leaving the community with perhaps one convenience store selling alchohol and a limited range of long life processed food. If you can’t get to the supermarket you are in trouble.

Reports indicate that food deserts are boring places to live but more importantly often socially exclusive and in poorer communities bad for your health! Some places people simply cannot access fresh reasonable priced food because they have no transport or cannot afford to travel.
And people in more affluent areas who can afford to travel are now dependent on the car to provide them with basic food stuffs. For the less mobile, the sick, the elderly and any one who cannot drive, life becomes more difficult.
All suffer from the lack of a community hub that a local, accessible high streets provide.

The Valley Centre shopping precinct. Most businesses are now boarded up. What a sad place right in the heart of Rawtenstall’s commercial area. Two twenty-four hour supermarkets have opened nearby.  Wikimedia

Choice
Or the illusion of choice? Supermarkets look like that they are giving you a huge amount of choice. Racks of crisps, rows of different shampoos even a whole range of cocoa. But is there really that much difference in the shampoos on offer apart from colour? And of course packaging. Packaging helps to sell products. How would you know that one kind of crisps was was different from the other if it wasn’t packed differently?
Because sometimes there really isn’t any other difference. Generic painkillers are just as effective as branded. They are the same product but packaged differently. Yet so effective is the branding that cheap painkillers sold in a cheap pack are considered less effective then the same tablets sold in a flashy box. I’ll just say that again the same product is considered, in consumer tests, to be less effective at dealing with pain. That is down to packaging and advertising. So much of that “choice” is illusion.

The Waste Of Choice

And so much choice means a lot of waste. Of course supermarkets do stock a wide range of products but again that comes with an environmental cost. All those exotic, out of season or organic fruits and veg are carefully packed in plastic for a reason. Plastic packing helps maintain product life. Shrink wrapped cucumbers do last longer.

The longer food will keep, the longer there is to sell it and the further they can transport it. Green beans out of season will be plastic packed to prolong not just shelf life but enable an increased travel time. All of which means more choice, with the high. environmental cost of plastic waste and product miles as a result. Eating locally and seasonally generally means less choice but tastier (many argue more nutritious), and more often unpackaged food.

But a huge reason to plastic-wrap food is to enable self service, the raison d’être of the Supermarket. Obviously you cannot have piles of unpacked steaks for consumers to rummage through, so shrink wrapped onto polystyrene trays they go and now the consumer can help themselves so cutting down on labour costs. Which makes your food cheaper.
Not surprisingly however heavily packaged supermarket food results in huge amounts of plastic waste. Which ultimately you pay for to dispose of. To have it taken away to landfill, burnt or in a very small number of cases recycled. All that costs you a lot in waste disposal costs. You are paying a high but hidden cost for all this convenience and choice.

And of course pre packaging determines the amount you buy. You may only want 10 biscuits but they come in packs of 20. Packaging food like this is also said to contribute to food waste. More money down the drain.

While independent shops are not guilt free in this respect they are less likely to sell plastic packed produce because they are serving you themselves. You go in and ask for 2 steaks and they pick them up and pack them for you. In which case you can supply your own plastic free packaging. And it is also far easier to ask a butcher you have a relationship with to use your own compostable bag in lieu of their plastic one. You can then go on to explain to shop keeper your objections to plastic packaging and he is more likely to listen.

Power To The Local People

Increasing our dependency on a few big suppliers of food we are putting the most important choice ever, how we take nourish ourself, into the hands of a few multi million dollar business. They help dictate how farmers farm, what price food should be, what is sold and when. If they stop feeding us we don’t eat. and while they may not ever threaten to starve us into submission, there can be doubt these huge businesses wield a massive amounts of power.Giving these unaccountable organisation  so much control over the very basics could easily become extremely inconvenient.
Shopping locally is using your consumer power to create a range of independent businesses who depend on you. They are answerable to you.
And you are supporting local business further down the supply chain. There is no doubt that supermarkets use their dominance in the market to bully suppliers.


Dairy farmers have faced an ongoing struggle, but things reached a crisis point this year following falling prices, with supermarkets selling milk cheaper than water and dairy processors cutting prices paid to farmers. It costs farmers around 30p–32p/litre to produce milk, but many have been earning little more than 20p/litre. Sustainable Food Trust

Dairy farmers have faced an ongoing struggle, but things reached a crisis point this year following falling prices, with supermarkets selling milk cheaper than water and dairy processors cutting prices paid to farmers. It costs farmers around 30p–32p/litre to produce milk, but many have been earning little more than 20p/litre. Sustainable Food Trust

After Hours Shopping

Back to time; I guess there are few who would deny that out of hours shopping is a boon. They might go on to say that taking time out of a Saturday morning to shop locally is a chore. Perhaps – but again there are benefits too. If we value where we live, want to see property hold its value, encourage community hubs and want there to be local shops – and most people say they do want all of the above – then obviously we have to invest some time and money in maintaining these resources. Is it really such hard work? More a matter of timetabling.

Slow Shopping

And rather than call it a chore we could try and learn to enjoy slow shopping. To relish a leisurely stroll round the shops. Believe me, this is not trying to find silver linings; shopping locally really is far more pleasant and satisfying than charging round the aisles, fuming at the wonky trolly and scanning your own basket on the way out.
As for waiting for a bus or driving and parking, if you have local shops you don’t need to do this. You can walk there. Which save you money, keeps you fit, makes your city
roads less congested and your planet greener.
Shopping locally is a healthier option in other ways. If you think you haven’t got time to shop properly than chances are you probably think you haven’t got time to cook properly either! And supermarkets cater to that belief by tempting you with a wide array of ready made, convenience foods from the humble tin of baked beans to puddings to pre-prepared salads. Masses of mass produced foods many of them laden with extra salt, sugar and chemicals, unpronounceable flavorings and additives. I used to smoke so I cant be be giving health advice to anyone but speaking from experience I know a damaging lifestyle choice when they see one. Eating ready made or even ready prepared is not a good idea. These meals are expensive and bad for you. Independent shops on the other hand tend to sell ingredients rather than meals. They sell meat and veg, cheese and bread. You buy and then you cook what you buy.

