Milk Alternatives! 🥛

 I feel like I could never not have cow's milk. If I tried, I might get used to it, but I just use it so much. The only time I don't have cow's milk is when I make tea, and then I have oat milk. I've researched all the different types of milk you can buy, and the most eco friendly. 

Cow's milk: Dairy creates three times more greenhouse gas emissions, and need nine times more land (9.8 square metres for a litre per year), than plant-based milks, a study in 2018 said. Using all this land, assuming some of it may be from deforestation, is obviously bad, because lots of animal habitats will be destroyed. Making cow's milk also wastes a lot of water: for one litre of milk, 628 litres of water is used. However, of course, this milk will give you the most protein out of all milks. 

Oat milk: Comparing it to dairy, oat milk uses 48 litres of water and 0.8 square metres of land for one litre of its milk. Oat crops are often grown with monoculture (which, as I mentioned in a blog before, is where only one crop is grown in a whole area) and doing this will make the soil less safe, I guess. It limits the variety of insects, and the risk of diseases will grow. 

Almond milk: Although this milk uses a lot less land (0.5 square metres) and creates less emissions, it uses way more water, almost as much as cow's milk. Almond milk is also very bad for bees, and a study said that 50 million bees died between 2018-2019, because of the pesticides (which is actually a substance used to kill insects, or increase plant growth) that are used on almond plants, which are harmful for bees. (I wrote a blog about bees here) 

Soy milk: This type of milk is one of the only plant milks that comes close to the protein content of dairy.  64% of soy is produced in the US and Brazil, and it has had an big impact on the Amazon rainforest and on deforestation.   Lots of fertilizers are used to enlarge the crops and to manage the farms. But the chemicals are a significant reason why the rivers and bodies of water are polluted.

Of course, there are loads of plant based milks, including rice or coconut, which have their own pros and cons, but I think the ones I mentioned might be the most known. Visit here to read about all the other types of milk. 

Thank you so much for reading! I hope to see you next Sunday!

Violet

         xxx

Food Wrap Alternatives!

We all probably use (or used) clingfilm and tin foil to wrap up food for lunch when we go out, or just to cover up a bowl of food maybe. Well, instead of using the plastic clingfilm, there are other things to use. For example: beeswax wraps.

Beeswax wraps are these things that come in different sizes and that you can use to wrap things with. It is made with cloth and beeswax - note the name - so that it sticks together when you press on it (and it doesn't leave a taste!), and they leave your food fresh. They usually come in loads of naturalistic, pretty patterns, if you care about what it looks like. Although not being the cheapest things, they will last for a long time if you care for them properly (maybe a year or two). Click on this link to find out how to make your own! 

Another example you can use are silicone lids. These are clear and stretchy, and something you can use to cover a bowl. They stretch over the top like a lid, and are very useful. Just so you know, silicone isn't bad for the environment, actually it is better than plastic because: first of all, it is more long lasting and second of all, it is less likely to give chemicals to your food. My mum bought some of these here and for the time we have been using them, they have been very useful. 

Nowadays, we rarely use clingfilm or tinfoil. Of course, we still have a roll or two less from the last time we bought them, and it is better to use them than to throw it away. Thank you so much for reading this weeks post! I hope you can buy these eco-friendly alternatives!

Violet

         xxx

What has Covid-19 Done? 😷

Because of the lock downs, I thought that greenhouse gas emissions would decrease, because people aren't going out as much, and aren't going on private or public transport. And yes, in the UK emissions did fall 17% in April last year from 2019, but overall they are continuing to rise. Carbon-dioxide (CO2) is a long-lived gas, and we will probably have to decrease emissions to zero before we make any difference. Over the previous decade, they have been rising by 1% every year. 

However, since people have been told to avoid public transport where they can, they have been walking and cycling more (I needed a new bike because my old one was too small, but they were all sold out!) and that obviously helps with exercise and greenhouse gasses. 

