Positive Eco News

Optimism for the New Year! 

I’d like to wish you all a Happy & Prosperous 2020. Here’s a great chance to reflect back on some positive news in & around the UK. 

It hopefully will keep us all going – the planet can heal itself, it just needs some TLC! 

Top 20 Feel Good Stories

1. Milkmen are making a comeback. In a bid to save the use of throw away plastic milk bottles, consumers are looking for glass milk bottles instead. 

2. The Woodland Trust with Chris Packham managed to reach their target to help plant 100,000 trees. There are free trees available for schools & local communities at
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/schools-and-communities/

3. Zero waste shops are popping up across the UK. See here for a map. Some milk refill stations & refills for body care & laundry care liquids are also available. This site has a great list of where to buy zero waste products or where you can refill your own.

4. People are having a Greener Christmas now and are aiming for Less Waste over Christmas.

5. Supermarkets are taking notice. There’s still a huge way to go though - supermarkets MUST try harder, however they have made a start & consumers have too. See my article on supermarket waste for more. 

6. Scientists are looking at plastic alternatives. For example a scientist has been looking at fish scales as a plastic substitute. 

7. There is a bigger trend of blogs such as this & multiple face book groups are popping up to help bring people together to exchange ideas. It’s great to see this trend continue now & long into the future. 

8. In April 2022 the UK government plan to introduce a plastic packaging tax. As a result manufacturers are already using some recycled content in their packaging (see my post on some products in recycled packaging).

9. Plastic free tea bags are also more widely available (see my article on plastics in tea!)

10. Some great products are coming out including bamboo toilet roll which is now available in paper packaging, plus tissues using recycled sugar cane, wheat germ plates, coconut shell bowls, avocado pit cutlery, bamboo toothbrushes & so much more. 

You can even get packaging made from mushrooms. Green Jiffy envelopes are also available which are stuffed with recycled wood fibre. See my reviews section for some items I’ve been testing – more to come throughout the year. 

11. Instead of being shipped abroad, more plastics are now being handled in the UK. Some un-recyclable waste has even been incinerated & the fuel generated helps to run the plastic recycling plants. 

12. Terracycle which originated in the US has expanded rapidly in the UK providing recycling points for some products that could not be regularly recycled. Examples included crisp packets & cat food pouches, toothpaste tubes & more. Some air ambulance services are able to raise funds using recycling points across the UK (see my article for more).

13. The WWF are re-planting seagrass meadows around the UK. This will help with carbon absorption & provide a much better environment for sea creatures to hide. 

14. Meadow flowers are being planted along road sides to help encourage more insects (need some bee pelican crossings though!)

15. Boats like the Poly Roger made from scavenged plastics have been used to collect plastic waste in rivers & waterways.

16. Beach cleanups are becoming more popular with many dates announced throughout the year. 

17. Beavers are being re-introduced back into Britain to help stem the problem of flood water. Water voles are making a comeback too with lottery funding.

18. Etsy has exploded with the amount of sellers some of who make their own plastic free products. Check out this article showcasing some of the home selling entrepreneurs.

19. More & more books are being published to help us learn how to reduce our plastic consumption & deal with waste more effectively. 

20. The song The World is in Danger was released by an 8 year old child Frankie Morland to raise money for the WWF & increase awareness of the problems of waste. You can buy the single in various ways using the following link.

For more lovely news check out our Lovelier News post from 2019!

Supermarket Sweep

The Role of Supermarkets in our Plastic War

Let's face it, supermarkets are brimming with plastic produce AND plastic packaging. There's no getting away from it.

What ever happened to the idea of more free time for workers, time freed up by the use of automated machines? All we seem to be doing is doing more work. 

How many of us have printed our own bills, used the self checkout becoming our own till worker, got online insurance, downloaded it, printed it then get charged a fee for cancelling it, when we did most of the administration ourselves?