Shopping Locally On a Budget
I have a minuscule income. So I feel that every penny I spend needs to be spent wisely, it needs to be valued. I value my cash not just by what I can buy with it but the good it can do. If I pay a bit more to keep a local business in business it feels good. Consider this. If every adult in a town with a population of 10,000 adults spent £5.00 a week in a local shop that would be £2.6 million pounds more being spent with independent businesses in the town.”
And it needn’t cost more. Changing how you shop and eat, cuts bills and comes with added advantages. Local markets are always good value and a great community asset.
These three are well worth a visit Leed, Todmorden and Huddersfield.
Seasonal, local food tends to be cheaper and is certainly a greener option. You can even pick your own. Find a farm near you here. Cutting back on meat saves money and the environment. But if you do buy, buy from a local butcher. Cheese as a treat is healthier than cheese as a staple. And so on.

Valuing Time
Time is even more important and should always be spent as pleasantly as possible. The high street is slower shopping and I may even get wet walking to the market – but it is so much more pleasant. I like knowing the people who I buy my food from and that I can talk to them about my plastic free shopping needs. I like the greengrocers corny (!) jokes and that the butcher discusses sustainable farming with a passion.

Conclusion
Personally I feel it is worth making some time for and spending some money in local shops. I’m not saying I never use supermarkets but don’t only ever use supemarkets. Investing locally will pays dividends. They might not be immediately obvious as the pounds saved on the weekly shop but there are other savings and they are advantageous.

Loosing your Local Shops?
These guys can help Totally Locally is all about creating strong, vibrant towns and sustainable local economies. We use clever marketing tools, and unique ways of working that engage communities and get people talking and working together both locally and across the globe.”

Visit the website.

More

Bags & Packaging
Shopping plastic free means taking your OWN PACKAGING.Check out the plastic-free shopping kit here.
Which Shop

Buy British and cut those air miles. Some ideas HERE

Food Here is a list of food types category with purchase details

Loose Food
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged. A list of towns with shops selling loose food.

Supermarkets & Chainstores  because sometimes you have to and Yes you can get plastic free and zero waste stuff. Read up HERE.</a


Milk 
Delivered in glass bottles but double check before you order

post

Earth Conscious

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged

Eco friendly business run by two mums, specialising in reusable over disposable products. We stock stainless steel straws to replace plastic throwaways. We also offer luxurious washable sanitary pads, aiming to reduce the huge 200,00 tonnes of landfill caused by sanitary products each year.

Our products are high quality and have a life span of many years, further reducing waste.

Links

Website: www.earthconscious.co.uk
Blog: www.earthconscious.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/earthconsciousuk

Please note

This post was written by the contributor. It is not a Plastic Is Rubbish review, does not represent my personal opinions and I have not used this product or service. Instead it is  a PfU.K. Directory submission.

The Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

In 2014 I hope to feature 12 UK-based initiatives featuring refuseniks, trash slashers, businesses and the rest.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their work not mine. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Follow us on facebook here

Recycling plastic on the high seas…

by Posted in 3.6 Media, arts & education Tagged ,

Ahoy there me hearties! Have I got a project for you! These Uk designers trawl the beaches for plastic which they turn into chairs with their home made plastic recycling machine. I know… so sweet! Now they need money to develop the project further! They want to go to sea with their machine and make stools on the high waves! And they have got 18 days to raise the cash. Come on this has to be worth a few quid!

 

  • VOYAGE INTO THE NORTH ATLANTIC GYRE WITH A SOLAR 3D PRINTER, TURNING OCEAN PLASTIC INTO BESPOKE FURNITURE – MADE AT SEA FROM THE SEA.

We have always been drawn to the sea, a fascination which led us to first conceive the ‘Sea Chair’ a project which is about making furniture using plastic that is polluting our oceans. We first heard about the huge problem of marine plastic in 2010, since then we have been designing a series of devices and contraptions to collect and process the sea plastic into sea chairs with tags indicating the geographic coordinates of where it was made.

The project began on a small beach in Cornwall, UK. We collected the plastic on the shore with self-made machines and turned them into chairs. Six months later, we went out to sea on fishing boats with a new improved furnace and made another sea chair with plastic caught in fishermen’s nets.

Since then the project has really grown and we have now designed and built a new machine – a plastic extruder which melts the plastic at sea with only the power of the sun, forming a 3D printer that is can be used either on sea or on land, far from any external power source and where plastic trash exists without the facilities to recycle them.

This October, we have an opportunity to go onboard the Sea Dragon – a 72ft vessel dedicated to research of plastic at sea. We will be sailing to the North Atlantic Gyre from the Azores Island to the Canaries. We are running this Kickstarter campaign to raise funding to join other scientist and ecologists on this journey with our new machine on board.

Gyres are where ocean currents converge creating a vortex of plastic fragments. A lot of awareness has been generated around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch but there isn’t a great public awareness or research about the problem in the North Atlantic Gyre. We want to take the project to the North Atlantic Gyre to make a design collection with the waste we remove, as well as a film that can really engage the public about the issue of sea plastic.

During the expedition we will be collecting plastic on the beaches for the Azores and Lanzarote as well as at sea. We will document the plastic collected and sort it to be processed with a machine we have built. The machine uses a parabolic mirror to melt the plastic with the energy from the sun. The extruded plastic can then be 3d printed into a range of objects that will all form a touring exhibition about the voyage.

