All posts tagged plastics

Shame

It seems to me that large manufacturers and retailers are genuinely out of touch with the public. As environmental awareness increases and there are more and more demands for reductions in packaging, ditching unnecessary single-use containers and abandoning built-in obsolescence, it’s time that big corporations made some changes. Now I know that it takes dinosaurs a long time to respond, but I can’t help feeling that some of the reluctance to change is because it’s simply easier not to. However, it is not impossible – specifications can be amended, processes can be modified, expectations can be altered. Making the excuse that it’s because of economics just does not wash (economics are a fiction – plastic in the sea killing marine life is a reality).

So, I have decided that I will take action. I already vote with my money, but that’s a rather private action and, whilst it is important, is not going to make a huge difference in isolation. I am, therefore, taking to social media with direct, public messages to companies that I have issues with. Today, via Twitter, I targeted Seasalt, who make lovely organic clothes, claim to be environmentally responsible and pack all their goods in plastic.They did respond, which is at least something, but obviously it’s easier to blame someone else:

They haven’t responded further, but I hope that other people will join in and we might be able to persuade them to make the change.

I would like to think that shaming companies publicly might have some effect, because after all social media is a key part of their marketing strategy. Perhaps you’d like to join me? Do tell me about any companies that you have contacted and how they have responded. Perhaps we can support each other and make our ripples into waves.

36 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on August 21, 2018 • Permalink

Posted in ethical living, reducing consumption

Tagged environmental responsibility, packaging, plastics, Seasalt, social media, Twitter

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on August 21, 2018

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2018/08/21/shame/

The Guppy Report

Guppyfriends

Regular readers will remember that, in an attempt to further reduce the plastic pollution that I am responsible for, I decided to buy a Guppyfriend. Basically, this is a very fine mesh bag to use in the washing machine to trap fibres from manmade fabrics. In the end, I decided to buy two of them, because a single one is not big enough to contain a full load of washing. The decision was a good one, although not for the reason I initially thought. So, what did I think of them?

Pros: The bags arrived quickly and are well-made. There’s a little cover for the zip once it’s closed. to keep it in place and ensure that it doesn’t catch on anything. The opening is large, so there’s no difficulty filling or emptying the bags. Any items that I put in the bags seem to have come out as clean as without them.

Cons: If you only have one bag and you put all your washing in it for a small load, you might find that the drum of your machine becomes unbalanced and so won’t spin (this happened once when I was testing how well they worked). By splitting your wash between bags, this is less likely to be a problem. If you accidentally turn the bag inside out and reuse it, you’ll release any trapped fibres into your wash (unlikely as you’d notice before you got this far as the zip would be on the inside). If you stuffed the bag very fully, there would not be room for the items inside to move around and get washed/rinsed properly.

In fact the issues with washing distribution are probably only going to be significant if the majority of the things you are washing contain manmade fibres. Once I started carefully sorting my wash, I realised that a lot less than half of the things we wash contain non-natural fibres. Since natural fibres are biodegradable, these items (towels, bed linen, t-shirts, skirts, tea towels, dish cloths, sweatshirts, jeans, tunics, aprons…) don’t need to go in the guppy friend and go in the machine ‘naked’… thus being entirely free to circulate as the drum rotates.

Looking inside my Guppyfriends after a couple of months of use, I can’t really see any fibres and certainly no accumulation large enough to extract. I suspect that this is because of the nature of the items I’ve been washing: nothing ‘fluffy’ (no fleeces, for example) and those rare things that are 100% manmade (eg my swimming costumes) are very tightly woven. I’m sure households less focussed on avoiding manmade fibres in the first place might have a different experience, in which case the Guppyfriends would make a huge difference.

So, overall, I think they were a worthwhile purchase. They are no trouble to use and have the potential to make a real difference to microfibre pollution until we only use natural fibres for our clothes and household linens. Oh… and they are going to be really handy when I do any wet felting in the washing machine, as they will be so much more efficient than a pillowcase for stopping the filter getting clogged up with woolly fluff. This, however, is probably not a consideration for most potential users!

