Things That are Happening to Increase Recycling

I talk about recycling loads on this blog, but the fact is, there's always more to write about! Today, I'm writing about what different shops and communities are doing to help.

 

Sainsbury's has started a Flexible Packaging Recycling scheme in 520 of their shops. There are 1415 Sainsbury's stores as of March 2020 (807 are convenience and the rest supermarkets) so 520 isn't quite half yet, but it's still a lot of shops. The Flexible Packaging Recycling scheme was brought in to help customers recycle more of their plastic waste and it will do so by putting recycling points at the front of the shops. These recycling points will be used for crisp packets, salad bags, food pouches etc and this goes along side their own target of reducing plastics by 50% by 2025 in their stores. Other supermarkets like Aldi and Morrisons also offer soft plastic recycling bins in some of their stores.

Not only are the big supermarket chains doing things, there are also the small organisations you might find in your neighbourhood. We have a group of volunteers in our community who help recycle things that we can't recycle in our brown bins. Things they recycle are: bottle tops (but not jam jar tops or beer bottle tops etc); wet pet food pouches and any flexible pet packaging but not hard packaging; plastic ring carriers but not the actual cans; crisp packets but not crisp tubes (like Pringles) and empty blister packs from medicines (like paracetemol).   These are specific to their group and if you have one near you they might have different things they can recycle. 

The surprising thing is how many bottle tops you can't recycle because of the type of plastic they're made of, and my mum and I were wondering why there isn't much pressure for manufacturers to use plastic caps that can be recycled, in the least. This guide shows you what the numbers mean (which I never knew). 

Thank you for reading my blog today! See you next week!

Violet

         xxx

Unique, Easy Ways to Become More Eco Friendly!👏

Today, I'm going to give you some tips to be more eco friendly that you may not have heard of (so it won't just be me repeating everything I've already said in past blogs😅). To be honest, a lot of these things I haven't actually tried but now that I have researched them, I'm definitely going to be doing a lot more!

1. Personally, I don't think I've done this, but I'd be willing to try: trying loose leaf tea. There was a study to see what types of tea had plastic particles in the tea bag, and they found that Twinings, Tetley and Yorkshire tea all had non-biodegradable materials in their tea bags. Most of them were used to seal their bags, with an oil-based material. However, Clipper, PG tips and Pukka were all free of it. Loose leaf tea has less packaging altogether and can be thrown into the compost afterwards.
2. If you don't like cold showers, you could keep a bucket in your shower to catch the water while it's heating up and then use that water to water plants instead of using a hose (a 5/8 inch hose will use 17 gallons of water per minute) etc. I know putting a bucket in your shower sounds a bit weird, but it would be beneficial.
3. Buying biodegradble, sustainable sunglasses. (These are quite expensive depending where you get them from, so it's not a must-do). People have recommended PelaVision, who say: "Say hello to the world's first 100% biodegradable pair of sunglasses. At the end of their life, even the lenses will break down and not harm the earth!" But there are actually a whole load of shops who sell sustainable sunglasses, and you can click here to see a list of them. 
4. One that my family actually have tried, is: switching to a delivery service for recycled/tree-free toilet paper. The one we use is Serious Tissues because it comes with no plastic packaging whatsoever, and it is UK made so there are much less product miles. There is also products like Who Gives a Crap that we've looked at but haven't bought.
5. This is for people with dogs: use compostable poo bags! You could use the Green Poop Bag or Earth Rated ones too.

Well, thank you for reading this weeks blogs! I hope you are able to do some of these things too. See you next Sunday! (and Happy Father's Day!)

Violet

         xxx

World Oceans Day! 🌊

Okay, so I know I'm always writing blogs about things that happened the week before and not reminding people of something that will happen that they can celebrate, but a lot of the time these things happen annually so you can know when they will happen the next year! 

We need to support the oceans and make a difference because biodiversity is dying due to all the different problems, whether that be the destructive fishing techniques like bottom trawling - I explain what that is here - or because of plastic pollution or climate change, where more carbon dioxide changes the pH of the oceans which isn't good for sensitive life. 

So: World Oceans Day. This happens every year on the 8th June, and is organised by, well, World Ocean Day. Looking at their history, which you can see on a timeline, it shows that the United Nations recognised the 8th June as World Oceans Day in December 2008, in 2016 the Youth Advisory Council was launched, and this year One Ocean, One Climate, One Future - Together. In 2019 there were 2000+ events held in 140+ countries. 

On their website, you can find and create events, sign petitions and find resources for events. If you look for events, most of them are for the 8th June because that was World Ocean Day however there are some more happening later on. They have a Youth Advisory Council which is used to connect youth around the world, focusing on for better oceans (and of course a sustainable world too). There is also a webinar happening on July 28th, however for England time it would be at 11pm, but you could subscribe to the monthly newsletter, which will help you join the Global Youth Movement. 

You can sign the 30×30 petition (to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, and doing this we could protect life's supporting systems like biodiversity) here. I am going to!

Thank you for reading this week's blog! I hope you liked it.  And next year, I will definitely remind myself and everyone before the 8th June that it is World Oceans Day!

Violet

         xxx

Every Can Counts!

This is me next to the rainbow of cans!

Yesterday, Every Can Counts celebrated World Environment Day, and created a rainbow archway from over 2500 recycled drink cans! It can be seen in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, and my mum and I went and saw it today. 

Every Can Counts' job is "to help you recycle every drink can when you're on-the-go and away from home." (quoted from the website). They do this in 19 different countries across Europe, because if we collect every can we use and recycle them into new cans, then we waste no
materials. 

On the 'about us' bit of their website, they talk about how they want to make a difference and what they want us to do to help. Basically, it's quite hard to recycle things when you're out-and-about. So, they want us to help contact and inspire councils, festival and event organisers and drinks brands to improve and make recycling on-the-go easier, and it's here that'll make a real difference. 

Here are some facts that I found from their website. Did you know:

• Drink cans can recycle forever without losing quality (because of the metal)
• You can save enough energy to power a TV for three hours by recycling one can
• Every Can Counts' researchers show that nearly 1.5 million cans aren't recycled each year by people in Greater Manchester
• And if they were, it would save the same amount of greenhouse gasses as taking 3,900 cars off Manchester's road for a week.
• However, cans are the most recycled drinks container, and in Europe 75% of aluminium cans are recycled.
• Making cans from recycled aluminium takes 95% less energy than making it from raw material
• When you a recycle a can, it can be back on the shelf in 60 days! (as a new can made of recycled materials)

Thank you for reading! And see if you can take part in any of the things (like a little questionnaire about recycling) to help with Every Can Counts. See you next week!

Violet

         xxx