Sketch by Andrew Friend
Sketch by Andrew Friend

Previously with ‘Sea Chair’ project we received numerous awards as well as coverage from design world and beyond with articles in global newspapers such as the Huffington Post and The Atlantic. The project also was awarded the gold award at the Design Biennale Slovenia in 2013 and the the film about the project received over 1/4 million views and picked up the 2nd prize at Cannes film festival.

On the back of this publicity we distributed our open source manual for people to build their own low cost furnace and Chair encouraging local beach cleaning and action against plastic waste.

For the first time we are offering our sea chairs as rewards you can buy.

With this Gyre project we want to engage people in the issue, too often the scale of the problem frightens or depresses people into fatalism, as if it’s too late and we are on an inevitable course, which leads to people not wanting to deal with it. That is why when reporting the problems of marine plastic we need to make something inspirational and capture the imagination as well as very real solutions that people can act on.

REWARDS

 A complete illustrated manual of how to make your own Sea Chair + personal message from Studio Swine.

A postcard (6″x4″) from the journey with a personal thank you and a plastic sample from the North Atlantic Gyre.

Sea Tag keychain is made with collected sea plastic, with this reward you will also receive a password to access the Captain’s Log- a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

Synthetic fibres breakdown when washed and particles of plastic find their way into the Ocean. These unisex socks are made with natural Bamboo fibre which also has the benefit of being naturally deodorising. Each pair is hand dyed and embroidered. + Password to access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

A Sea Chair keyring with a brass shackle, monkey fist knot and a tag made with sea plastic + password access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

A box set containing a keyring, postcard, sea plastic and DIY manual + password access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

 A box set containing keyring, 2 postcards, sea socks, and DIY manual + password access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

The Sea Knife is a sailing knife (13cmx2.5cm) with a high quality blade made from Japanese Stainless Steel. The handle is made from Sea Plastic with a granite-like appearance. You will also receive a photographic print and geographical co-ordinates of where it was made + password access to the Captain’s Log- a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

A box set containing a keyring, 2 postcards, sea plastic, sea socks, sea knife and DIY manual  + password access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

A chair made with sea plastic with chromed steel legs. You will receive a photographic print and geographical co-ordinates of where it was made + password access the Captain’s Log – a blog with behind the scenes footage from the boat.

The Original Sea Chair Design with Sea Plastic legs and tagged withgeographical co-ordinates + original framed drawing + photographic print signed by Studio Swine + Studio visit and invitation to exhibition private view + password to access the Captain’s Log. (travel not included)

You will be the Official Sponsor of the film made by award winning Director Juriaan Booij. You will receive prominent credit and be mentioned in international press, future exhibitions and film festivals around the world.

PLASTIC FACTS

Since the discovery of the Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997, which is predicted to measure twice the size of Texas, five more have been found across the world’s oceans with the Atlantic gyre predicted to be even larger. This plastic takes thousands of years to degrade, remaining in the environment to be broken up into ever smaller fragments by ocean currents.

More of a ‘plastic soup’ than a tangible mass, the gyre stretches from the coastlines of California to the shores of Japan. Recent studies have estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer of the world’s oceans. The number of plastic pieces in the Pacific Ocean has tripled in the last ten years and the size of the accumulation is set to double in the next ten.

  • Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times.
  • Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century
  • 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.
  • We currently recover only five percent of the plastics we produce.
  • Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a one liter bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world.
  • Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute.
  • 46 percent of plastics float (EPA 2006) and it can drift for years before eventually concentrating in the ocean gyres.
  • It takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.
  • Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences in the oceans making up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. 80 percent of pollution enters the ocean from the land.
  • The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific Gyre off the coast of California and is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.
  • One million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
  • 44 percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of cetaceans, all sea turtle species and a growing list of fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies.
  • Virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form
  • Plastic chemicals can be absorbed by the body
  • Some of these compounds found in plastic have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.

(Source – ecowatch.com)

For more information on sea plastic, visit 5 Gyres

Q&A

How will your money help us?

All the money raised from this campaign will go towards making this project happen. So far we’ve self funded the making of the machine, beach cleaning trips, travel, equipment etc. but the passenger fee on the boat is very expensive and we need your help to pay for our place on the boat. The money will also go towards making the rewards, the more rewards we sell the more plastic we can remove from the sea.

What happens if the funding exceeds the asking amount?

The money that is over the asking figure would go towards making our film. We are working with internationally acclaimed filmmaker Juriaan Booij who will make a beautiful short feature about the voyage, enabling us to share the journey with you and show the machine printing the product at sea. The film would bring the issue of Sea Plastic to a wider global audience and increase the calls for action.

Who is in the team?

Studio Swine – (Alexander Groves & Azusa Murakami) is a design studio based in London. We are interested in narratives, sustainability and vernacular design.

Andrew Friend – A keen sailor, mechanical genius and a designer. We have been collaborating with Andy to make the solar 3D printer for the journey.

Juriaan Booij – An award winning filmmaker. We have been working together with Juriaan for the past 3 years producing many exciting design films.

Risks and challengesLearn about accountability on Kickstarter

Project Risks and Challenges

Getting enough plastic

We will be collecting plastic everyday during the trip with a trawl net. In addition we will be collecting plastic from fishing boats on Azores and Canaries which have collected it in their nets and we will be joining beach cleans on both the islands. From experience beach cleaning in the UK we are confident we will recover more than enough plastic to make the rewards for more than double our funding goal. In the case that we far exceed our goal the funding would allow us to spend more time collecting plastic in the Atlantic.