Did you know that 51% of us wear disposable face masks? These are not biodegradable and not recyclable, and so when they go into landfill, they can take at least twenty years to break down. Other than when they are in landfill, they also get burned, which produces toxic fumes. If you wear one, make sure you cut off the strings before you dispose of them, because then it is less likely animals will get caught in them. You should definitely wear reusable masks, just make sure you know when to change over to another one and wash the original.

Covid-19 is at the top of everyone's minds, but climate change has been happening for over 150 years, and we can't forget about it, because it is just as dangerous as Covid. Thank you so much for reading this weeks blog, I hope you had a nice week. See you next week!

Violet

         xxx

This is why...👈

I've realised that sometimes I've given you all the tips in my blogs, but not why you should do them. So, I'm going to go back and give you the reasons and facts.

1. Starting with: Eco-friendly ways to Keep Warm. 25% of heat is lost with gas central heating, as it moves through your house to different radiators, and this means more heat is needed, and consequently more fuel and pollution produced. Traditional heating methods use fossil fuels and obviously this has many negative impacts on the environment. 
2. Using Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products. Loads and loads of chemicals are washed into rivers and oceans from harmful cleaning products. This causes water pollution, and can get into the food chain (which could lead to humans). There's a big chance environmentally friendly cleaning companies will think about product miles, and will reduce that so they release less carbon emissions - however normal companies probably won't because they are only thinking about keeping costs down, resulting in more greenhouse gasses from travel. Lots of chemicals are Volatile Organic Compounds, and will affect outdoor pollution. Volatile Organic Compounds are released as gasses from some solids and liquids. They have a lot of short and long term health affects. 
   
3. Using your Re-usable things. I did give you quite a few facts there, like how 150 plastic bottles are found every mile on UK beaches, and the usage of plastic bags used each year per person has been reduced to 19, however I didn't really say the bad things. By pollution only, 100,000 sea mammals and over 1 million sea birds die every year. This is because plastic isn't thrown away properly, and ends up entangled round sea mammals' necks, or being eaten. You've probably heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Well, that has grown to three times the size of France (1.6 million square kilometres). That's huge, and you can't deny it. 
   
4. Don't Judge a Vegetable by its Shape. A third of all fruit and vegetables are thrown away every year for not being the usual shape even though the wonky ones taste the same as normal ones. This is 50 million alone in Europe. 
   

Thank you so much for reading. I may do another one of these, because there are probably more posts that haven't explained why. See you next Sunday!

Violet

         xxx

Staying at home!🏡

 I think a lot of us have self-isolated at least once already (and if you haven't, lucky you!) So what are we meant to do to stay eco-friendly at home? Well, here I have five tips and facts to get you started.

1. Get a milkman! (I actually wrote a whole blog about it here). Milkmen will deliver milk in glass bottles to your door and once you've finished with them, you wash them and give them back to be reused again. Did you know, recycling one glass bottle will save enough energy to use a laptop for 30 minutes. The milkmen also deliver things like juice, bread and eggs.
2. Cooking meals instead of buying them. If you usually buy, let's say, a ready-meal lasagne, then how about you make one instead. And if you want to go further; make a vegetarian one, with plant-based mince, or even just a nice tomato sauce. 
3. If you have space, make your own garden. You just have to search up when the right time to sow the seeds, so that your plants grow in season. Over lock down, I grew tomatoes and green beans. The beans didn't work that well, but I was able to get loads of tomatoes! 
4. Buy eco-friendly soap. Currently, we should be washing our hands a lot, which means we should be going through loads of soap. I would suggest buying bars of soap instead, because if you make sure they aren't individually wrapped, they will probably make a good difference to your plastic use.
5. Cleaning. When you're cleaning, you should think about how many cleaning products you buy, and whether they are any good for the environment. My mum uses cleaning products which refill the bottles you have used, so you aren't buying any more. In this blog I suggested quite a few different eco-friendly cleaning products you could use, including Ocean Saver and Smol. 

Remember to also get re-usable masks, because, in the UK, it is said that 102 million disposable masks are thrown away each week. Thank you so much for reading! I'll see you next week!

Violet

         xxx