New Year’s Resolutions for a Healthy World

With Greenpeace reporting that the equivalent of a truck load of plastic is dumped in the sea every minute, things are looking bad for our environment.

But we mustn’t despair.

You don’t have to live in an eco-home or install solar panels to make a difference. There are hundreds of small daily things that everyone can do, which really add up to curb the plastic epidemic. Here are just a few:

Take your own bags to the shops, and don’t buy food which comes in multiple layers of packaging. Resist the urge to put individual fruits and vegetables in their own bags. Better still, write to the supermarkets and urge them to use less.
Try out a grocery delivery service. No longer the preserve of the middle-classes, these services are competitive, nationwide, and hugely sustainable. The deliveries are fixed (great for the environment), the boxes are recycled, and the produce is seasonal and organic. What could be better?
Stop buying bottled water. Just stop. Get a flask. Reuse an old bottle. Fill it up from the tap. If everyone did this, the world would be an instantly less plastic-filled place.
Reject the offer of a straw. On a night out, at the cinema, wherever. Straws are the ultimate one-use item, and even more pernicious because no one thinks about them. G&T tastes better straight from the glass anyway.
Adopt the re-usable coffee cup. The cups aren’t great for the environment, but the plastic lids are a disaster. Many companies now offer reusable coffee cups – even the high street coffee shops themselves – and many offer a discount on your coffee if you have one. Winner!

2018 has the potential to be a fantastic year, one in which we move towards sustainability and the elimination of single-use plastics.

Happy New Year from Vesta!

We Are All Drinking Plastics

We all know that plastic is disastrous for the environment, but it is now being revealed that plastics are making their way into our bodies.

We’re consuming plastic every day in our drinking water.

A disturbing report from Orb demonstrates that ‘tap water samples in cities on five continents is contaminated with microscopic plastic fibers. Plastic is pouring out of faucets from New York to New Delhi. Scientists say they don’t know how these fibers reach household taps, or what their health risks might be, but experts suspect plastic fibers transfer toxic chemicals when consumed by humans’.

More than 40% of our plastic containers are single-use, but ‘plastic persists in the environment for centuries’. It is perhaps no wonder that plastics are making their way into our food chain, but what is striking it the worldwide scale of the problem:

‘The contamination defies geography: The number of fibers found in a sample of tap water from the Trump Grill, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, was equal to that found in samples from Beirut. Orb also found plastic in bottled water, and in homes that use reverse-osmosis filters. 83 percent of samples worldwide tested positive for microscopic plastic fibers.’

The government’s recent targeting of single-use plastics could not be more timely, but the revelation that microscopic man-made fibres are now getting into our bodies should encourage us all to resist single-use, and find refillable reusable solutions.

https://www.plasticoceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Orb-Media-Plastics-Story-Toolkit.pdf

Tips to Tackle Christmas Waste

Christmas should be an indulgent time of year, but as consumerism hits its November stride and December peak, our landfill use and C02 emissions increase.

Our festivities put a strain on the environment.
There are positive and low-impact steps we can all take to ensure a more eco-friendly festive season.

Gifts

Stocking fillers and one-use gifts tend to be plastic, and they tend to end up in landfill. Harvard academics have estimated that, in the US, ‘each adult spends an average 475 dollars on presents, and about half of these gifts are unwanted … A 2015 survey in Australia showed that 78.5% of people receive a gift they don’t want over the holiday season, and 13.7% of these people will throw away these unwanted gifts, rather than returning them to the store’.

Think twice about buying something made of plastic that will be disposed of by January. If it will be funny for less than a day or two, save your money and help the environment.
Return or re-gift unwanted items, and remember to include gift receipts in your Christmas parcels.
Remember to take your own carrier bags to the shops.
Have your online shopping delivered without bags where possible.
Re-use packaging when you wrap and send your own gifts.

Cards

According to the BBC, 1 billion Christmas cards end up in landfill, where they can take up to 30 years to decompose. If all these cards were recycled rather than thrown away, it would help save the equivalent of around 248,000 trees.

As well as recycling the cards you receive, try and buy cards made from recycled materials.
Try and hand deliver to friends and family who live close by and further reduce your Christmas carbon footprint .

Trees

‘Britons decorate and throw away over 6 million real Christmas trees during the festive season which produces an extra 9,000 tonnes of waste’ (BBC).

Avoid plastic trees. These are often made from unrecyclable materials, and are usually shipped from Asia, increasing their carbon footprint.
Try and make use of local recycling and freecycling services to give away unwanted fake trees, or donate via your local council to a family in need.
When buying a real tree, look out for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification. The Soil Association can give advice on eco friendly Christmas tree suppliers in the UK.
Most importantly, recycle your tree! Many local councils provide services to remove and recycle real trees for free, or have drop-off points. The trees are chipped to provide mulch for gardens and parks, and make environmentally friendly animal bedding.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

https://blogs.harvard.edu/telegraph/2017/11/10/the-cost-of-giving-the-environmental-impact-of-christmas-gifts/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/galleries/ethicalxmas/
https://www.soilassociation.org/blogs/2015/november/10/is-your-christmas-tree-costing-lives/

Philip Hammond confirms plans for a plastic tax

UK Budget faces up to plastic epidemic.