Making the rewards

We have made all the objects offered as rewards already so we know the challenges and techniques very well. We make them in house so don’t rely on other manufacturers, getting funded would enable us to deal with sea plastic on a larger scale.

Making the solar extruder work

We have made countless solar ovens testing them in many different weather conditions on both on land and at sea, and have been successful at melting plastic with them.

In case of bad weather

We are travelling from Azores to the Canaries so there will be lots of sun. In case of poor weather conditions we will still be able to use the marine printer with a back up heating device.

2014 Plastic free July, in a van

by Posted in 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns Tagged ,

Last month (July) we took part in plastic free July (pretty much as it sounds) . We are did it in a van.

This is what went into our landfill bin to date. We have nothing in our recycle bin. All other rubbish has been compostable.

Camping weekend with mates Beers in glass bottles with metal caps that are  plastic lined. I don’t know how many we drank  but it was lots.

hay fever tablets packet.

2  bits of Sellotape added while we wernt looking

disposable 30ml taster glass A mistake in the supermarket

Expensive wine with a cork and foil – STILL contains plastic. Who knew?

WE CUT 

tins, tetrapaks and glass jars with plastic/ plastic-lined lids.

tea bags!

plastic packed personal care and hygiene products. This is rather disingenuous as I made up big batches of moisturizer, lip balm, sun tan lotion and toothpaste before we left for our trip. The ingredients came plastic wrapped but of course that wrapping has long since gone to the recyclers. You can find my pretty plastic free resources here .

We we did it  in our van travelling round the UK

Review

So was it hard doing it in a van? In the countryside? Actually no! Travelling meant we had a lot more shops to go at. And there are still loads of local shops out there.

I thought it would be a milk free month but for the first 3 weeks we found loads of milk in glass bottles! The last week was dry but we had sourced some milk powder by then.

We found plastic free pasta (rare)  and rice  but noodles were out.

We avoided supermarkets and shopped locally which meant our diet tended towards traditional english. Mostly meat and 2 veg, soups, omlettes, bread and potatoes but it was good wholesome and seasonal.

For cooking and spreading We used olive oil bought in our own reusable glass bottles and paper wrapped butter.

No glass jars (with metal/ plastic lined lids meant no condiments, preserves or honey. Instead we made some van jam from PYO fruit and salad dressing was oil, lemon juice and garlic. Easy peasy and tasty too.

We even got some plastic free wine and  hand rolling tobacco! Even so plastic free tends to be mostly vice free!

Plastic reused

On the plus side I have harvested 4 lighters from the beach shore still with fluid so I am using them up before discarding, a hair bungee #2old4bunches #dontcare! and strip of velcro from a sandal I think which now secures the table in the back of the van

Week 4

we spent it coming up from heart of Wales and back into the real world. No more cheese making farmers, no local shops selling milk in glass bottles and no more PYO farms!

On the plus side loose powdered milk from Barmouth meant not having to drink black tea everyday.

Week 3

So far there has been no tins, no jars and no plastic packaging. In fact you can see all the plastic waste we have created to date here.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday No plastic

All made so much easier by being in Aberystwyth. Cheese. fish and chips, fags yes hand rolling tobacco – all plastic free! I tell you about the tobacco just so you know. My addiction is coffee and for a while there I was having trouble finding loose coffee beans! Thankfully I found the Mecca Coffee merchants on our last day. Big plastic fail averted! Or may be I would have turned to tobacco. No milk for a couple of days but I can handle it!

Friday 17th  Plastic Fail

VB finished his hay fever tabsOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA. I suppose he can’t help it…

Thursday 17th No Plastic

Bumped into yet another milkman …. honestly hardly suffering at all

Wednesday 16th No plastic

No milk today but loads of fresh fruit from a PYO strawberry farm. Yum.

Tuesday 15th No plastic

Got another unpackaged lettuce loads of fresh veg in the shops and some great chorizo sausages in the butchers. All bought loose, with our own packaging, and so, plastic free. And the campsite where we were staying – his son-in-law is a milkman so we got more milk in glass bottles.

I have used no plastic packed personal care and hygiene products. This is rather disingenuous as I made up big batches of moisturizer, lip balm, sun tan lotion and toothpaste before we left for our trip. The ingredients came plastic wrapped but of course that wrapping has long since gone to the recyclers. You can find my pretty plastic free resources here

Week Two

Summary

It has been a lot more traditional English cooking meat and two veg easy enough to buy loose and local though remember to take your own bags. 
Really not missing pasta and noodles (yet!) but very glad to have got hold of some brown rice. It adds a bit of variety to the carbs!
There was another sneaky plastic to add to the list – the plastic IN toothpaste – yuck!

I have used no plastic packed personal care and hygiene products. This is rather disingenuous as I made up big batches of moisturizer, lip balm, sun tan lotion and toothpaste before we left for our trip. The ingredients came plastic wrapped but of course that wrapping has long since gone to the recyclers. You can find my pretty plastic free resources here

14th Monday No plastic

Back on the milk as the campsite owner is the father of the milkman. Finished our plastic free drinking chocolate.

13th Sunday No plastic

No food either! Back off the milk as we have moved off the farm. Couldnt be bothered searching out a supermarket so ate what we had in the van. Omlette and a very simple stew of veg and lentils – twice. But who cares! We got wine!!!!!

12th Saturday No plastic

Got some loose unpacked smoked salmon  from a Polish Deli yum!

Friday 11th PLASTIC FAIL

VB used a disposable taster glass but we did get PLASTIC FREE WINE which is a huge success. Picked up a whole load of loose foods including sultanas, lentils and brown rice from the bulk bins at Wholefood Market.

