A new water refill scheme based in Bath. The following has been taken from their website…
Two local women want to bring drinking water to the streets of Bath. Love Tap Water not for profit organisation that wants to make Bath the “first city in the UK to offer its residents and visitors a fully sustainable way to drink water on the go”
It’s water fountains funded by the sale of stainless steel water bottles as designed by Sir James Dyson for the Love Tap Water campaign;
It doesn’t matter how well you write, sometimes, just sometimes, you need a bloody good graphic to get the case across…..
and there is some fantastic work out there on the internet.
Here are just some of the great campaigns we have featured. To see more visit our fantastic anti-plastic infographic gallery
Decided to give up plastic? Need some nice anti-plastic posters and imagery to illustrate your new lifestyle choice? Course you do so check out this For more infographics…. Pinterestand lots of fantastic artwork by extremely talented people.
..you have nothing to loose but your chainstores hahahahahahhhahhaaa
Check out this fantastic bit of art work. Sadly I don’t know who did it but we can thank Danielle for passing it on. Do check out her fantastic good works over at her blog it starts with me
Do you know people still drinking bottled water? Show them this… click the image to check out the organisation behind this image. You will be glad you did.
A book I do like is Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) published in 1889. In it, Jerome K Jerome recounts a boating trip taken down the Thames with his two daft chums. They are a bumbling but amiable crew and the journey is not without its problems. They have rain, a badly behaved awning, run ins with insolent steamers and Montmorency is shamed by a large cat. He so deserves it.
Occasionally Jerome waxes philosophical and muses on the dangers of over civilisation and consumerism, the joys of a simple life and the beauties of nature.
But now where does he mention huge frickin piles of plastic trash littering the way.
Sadly the same cannot be said for this latter-day man in a boat, Kyakman. He kyaked down the Thames recently and was appalled by the levels of plastic pollution he witnessed. Bags caught in trees, bottles floating by and polystyrene clam shells in the reeds to give you but a few examples.
If old Jerome could see his photomontage I think there would be tears.
You can see Kyakmans photo stream here – please look
If you want your anti plastic project, waste busting, dumpster diving project featured in the Plastic Free Who’s Who do this now – we would love to have you xx
Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish?
Find plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index
Jeremy Iron mmmm ….chocolatey voice over on this plastic bag mocumentary mmmmm…..oh, er, right , it’s a really good film about plastic bag pollution – check it out
You’ve Read the Blog now see the film
Was featured by film maker Megan Parkinson in her documentary. Try to get past the rather gruesome still where I look positively rodentlikePlastic Planet A Journey To Zerowastea nice introduction to some of the U.K. based plasticless and zero waste movements.
This is my section up on You Tube but best to watch it as part of the whole.
Here are some more films you might like….
A Plastic Ocean
Craig Leeson discovers a startling amount of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Released September 22, 2016
Bag It Jeb stops using plastic bags leading him to question the role of plastic in his life.
Addicted to Plastic – as the title suggests it looks at how dependant we are on plastic
From the Waste Up.
“Our documentary follows the lives of 19 people as they attempt to live without plastic.”
Trashed
More Jeremy Irons this time tracking world trash
Plasticized Made by 5 Gyres documenting the extent of plastic pollution in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Tapped
All about bottled water
The Clean Bin Project
Jen and Grants compete as to who can create the least waste,
Time To Make Changes
Ugh that was nasty! Inspired to change your habits? There are some great campaigns and campaigners here…
Surfers Against Sewage & Ecover Call For Volunteers To Help Clean Beaches & Dramatically Increase Marine Plastic Recycling
Ecover join our call for community volunteers to join the Big Spring Beach Clean this April (3rd – 9th April) to help clean up beaches nationwide and recycle over 50,000 plastic bottles as part of their Ocean Plastic Bottle Project.
