Enviro-Blah!

Environmental Observations

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Monday, February 19, 2007

Easter eggs are in the shops already; the supermarket I work in has a whole aisle devoted to them and I'm sure that extra packaging has been used just to annoy me.

This is quite a tricky issue, no-one wants to suggest that children shouldn't enjoy receiving their easter eggs, I for one used to get quite excitied about it, but this shouldn't be an excuse to ignore the fact that unacceptable levels of packaging are used for many chocolate eggs.

What can we do?

There are options for "greens" to minimise their impact at easter time and still give easter eggs to friends. One suggestion is to buy chocolate bunnies etc. that are just wrapped in foil, even this foil can be recycled and it creates far less waste then the egg covered in foil, inside a plastic mould, inside four layers of cardboard.

Some eggs, however, don't have as much packaging as many others. I've noticed that there are a number of cadbury's eggs that don't use too much packaging - just a simple box and foil. I've also noticed that many eggs that use a plastic mould don't now use foil as well, so it seems that manufacturers are paying some attention to this issue. In fact, I read that overpackaging of easter eggs is the largest cause for complaint about any product in most supermarkets.

Sainsbury's have made announcements the last three years in a row that the packaging on their own brand of eggs has been dramatically reduced each year, so it would be worth checking these out. However, I have noticed that the eggs that are presumably branded as "high class" continue to use a ridiculous amount of packaging with massive boxes that hardly fit on the shelf but less chocolate in them than a regular large bar of chocolate.

For chocoholics that like to be environmentally friendly the good news is that a huge bar of chocolate is better value for money, has more chocolate and has far less packaging than an easter egg - so no need to get involved with wasteful eggs to get a chocolate "fix".

Inevitably, people will buy easter eggs, particularly if they have children; one of the best things you can do if you are buying an egg is to make your opinion known to the store manager about the level of packaging used and request that they reduce this next year. If enough people voice their opinion in this way, large retailers will make changes.

Of course, having eaten the egg, please recycle the packaging. The plastic mould and the foil is recycleable for most local authorities and if you are in an area where cardboard is not collected for recycling take it back to the store you bought it in and ask them to put it in their baler. The contents of which are sent for recycling.

Remember, not only is all that packaging bad for the environment, but the shop is probably making more money selling you the box, plastic and foil than they are from selling the chocolate.

Maybe I'll set up a shop that sells useless peices of plastic and cardboard next easter, there seems to be plenty of people who want to buy them!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Previously I wrote about the supermarket effect on food miles, and how users of supermarkets might reduce their food miles and consequently reduce their carbon footprint. Fortunately, for those of us that break out in a rash at the very mention of a supermarket there are options. One of my favourites, although not neccessarily the best, is to go for wild food.

Wild food that can be obtained within walking distance of the house is an excellent way of reducing food miles to zero. If you don't live in the countryside then a short drive to a wild food area is no worse than driving to the supermarket and the food you obtain will not have been driven around, flown about or carried by ship. Not only are the food miles of wild food zero, or close to zero, they are not packaged - fantastic news for "green nerds" like me.

For those that turn up their noses at the idea of wild food let me tempt you with blackberries, chestnut stuffing, puffball fried in wild garlic, damson jam and even grilled fish with wood sorrel and mint salad.

The fact is that we use a tiny percentage of the planet's species as food when most of them are edible in some form or after some preparation.

Most people think of acorns as being poisonous, but with a little treatment they can be made into a tasty snack or even become part of the staple diet. Take a look at how to use acorns for a snack or to make acorn flour.

It may seem tricky to use wild food in order to reduce our detrimental effect upon the environment, but by using some imaginative recipes it is possible to make wild food a significant part of the diet and make a reduction in our food miles tally.

Recipes for Dandelions for salad, jelly and "coffee" could be useful.
For those that like salad the options are plentiful.
Cooking with weeds gives an idea of the number of options there are for using plants that we normally regard as a pest.

For those with a fishing rod virtually any fish can be eaten, not just the ones that they sell in the shops and if you have a gun woodpigeon is quite tasty! However, shooting and overfishing can be damaging to the environment too, so don't overdo it.

When I was young, my parents bought me a book with wild food recipes in. It was great!



There are loads of ideas in here and I've tried most of them. Some are good and once tried you won't want to go back to the supermarket, but some are pretty bad - chestnut soup is a complete waste of a delicious food. Birch sap wine, Rosehip syrup and Penny Bun stuffed with garlic sound good, but my favourite is nettle beer! A perfect drink for conservationists - cultivate a nettle patch in your garden (good for butterflies) and follow the recipe in this book (which is nicely illustrated with photos) and brew your own nettle beer in a couple of weeks.