Thursday 10th No plastic

Another great fruit picking day – raspberries and strawberries. Pork pie from the butcher for lunch  and the last of the lettuce.

Wednesday 9th PLASTIC FAIL OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bought some mustard seeds today sold loose, weighed out into a paper bag. Get home to find 2 sneaky bits of Sellotape were added while I  was looking in the fridge.

More cream cheese lovliness for lunch and bangers and mash for tea.

Tuesday 8th – No plastic

Farmer made cream cheese and bread for breakfast, purple soup for lunch (red cabbage in a soup looks most peculiar) and fantastic stir fry for tea with Lidles rice, loose ginger, garlic and chilies.

Week One 

7 days done and I have used no tins, no glass jars with metal lids and no other kind of plastic packed food. No plastic beauty products. In fact no plastic at all apart from the plastic coated foil from the wine bottle.

We have eaten well but meals have tended to traditional English with a focus on potatos, meat, fresh veg and quite a lot of bread. All of which we have managed to buy locally. All bought loose, with our own packaging,. We have only visited Lidles to buy some rice. We thought we would be living diary free but after one milk free day there has been an embarrassment of milk. We have even had soft cheese which I rarely got in Huddersfield.
>I thought it would be hard being in the van travelling round places we didn’t know and being away from the town. Instead being out in the countryside has meant lots of Pick Your Own farms and even people selling produce outside their front doors. What’s that all about then? We have had strawberries cherries a lettuce, potatos free range eggs and even a couple of naked cucumbers.

I have used no plastic packed personal care and hygiene products. This is rather disingenuous as I made up big batches of moisturizer, lip balm, sun tan lotion and toothpaste before we left for our trip. The ingredients came plastic wrapped but of course that wrapping has long since gone to the recyclers. You can find my pretty plastic free resources here

Day by Day

Day 7 Plastic free

More of the same.

Day 6 OMG!!!! PLASTIC FREE with knobs on!!!! OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Can’t begin to tell you how exciting today has been. Remember I was saying how if you want to be really plastic free you would have to grow your own and rear sheep. Well I am practically doing that. OK I am picking my own fruit and veg. You know where you go to the farm and pick the fruit yourself? Well this one also did vegetable – dig up your own beetroots, pick your own lettuce and gather your own cherries to name a few. And we are  staying on a farm where they have goats, We can buy fresh squeezed milk and home-made soft cheese! SOFT CHEESE and a lettuce. It don’t get much better than that.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 5 PLASTIC FAIL 

Fruity muesli for breakfast. Loads of home-made cakes at the village fete for lunch ( feel a bit sick). Quiche from the bakers for tea with new potatoes and green beans from the market. Expensive wine with a cork and foil – STILL contains plastic. GRRRRRR! feel even more sick!

Day 4 Plastic free

Leominster has a market butchers and bakers managed to gets lots of plastic free food and some loose tea. No teabags for us as the bags contain plastic. Yes the bags!

Milky porridge for breakfast, missed lunch, salmon new potatos and veg for tea.

Day 3 Plastic free

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The local shop in Eardisland sells milk in glass bottles and some unpacked veg but nothing else.

Decided to walk to Pembridge to get some more food. No shops other than the one general store which sold tourist food. You know the kind local honey, mustard made by monks, organic raspberry cordial and so on. All extremely expensive and all plastic packed. Managed to get an unwrapped loaf of bread.

Food today
Veg omelette, cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoess with all manner of steamed veg and left over cheese sauce from last night.

Day 2 Plastic free

Oh! We got some plastic free milk …rather too much infact!

Beguildy – tiny stop on the road – one pub, one shop come post office  that sold milk in glass bottle. VB so excited he bought 2 pints which we will not be able to keep fresh in the van. Hot milk at bed time.

Veg omelette for breakfast Veg soup for lunch Cauliflower cheese for tea. White sauce made with the special oil  cheese bought loose in Bridgnorth and milk

Day 1 Plastic free

Wondering if we can live without milk….

Watery Porridge for breakfast

Cheese sandwiches  bread from the baker, butter in paper, loose cheese from shop ,Bangers and mash – bangers from the butcher in our own compostable packaging, loose spuds and veg

 

post

If we have to have supermarkets …… Whole foods – a case study

by Posted in 3.2.3 Supermarkets & Chains, 3.7 Other Solutions 9 Comments

On our way back up the country, we decided to revisit Whole Foods Market, Cheltenham. This American company have recently opened some flagship stores in the UK of which Cheltenham is one. It is funky, good looking and challenging.We stumbled across this supermarket a few weeks ago quite by chance but didn’t have time for a proper look round.  I wanted to know more and this time I emailed ahead asking if it would be OK for me to take photos. Not only did they say yes, but Renata Rees, Marketing Team Leader, offered to meet me. An offer I eagerly accepted.

Loose Unpacked Food Wholefood featured

Do I sound excited? By a supermarket? Well yes I am. And the reason? This supermarket sells food loose and unpacked. I don’t just mean meat or vegetables (though that too) but nuts, spices and other dried commodities. The kind of stuff that usually comes swathed in plastic! They do a good range of rice, dried beans and pulses and more unusual stuff like blue popcorn, dried cherries and unroasted peanuts. You measure out what you need into the paper bags provided, weigh it, label it and job is done. Better still you can use your own reusable cotton bags,container or glass bottle (they do oil refills too! and even peanut butter!)

They call this the cook section because, as Renata explained, they want for people to be able to try out new stuff without making a huge cash commitment or ending up with a pile of food they just don’t like.You can purchase just enough for one meal and see if it works out. No more half full packets of cous cous sitting unused at the back of the cupboard.

It also means you can buy fresh, when you need it, for meals you don’t do that often. It can’t be just me that has an array of dusty spices gently going off in the deepest recesses of the rack. Spices I use – but only occasionally.