The Big Spring Beach Clean has fast become the biggest and boldest beach clean project in the UK, with tens of thousands of volunteers participating around the UK coastline over the last 5 years.
Every September, the Marine Conservation Society (MSCUK) organises The Great British Beach Clean
“The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) urgently needs volunteers to take part in the UK’s biggest beach clean and litter survey which takes place in September.
The MCS surveys show a 75% increase in the amount of beach litter since the first Beachwatch in 1994, with plastic waste increasing by a massive 121%. In 2009 alone, over 12,000 cotton bud sticks were found on UK beaches, along with 16,000 drinks bottles, 20,000 lids and 17,000 items of fishing litter.
The MCS Beachwatch Big Weekend provides a simple and effective way in which everyone can help tackle the relentless wave of rubbish washing onto our beaches and at sea. “Volunteers never cease to be amazed at the amount of the litter they find on their beaches.”
U.K. based plastic free refuseniks. Very useful blogs, passionate people and great resources.
In the UK, living plastic free is a very ad hoc kind of process. While other countries may have bulk buy chain stores where you buy your basic staples loose, in the UK this is not the case. Instead we have to scurry around sourcing some plastic free rice from Khadims and tracking down a local bakers, some of us might be lucky enough to still have a market and maybe a washing up liquid refill site but it is by no means guaranteed. Generally speaking, recommendations for a plastic free lifestyle in the U.K. tend to be site specific. While I might have sourced olive oil refills in Todmorden that’s no use to folks in Lincoln. So the more people prepared to write about and share their experiences of living #plasticfree in their own town the better. The plastic free U.K. directory was created to promote this information. It’s easy to submit a piece. Write about your plastic free finds in a post and I will publish your entry in the directory, credited (of course), with whatever links you choose to share. If you blog, you can write an introduction to your website. Job done.
No posts found.
Others that I know Of
Allotment Recipes.
Have a look at this very good blog based in the Leighton buzzard area www.allotmentrecipes.wordpress.com
“The second school of thought is not just Zero-waste to landfill, but Zero waste at all.” Well said and this means of course going plastic-trash free. Follow her on her year with out plastic, with kids! Yikes!
More?
If you know of any that should be on the list please add the details in the comments section. Or submit an entry for the directory.
Showcasies U.K. based business, people and organisations that are plastic aware, in their own words…. Sadly I don’t have time to cover all the great people and businesses out there… and I always feel a little shy about write ups. Suppose I miss the point. So I ask people to contribute their own posts. The only provisos are that you have to be U.K. based and of course it has to have a rubbish element. Not necessarily anti-plastic but certainly plastic problem aware.
U.K. based enterprises that provide plastic free/reduced products and services. These people state plastic/packaging reduction as part of their business ethos. Find them here.
I’d lke to introduce campaign of the month – lets make this one fly…
Introduce charges on plastic & polystyrene containers for the takeaway industry
“I would like to place a charge on every plastic and polystyrene container used by the food industries and takeaway industries like the plastic bag charges brought in. Hopefully this will push people to use the eco-friendly products that are on the market but that are over looked due to the prices.”
Snacks… so good when trekking, so hard to source plastic free. The best we have is loose nuts as sold at Lidles, Until now!
Take a look at Snact. Fighting food waste and plastic pollution and making some fine tasty vegan goodness while they are at it.
They “make snacks from surplus produce. That’s produce that would otherwise be thrown away for being too big, too small, too ugly, or simply too abundant. Tonnes of perfectly good fruit and vegetables get rejected before reaching shop shelves in the UK. We turn that surplus into healthy snacks that contribute to one of your five a day.
Already like them but here’s the really good stuff. “fruit jerky will now be available in 100% home compostable packaging – the first of its kind in the UK!”
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.
Currently they do 3 flavours
Apple & Mango
A full and juicy flavour combining the natural sweetness of mango and tartness of apples.
Apple, Blueberry & Banana
A guaranteed crowd-pleaser with the deep flavour of blueberry and a subtle hint of banana sweetness.