20 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on January 25, 2018 • Permalink

Posted in ethical living

Tagged Guppy Friend, microfibres, plastics, pollution, washing machine

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on January 25, 2018

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2018/01/25/the-guppy-report/

The game of the name

I’m very conscious about the effects of language – choose one word rather than another and you can change the whole tone of a sentence. But it’s more than that, by naming objects or ideas in particular ways, we give them a label that can have very deep connotations. It’s often said that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’, and it is true that language is a powerful tool for changing hearts and minds. Because of this I was very taken with a word my friend Katie used several times recently – petrol.

As you know, I’m very keen to promote the use of local and renewable resources in order to make our lives more sustainable and protect our planet. One of the biggest problems is our reliance on petrochemicals: our lives are filled with all sorts of products produced from oil that we don’t really notice. We’ve all been told about the issues associated with vehicle fuel – petrol and diesel – and we know that burning oil and coal and gas contributes to all sorts of environmental problems, but petrochemicals fill our lives. As you read this, you are probably wearing them (manmade fibres) and looking at them (your computer). You may have washed your hair with them this morning, smeared them on your face, eaten off them, prepared food on them, cleaned your teeth with them… the list goes on. And whilst their presence may be obvious (to some) in plastics, they are also hidden in things like juice cartons (which appear to be made of cardboard) and books (the covers are often coated with oil-based varnish).

Balls of reclaimed petrol!

So what do we do? Well, being aware is the first step – no one takes action if they don’t know a problem exists. And this is where naming comes in and where Katie has hit the nail on the head. She has taken to referring to petrochemical products as ‘petrol’. So, when using acrylic yarn, she says she’s ‘knitting with petrol’ and when we saw a farmer spreading inorganic fertilizer she said he was ‘throwing petrol on his land’. And as she talked I realised how effective it was. If, every time we bought food wrapped in plastic rather than paper or sprayed chemical fertilizer on our vegetables rather than digging in compost or using homemade liquid feed, we said ‘I’m wrapping my food in petrol’ or ‘I’m putting petrol on the garden’ would that change out attitude?

I know it’s not exactly accurate terminology, but it makes you think… if we could try to swap at least some of out ‘petrol’ for something renewable, we could make our lives much, much more sustainable.

6 Comments

by The Snail of Happiness on May 25, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in reducing consumption

Tagged compost, fertilizer, petrochemicals, petrol, plastics, sustainability, wool, yarn

Posted by The Snail of Happiness on May 25, 2014

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2014/05/25/the-game-of-the-name/

So, let’s get creative

At the beginning of this week, the IPCC issued its latest report on climate change. There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that human beings are having a significant effect on the earth’s climate as a result of various greenhouse gasses. We can all expect the effects to become more noticeable over time. What are we to do? The key is reducing our use of fossil fuels (and thus greenhouse gas emissions) and this is something that we can all contribute to.

Chris Field, co-chair of the IPCC working group says this:

We definitely face challenges, but understanding those challenges and tackling them creatively can make climate-change adaptation an important way to help build a more vibrant world in the near-term and beyond.

And that’s what we need to do, to be creative and to understand that we can each take a little bit of responsibility and make a difference. Over the nearly two years that I have been writing this blog, I’ve discussed all sorts of small steps that I (and others) have taken to lead a life that is a little bit greener and, therefore, contributes a little bit less to climate change and destruction of the planet in other ways.

So, I thought that now would be a good time to list some of the creative things that I’ve been doing that help…

First, in our house, we try to mend things rather than throwing them away as soon as something goes wrong. So, this is our solar-powered wind-up radio in its current (much repaired) incarnation:

Solar, wind-up radio in its latest incarnation... still going strong

Our eco-radio

And (much as I dislike it) I do darn things:

And the finished job... not too bad and it should last a while longer

Darned slipper sock

Recently, the base plate on our old Dyson vacuum clearer broke, but we managed to get a replacement secondhand one, so that should survive a bit longer: