Did you know, we make our own wildflower seed balls to add joy to your garden no matter how small, plus compostable wash cloths with lovely patterns to brighten up your kitchen sink or bath tub?
Taking part during 16th to 22nd May the Big Plastic Count is an initiative to encourage families, schools and businesses to record each bit of plastic they throw away.
If you love wildlife, why not check out this lovely set of nest cams in Ash Wood in Yorkshire including owls & kestrels plus visiting pheasants at a watering hole. I’m addicted to it!
Meanwhile have a great May and enjoy your Spring.
It's lovely to see trees and wildlife springing back to life again. Huzzah!
First held on April 22, 1970, EarthDay.org provides a wide range of events coordinated globally. 1 billion people in more than 193 countries get involved.
To celebrate Earth Day, I have pulled together a snapshot of some good news.
1. 90,000 Trees Planted at National Trust Property
A tree planting project backed by the UK Government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund is underway at Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire. 39 native apple species will be planted in corridors connecting woodland areas, helping to attract pollinating insects, birds & bats into the area.
Wimpole estate have planted 14 different species of native trees including oak, hornbeam, wild cherry, field maple and birch, and 10 species of shrubs including hawthorn, hazel and spindle.
“The variety of trees is really important to help build resilience into the landscape, in the face of a growing number to tree diseases, and to attract different birds and animals," noted Project manager Jason Sellars.
3. Rihanna Backs Climate Change Projects with a $15m Donation
Bajan singer Rihanna has donated $15 million to grassroots climate justice groups through the Clara Lionel Foundation. The 18 groups funded included Climate Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Movement for Black Lives.
She noted that disparity is the reason for her foundation, which is named after her grandparents, prioritizes both climate resilience and climate justice work.
In the 1980s Red Kites were a globally threatened species facing near extinction. Following a reintroduction of breeding pairs 30 years ago numbers have steadily increased.
The Nature Conservancy Council collaborated with the RSPB, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Zoological Society London and British Airways to release the birds 30 years ago in an area on the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire border.
By 1996, at least 37 pairs had bred in southern England and today red kites can be seen regularly in most English counties with an estimated 1,800 pairs breeding across the UK.
In three years time, students between the ages of 14-16 in the UK will be able to sit down and officially study natural history as a dedicated subject.
It is the result of a decade-long campaign by naturalist Mary Colwell, who garnered support from many people and organisations, including Chris Packham, Baroness Floella Benjamin, The Wildlife Trust and the Natural History Museum.
Mary says, 'Everyone will have the opportunity to be nature-literate, to learn about British wildlife and how it relates to the rest of the world, which is essential for a sustainable, green future.'
The qualification is being developed by the examinations board OCR and will be ready for students to take by 2025.
A BBC article states that globally, an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year and the equivalent to a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites every second.
The European Union are now calling for cloth manufacturers to improve the recycled content of their products by 2030.
There are some wonderful companies finding ways to recycle materials into new fibres, including Carol Lin, a chemical engineer at the City University of Hong Kong, who developed a technique for recycling fabrics made from cotton and polyester blends by feeding them to fungi!
This video looks at how micro bloom algae mixed with sugar cane can be used to make eco friendly foam soles for flip flops.
Flip flops are often discarded on beaches but the PVC & polymer contained within them can prevent them from being broken down. These eco shoes can be interchanged into mules and sandals - what a great idea!
The video below explains this great innovation.
9. Coffee Grounds For Your Shoes
Entrepreneurs Jesse Tran and Son Chu had the ingenious idea of mixing waste coffee grounds with plastic pellets (made from recycled water bottles) and turning them into a coffee polyester yarn.
The yarn has been used to make upper material for sneakers and hoodies too.
They've been able to recycle over 750,000 cups of coffee and more than 250,000 post-consumption plastic bottles, with sneakers being sold across 100 countries worldwide.
Each hoodie meanwhile is made from 43 cups of coffee grounds and 12.5 post-consumption plastic bottles plus 40% of bamboo viscose.