You can even taste the sting!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The concept of food miles (or kilometres if you prefer) is one that is gradually growing in public awareness and some supermarkets (at least those in the UK) are attempting to cut down on the number of products that are supplied by plane. Of course, the country of origin has been displayed on virtually all products for many years and by selecting home produced products over those produced in far off countries we can do a little to cut down on our own food miles tally.

You are a bit stuck if you live in northern latitudes and want to buy locally produced bananas though.

However, buying food from supermarkets will never allow "eco-loonies" like me to significantly cut down on my food miles due to the supply system that is used in packaged foods. For many products a single supplier is used for all stores, no matter where they are. Just this morning I saw a program on TV where a supermarket chain was using a singler grower of lettuce to supply all their stores! So, even if you buy lettuce from your own country, the chances are that if you buy it in a supermarket it will have already travelled up and down the country a couple of times to be washed, packaged, taken to the depot and then to the store.

Why not just buy lettuce from the guy who grows it just down the road? Better still, if you have a garden, just grow your own.

Furthermore, supermarkets put great pressure on farmers by selling their produce at super cheap prices.

Super cheap - hoorah!

This means that to make a profit, farmers are forced to put more and more pesticides and fertilizers on their land, and to cultivate land that would normally be left for wildlife, in order to produce more and make enough money to live on.

More pesticide and fertilizer - hooroo!

So, buying your produce in a supermarket has the double ill effect on the environment of massive food miles and the degradation of farmland habitat. Still, for many people there is little choice other than to shop in the supermarket. My grandparents were bemoaning the fact that where they live all the small shops have gone. This is true, when I was a child there used to be fishmongers, greengrocers and butchers where they live and now: ASDA and Tesco - boo! If you live in an area like this and want to cut down on food miles then you'll have to shop carefully, but there are things you can do.

1. Spend time looking at the labels to see where products come from. Buy the ones that come from as near to your locale as possible.

2. Cut down on packaging; don't forget that packaging has to be transported around too and adds to food miles.

3. Ask to speak to the manager and request that he stocks local produce, particularly if you live in an agricultural region. If the manager makes boring excuses, just say that you'll have to buy the locally produced version that the competing supermarket down the road sells. Managers hate that. Don't say it to other staff though because they don't care.

4. Change your diet. Do you really need to eat strawberries in the middle of winter? These little devils will have most certainly been flown in from somewhere far away leaving not so much as a carbon footprint as a carbon crater. Wait until summer for your strawberries etc. They taste much better when you haven't had them since last year.

5. Write to your local MP, Senator, Councillor, Govenor asking what they are doing to make sure that supermarkets are changing their policies regarding this issue. I'm sure they won't have a clue, so keep writing until they are compelled to actually learn something about the issue.

So, there are five things that everyone can do to cut down on food miles. However, if you live in a military dictatorship point five is a bit tricky for you, unless you stage a military coup of your own.

Power to the people! Down with supermarkets!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

The reluctance of UK government and industry to invest in "green" technology is rapidly becoming a major annoyance to me. Al Gore wrote as early as 1991 that Japan was leading the way in the development of energy efficient appliances that are rapidly taking over as leading sellers from competing products from the US and Europe. It seems to me that there are large profits to be made from creating energy efficient products, and that the marketting of such products would be greatly enhanced by their environmentally friendly credentials.

A list of the top 12 greenest cars (US market) on egm CarTech.com reveals that all are made by Asian companies, either Japanese or Korean. This rating includes emissions created in the manufacture of the vehicle as well as the fuel efficiency, and the much talked about Toyota Prius comes second to the Honda Civic GX which runs on natural gas.

Why does European and US industry not see that they can become world leaders in green technology if only they would invest in it.

Many economists argue against change for the good of the environment on the grounds of cost, what I cannot understand is why they don't see it as a new opportunity to do business.

Maybe that is why I'm not an economist?

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Last year I wrote an essay on Waste managment in the UK for college, and I was thinking about this issue again the other day.

Much is made of recycling, everyone seems to be getting on the bandwagon; lots of supermarkets now have plastic bag recycling bins and the bins for glass are now ubiquitous.

I recently read some interviews with leading business people questioning them on their "green" credentials and all of them said that they recycle, as if this made up for all the other activities they might be involved in.

What worries me is that the recycling message seems to have become the dominant force and that other ways of dealing with waste have become sidelined.

