post

Compost Bins Which Is Best For You

lets talk waste.

Waste is used to describe:
materials not needed after primary production:
the unwanted byproduct of a process:
Products no longer needed:
Objects that are now defunct:

Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.

Waste is often considered worthless but this is usually not the case. It very much depends on the type of waste. And the waste disposal system favoured.

Read about disposing of plastic here.

post

Bubble wrap and jiffy bags

I do buy a lot of building stuff on line (for work you understand – it’s not a hobby), and though I do my best, much comes with protective packaging.

I am talking bubble wrap.

Ok, it is polythene and can be recycled but come on, who really believes we are going to recycle all this plastic or that it is ( as yet), cost effective to do so. If you do, try this from the Flotsam Diaries. Its good in a very bad way.

Long story short, I have a guilty bubble wrap secret and commit jiffy bag crimes on a large scale.

At least I used to. Now I give it all away to Cart in Huddersfield. This Christian African Relief Trust is run by local volunteers. It is based in Summer Street in Lockwood (opposite Magnet). Google Map to shop.

It relies entirely on voluntary contributions with no salaried staff. You take your pre loved stuff down there for them to sell and they sell it in the shop or often on E bay. Ergo – they   always need packaging and adore bubble wrap and jiffy bags.

It’s not a perfect solution but the best I can do.

The Problems With Packaging

What if you need to post your products out in a plastic bag?

On supported e-commerce sites the customer can select to use RePack as the online order’s delivery packaging, the user will then receive the goods in RePack’s recyclable packaging. This packaging can be returned to RePack by dropping it to a local letter box and then can be reused, on average upto 20 times.[3]

Once the packaging has been registered as returned, the user will receive a digital voucher that can be used towards future purchases from RePack-supporting online stores.
The return rate of RePack’s products has reached 95%.
RePack is supported by online stores such as Frenn, Globe Hope, Makia, Pure Waste, Varusteleka and MUD Jeans.
Wikkipedia

Website here.
@OriginalRePack

post

A Whole Universe of Creativity

British Wool – A case study. This lovely piece of work is utterly inspiring. And plastic free. And made using U.K. wool. lovely!.

I can’t remember exactly when I came across pictures of the beautiful blankets made from the pattern called Sophie’s Universe, but I fell in love with the design straight away and knew that I wanted to make a version of my own. The pattern was originally released on-line as a crochet-along (CAL), which is still available, but a book has been published now. It’s possible to buy packs that contain all the necessary yarn, but I had a hankering to make mine in 100% British wool (the packs use either cotton or a cotton/acrylic mix). Anyway, being of an independent nature, I wanted to choose my own colours and yarn producers.


I visited my local yarn shop so that I could feel the yarn and look at colours for real, rather than rely on the colour reproduction on a computer screen. I really wanted to use some local yarn, so I chose Cambrian Wool in its natural colour as the basis from which to work. I bought a cone of this direct (they are just down the road) and all the other wool came from the yarn shop, thus supporting two local businesses. Cambrian Wool is from Welsh Mule sheep (a cross between the local breed and Blue-faced Leicester), I used a couple of coloured versions too and all the rest was pure Blue faced Leicester (either from Wooly Knit or West Yorkshire Spinners).

 It took me about six weeks from start to finish (I crochet quickly), and I have a beautiful creation, 100% British Wool, that is completely plastic-free, and which should last a lifetime. I feel strongly that if I am going to put many, many hours into a piece of work, I owe it to myself and the planet to use good quality materials that won’t have negative impacts in the years during which it will be used and enjoyed.

© Jan Martin
The Snail of Happiness

Please note…

This post was written by the contributor.
Guest Post & Plastic Free Promotions
We love to feature guest posts. If you have something to say about #plasticfree living let us know. You can read more about submissions HERE
NB we reserve the right
not to post
to remove guest posts.

Got A Project?

If you have a project you want to see featured please do send us a post but read the guidelines first.
Read how to submit your project HERE

Other Guest Posts

See them all,HERE>

More Information

See all our handycrafty posts HERE

post

Disposable Cups

Disposable cups are made from plastic lined paper, polystyrene or plastic.

To make paper cups water proof they are laminated with polyethylene, a plastic resin.

Sustainability is Sexy claim that paper cups are made from virgin wood because there are major problems making paper coffee cups  from recycled paper. Regulations are strict about what materials you can use to package food and drink and  recycled paper isn’t strong enough.

We use a lot of disposable cups.

Here are some figures. As you can see, cup waste is huge!

Stats

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

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

And just recently the Guardian reported that “A conservative estimate puts the number of paper cups handed out by coffee shops in the UK at 3bn, more than 8m a day. Yet, supposedly, fewer than one in 400 is being recycled.”

According to the paper industry, Americans will consume an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups in 2010. Rob Martin, the Vice President of Merchandising and Production for Tully’s Coffee, estimated the 2006 use usage at 16 billion paper cups.[4]

Some Solutions

Polystyrene & Plastic

Why anyone would want to drink out of a polystyrene cup is beyond me. The drinks taste horrid which many be due to the nasty chemicals that go into polystyrene. Plastic cups too are awful. Flimsy and tacky.

Polystyrene is difficult to recycle. Difficult but not impossible …

For those of you who insist on using plastic cups there is  the  save a cup recycling system

Save a Cup was established by the vending, foodservice and plastics industries as a not for profit company. It was set up to collect and recycle used polystyrene (plastic) vending cups. Today the service has been extended and now includes cans, pods, plastic and paper cups.

Paper/plastic Cups

Because these cups are made from paper and plastic they are difficult to recycle. The parts have to separated. Though this can be done it is a complex  procedure which adds to the cost of the recycled product.

Leading many recyclers to say that they don’t recycle paper cups. Though some do. It’s a murkey scenario at best.