The Plastic Packaging Tax introduced by the UK Government will take effect from 1st April 2022. The tax will apply to plastic packaging produced in (or imported into) the UK that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic.
The tax will provide an incentive for businesses to use recycled material in the content of plastic packaging, which will create greater demand for this material.
It is hoped this will stimulate levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste, diverting it away from landfill or incineration.
More than 220 new animal and plant species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong.
A total of 155 plants, 16 fish species, 17 amphibians, 35 reptiles, and one mammal have been found in the Greater Mekong region of southeast Asia, conservation charity WWF has said.
More than 3,000 species have been spotted in the area in the past 24 years.
To honour the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen there will be a colourful, vibrant field of flowers at the Tower of London.
In spring 2022, over 20 million seeds will be sown in the Tower's moat from carefully designed seed mixes. The flower display will erupt into new colours and patterns creating a dramatic and engaging experience throughout the summer.
On arrival, visitors can grab a mat and slide down into the moat on their Superbloom slide!
All around us are plastics, we cannot fail to notice. But what we can’t see are tiny little microplastics which make their way into our food chain, water & even the air we breathe.
Even makeup and face washes contained micro beads which have been banned thankfully. Micro fibres during a clothes wash can also be a huge unseen problem.
Below I have listed some of the sources of hidden plastics, some which may surprise you such as in tap water & car tyres. It does make for stark reading.
It was watching hard hitting documentaries that triggered me to start this blog, so seeing the hard truths can help trigger positive change.
I hope some of the items listed below will give you food for thought..
Sources of Hidden (Micro) Plastics.
Drinks – a study by Dr. Noam van der Hal found that cows milk contained 10 to 200 particles of microplastics per sample. When he went to the dairy & sampled the milk, he found far less particles within the dairy collection tank. Dr. Noam concluded that the bottling process itself leaches plastics into the product.
Another study looked at contamination of soft drinks, cold tea & energy drinks - it was found that microplastics were detected in 48 out of 57 samples.
Tea Bags – folks didn’t realise that tea bags contained plastics until a gardener noted that tea bags in his compost heap refused to break down fully. This is caused by polypropylene being used to seal the bags, keeping in the tea without them coming apart during a hot dunking.
Following subsequent news reports, consumers began to put pressure on tea bag companies to change their products to become more eco friendly. I wrote an article on these hidden plastics in tea back in 2019.
Some companies have improved their products since my article above - maybe check out the website of your fave tea company, to check on how they’re doing to emit plastics from their products.
Tap Water – A study reported that 83% of tap water samples from major cities around the world contained plastic fibres. In the UK, 72% of samples were found to have micro fibres, whereas in the US, numbers were much higher at 94%.
Bottled Water - Research from State University of New York examined 250 bottles from nine worldwide countries & found plastics hiding ‘in bottle after bottle and brand after brand’. There were typically 10 plastic particles found, per litre of bottled water.
Chewing Gum – In ancient times the chewing gum was plant based, usually from sap, tree resins & bark that Native Americans, Early Europeans & Mayans/Aztecs used to chew on as a breath freshener.
Modern day chewing gums may contain plastics in their gum base as well as polyisobutylene, a type of rubber found in inner car tyres. This is why you see wads of gum sticking (quite literally!) around for years & years.
Toiletries – Microbeads (small insoluble particles) have been used as exfoliators in cosmetics & toiletries. These are solid plastic particles less than 5mm. It was realised that these microbeads can run off into oceans & be ingested by fish & sea mammals causing potential harm to the environment & wildlife.
Cosmetics Europe recommended that by 2020 all products containing microbeads should be phased out. Many companies have been switching to alternatives such as tapioca, seaweed, silica & corn.
In 2018, the UK government placed a ban on products containing microbeads being sold in stores. These included toothpastes, shower gels, face scrubs & soaps.
The government website stated that 'just one shower alone was thought to send 100,000 microbeads down the drain and into the ocean, causing serious harm to marine life.'
Sadly there will be many beads out in the environment already swirling around in the seas & waterways, but at least action has been taken to prevent more being produced in the UK.