Being able to buy in small amounts and only what you need is great for people like us with limited space. It allows us to have a wider selection of food stuffs in our very tiny cupboards. We can have variety while still being able to move. We can also buy luxury ingredients like red rice in amounts we can afford, great for our reduced van life budget.

But surely it costs more to buy this way? After all they are a supermarket not a charity. As any plastic free person knows, the financial choices of being plastic free are at times bewildering and unfair. Why is it cheaper to buy 3 plastic packed peppers than one loose unpacked pepper? It is as though the supermarkets are forcing us to buy pre packaged, portion-controlled, more-than-we-want produce! What a ridiculous thought!

But not here, Renata pointed out that here buying loose costs the same as buying pre-packed – even if you buy a just a few grams. Great news for the small amount purchaser – another unfairly abused and penalised customer. Also good for helping fight food waste. Because it is so much cheaper to buy the big packet, shoppers are often persuaded into buying more than they really want or need.

Well then surely it costs more generally. No, the prices for loose produce are extremely competitive.

And if you don’t know your bulgar from your cous cous, the store has healthy eating info and cooking demos aimed at stripping the mystery from these strange grains and seeds.

Would like to see….

My only quibble was that though the range was eclectic, it suffered from some strange omissions. I would have loved to have seen some wholemeal pasta up there. What am I talking about I would have loved to have seen any sort of pasta up there.

Other loose foods include lettuce featured

A lot of unwrapped veg including naked cucumbers and lettuces.
Meat butchered in store by proper butchers
Cheese – real cheese
Eggs – yes eggs – you can buy them loose
A bakery to die at least go up a dress size for. And everything is baked in store by proper bakers not brought in and finished in store.

Loose olives
Tea and coffee – I can recommend the Breakfast Tea.
Bath salts

And they serve cooked food in the cafe and for take out that is also made in store by chefs

They also offer a wine refill service. You buy a glass litre bottles from them that you then refill, yourself from the large and lovely barrel of wine. At least that was how it used to be but the wine kept going off. Now a member of staff fills your bottle from a huge 15 litre wine box. Not quite plastic free abut still a refill is a refill and the plastic wasn’t in my bin. And there is still some green kudos to be gained it – was organic and cost considerably less to transport it this way.

Would like to see….

I do think that a couple of opportunities have been missed. An Ecover (or similar) refill stand for cleaning products would be nice. But what I would really love to see is a refill milk machine! One of these. They say no customer has ever asked for one! If you are in the area….

Packaging

They provide paper bags for the dry products and the cutlery used in the deli is compostable. However the packaging for the meat and fish is plastic so you will have to take your own compostable and reusable bags.

Would like to see….

How fantastic if they were to offer compostable packaging for meat and fish.

And wouldn’t it be great if they were to sell reusable cotton bags in the loose food section.

For the rest of the store there was an awful lot of stuff packed in disposable plastic ….but lets not be too picky.

Waste disposal

Talking of rubbish, there comes a time in every plastic boycotter life when they look beyond their own bin and start to worry about packaging in the supply chain. This store is trying to manage all its trash in a sustainable way. Only 20 to 30 percent of their waste goes to landfill the rest is recycled and to a lesser extent but when ever possible reused. For example the cardboard boxes the eggs come in are returned to be refilled!

They run waste days to raise awareness days in store for the benefit of both the staff and customers.

Because they have in store chefs, produce that is getting near its sell by date can be used in the kitchens. Surplus food is given to charity. 6 mornings a week Trinity church use it to help feed the vulnerable.

They will also give you the coffee grounds from the cafe to use as compost.

Policies  cow featured

Now of course your average plastic-refusing hipster, in a store with whole foods in the title, tends to care about a whole range of issues so you will be pleased to know that there are shop policies on everything including

To name a few. Check out the website for the full list.

BPA

Again, from a plastic perspective, they acknowledge the potential risk of BPA (considered by many to be a hormone disruptor) found in certain types of plastic. They are developing a fairly stringent response which is well documented on their website to quote To date, we have done more than any other U.S. retailer to inform our customers and take action on the issue. We continue to closely examine the packaging materials used in our stores, and we will continue to search for the safest and most functional packaging materials for our stores. You can find out more from their website.

Local Produce

They are also committed to local producers and recently had a food festival featuring 30 different farmers. They not only label their produce by country of origin but whether it was actually grown locally. Nice touch.

Conclusion

I could write a lot more on this subject and I really am not doing justice to Renatas wonderfully informative tour but I don’t want to go too far off subject or make you think I am in receipt of payment. But I am genuinely impressed with this store and their attempts to tackle some of the issues surrounding food production, packaging and marketing. Because whatever you think of supermarkets, they have a hugely important role to play in our society so it is important that they play it well.

Locations

They have stores in London, Cheltenham and Glasgow

I have visited and reviewed these stores 

Would like to see…. one in Huddersfield.

Other supermarkets take some of these ideas on board.

 

post

Large Scale Composting Case Studies

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its a great and  sustainable way to deal with our waste.

As I’m sure you know biodegradable waste does not do well in the unnatural conditions of landfill. It bubbles away producing methane which adds to the greenhouse effect. Composting biodegradable waste on the other hand produces a nutrient rich material that can be used to grow more food.

How It Works

All natural (as oppose to synthetic) materials do eventually biodegrade or rot. Composting speeds up that process

Useful composting information

Biodegradable –Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism, such as fungi or bacteria over a period of time. More about biodegrading HERE
Compostable – To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain amount of time, the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Home Or Industrial Composting?
Industrial composting are large scale schemes.
Home composting is a bin in your back yard.
The difference is is that industrial composting is a lot hotter and can work more quickly.
Therefore, while a product might be classed as both biodegradable and compostable, it might not break down in a backyard compost bin.