The waste management hierachy (left) indicates that the best way of dealing with waste is to reduce it; i.e. don't make it in the first place. Second on this list is to re-use; milk bottles delivered to the front door in the UK are a good example of this; an interesting article on the Daily Pinta is on J's blog.

In fact, recycling is third down the list in the ideal way of dealing with waste, but it is firmly number one in the public's eye. This indicates that we are far from the problem of the massive amounts of waste we create, and consequently the large amounts of CO2 that are emitted in the production of this waste.

In the absence of governmental incentives for industry to reduce waste we should try to do what we can; use reusable shopping bags, buy produce at the market where items are not overpackaged and reuse things like jam jars to grow seeds in etc.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Winter arrived in the UK a couple of days ago and it is freezing. In fact it feels colder in my flat than it does outside! I live in an old building that has been converted into a couple of flats and it seems to be almost completely uninsulated. Unfortunately, it is a rented flat and I don't expect to stay here much longer so there isn't much I can do about it, but how I wish that I could insulate the loft and walls and get rid of this freezing feeling.

How Much?

When I read about how much insulation can save on heating bills I almost cried. The Energy Savings Trust has estimated that if everyone in the UK that could install insulation did so, we would cut our carbon emissions by 8 million tonnes. In addition to this it is thought that insulation could save households £250 per year. Now, where I live is only a small 4 roomed flat, so I don't suppose my saving would be that much, but obviously my gas bill would be much reduced. *%!!*

Next time I look for somewhere to live I am going to make sure it is insulated in order to reduce my carbon footprint and also to save my hard earned money.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

I have written on previous posts about how I always (well nearly always) use my reusable shopping bag when I go out. When I mentioned this to my grandmother, she just rolled her eyes and said that she'd been a "green" in this particular way since the 1930s. I guess that these sort of bags were (and maybe still are) the norm for older people, but younger generations are used to having plastic bags to put their plastic bags in.

I recently had to virtually fight with a shop assisstant to prevent them from putting my newspaper in a plastic bag. The assisstant looked at me like I was mad.

I hate plastic bags!

However, Jon and Shawn have taken this to another level with Plastic Bags are the Devil.com. They are attempting to increase awareness of the problem of plastic bags by selling stylish, reusable canvas bags. No doubt they are intending to make a bit of money for themselves as well, and why not? If there is one thing that has the potential to bring environmental ideas to a mass audience, it is the power of the economy - most people seem to live their lives by it. Not only will using a canvas bag benefit the environment in terms of reduced waste and carbon emissions, but $5 of the price of these bags will be donated to The Conservation Fund. If plastic bags are the devil, then perhaps canvas bags can be our saviour?

Monday, February 5, 2007

It sounds nice doesn't it? Owning your own piece of rainforest, so that it can never be cut down sounds like a wonderful prospect. Shame you can't have it in your own back garden though. However, it is possible to protect a piece of rainforest, to conserve the species within it ,by supporting one of a number of charities that have negotiated deals with governments and local people in order to protect rainforest either through purchase or management partnerships.

Here are a few websites where rainforest can be protected by donations.

Nature Products Network

Rainforest Concern

World Land Trust

Rainforest Heroes

Fundesin

Friends of Calakmul

I was quite surprised how cheaply a hectare of rainforest can be protected for. It makes me wonder if the vast sums that are spent on some poorly conceived conservation projects in developed countries would be better used to fund projects such as these.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Energy saving lightbulbs have become much easier to find over the last few years and anyone with any green pretensions has probably at least got a few in their house. I have used them for some time now and recently replaced the remaining few normal bulbs still in use in my flat.

Much is made of their energy saving qualities, but I began to wonder how much energy they save and consequently what is the reduction in my "carbon footprint".

I found some information on this and it makes quite interesting reading. By replacing a 60W lightbulb that is used for 5 hours per day with a 15W energy saving bulb, you reduce your carbon output from 47kg per year, per bulb to about 12 kg per year, per bulb. Over the 5 year lifespan of the energy saving bulb, this equates to a carbon output of 60kg instead of 175kg per bulb. Multiply this by all the bulbs in your house and that is a large reduction in your annual carbon footprint.

Many people will say that the price of the energy saving bulbs are a deterrant to purchasing them, particularly for poorer people. Well, there's even more good news because over the lifetime of an energy saving bulb, the reduction in energy usage will result in a saving of £37 pounds over its 5 year lifespan. Multiply this by all the bulbs in your house and that is a decent reduction in the electricity bill.

For a student of conservation energy saving lightbulbs are wonderful - help the environment and save money!
hnnn
This blog is purely designed to provide me with a device to moan, groan, gripe and waffle about environmental issues; any interest it may have to others is completely coincidental.