Even tax returns are completed by us with the aid of HMRC's online tool. If we need an actual person to help they often send us back to an online form somewhere. 

Workplaces are just as busy with checking and responding to emails despite the promise of our streamlined automated lives. 

So we're doing more work. As a result our time has never really been freed up at all and supermarkets realise this and supply us with much appreciated ready meals, convenience food and lots and lots of packaging.

But they are taking notice that plastics are a real problem for many - highlighted in recent news and documentary reports of plastics continually washing ashore, or being transported to other countries, who haven't the resources to deal with it.

Here, we look at 3 market leading supermarkets to see how progress is being made..

Tesco

In the September 2019 Tesco magazine, they say 'We're using the four R's approach. Remove it where we can, Reduce it where we can't, Reuse more, Recycle what's left.'

Tesco have introduced polyester clothes made from recycled plastics and are encouraging customers to bring containers from home to buy produce from the meat, cheese or fish counters. A trial is under way in Swindon of recycling soft plastics such as cat food pouches and crisp packets. 

'Our ambition is that all own-brand packaging is 100% recyclable by 2025. We're currently at 83% and aim to be 90% by the end of the year (2019)'.

They plan also to phase out black plastics that cannot be recycled and make F&F clothes packaging thinner to reduce polythene use. According to their sustainablity goals they also aim to achieve 'Zero net deforestation in the supply chain by 2020'.

It is reassuring to hear that supermarkets are helping to make the change in our throw away society. We can help too by making measured choices on what we buy and how much we throw away. 

Sainsbury's

On the Sainsbury's site they list the following goals:

Some examples of the plastic we will be removing, reducing and reusing by the end of this year:

• 175 tonnes – reducing plastic content from water bottles
• 5 tonnes – switching plastic trays to wooden on plants and flowers
• 65 tonnes – ready meals
• 489 tonnes – removing plastic bags for loose fruit, vegetables and bakery items from all stores
• 1000 tonnes – removing plastic sleeves from clothing
• 800 tonnes – reusing and recycling clothing hangers, which are made from 100% recycled materials
• 14 tonnes – removing plastic cups and cutlery from all offices
• 61 tonnes – changes to poultry packaging

They have also removed:

• 50 tonnes – plastic stems from cotton buds, replacing them with a biodegradable option
• 37 tonnes – plastic straws

'From April, we have offered customers 25p off hot drinks across all of our cafes when a customer brings a re-usable cup. We will also continue to encourage customers to bring in plastic containers to our counters and update everyone on further progress.'

Sainsbury's is a funding partner for the Woodland Trust, helping to subsidise large scale tree planting in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Morrisons

Supermarket Morrisons has been voted the most environmentally responsible company in the UK for its work on plastics reduction at the 'Responsible Business Awards' which is run by HRH The Prince of Wales' Business in the Community Network.

Morrisons has seen over 9,000 tonnes of plastic a year eliminated or made recyclable. This has included being the first UK supermarket to introduce reusable grocery paper bags, introducing loose fruit and veg sections, and getting rid of problematic plastics - such as cucumber wraps and black plastic.

Asda

Enviro30.com announced in January 2020 that Asda plan to open a trial in a Middleton store in Leeds, to provide refill stations for tea, cereals, coffee, rice and pasta. There will also be plastic free mushrooms and cucumbers available. If the trial is successful this may be rolled out in other stores.

For a run down on which supermarkets are achieving more head on down to: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/recycling/article/what-are-supermarkets-doing-about-plastic for a league table.

Plus https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49674153
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Plastics Pact - It's a Wrap!

As a final note almost all of the UK's major supermarket chains have signed up to the UK Plastics Pact, which launched in April 2018.

The pact, led by sustainability experts at WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), aims to tackle plastic waste by bringing together businesses from across the entire plastics value chain, UK governments and NGOs.

Check out this You-Tube Video of 8 problem plastics to be eliminated by 2020.