Case Study – A Cafe
Cute Boscastle National Trust Cafe uses compostable disposables and “. we collect the cups, cup holders, plates and the untreated wooden cutlery that we use, and they are taken to a local farmer who shreds them. He then mixes them with his green waste and composts them into a peat free mulch substitute. This mulch is hen taken to the National Trust plant nurseries at Lanhydrock House near Bodmin, who grow, amongst all the other plant, the plants that are sold in the National Trust shop that adjoins the cafe in Boscastle. By doing it this way, we not only successfully recycle the disposables from the national Trust Cafe in Boscastle, but we contribute to saving the limited resources of peat bogs.”
Read more HERE

Community Composting

Community composting is where local community groups share the use and management of a common composting facility.
Key points
Community composting is where residents jointly share and manage a central composting facility.
Community composting allows people to compost food and garden waste who may otherwise struggle to do so.
Community composting has an added benefit of bringing the community together.
Guidance is available for overcoming practical difficulties which may arise.
Grant funding may be available to cover costs.
SourceWRAP

More help can be found at the UK community compost Organisation HERE

Municipal

The UK composting industry has experienced a period of strong growth, according to figures released today. The amount of waste composted in 2007/8 rose by nine per cent from the previous year and further growth is predicted in the annual WRAP and AFOR survey.
As demand for composted products continued to increase, the industry turned over   more than £165m in the year to April 2008. In total, 4.5 million tonnes of separately collected waste was composted in the UK in 2007/2008.
Read more here.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to increase composting of food scraps generated by the city’s eight million inhabitants. In a few years, separation of food waste from other refuse could be required of residents, the mayor said.
The administration says it will soon be looking to pay a local composting plant to process 100,000 tons of food scraps a year, or about 10 percent of the city’s residential food waste.Read more here.

How Councils Compost

How to compost on a large scale – read more HERE

Keeping Your Waste Sweet
Bokashi Bins are not strictly composting but pickling. This allows you to store compostable food waste for long periods of time. Read more HERE

The New Litter

Companies using compostable plastic.

Snact

Our new innovative packaging, developed by Israeli start-up TIPA, is just as durable and impermeable as ordinary plastic – but it biologically decomposes within just 180 days and becomes a fertiliser for soil, behaving similarly to an orange peel. Read more here.

Vegware
A while ago I got sent some Vegware stuff to review. Vegware make disposable, compostable packaging for the fast-food industry. Hooray for them …. but I am not in fast food. So what would I be using them for? For starters…

Eco For Life 
If you must drink bottled water this might interest you; water packaged in PLA compostable plastic bottles

More

Check out all our composting posts HERE
Want to know more about plastic? Read up here
See our big list of plastic types here

Why This Post Is ….

A little bit rubbish. You are reading a work in progress. Here’s why…

More Stuff

The case against incinerating rubbish and a proposed zerowaste alternative involving composting on an industrial scale – damn good stuff. Copied from  eplanning.derby.gov.uk

STATEMENT FROM DR PAUL CONNETT:
Nanoparticles from incinerators or gasifiers or gasifying incinerators use household waste as a fuel which due to its make up has the potential to contain every toxic element used in commerce – which means that it has the potential to emit nanoparticles containing those toxic elements. Diesel fuel contains far less of an array of toxic elements therefore comparisions of nanoparticle emissions from traffic with high temperature incineration or gasification is like comparing chalk and cheese.
Incineration and gasification does not destroy toxic elements- toxic elements in – toxic elements out. Gasification companies make inflated claims about what they are going to do with their products, but the char, or glassified melt, and the fly ash by-products, all contain toxic materials which are permanent in the case of metals and highly persistent in the case of dioxins and furans.
About 4 X more energy is saved reusing, recycling and composting the waste stream than burning them to create electricity so this proposal should not be considered a sustainable waste treatment process.
These proposals will directly impact on recycling and remove the drive to zero waste.
The key to sustainability (see my essay Zero Waste a key Stepping Stone to Sustainability) is Zero Waste. Everybody makes waste and as long as we do we are part of a non-sustainable way of living on this planet. But given good leadership everyone could be involved with the critical first step towards sustai
nability: source separation.

