Single Use Plastic

I've gone over the subject of single use plastic in so many of my posts, and it's something you probably already know about. I'll just quickly go over it anyway though: single use plastic is quite self explanatory, it's any plastic that can really only be used once (plastic cutlery, plates, straws, bottles etc) and less than 10% of it is recycled. You may easily use single use plastic quite a lot without thinking about it, for example, buying a little salad for lunch which might come with a little plastic fork inside, or when you get ice cream in a pot that comes with a colourful spoon. 

However, after putting a charge on plastic bags in 2015, banning micro beads in products, and single use drink stirrers and plastic straws in 2018 and 2020 respectfully, the UK have put on a ban for single use plastic plates and cutlery. Even so, the ban might not become law until next year. This happened a bit later than the rest of Europe, who did it in July, so, although the ban was appreciated by campaigners, they believed the general progress was really slow, or 'snail-paced'. Along with this, the government is putting a charge of £200 per tonne on plastic that is made of less than 30% of recycled materials.

 

According to government statistics, the average person uses 18 single use plastic plates and 37 pieces of plastic cutlery every year consequently leading to the death of more than a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles around the world. 

To help you can:

• Say no to be given plastic things in a cafe or when buying a takeaway
• Avoid things with plastic cutlery (like the ice cream pots)
• Take your own food and cutlery (I have bamboo cutlery which I take to school)

Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it. See you next Sunday!

Violet

         xxx

I stayed at an Eco Lodge!🛏

This weekend, my family drove to the peaks to stay in an eco lodge, and we loved it! So, I thought I'd tell you about it and explain why it's environmentally friendly. 

The lodge was off grid, which meant it didn't use any power or water from public utilities. So, there were solar panels for power and the water from the taps was from a well outside. However, the water from the well wasn't drinking water, which meant we had to buy and use bottled water. That obviously isn't the best - especially since my family drinks a lot of water, meaning we had to buy quite a lot... There were recycling bins outside for tins and plastic etc, so we did recycle them. They also provided us with little bars of soap wrapped in paper for us to use in the bathroom. 

Instead of connecting to a sewer, it also had a reed bed filtration system for when you flush the toilet.  It uses aerobic organisms (oxygen) to break down pollutants and turn them into nitrates which give nutrients to the reeds.  You can go to this website to read more.

We went on a few walks too. One of the places we went to was Thor's Cave, and this was a lovely walk into a huge, amazing cave. However, we noticed and picked up a lot of litter, in the end carrying 6 plastic bottles (which we put in the recycling bin when we got back). We would have picked up more, but we didn't have a bag to put them in. But there were a lot of people there and one family, along with others I'm sure, also picked up some of the litter too. I just don't like how some people are selfish enough to leave their rubbish and not think about the people who will be there after them, and have their experience ruined by some plastic. 

Thank you for reading this blog! I hope you have a good week!

Violet

        xxx

 

Alternative Products for Brushing Your Teeth!🦷

You may think this is a bit of a weird, very specific thing to write about, but it is something that can be changed because it is a small part of what's happening in the environment. Annually, one billion plastic tubes are put into landfill because they are single use and cannot be recycled. I've already written about bamboo toothbrushes in my Bamboo Products blog, so you can read about that if you want (I wrote about how bamboo is a good material and what different bamboo products you can buy). I said it in that blog, but we've been using bamboo toothbrushes for ages and they're just like plastic ones when it comes to getting the job done. 

So not only are there bamboo toothbrushes, but there are also toothpaste tablets. I've never had them, but I'd like to try them out. They are just so you waste less plastic by not using a tube. But, like every product that's trying to be better for the environment, they are a bit more expensive. However, if the tablets aren't your thing, there are many other types. You can use this post from Moral Fibres to look for some because they have helpfully done all the looking and found some good ones. One I know, from family who use it, is called Happier and they have aluminium tubes which can be recycled in your metal recycling, and have many things which make them good for the environment, like being cruelty-free and vegan, like a lot of the eco friendly products. For things like mouthwash, you can also get mouthwash tablets. 

