Why not use hemp?

We've all heard of hemp, the sister of marijuana, but do you know how many uses it has and how good it is for the environment? According to this article, it is a much more sustainable resource than trees for paper, and can reduce deforestation.

hemp only takes 12-14 weeks to grow (image © raygirl)

From oil, to clothing to building materials hemp is a versatile plant that should be utilized more. I personally would love to be able to buy a notepad made of hemp from my local shop. Right now this is difficult... Doing a quick internet search I haven't found any retail stores that supply this in Australia, but with a growth in demand this can change in the future! For now lets reduce the amount of non-recycled paper we consume and keep demanding sustainable alternatives!

Why buy when you can borrow?

It seems we are all a little too caught up in consumerism. Needing the newest model phone or adding a new appliance to the collection. I, like most people, have too much stuff. Some of it is invaluable but some of it is collecting dust. Libraries are a perfect example of how we can borrow rather than buy, only in rare cases do I read a book more than once, so borrowing is perfect. I can grab a new novel, a cookbook or learn a new language!

A plethora of resources! (image © kippa2001)

I recently heard about a website where people share things in the community, for example, I might need a drill to use once, rather than buy one I can use this site to see if anyone in my local area has one. This saves us money but also reduces the amount of stuff created which helps the environment. On the topic of saving money, there are other great websites where you can get things your local area for free including freecycle or cheap such as gumtree or craigslist. Maybe you're wondering, why bother when you can get new things so cheaply? Well one example is shown by this article demonstrating how fashion companies are polluting waterways with dye for fabric. We don't *need* new clothing when so much already exists. Next time you're thinking of purchasing something, why not try your local library, thrift store or have a look at these websites first to see if you can't reduce your environmental impact.

Sea turtle with a straw in it's nose?

So you may have seen the video of a sea turtle that has gone viral recently, if you haven't then warning, it's a little bit difficult to watch. While nobody knows for sure how it got in the turtles nose what is clear is the cause, disposable plastic straws.

                                         Marine trash often looks like food (image © blckbaronstock)

We've all used them since we were children, but these small devices not only are not that helpful (drink from the cup) but create large amounts of trash each year that end up in our waterways. So what can we do? One Dutch teen has developed an eco-friendly ocean cleaning device, but to prevent future incidents like this one we could try to stop using disposable plastic straws and instead try paper, glass or stainless steel straws (or nothing at all!).

Disappearing bees

We've all heard that the bees are vanishing but what does this mean for us? With no bees it will cause problems for crops which in turn will create all kinds of crises in terms of food prices due to shortage. The article states the main cause is global warming, however use of pesticides and insecticides are also killing these integral flying insects.

We forget how important bees really are (image © PLutonius)

But how can we help? You can plant wildflowers in your garden, create a bee waterer and if you have a vegetable patch learn about alternative methods of  pest control that won't harm the bees (such as companion planting) so you won't need to use man-made chemicals. Of course, having a greener lifestyle in general will help the bees to thrive by slowing down climate change. 

Thrift store find of the day: cat books

I love cats, well, I love all animals really but i've only ever had cats as pets. One day I would love to have rescue pets of many different species. Anyway, along my travels i've found many books but these two made the cut. The Shakespeare Cats book will be a gift for a friend but I fully intend keep the other one and try to knit some cat sweaters.

some amazing thrift store finds

Apart from the obvious uniqueness of finding a gem in a thrift store like the books above, an environmental advantage of buying second hand books is less trees get cut down. Despite having paper farms, illegal logging is still an issue and deforestation causes loss of habitat for many species. So rather than contributing to the demand of more paper, try going to a second hand book store or buying second hand online. It's cheaper too!

Pollution in London

It's been in the news lately, deaths caused by the pollution in London. Increasing the risk of lung cancer and many other illnesses, the pollution here is out of control. We are being told to avoid certain areas when jogging due to fear of breathing in more smog than necessary. Of course London isn't the only city with this problem, Hong Kong is famous for it, as are other places. But when will it get to a point where we realize we need to change things?

                                                 

I don't want to breath that in, do you? (image © Yasincrow)

I could tell you all again about using bicycles or public transport to commute, but another way to reduce this is to support locally made products. Buying fruit and vegetables that are in season and locally grown, and avoiding things in general that are produced outside your country of residence. The less diesel trucks coming into the city with foreign imports the less pollution we'll have. Even if these things cost a little more, the environment and our health is worth more!

World heritage sites dissapearing

In my last blog post I talked about species going extinct, and in this one I will talk about the land. Even though East Rennell in the Solomon Islands is on the USESCO world heritage list, logging of nearby areas may cause it to not be around for future generations. More importantly, logging causes habitat loss for all life forms who rely on the trees to survive, including those dwelling in the coral.