‘I want us to become a world leader in tackling the scourge of plastic’

As part of his budget speech on Wednesday, Chancellor Phillip Hammond formalised the UK’s commitment to reducing plastic pollution, by promising a review of tax liabilities for companies which

adopt green practices.

This follows on the 5p plastic bag charge, ‘which is credited with driving down how many are used by 85 per cent’.

Whether this translates to incentives for companies who pioneer reusables, or penalties for those who continue to promote single-use plastics, the world’s plastic epidemic is about to have a real fiscal impact on manufacturers and vendors of everything from comestibles to industrial products to homecare.

Philip Hammond references Blue Planet 2 as he confirms plans for a plastic tax

Scientists and environmental groups have tentatively welcomed plans to tackle two of the biggest environmental threats facing the world. Chancellor Philip Hammond referenced the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 as he announced that he and Environment Secretary Michael Gove would investigate how the tax system and charges on single-use plastic items could be used to reduce waste. “I want us to become a world leader in tackling the scourge of plastic,” said Mr Hammond.

Source: www.independent.co.uk/environment/budget-2017-air-pollution-philip-hammond-plastic-tax-clean-measures-statement-environment-a8069946.html

The Internet of Things in the Home

As long ago as 2015, an Institute of Analytics whitepaper on the Internet of Things recognised that its architecture offered ‘the technologies for transformative business applications’. Yet although the uptake has been high in the energy and manufacturing sectors, Jian Yang’s Silicon Valley smart fridge is probably as close as most of us have come to seeing these technologies in our homes.

And it’s not hard to see why. The caricature of a fridge with irritating banter represents the comedic side of a real concern with the encroachment of technologies and companies into our homes. Yet with proper management and minimal interfaces, the IoT offers unparalleled opportunities for waste reduction, and for streamlining busy lives. Iot is the future, but offers real challenges around consumer confidence and identifying genuine need.

As Jason Mann, Director of Industry Product Management at SAS has said, ‘the essence of IoT resides in the source of the data, which are the sensors. Those smart devices generate data about activities, events, and influencing factors that provide visibility into performance and support decision processes across a variety of industries and consumer channels.’ When properly developed and deployed, these sensors assess use of consumer products, and offer supply and delivery solutions which eliminate waste and extraneous packaging. When it comes to combating the plastic epidemic, these technologies offer real solutions, but must be installed at the point of need, preferably without a chatty robot voice.

See the white paper here: https://www.sas.com/en_au/whitepapers/iia-internet-of-things-108110.html

Return of the milk bottle

Plastic pollution is suddenly in the public eye, with everyone from legislative bodies such as the EU (though recent delays are a concern), to David Attenborough highlighting the appalling scale of the problem.

Recyclable one-use packaging – whilst welcome – looks unlikely to be enough to stem the tide of waste. The reduction in plastic content of disposables can be easily matched or exceeded by an extended period of reuse, and by adopting smart-packaging built to be re-used.

Companies and consumers alike need to spearhead the widespread adoption, or re-adoption, of reusable packaging. Simply using the same package twenty times would reduce plastic waste by 95%.

This is not an entirely new idea. Most people over the age of thirty remember the widespread use of milk bottles, which subsequently disappeared. There are a number of reasons for this, but what has changed since the demise of the milkman, is the widespread use of personal delivery and the availability of connected platforms that can more effectively manage the process.

It’s time for the milk bottle to make a comeback.

A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute

The Guardian has learned that 1 million plastic bottles are bought and sold every minute around the world. This amounts to more than 1 and a half trillion bottles per year and is only due to increase unless drastic measures are taken.

Former yachtsman and global navigator, Helen MacArthur writes:

“Shifting to a real circular economy for plastics is a massive opportunity to close the loop, save billions of dollars, and decouple plastics production from fossil fuel consumption.”

Hugo Tagholm, of Surfers Against Sewerage adds:

“Current science shows that plastics cannot be usefully assimilated into the food chain. Where they are ingested they carry toxins that work their way on to our dinner plates.Whilst the production of throwaway plastics has grown dramatically over the last 20 years, the systems to contain, control, reuse and recycle them just haven’t kept pace.

We are confident that with the use of smart packaging and the changes in home-delivery culture, that the amount of plastic bottles used by the general public can be reduced significantly and that MacArthur’s and Tagholm’s goals can be met.

A million bottles a minute: world’s plastic binge ‘as dangerous as climate change’

Exclusive: Annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and jeopardising oceans, coastlines and other environments

Source: www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change

All Plastic Packaging Will Reach Landfill or the Bottom of the Ocean

The former CEO of ASDA has expressed the bald reality that ‘all plastic packaging will reach landfill or the bottom of the ocean sooner or later’, and urged supermarkets to stop using plastic packaging. This is a welcome clarion call, but with sources indicating that ‘annual consumption of plastic bottles alone is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts’, a gear change is needed. The model of one-use packaging is not sustainable, and needs to be replaced by smart refillable alternatives, without loss of ease for the consumer. This is a huge challenge, but with advances in logistics and the increasing interconnectivity offered by the Internet of Things, there has never been a better time to challenge the one-use-package paradigm.

Supermarkets must stop using plastic packaging, says former Asda boss

Exclusive: Consumers do not want plastic-polluted oceans so supermarkets and packaging industry have to work together, says Andy Clarke

Source: www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/12/supermarkets-stop-using-plastic-packaging-former-asda-boss-andy-clarke