Clothes – fabrics can often be made up of polyester or acrylic. Washing of clothes releases thousands of microfibers into the waterways. These may not be picked up during filtration leading to contamination of tap water or be leached out into rivers & streams.
Prof Richard Thompson at Plymouth University found that on average, a 6kg wash load could release 140,000 fibres from a polyester-cotton mix or more than 700,000 fibres from acrylic. Dryers can also carry fibres into the air creating a source of airborne microplastic pollution.
Tyres contain about 20% natural rubber with the rest being made of synthetic materials containing plastic polymers.
Another worrying ingredient is the use of carbon black - sourced from fossil fuels, it is used to blacken the tyres for resistence to UV light but is also reported to be non biodegradeable & possibly carcinogenic.
Fragments of plastic & synthetic rubber from tyres & brake pads can be kicked out onto the roads. Due to their tiny size they are easily picked up & carried by wind into streams, drains & rivers. The Norway study found particles can remain airborne for a whole month.
Nurdles – so what are nurdles I hear you ask! These are tiny plastic pellets that are often melted to make larger items. They are in effect the primary source of virgin plastic & transported by cargo to foreign countries still in its small pellet form.
Cargo spillages during bad storms can cause nurdles to be dumped out into the oceans. Due to their small size & light weight, they can often drift on top of the current & be carried out by tides to large expanses at sea, even as far as the arctic circle.
Fish & sea birds mistake them as food as they are similar in size to fish eggs. An accumulation of the microplastics can lodge in their guts, causing blockages & malnutrition.
Spillages can also occur during transfer by trucks to factories which can cause run off into drains & rivers, so the problem can be very widespread indeed.
This charity is looking for nurdle hunters to identify the full extent of the problem. Check out the site above for more information & if you can help, why not join the search for nurdles at your local beach.
Rainwater – Researchers studied rainwater & air samples in 11 protected areas in the Western USA over 14 months - they found that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic fragments fell into these areas each year.
This is the equivalent to over 120 million plastic water bottles (or 8 blue whales in weight).
North Pole – Nanoplastics (smaller than a micrometre) have now been found as far away as the North & South poles. A chart about half way down this page shows they are so small they may even cross the blood-brain barrier.
Meanwhile, the top of Everest has been found to harbour microplastics – analysts found samplesrife with thin, curly fibres of microplastic. Humans have quite literally left their mark in all sorts of places.
And who can forget the images of polar bears scavenging for food covered in plastic bags? Researchers in Alaska found a shocking 25% of polar bears had plastics lodged in their stomachs.
The most common plastic was polyethylene terephthalate (PET) usually found in drink bottles & fabrics, whilst the second most common was polystyrene used in takeaway food containers such as Styrofoam. The third was polyethylene used in paints, plastic wrap, sandwich bags & detergent bottles.
Here is another article on plastics affecting the human body – this is not meant to depress us, but is meant to open all our eyes to the problem we are all facing!
It’s hardly surprising that humans are ingesting & breathing in microplastics, but it is a concern that blood samples also contain plastic too. A stark reminder of how much damage we have done to ourselves & our planet.
We are resourceful beings & we need to come together to find solutions & act quickly – this planet is far too beautiful to waste.
Below I show you how to make your own natural deodorant & toothpaste plus some tips on using natural products around the house.
How to Make Home Made Natural Toothpaste (Tooth Powder)
I call this toothpaste but in reality it's a powder which you can make yourself really easily & very cheaply too! Key ingredients are arrowroot, baking soda, essential oil & chopped sage.
I used an old jar from a previously used plastic free product. Plastic free toothpaste can be very expensive so using the same jar to house my own version recycles the container & saves money at the same time.
For extra brownie points, why not ditch the plastic & use a bamboo toothbrush instead!π
The quantities will depend on how much you're planning to make, I suggest starting small to begin with to see how you get on. Mix equals quantities of arrowroot, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) & water (sprinkle water in gently to keep the powdery consistency).
Add in peppermint oil & chopped sage.
The peppermint oil can be adjusted but do take care of essential oils as they are very strong and can burn if swallowed neat - diluted down in the powder should be fine. Feel free to experiment with quantities, base ingredients and flavours to see what works for you.
You can search for other recipes that use clay for instance to make a paste & some use salt but I like this one as seems less abrasive than salt and I didn't have anything clay based in the cupboard.
Here's what mine looked like. I find that my teeth do feel very smooth & clean afterwards. Use the toothbrush head to scoop up some of the powder.
How to Make Your Own Home Made Natural Deodorant
So super easy, you'll wonder why you never did this before! Uses just 3 ingredients (baking soda, coconut oil & essential oil).
Mix equal quantities of coconut oil & baking soda. I started off very small as utilised an old jar of natural deodorant that I reviewed in the past - I found just 1/8th cup of coconut oil + 1/8th cup of bicarb was enough to make up my jar which would make it super cheap & was so quick an easy.
Coconut oil is available in supermarkets or places like Holland & Barrett.
You can add whatever scent you like, I chose sweet orange, lemon grass & lavender.
Mix the 3 ingredients together (you may need to melt the coconut oil gently first, or if you have a warm kitchen just stirring makes it soften enough to mix with the other ingredients). Mix until you've smoothed out any lumps then add essential oils until you're happy with the scent.
(Please note that some people are sensitive to bicarb so I would suggest making a small batch first to trial it out. If you are sensitive arrowroot can work as a good substitute).
Also don't drown it in essential oils as too much can irritate. Essential oils need a carrier so the coconut oil should help to protect the skin but never apply essential oils directly onto the skin undiluted.
The end product comes up like a paste that you apply to the underarm. You only need a pea sized amount, it should firm up once cold but warms up with the heat of your fingers for application. I found my last product in a similar sized jar lasted about 4 months so a little goes a long way & making your own is a huge saving on your pocket!
Uses for Coconut Oil
Once you've bought your coconut oil you'll find many uses for it. It can be used to soften skin, soothe irritated scalp, use as a hair mask by leaving in before washing and I even found that it makes a good furniture polish!
We rescued a coffee table from the skip and it had 8 coffee or tea stain rings on it (was rescued from an office clear out). The coconut rubbed in obliterated the stains & the oil helped to condition the table at the same time - win win!
Why not try using coconut oil as a makeup remover? We sell home made makeup wipes in our store - apply a small amount of coconut oil on face then wipe off. Rinse wipe under tap with some handwash to clean. The wipes can be hand or machine washed and then composted after they've become worn out.
Uses for Bicarbonate of Soda
I make my own loo cleaner by adding one cup of bicarb to a cup of distilled vinegar - add bicarb around toilet bowl then add vinegar to make it froth up. Close lid for 10 mins then scrub with loo brush to clean.
Make your own orange vinegar cleaning spray (which I've also used as a fabric conditioner, you can add essential oils to this too for an extra burst of scent). Or you can use vinegar to make a loo cleaner (see bicarb section above).
I also keep a glass spray bottle with a mix of vinegar & washing up liquid diluted in water as a useful all purpose spray - even makes a good weed killer too!
Lots more you can do with bicarb & vinegar to clean your home from top to bottom. These are just a few simple tricks to make and use natural things.
How to Colour Your Hair Naturally
If you have dark brown hair a useful tip for keeping your hair colour is to add cocoa powder to your normal shampoo. Or add to a coconut oil home made hair mask for colour & conditioning.
I hope you find some of these tips helpful. There's some great eco books out there available & of course don't forget to check out some of my reviews and other home made items.
What a joy it was to watch Sir David Attenborough’s Green Planet aired by the BBC earlier this year. It was split into 5 episodes, exploring Tropical Worlds, Seasonal Worlds, Human Worlds, Water Worlds & Desert Worlds.
Sir David Attenborough follows the remarkable nature of plants, including how they grow in remarkably hostile terrains and how, with a little care, we can encourage nature to spring back allowing a biodiverse environment and benefitting us in the long term.
Inspired by the BBC programme, an AR experience has been created for a short time in Piccadilly Circus, London. It runs from Friday 11th February to Wednesday 9th March.
Travel through some digitally enhanced worlds including Saltwater, Freshwater, Rainforest, Seasonal & Deserts.
The Green Planet AR Experience is located at Piccadilly Circus in London. Tickets are free & can be booked online at https://thegreenplanetexperience.co.uk/
Also available is this Green Planet double-sided colour poster. Produced by the Open University, it is free to order online at https://connect.open.ac.uk/greenplanet
Hedgerows are easy to undervalue but they are a great refuge for multiple species of birds and insects. According to Positive News, the Climate Change Committee recommends a 40% increase in hedgerows, which not only helps wildlife but they can act as a carbon store. Devon Farmer Rob Wolton, with the aid of entomologists, spotted 2000 species in one hedge alone, including insects, small mammals, lizards, grass snakes and various types of birds.
The Guardian report that hedges reduce the likelihood of flooding downstream, help to suck pollutants out of water, and prevent soil erosion. Flower filled hedgerows could also attract pollinators which have been in decline. (An excellent look at the benefit of hedgerows and how they can help us reach net zero can be read in the Guardian link above.)
The Tree Council kick started a National Hedgerow Planting Week end of May/early June last year. Their Close the Gap Hedgerow Project is part funded by the UK Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund in unison with the National Lottery.
The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) is a tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Everyone across the UK is being invited to plant trees from October 2021 (when the tree planting season begins) through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022.
The Local Authority Treescape Fund (LATF) will re-open in early 2022. The government expects that up to 100 grants worth £50,000 to £300,000 will be available for local authorities in the next round.
The first round of funding is currently supporting planting of an expected 260,000 trees outside of woodlands, with 139 local authorities awarded a share of £4.4 million across 42 projects.
For further tree & woodland planting grants head on down to:
So why are trees so important? Although they can produce carbon, they sequester twice as much as they emit allowing them to be a carbon sink.
According to an article by Eco Watch: ‘Forests emitted on average 8.1 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and absorbed 16 billion between 2001 and 2019.’ The net amount absorbed is 1.5 times more than United States emits annually, so our trees MUST be nurtured if we want to continue our existence.
Peatland Restoration:
The UK Peatland Strategy was launched in April 2018 by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme. They estimate that 80% of peatland is degraded, this sadly leads to drying out of the peat causing carbon loss rather than carbon capture. In the UK, three broad peatland types exist – blanket bog, raised bog and fen. Peatland in good condition can help with water filtration and prevent flooding, as well as encourage a more diverse mix of plants and insects which then encourages a greater mix of birds and wildlife.
“Peatlands are Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon store, holding more than twice the amount of carbon in all the world’s forests. 87 per cent of peatlands are degraded. In this state, they do not capture and store carbon but emit an estimated 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year.
Swansea University, Sky Ocean Rescue & WWF have been planting sea grasses to help our shores. Sea grasses are a useful source of carbon capture & provide a haven for sea life.
Rewilding is allowing nature to return back to its natural habitat. Land can be over farmed losing its nutrients; trees can be cut down for house building & animal grazing can strip young shoots preventing new growth. Hedgerows can be cleared to make way for larger fields and waterways can be straightened and narrowed, reducing natural flood plains which can result in flood water rushing down into inhabited towns and villages.
Animals, birds and insects that rely on natural surroundings begin to suffer as their native food supply may be lost due to lack of forest and ground cover and lack of healthy plant and flower growth in the area. Soil can lose nutrients and peat land can dry out. With dry peat land, unhealthy soil and a lack of greenery, this leads to carbon storage becoming much harder to control causing carbons to be lost into the atmosphere.
Rewilding projects help to work with landowners and farmers & allows nature to return back to its former glory, thereby encouraging a more biodiverse landscape. This will help with carbon capture thereby helping us out too!
Overgrazing can deplete soil causing loss of nutrients and soil erosion. We don’t have to STOP farming, just re-think the methods in the way we do it.
Methods could include planting wildflower meadows along the edges, building more hedgerows, allowing fields to recover before bringing grazers back in, avoid over tilling of soil which could strip the nutrients, planting trees, shrubs and herbs that produce food which also encourages pollinators & allowing grazing animals to move between trees rather than land clearance.
Our recent eco booze article covered ways in which grape producers encourage local biodiversity in between their planted vines as an example.
There’s also the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund by the UK government which encourages collaborative farming communities getting together to exchange ideas. 'The scheme plays a significant role in fostering and strengthening an engaged, collaborative and environmentally aware farming community.'
Wildflowers:
The Tower of London are holding a Super Bloom event this year. Vibrant meadow flowers will be used to fill the moat in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
In spring 2022, over 20 million seeds will be sown from carefully designed seed mixes.
One of the Green Planet episodes covered a project in Kenya, whereby seeds were encased in charcoal ash and scattered by volunteers which included school children and wardens. Numerous ways have been used to plant seedballs, including dropping from planes, using slingshots to project them in random directions (great fun for the kids!) and some countries even uses camel riders to drop seedballs as they trek through the desert.
The beauty of seedballs is that the material used to encase the seeds (such as charcoal, clay), can be used to protect the seedlings and feed them during the early development. The seeds naturally bury their roots down into the soil so don’t need digging in.
Did you know that Lovelier Planet have been making seedballs with wildflower seeds for your garden? A good way to attract bees and butterflies into your garden to increase pollination.
They are individually hand made from 50% compost & 50% clay and come in packs of 10 balls in a gift pack (which can be personalised on request) or in home made fabric crackers in packs of six available, with Easter and Christmas designs. See our etsy store for more details.
Did you know you can choose alternative coffins too, including beautifully designed cardboard based coffins?
Memorial:
If you have lost a loved one why not donate a tree in their honour through Woodland Trust? RSPB can accept memorial donations and have a book of remembrance at selected reserves.
Shopping:
Support sustainably produced projects such as companies that use green energy or re-utilise waste products (check out our recent eco-booze article for some ideas).
If buying products made from trees, look at for the FSC label to ensure it was properly managed, or use products made from faster growing bamboo. Our reviews section has some ideas for you.
Check whether your product uses sustainable palm oil by using a Giki app. (This app looks at various ethical badges to help you make an informed choice).
Also look out for the Rainforest Alliance logo on products for sustainable agriculture.
Check the label and see which products are produced locally. Avoid those sent by plane (for instance perishable goods such as fruit & veg flown in from abroad). Support your local farm shop for fresh produce.
Support local care farms (aimed at helping people as well as the environment whilst growing and selling fresh produce). There is a UK map here which you can enlarge to see the local care farm in your area. https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/your-area
Check the packaging of items you buy in store to see if the manufacturer uses recycled content for their packaging (this uses less virgin plastics or trees which would add to your carbon footprint).
If you have a zero waste store in your area, help cut down on packaging waste by taking your own containers. See this directory for some stores near you.
Reduce food waste (waste produces methane which can affect plant growth and increase global warming). There are some food apps to help reduce waste you can try.
Create a wildlife friendly garden with tips from the PTES. The site includes pollinating flowers, how to create woodpiles, insect hotels, bat boxes, ponds & hedgehog friendly gardens.
Ditch the gym membership and find some outdoor gym equipment in your local area. This site shows some ‘fresh air fitness gyms’ that might be near you.
Check for local activities such as ranger led nature walks at the National Trust.
If you like walking, maybe get a group of friends together to do a beach clean or litter pick.
Waterhaul, a UK company, can sell you litter pickers for about £15 made from recycled fishing nets and face masks. Great idea! Or the RSPB has one made from recycled plastics & metal.
Easter:
You’ll be surprised that even Easter eggs have their affect on the planet as well as worker’s rights. The Ethical Consumer group has listed Cadbury’s, Terry’s & Nestle as scoring poorly in their league table.
Read on to learn more. (It’s worth reading the summaries below the league table too for some interesting insights).
The site below is an eye opener for those looking at greener savings accounts. I was shocked to see my bank has been financing the nuclear weapons industry, as well as contributing to climate change industries whilst scoring poorly in tax payments and the use of tax havens.
⚘ Support companies that offer free tree planting with your order such as Floral Fox. Switch your search engine browser to Ecosia to support tree planting projects with every click.
In this post I will be looking at 10 options for eco friendly beers, wine & spirits. It's good to know there are some sellers out there who consider the planet when shaping their business. We as consumers can make our own choices on who to follow. Here's a few suggestions below:
1) Sea Change Wine – A UK company which sells wines produced in Germany, France, Italy & Spain. The team at Sea Change donates to ocean charities whilst reducing plastic in their cork wraps and using 15% grape waste in the labels.
Their first wine was Pink Elephant which supported an elephant conservation charity to protect Asian elephants. They have some gorgeous labels with seals, dolphins, porpoise, whale, sea lion, otter & turtle.
Your purchase can help support great work, they’ve raised over €100,000 which funds vital research and supported ‘Ocean Generation', who were behind the film ‘A Plastic Ocean.’
Other donations have gone to help beach cleaning projects in Cornwall & save sea turtles in the Maldives.
2) Hidden Sea – wine sellers in Australia are working with the ReSea project to remove & recycle 1 billion single use plastic bottles from the ocean by 2030. With each bottle sold, 10 plastic bottles are removed from rivers and oceans.
3) Cono Sur – a South American vine yard has striven to work organically without pesticides and encourage biodiversity, by planting native wildflowers to entice insects into zones between the vines.
They have also achieved carbon neutral status, recycle water to clean the barrels, use solar power to generate electricity and even use geese to help with pest control! Goose manure & waste from grapes goes to improve the soil.
They won the title of ‘Green Company of the Year’ awarded by the British Drinks Industry Green Awards in 2011.
Available in UK supermarkets (look out for the Bicicleta range with a bicycle on the label!)
4) Identity Wine – a Fair Trade wine producer in South Africa use solar panels to generate electricity and have bee hives on site (the bees encourage pollination of the vines).
They also have wild peacocks and geese to help with pest control. The company have been helping to support local schools & support their community workers. They have a trebuchet on site which they have used for fundraising projects.
5) Toast Ale – a social enterprise using surplus bread to make beer, which utilises less barley in the process. The surplus grains from production are used as animal feed while spent hops are composted to feed nutrients back into the soil.
They won a Footprint Covid-19 Contribution Award in 2020, by setting up a Meal Deal to divert waste from restaurants to people going hungry during the pandemic. Profits from their sales are donated to Feedback, a charity set up to reduce food waste & increase sustainability.
To help save the planet they distribute to the UK only and local deliveries in London are transported by pedal power. Look out for their quirky names such as the Bloomin’ Lovely Session IPA and Much Kneaded Craft Lager!
6) From the Notebook – a wonderful selection of craft beers with beautifully designed labels depicting Sand Martens, Robin, Stork, Gibbon, Hedgehog & Pangolin to name a few!
7) Brew Dog - a Scottish seller of beer, spirits & cider have been reducing their carbon emissions in 2020 by switching to renewable energy, using electric vehicles and cutting air travel.
Some new exciting projects include planting trees and restoring peatland in a newly acquired 9000 acre forest and an anaerobic digester bio-plant is set to be operational in 2022, which will turn waste brewery water into pure H2O and biomethane.
Brew dog is not just carbon neutral but is carbon negative due to the tree planting initiatives. To help reduce waste they also produce fruit beers using fruit that would go to waste & make dog biscuits using waste spelt from the beer production (non alcoholic of course!)
The product ‘Lost Lager’ even uses less water & utilises bread that would go to waste – with every pack they plant one tree.
8) Adnams in Southwold – producers of beer, spirit & wine, Adnams have switched to 100% renewable energy in 2017.