 Will beautiful scenery be a thing of the past? 

But why does this happen? Because of the incredible demand for paper. Every day we go about our business, writing in notepads, printing receipts, but how much of this is sustainably sourced? And is it recycled afterwards? I always try to reduce my consumption, buy recycled paper, re-use what I have and recycle what I don't need. Doing this and standing up to big companies who make these decisions can help prevent logging and deforestation in East Rennell and many other places. Small decisions have big impacts. 

Glastonbury festival 2015

So if you're a reader of my blog you would have noticed I went to Glastonbury this year. If you're not familiar with the festival basically it is one of the biggest music festivals in the world. This one in particular has a focus on 'being green', though it was difficult to tell if anyone attending actually cared about the environment at all. Every year there is so much rubbish just left behind, not just rubbish though, people leave perfectly good tents, chairs and other camping equipment because they are too lazy to take it home. The people who were camping near me had this amazing set up with two huge tents and just left it there. It wasn't a wet day, the tent wasn't broken, and the whole area surrounding them was overflowing with garbage. If you didn't want it couldn't you donate it to a charity?

To continue to enjoy beautiful scenes clean up after yourself!

Rant aside, I had an amazing time! Florence and the Machine was amazing! The whole place was crazy, my favorite bar was the Rabbit Hole because of it's Alice in Wonderland decorations and favorite random act was the New York Brass Band.

I went with my lovely housemate and good friend who is a vegetarian, but I was able to influence our snack purchases to be all vegan! Oreos, Fox's party rings, musli bars, corn chips, salsa, chocolate covered Belvita, dark chocolate ginger, unsalted mixed nuts, pretzels, bread, peanut butter, sesame snacks and of course juice, rum and cider. There were plenty of vegan food stalls too, so I was well fed and really happy!

I recommend Glastonbury Festival to anyone who likes music, even if you don't you will find so many things to do there without needing to go to one stage, including a circus! But if you do go to this or any festival, please bring home everything. Ticket prices and land fills increase because of your laziness, not to mention the continuation of the festival hangs in the balance!

Incentivised recycling

Today I was thinking about recycling. In Japan and many other countries there are recycling programs set in place in order to encourage people to recycle PET bottles and cans. In most cases you get a small refund at a recycling depot. These container deposit schemes are proven to be effective and yet big companies like Coca-Cola oppose them, only to improve their own profits.

a refund on recycling makes a big difference

Some countries have more creative solutions, in Beijing you can recycle bottles to get credit towards your commute fare. But in my London home we don't even have a basic curb side recycling box, so I've resorted to bringing washed recyclables into my workplace to dispose of them, rather than throwing it in with the normal garbage. 

Recycling isn't difficult, and we can all do small things like putting our garbage in the right bins every day. If we don't this garbage ends up killing wild life and ruining landscapes. 

Packaging

Shrink wrap over individual vegetables, styrofoam packs for apples, packaging as far as the eye can see. But is it necessary? This German supermarket works on a philosophy of no waste, and with over 10 million tonnes of packing waste each year in the UK alone it’s easy to see why.

is that really necessary?

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I always try to bring my own bags to supermarkets but it is important to try to make this effort every time we shop. Buying in bulk (especially for items frequently used/long shelf life like rice, beans etc.) also helps a lot. As well as shopping at farmers markets to get fruit and vegetables is also preferable since they don’t usually have packaging at all (and when possible growing your own).

So think before you buy that tiny tub of yogurt, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a big one and put it into your own container? It will take 5 extra minutes and every little bit helps!

Deodorant, antiperspirant and perfume

For a while I’ve been wondering if antiperspirants and deodorants are safe for me. While there are no conclusive evidence of it being cancer causing there are questions as to whether the safety of the artificial perfumes used are safe or not. I decided that personally I didn’t want to buy anything that contained any artificial fragrance (including perfume) and one day hope to make my own perfumes from flowers.

But for now, what was I going to do about body odour? Luckily for me I don’t sweat a lot, and when I do I don’t think it is very strong.  For a while wasn’t using any and when I told people they had hadn’t noticed at all (my friends and family would definitely let me know if they thought I had bad B.O.). But with summer coming I decided I wanted to put my mind at ease and investigate odour eliminating products that didn’t have artificial fragrances. There are many different options including things made from coconut oil, vinegar and bicarbonate soda but I ended up choosing something called milk of magnesia (aka magnesia hydroxide). 

no added flavors or sugars is best

A commonly found product in pharmacies often used for indigestion that wasn't expensive and had many people claim it to work. While it doesn't stop one sweating, it does indeed stop me from smelling. I went to a show where I was dancing and partying one night and came home with pits that had no smell at all! Amazing!

