Saturday 11 August 2018

Easy Ways To Help Our Planet

Hotel ‘greenwashing’ dirties eco-friendly reputation | WSU ...
Sue McMurray, WSU,
 https://news.wsu.edu/2015/10/01/hotel-greenwashing-dirties-eco-friendly-reputation/

With climate change being a current issue and continuing to grow in concern, it is more important that ever that we all do our part to help protect the environment. When talking to friends and family, many of them believe that it will be far to difficult or expensive. Granted the complete zero waste lifestyle, although possible, does take a lot more effort than a 'conventional' lifestyle but there are several simple changes or steps every homeowner can take to reduce our environmental impact.

First thing is to buy second hand or recycled goods. This can include using the library, charity shops or online stores such as Vinted (which I have spent too much time one ... whoops) which offer absolute bargains that will not only save you money but it will also helps reduce the demand for natural resources that are finite. Not to mention a reduction in the use of chemicals, dyes and synthetic fibres that end up polluting both our terrestrial and aquatic environments. Materials such as polyester (which makes up 60% of all clothing) and nylon is manufactured using petroleum which we all know contributes to the enhanced greenhouse effect as well as leading to the creation of micro-plastics due to their non-biodegradable nature. With on 20 items of clothing being manufactured per person annually, it is no wonder that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry globally and accounts for 10% of the global carbon footprint which makes sense if you take into account the transportation, soil erosion, water use and waste production.

Did you know it has been reported that paper coffee cups are responsible for the cutting of 6.5 million trees? Seems like a ridiculous number for a single hot drink. These cups have also been linked to the consumption of 4 billion gallons of water. Most of us think this isn't an issue if we just recycle them. Well you're wrong. These cups are coated in a polythene resin that makes it water proof which unfortunately means that the 16 billion cups we use every year end up in landfill. The simple solution is to take your own cup. I keep mine in my bag all the time and comes in handy at work, the library or just when I'm out and about. You can even buy fold up ones which take up less space. You can even save money with Costa and Starbucks offering a 25p discount and Pret offering double that. It may not seem like a lot but every penny counts!

Did you know that the meat industry is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions? Going veggie even just for one or two days a week will help to cut your carbon footprint massively. Even though I think a meat free diet is the best, cutting your meat intake will significantly reduce your environmental impact. With agricultural emissions predicted to increase 80% by 2050, it is more important than ever we start to understand the link between our diet and environmental damage. I could write pages on this so I might write a full post on this. I highly recommend that you watch Cowspiracy on Netflix as it sheds light on the truth about this link.

Although the 5p bag charge has encouraged us to bring our own bag, there is still those rare occasions we do buy one. Globally, we are using roughly 500 billion single use carrier bags annually which puts our environment at great risk with thousands of animals dying every year from ingestion alone. These bags easily end up in our oceans and lead to an increase of microplastic when they breakdown in sunlight and we are all aware of those dangers. My advice is to buy one of those fold up bags and keep them in your bag. That way when you buy something unexpectedly (or something you maybe shouldn't have) you'll be prepared to help the environment.

Get some reusable containers and prep lunch the night before. This will stop you from buying those supermarket meal deals that use a huge amount of single use plastics which have a huge ecological footprint. Obviously glass containers are better as there is less petroleum used, they're more durable and are easier to recycle. Not to mention they don't produce those dreaded microplastics!! You can also freeze leftovers for those days you can't be bothered to cook which may reduce the amount of take out you eat, again reducing the waste you produce. In 2015, the UK sent 7.3 million tonnes of food waste to landfill. Not only is this costing families and average of £700, but the food will breakdown in the landfill which will lead to an increase in methane production. Over a time period of 20 years, methane will do between 25 and 100 times more damage carbon dioxide meaning the extra from last nights dinner you threw away, could actually impact our environment.

If you're a keen gardener you should definitely have your own compost heap. Not only will this save you a huge amount of money long term (seeing as a bag of compost is roughly £7) but it will help reduce your environmental impact. Provided you turn the soil regularly, it will minimise the amount of methane product as less food waste makes it to landfill. Most pre-bagged compost is peat based, which is the decaying remains of plants such as sphagnum mosses, that has been mined for peat bogs that are often SSSI's. Unless the bag is clearly labelled 'peat free' the average bag of compost is on average 70% peat meaning that by buying these bags you could be encouraging the destruction of a rapidly declining habitat. In Ireland, roughly 80% of peat bogs have been destroyed which is a large number considering that peat bogs covered 17% of Ireland's land before we began mining. This put creatures, such as the otter and the peregrine falcon at risk of a declining population. There is the other issue of the large amount of greenhouse gases emitted by peat mining. Peat bogs are a large carbon sink and the draining process releases a large quantity of carbon dioxide amongst other greenhouse gases. Annually peat emits roughly 400,000 tonnes of carbon which is also caused by the spreading of peat compost that rapidly turns into carbon dioxide. Needless to say composting your food waste, from fruit and veg to coffee beans, is a great way of cutting your impact on landfill and reduce your carbon emissions. Not to mention you don't need that nasty plastic packaging that compost comes in.

Susan's Birding and Nature Blog: Admiring the Bog
A photo of a peat bog -
Susan Cooper, https://suzancc.blogspot.com/

Obviously there is so much more we can be doing, like using metal reusable bottles and seperating our waste, but these are just five ideas that are so simple to try. If you have any other tips feel free to share them below!




References -
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