The company have reduced water waste by using steam from one batch, which is recycled as heat for the next batch. Spent grain is then used as cattle feed, with any remaining waste going to an anaerobic digestor which is turned into energy.
The team also organise beach cleans annually in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society. Wildflowers are encouraged to grow at their distribution centre which also has a green roof, with the on site bee keeper making honey, used by the local hotel.
9) Orkney Distilleries – Highland Park (Whisky) and Orkney Distilling (Gin) - these two distilleries based in the Orkney Islands have received government funding as part of the HySpirits project to explore the use of hydrogen as a green fuel source. Edinburgh’s Napier University are also playing a key role.
The UK government are encouraging green businesses across the UK with £5bn in funding, some of which will go towards greener distilleries. Orkney Distilleries above were successful in phase 1 funding, Bruichladdich below was successful in phase 2.
10) Bruichladdich Whisky – a Distillery based in Islay (Scottish Isles) are embracing the green revolution. They have installed a circulatory heat system to send hot water from the stills to heat their offices & visitor centre.
In 2017/18 they helped plant 7,500 trees in partnership with the Woodland Trust. Wildflower conservation is also encouraged on the land to promote biodiversity, including planting sunflower strips.
In 2019 the distillery replaced their petrol vehicles with electronic vehicles as staff cars. From 2020 they transitioned to 100% renewable energy and are currently looking at hydrogen as an option (see government funding on phase 2 link above).
These are just a snapshot of what's available in the UK.
But how does wine for example, affect your carbon footprint? During the filming of BBC 2’s program ‘Feast to Save the Planet’ the guests at a dinner table had to guess the impact of their chosen meal.
Many were surprised to find that wine driven from Europe to the UK was actually more of a problem than wine shipped from as far away as Australia. It was explained that alcohol from overseas can be shipped in very large vats and are then bottled once they reach the UK.
So if you see a wine originating from overseas with the words ‘bottled in the UK’ then it may not be quite as bad as you think, although will still have some impact on the environment.
An article in live science explains that out of various transportation methods, air cargo is the worst method, delivery by truck/lorry 2nd and shipping cargo had the lowest impact of all.
The article writer explains that a client on the East coast of the States may create less carbon emissions with wine shipped from Bordeux by container, rather than receiving wine by the truck from the West Coast of America!
Some wine makers are working to reduce weight of their bottles & minimising packages to help with transport costs once it reaches the truck for onward destination. Of course, if you consume a product that has been made & distributed more local to you then that’s a win for you AND the planet.
Thankfully, glass is one of the most widely recycled material but can be heavy to transport. British Glass says that ‘a green wine bottle in the UK will contain, on average, 68% recycled material.’
Any unrecyclable glass (where it has downgraded too much to be melted into bottles) can be used as aggregate in building materials.
So what’s the eco footprint of beer I hear you roar. According to ethical consumer report they say at the higher end, the carbon footprint from a pint can be equivalent to a generous bath heated by energy efficient gas boilers, whilst at the lower end, the same as an 800g loaf of locally baked bread!
Stats including pie chart about half way down the page on this link. The article explains other factors to consider including genetic modification of crops, transportation methods, water used, packaging and so on.
For those wanting to cut emissions you could even try some home brews. Toast Ale for example has a home brew club so you can follow the recipe and give it a try, making ale using surplus bread!
Mike Berners-Lee, eco consultant who wrote the book ‘There is no Planet B’ is an expert on carbon emissions. He works with many companies around the world and authored several books on the impact of human kind on the planet. (See a review of his book in the link above).
A few more links for you
π· If your taste buds have been wetted then why not check out this list of 15 eco drinks & where to buy them, including a rum made from banana skins & a beer using Cornflakes, Rice Pops & Coco Pops!!
π· Check out this grading system for eco booze created by the Ethical Consumer Organisation. Toast (the beer product mentioned above) came high up in the list.
π· If you've got the nibbles. why not check out this handy guide on which foods have lower carbon footprint (think seasonal & local).
.jpg "Plastic Animals Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels")