Compostable Cups

There are compostable products  on the market. they are made from clear certified-compostable, cornstarch plastic (PLA)  or paper cups lined with the same. Vegware for example do a full range.  But  there would need to be far more, large scale municipal composting schemes for this to be a properly effective answer for the above amounts of waste. You can check out a rather sweet cup to compost scheme here.

Take Your Own Cup

Of course none of the above address the issue of creating massive and unsustainable amounts of trash by using disposables. Don’t be part of the problem – take your own reusable cup and use that instead. You can find a great range of cups here.

 

The Range – a chain of home & garden shops

Loose pet food, home wares and some loose sweets.

Being committed to local shopping, I prefer to buy that way whenever possible. I would encourage you to do the same. One of the joys of living plastic free is mooching round the local shops seeing what you can source.
Sometimes though there is no option but to use

Supermarkets & Chainstores

And yes you can get some plastic free and zero waste stuff there but YOU WILL NEED TO TAKE YOUR OWN PACKAGING. Check out the plastic-free shopping kit here.

The Range

This is new to me. It replaces Homebase on Leeds Rd, Huddersfield HD1 6ND.

It is one of 120 U.K. stores.

It sells  paints, crockery, bedding, art supplies and some garden stuff.

AND……..

Pet food & Bird Seed

It gets my plastic free vote for it’s loose bird seed and pet food. You can see pictures here.
There is more animal feed in paper bags.
I don’t have pets so cannot speak from experience how good this is but well done for offering plastic free.

Other Stuff

Includes enamel cups – very pretty!

Get There

Directions to the Huddersfield Store
Phone:01484 534707

Hours:

Wednesday 9am–8pm
Thursday 9am–8pm
Friday 9am–8pm
Saturday 9am–8pm
Sunday 10:30am–4:30pm
Monday 9am–8pm
Tuesday 9am–8pm

Other Stores

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.

For the plastic free freak metal lids to glass jars are of course plastic lined .

Tin and cans including those for cosmetics are also plastic lined

For products that are packaged in plastic choose to buy simple plastics that can easily be recycled

Do remember not all stores stock all products. It might be wise to check ahead if you are making a special visit.

Don’t Like Supermarkets?

Other places to buy unpackaged food are listed here

post

Menstrual internal protection reusable

Products to deal with menstruation are plastic heavy  ( see some stats). They are made from plastic, come wrapped in plastic, block drains and dirty the sea shore. You really don’t want that kind of rubbish inside you, your bin or your environment. The way to cut your trash is to get a menstrual cup.

Menstrual Cup

This is  little cup that you use internally. It collects the flow and is then emptied washed and reused. Before you squeal and scream read this series of posts by one of the best environemental writers around.

Really, try them, they are easy peasy and the slight inconvenience is more than compensated for by the increased comfort factor. They are far more pleasant  then other internal protection.

Some of the many advantages include

  • Never run out of protection
  • No need to take your bag to the loo with you
  • Great for travelling in wild and rugged places
  • No need to put of dirty, plastic sanitary items in the bin next to the loo.
  • Much more comfortable
  • Saves you loads of money
  • Don’t see your pantyliner out on the beach

Choose

I like Moon cups  – made from silicone check out the site for more info. You can buy Mooncups in shops including

English: Fleurcup menstrual cup (large size); ...

Boot’s. If you want to get them on line try Ethical Superstore or Amazon 

Rubber

Natural rubber cups are available from Australia.They are  called, rather dungeons and dragon like, The Keeper. It’s the  same principle as the Mooncup  but made of  natural rubber rather than silicone. They will ship,  see their website

Other Options

For those of you who cant face the thought of fiddling around, there are lots of alternatives here

post

Cooperative Supermarket

Plastic free teabags

For those of you who didn’t know, most teabags contain plastic. not just the packaging but actually in the bag.
However the co-op have stepped up to the mark.

“The Co-op’s own-brand 99 tea will be developed without the use of polypropylene polymers, which are used to enable the teabag to hold its shape. The Co-op sells around 376 million teabags annually and has worked with tea suppliers Typhoo and sustainable fibre developers Ahlstrom-Munksjö to eliminate the use of plastic. It is believed the move could stop nine tonnes of plastic being sent to landfill annually.

Co-op Food’s chief executive Jo Whitfield said: “Many tea drinkers are blissfully unaware that the teabag from their daily cuppa is sealed using plastic. Even though it’s a relatively small amount, when you consider the six billion cups of tea that are brewed up every year in the UK, we are looking at around 150 tonnes of polypropylene – that’s an enormous amount of accumulated plastic waste that is either contaminating food waste compost collections or simply going to landfill.
“A cup of tea is part of our national psyche, so we felt it was imperative that we fix the problem as soon as possible. We’re absolutely committed to reducing plastic in our packaging and want to ensure that tea lovers can enjoy a guilt-free brew.”
The new method uses heat sealing bags which eliminate the need for the widely-used plastic seal. The bio-degradable bags will undergo rigorous testing throughout the next month, and Co-op is hoping to commercialise them later this year. The intent is for the product to be rolled out across the Co-op’s entire own-labelled tea range. The retailer confirmed that the teabags will be fully compostable in food waste collections.
Plastic pledges
The Co-op already has a target in place to make 100% of its product packaging recyclable, with an interim target of 80% by 2020. The target also accounts for reducing hard-to-recycle plastics and using more recycled content “wherever possible”.
Co-op, which was also the first retailer to source 100% Fairtrade cocoa, has previously voiced its support for the introduction of a nationwide bottle deposit return scheme (DRS) to help reduce plastic pollution.

Other Products

*Bread and Cake mixes – Paper – Really good selection in some larger stores

*Louises Data Base
The starred information was taken from 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.
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.

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