The reason why toothpaste tubes are such a nightmare when it comes to recycling is because of the different materials, especially plastics, in them. To keep them fresh, a lot also have a layer of aluminium. But now you're probably wondering, then why is the Happier toothpaste better, because the tube is made of aluminium? That's because it's just one material, instead of many. (I hope that makes sense😅).

Just make sure, when you're buying things like this try to buy them more locally.  For example, I live in England so I'd buy something that's made in England and not overseas in America, because that would increase product miles and make it not as good.  There's also some products which are environmentally friendly but come in plastic packaging, so it would also be better to avoid those, and go for the glass jars or aluminium tubes like I mentioned before. 

Anyway, I hope you liked reading this and I hope you have the opportunity to buy some of these if you can. See you next Sunday!

Violet

             xxx 

The Olympic Medals🏅

Of course, the Olympics are ending (although I haven't being watching them). There are lots and lots of medals needed every time (5000 bronze, silver and gold), and making them is both expensive and bad. Gold mining is really destructive to the world, since it endangers the health of ecosystems and people by polluting water and destroying environments. However in each gold medal, there has to be 92.5% of silver because it's cheaper and a bit better for the environment. 

So, Japan created a program for people to recycle there old, small electrical appliances (laptops, phones) and, if you didn't know this, they all contain gold, silver and bronze. And therefore have created their medals entirely with recycled materials. From 80 tonnes of appliances, 5.73 tonnes of metal was extracted. That's around: 0.03 tonnes of gold, 3.5 tonnes of silver and 2.2 tonnes of bronze. Considering you only need about 6 grams of gold in each gold medal, it's just the right amount. It's amazing they did this instead of mining for even more gold etc, when that's such a bad thing to do. 

The materials inside a phone are so bad that buying a new one uses as much energy as recharging and operating one for a decade. It's crazy. I still have my mum's old phone and I'm not thinking of buying a new one any time soon, but I would if there's any way to get a more eco friendly one (I have no idea if there is or not).

Anyway, thank you for reading this. I hope you found it interesting and see you next week!

Violet

         xxx

How to Keep Cool in a Green Way!

So I know currently it's quite cold anyway (it's raining right now and I'm wrapped in a blanket), and the heatwave at the end of July ended a few days ago, but surely it'll get hotter because it's summer? 😂 And even if it doesn't, you can come back to this post when it is warmer and you do need to keep cool. 

There are loads of ways to stay cool but some of them aren't really the best when it comes to the environment. For example: paddling pools. I went to my friend's house a few weeks ago when it was really hot and we went into her paddling pool for about 2 hours and I have to admit we kept the hose running because we kept splashing the water out, so I felt really guilty afterwards because of how much water was wasted. And the statistic: the average hose uses 170 litres of water every ten minutes makes it even worse.

So, some better ways to keep cool are: 

• Freeze a bottle of water over night. However, do not put glass or metal bottles in the freezer because they will almost always explode. So use a plastic (reusable) bottle instead - however even those can break if they're left too long
• This may be obvious, stay still for a while. At school, if it's a hot day or I'm in a lesson after PE and I'm feeling really hot, just sitting still in my chair in lesson really helps to cool off. I understand it's hard for some people to do this, and so it doesn't need to be completely still (like, I'm still moving my hands in class)
• Insulate your house well. I always think this is making sure the heat stays in, but it could also be making sure the coldness does too.
• This one is basically opposite of the one before, but open your windows. When you're in the car, air conditioning is really bad for the environment, my family rarely use it, no matter how refreshing it is. It is bad because it produces a byproduct of gas emissions while using a refrigerant and reduces the ozone layer.
• Just eat or drink cold food. Anything from an ice cream to a smoothie to a cold salad. (Or the obvious: water/any drink with ice in it). It does help. 

So, yeah. I have written this blog at the wrong time because it's quite cold outside. This means you could also read my Eco Friendly Ways to Keep Warm blog 😃. Anyway, I hope you have a good week, and see you next Sunday!

Violet

    xxx