A month without plastic... update...

Just catching up with Chris Jeavans' "Month without plastic" challenge... She's about halfway though now, and has come across a fair few difficulties - bin liners, toothbrushes and beer-can 'widgets' amongst them - but she is doing far better than I imagine I could do!

Have a read here... How do you think you'd do?

Strong tea for heroes!

It seems that I am a little behind on this one as it has been about since September last year, but I have just spotted Captain Scott's Strong Expedition Tea in Tesco...

5p from each box of tea purchased will go to the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) and be used to help to preserve Captain Scott's hut on Ross Island. More here...

Have you had any? Did you like it?

Atlas Schmatlas!

Well, my intentions of doing lots of work have been thwarted yet again by the arrival of a parcel from Amazon containing Atlas Schmatlas... Only had a quick look so far, but it looks fantastic! I'm particularly liking the Climate Map of the World (we live in an "Umbrella now and again" zone) and the story of the was between the penguins and the polar bears...

Not very happy at all about the ridiculous amount of packaging it arrived with though...

Waste Watchers on The One Show

I've written before about the problem of excess packaging, and if recent reports on The One Show are anything to go by, there are plenty of other people who share my frustration...

The picture, sent in to the BBC by a viewer, shows the packaging that one supermarket think is necessary for a single banana! Other pictures, and some interesting comments, as well as video clips from the show here.

But what's the solution?? What can we do about all this packaging??

Packaging, packaging... and more packaging!

An interesting article on the front page of today's Independent - looking at the (in my opinion rather ridiculous!) amount of packaging waste generated by your average visit to the supermarket...

Reading the comments that have been sent in by Independent readers, it seems I'm not on my own!


Does toothpaste really need to be in a plastic tube AND a cardboard box? Are pizzas better for being packed in a polystyrene tray with a plastic wrapper and a cardboard box?

And although Sainsbury's sell some of their organic fruit and vegetables in compostable trays, the majority of this unneccessary packaging cannot be recycled.

The comments from the supermarkets are interesting as well... "We are committed to making sure packaging is not excessive." (Tesco)... "We already have a target to reduce our packaging..." (Sainsbury's)... "We plan to minimise packaging in the first instance and transfer the remaining packaging to biodegradable." (Waitrose). One reader had commented on the USB memory stick she'd bought from Staples - in a cardboard box, shrink-wrapped, in a plastic display case and a further plastic storage box. Staples declined to comment!

The good news is that the Environment Minister (Ben Bradshaw) and the Secretary of State for the Environment (David Miliband), as well as a number of other politicians, have expressed their concern and are backing the Independent's campaign...

So... what can we do about it?

The politicians suggest that we write to our local councils and the Trading Standards Authority and "shop the shops".

I once wrote to Marks and Spencer, returning some packaging to them that I couldn't recycle, and asking them to dispose of it in an environmentally-friendly manner... I never heard from them... I guess the packaging went to a landfill site...

Some people suggest unwrapping everything you buy in the supermarket, and leaving the packaging at the checkout - I've not been brave enough to do this yet!


Perhaps avoid buying products with unneccessary packaging? Then you end up (assuming you keep shopping in supermarkets) in the situation that I did the other day... Broccoli grown in Lincolnshire in a plastic, cling-film wrapped tray? Or broccoli grown in Kenya in a compostable wrapper? (Interestingly, it was the Kenyan broccoli, and not the Lincolnshire-grown, that was organic!)

So... packaging... food miles... organic... and then when you bring Fairtrade into the equation... What a complicated world we live in these days!!

Leave a comment and let us know about excessive packaging you've experienced... And more importantly, any great ideas you've got for dealing with the problem and getting the supermarkets to change their ways!