With source separation we can get out the organics clean enough to get them back to the soil, and recyclables which can be returned to industry – cutting out the huge energy demands of extraction and transport of raw materials, often half way around the planet. With the reuse of whole objects, we can create many jobs and small businesses, stimulate vital community development, and save even more energy by avoiding manufacture as well as extraction. But the single most important thing we can do is composting: composting sequesters carbon, if this material is burned it the Carbon is immediately converted into carbon
dioxide (global warming). Also by removing organics at source it makes it very much easier for cities to deal with the remainder of the materials – glass, metals, paper, cardboard, plastics, ceramic etc.
Burning ( or destroying) materials to recover energy is always second best. the number one priority is to recover materials and thereby conserve the embedded energy discussed above.
24 years ago promoters of incinerators tried to corral this issue between landfills and incinerators. you either burned it or you buried it. They scoffed at those like myself who argued that comparable reductions to incineration could be achieved by a combination of recycling and composting. But we have won that battle there are many small and large towns who are getting over 70% reduction with composting and recycling – incinerator only gets 75% reduction – you are still left with 25% as ash. You don’t get rid of landfills with incineration or gasifying incinerators. Note right mow San Francisco is getting 73% reduction without incineration, at a fraction of the cost of an incinerator and with many more jobs created.
Many of the proposals for gasification plants are coming from companies which have never operated such plants. There is a world of difference from small scale pilot plants and a fully-fledged commercial operation. here are very few
of these operations burning municipal solid waste. no one should entertain for a moment such a company coming to town unless they can establish some kind of solid track record – somewhere! A track record which can demonstrate what there emissions are and what they are doing with the byproducts. At the very least they should be required to a give a very careful written and documented response to Dr. Vyvyan Howard’s paper on nanoparticles, health and incineration. Right now they can promise anything because there are NO regulations for nanoparticles from incinerators or gasifying incinerators.
Highly exaggerated claims are being made with NO DATA to support them. When these
companies promise the earth it is probably because
they never expect these plants to run for more than a few years. The name of the game as far as I can see it is that they set themselves up as a “green & sustainable” entity promising to produce “green energy” and “fight global warming” a) to seduce local decision makers and b) to suck up any soft European money for green alternatives as well as PFI – once this is in the bank watch out for
them selling out the contract to some other company and/or go belly up with the principals walking away with a lot of the cash in their pockets.
Of course, they will argue that they agree with us that recycling and composting are important, but all they want are the residuals. But the residuals are the evidence of bad industrial design – so rather than destroy them we have to say if we can’t reuse, recycle or compost anything you shouldn’t be making it. This is how we can go from the current 70-80% diversion rates up to about 95% diversion over the next 10 years or so. this is the future.
Incineration simply burns the evidence that we are doing something wrong – and will delay by 25 years the crucial move towards sustainability. The Zero waste approach makes more sense on every front: economically, environmentally, and globally.
Paul Connett
pconnett@gmail.com
315-379-9200
Dec 9, 2009

Paul_Connett

About Dr Paul Connett

Dr Connett is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College. From 1983 he taught chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he specialised in Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology before retiring in May 2006. Over the past 24 years his research on waste management has taken him to 49 states in the US and 52 other countries, where he has given over 2000 pro bono public presentations. Ralph Nader said of Paul Connett, “He is the only person I know who can make waste interesting.”

A recent essay on “Zero Waste for Sustainability” which was published as a chapter in a book in Italy in 2009 (Rifiuto: Riduco e Riciclo per vivere meglio, Monanari, S. (ed)), along with several videotapes Paul has made on Zero Waste, can be accessed at www.AmericanHealthStudies.org This site is hosted by the group AESHP (American Environmental Health Studies Project) which Paul directs.

post

Plastic free July Bloggers U.K.

by Posted in 3.6 Plastic Refusenik & Zero wasters Tagged , 4 Comments

Each year a good number of British bloggers sign up for Plastic Free July.

“What” you cry “Live plastic free? for all of July?”

Not quite! It’s all about cutting one use plastic – bottles, bags that kind of thing. However definitions of one use plastic can vary.
The aim is to cut your consumption of one use plastic, for one month; how much you choose to cut is up to  you – read my take.

A bit of history

Plastic Free July started in 2011 in Australia  in 2013 it went global. They have a great website and are all round good eggs.

Read more about the project  and this years plastic free July, here

U.K. Bloggers

It’s really important to link up with U.K. based plastivists who will be sharing throughout the month. While some solutions like solid shampoo from Lush can be accessed UK wide, many are local.

2017 U.K. Participants 

First off we have Lisa at www.less-stuff.co.uk

and Sarah at www.facebook.com/rhubarbandrunnerbeans

Pip- squeaking @Pip_Squeaking of   arefugefordaffodils.wordpress.com in her second year now. <

From Bristol it’s the Cheeky Girls of Green:
Author and TV presenter @nataliefee. Read about here in thePlastic Free U.K. Directory:
And Michelle film maker, writer of the great blog Plastic A Lot Less and tweeter @beingpall.
They are the brains behind numerous campaigns, the latest being

 

Previous Years

2016

the lovely Pip- squeaking @Pip_Squeaking of   arefugefordaffodils.wordpress.com in her second year now. 

Vicky@busygreenmum I blog about homegrown and foraged food and drink, reducing waste and buying less to reduce our carbon footprint and maybe save a little money on the way. allotmentrecipes.wordpress.com

Helen McGonigal@SpotofEarth Blogger & freelance writer, literacy workshop consultant, author of Mummy Makes Milk, mum of three, wife. spotofearth.com

New Plastic-free U.K. Directory member Jerry Bottles. Read about them here. Tweet them @jerrybottles

Libby Darling – “I run a beaching cleaning group and local eco/education Charity here in Rottingdean, just outside of Brighton, I have recently led a plastic free challenge in May & June to my local schools etc and it’s on going!
It’s not easy but it’s worth every moment!”

Fiona Hancox – no details as yet but on board!

2015

Author and TV presenter @nataliefee has joined the #pfjuk campaign and is spreading the word in Bristol and beyond! She is also the latest plastivist to join thePlastic Free U.K. Directory.
Ethical Superstore  are also promoting the campaign

Bristol and its Michelle author of the great blog Plastic A Lot Less and @beingpall

 

 

2014

These British bloggers signed up for the challenge. Their blogs are fantastically useful and specially good for local info and resources:

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

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Croyden – plastic free Kake

by Posted in 3.6 Plastic Refusenik & Zero wasters, 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged

I’m taking the Plastic-Free July challenge of cutting out single-use plastics during July 2014. As part of this, I’ll be building up lists of plastic-free shopping options in my local area — Croydon, South
London.
I’ll also be blogging about how I get on with the challenge.
Cutting down my own plastic use, and helping and encouraging other
people in Croydon to do the same.
Links

Links

 http://croydon.randomness.org.uk/plastic-free-july/

https://twitter.com/croydn

kake@earth.li

More

This post was written by the contributor and is  a PfU.K. Directory submission.

The Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their work not mine. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Follow us on facebook here