If you are considering an alternative to deodorant I would highly recommend getting something like milk of magnesia (or magnesia oil) which doesn't have any negative health affects when used topically (please correct me if I am wrong).

food wastage

We all waste food sometimes, sometimes it can't be helped. Personally I love leftovers, they're the best meals. But what is the answer to reducing it? Many companies have varying sizes of packaging but since that increases the waste of packaging is it really better? I suppose common sense tells us to try and better estimate what we will need. But can more be done? Did you know companies, especially large chain supermarkets, throw away thousands of kilograms of fresh produce simply because it isn't pretty? Too small, blemishes, strange shapes - these fruit and veg just don't sell. I worked on a farm in New Zealand in 2011 (through WWOOF) and experienced this first hand. At the time i didn't mind too much - any fruit we picked that wasn't good enough for sale we got to eat. But it did open my eyes to how much gets thrown away. Then the french supermarket Intermarché introduced the inglorious fruit and vegetable campaign.

Selling misshapen fruits and vegetables at a discounted rate. With over 800 million going hungry every day the idea of throwing away an oddly shaped carrot seems inhumane. Then another French incentive - a law banning supermarkets from throwing away food that is near the expiry date - by instead donating it to charities came to light. Less landfill garbage, less hungry people... Now if only these laws and ideas could come to other countries...

Want to help? Spread the word! Let your local politicians and supermarket chains know how you feel about food wastage! Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media platforms are fantastic tools for change in the information age. 

Commuting

                                  Space it takes to transport 60 people by bicycle, car and bus 

Unless you live way out in a country town or have a job that makes it necessary, I can’t see the point of owning (or at least regularly using) a car. If you calculate the cost of getting a drivers licence, getting driving lessons, buying the car, insurance, petrol, and parking – you’re looking at quite a large figure, especially when you compare this to the cost of public transport. There are always exceptions, but most cities and towns have decent enough public transport. For environmental reasons bicycles (or walking) are the best way to get around but not always the most practical.

The more people that are born into the world the more crowded the roads will get, the more pollution it creates and the more it will costs us all. So if not for the environment, consider your wallet and try alternatives to cars when getting around. You can read the paper, listen to music, or even learn a language (personally i like to read novels). The more people that are born into the world the more crowded the roads will get, the more pollution it creates and the more it will costs us all. So if not for the environment, consider your wallet and try alternatives to cars when getting around.

Reusable sanitary products

It's that time of month again and it got me thinking about the environmental impact of menstruation. Do you know how much waste we create each year due to disposable sanitary products? I could give you number but i'm not sure how much of an impact it would make. How about despite the fact they cause major blockages in sewer systems many of these items get flushed and end up on our beaches and in our oceans. As a young woman I was told that I 'needed' to use cotton tampons and pads, but as an adult I realized that wasn't true.

 reusable pads and tampons

On my quest to reduce my wastage i discovered reusable sanitary products. At first glance that sounds disgusting, but it makes sense really. Depending on your tastes or needs, washable cloth pads (above) or silicone cups (moon cups, diva cups etc) can be used. Not only do they help save the planet but they save money, and are generally better for our bodies (toxic shock syndrome, anyone?). I bought these on Amazon and can say they are soft, work perfectly and suit my needs completely. 

Consider this as an option for yourself and your loved ones. How much better would the world be if we stopped listening to big organisations telling us what we should be doing, and starting making our own decisions?

Reduce, reuse, recycle

So I went to Shoreditch (hipster town in London) on Sunday to enjoy the markets and vintage shops but was disgusted with the streets. Overflowing garbage bins and rubbish lined the streets. It's quite sad to think of where all that will end up. Sometimes when i see things like this it makes me wonder what the point of even trying to save the planet is. To start the day I went to get a coffee and asked the staff to use my keep cup instead of a disposable cup and they looked at me like I was a crazy person. Not all places are like this though (Starbucks actually gives you a discount if you bring in your own).

2.5 billion disposable cups are thrown away each year in the UK

I always try to do what I can: bringing my own bags to the supermarket, bringing lunch from home, buying things with less packaging etc. I've read other people's stories online about how they have almost no garbage which i find inspiring. Lets all try to remember that each piece of unnecessary, un-recyclable rubbish goes into landfills and oceans, making it harder for future generations to enjoy the beauty of this planet. Not only that but the energy and raw materials it takes to produce and transport the packaging also have an impact.