Apple & Raspberry
Naturally sweet, tangy & punchy, just like you’d expect raspberries to be.
All are
100% fruit
Vegan & gluten free
No additives or preservatives
Less than 65kcal per bag
Made in the UK
In home compostable packaging. That means you can compost the wrapper at home!
Hand made on a family farm in Kent with whole fresh fruit sourced predominantly from British surplus produce, it is vegan, gluten free, low calorie, and counts towards your five a day. We don’t use any concentrates, additives, or preservatives, just 100% fruit.
Until they went BANANAS
Their new banana based bar will be out soon. Congratulations on raising the money to do this “Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world, but also one of the most wasted. We want to stop 1.4m bananas going to waste every day by turning them into awesome food waste-fighting delicious banana bars – or if we may: the best bars on and for the planet!”
More About The Packaging
Tipa have developed a a bio- plastic which I take to mean made with plants. It is compostable and meets composting standards. “Tipa’s products, compounds and films comply with EU 13432 and ASTM D6400 standards and are certified for both home and industrial composting through the OK Compost mark by the Vincotte institute. Tipa’s materials also meet food contact regulation requirements in Europe and the US.” And they say it can be composted at home.
Composting Plastic At Home
FYI While most agree that some plastics are indeed compostable, many say that they can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. I have used and composted a numberof compostable plastic products
Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics
What is biodegradable? Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem.More about biodegrading here
What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. Read more about compostable plastics here
This is on a need to know basis – you will need to know this when I talk plastic free puddings.
Some foil facts;
Aluminum or tin foil is not biodegradable. It takes 200 to 500 years to decompose. It does degrade into pieces in 20 to 50 years, but the components take much longer.
Aluminum is also used as a layer in many types of lightweight packaging — the aseptic boxes that soy milk and juice come in being one example. So if you’re not recycling those, start losing sleep over that too. Here’s just one motivational factoid: Americans are said to throw away enough aluminum in three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
Small pieces need to be scrunched up into a ball so they dont damage the machine… my mate Mrs Average ( her of the Rubbish Diet and how to cut your waste) can tell you all you need to know about balls of foil here for how to collect and then recycle it …
If you are a bit arty you can make a very lovely ball and photo it withPee Wee Herman
“We work with British farms to source a range of top quality ingredients and delicious foods. We’re particularly interested in searching out less well-known foods, like the fava bean – grown in Britain since the Iron Age but now almost forgotten – and black badger peas.
THE GREAT BRITISH BEANS PROJECT
We founded Hodmedod following the successful Great British Beans trial project to stimulate and assess demand for indigenous pulses.”
So far so fantastic but it gets better…
Plastic Free Packaging
“Many thanks for your enquiry.
Using recyclable packaging is something we feel very strongly about and we are avoiding plastic where we can. We are aiming for all plastic-free packaging.
So far all our 500g packs of dried pulses and grains are packed in compostable plant based cellophane.
At the moment we are still struggling to find a compostable sticker adhesive, but you can peel off the sticker and pop the rest in the compost.
most bulk bags are paper
our packaging puffs are compostable non-GM maize.
Unfortunately we are unable to offer this for our snack range which are packaged in impermeable packaging and resistant to break down from the oils within them and no biodegradable packaging we are aware of fulfils these stipulations.”
Heres the product range but do check the site as there may be more by now
Pulses & Beans
Yellow Peas split
Green Peas, Split
Fava Bean split and whole
Carlin / Yellow / Blue Peas,
Red Haricot Beans
Buy Local, Buy British
Check out other British based stores and products HERE
Other options for loose beans include
Wholefood Market a supermarket chain
Weigh & Save shops a UK franchise
And other loose food outlets as listed below
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 ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.
Packaging
While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags.
More Food
Check out the tasty food index to find lots of plastic-free GRUB yum yum!
