New Eco Detergent Launched By Asda Wal-Mart

Just a quick bit of news as competition to Ecover continues. Asda (Wal-Mart) have launched a new range called Tiny But Tough, similarly named to Persil Small and Mighty (by Unilever).

Essentially just concentrated liquid detergent, the small size means less packaging, less transport “cost” and requires less water to manufacture.

More so-called “eco detergents” are launching soon, one by Procter & Gamble and another by Reckit Benckiser. Whilst any move is a good one, a lot of detergents in the EU are reasonably well formulated for the environment, and measures such as washing less and at lower temperatures will have a much bigger difference on the envrionment than the brand of detergent you use. We would welcome your thoughts?

It’s World Car Free Day

We don’t often post on a Saturday (not because we’re lazy, just to give you a break) but we make exceptions and this is one of them. It’s World Car Free Day today so give the car a rest eh?

I’ll leave it to the site to explain the rest:

Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society.

2007 should be no different.

But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.

Let World Carfree Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars…365 days a year.

As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.

100 Ways To Save The Planet - Part 11, The Final Part!

90. Recycle your old fleeces. Fleece jackets and sweatshirts can not only be made from recycled material, but can be recycled too. Patagonia not only take their own fleeces but any Polatec branded fleece from other companies.

91. Narrow your margins in Word or whichever word processing software you use. It makes a big difference as your printer can print a lot closer to the edge than you think it does and will consequently print less paper, use less ink and also less energy. Oh, and print at 70% black. And both sides, well done.

92. Wear a jumper outside. Patio heaters are commonplace now, but they’re not good for the environment (see Life Goggles here) and if it’s too cold to sit outside even in a jumper, go inside and warm up. That told you.

93. Use recycled toilet paper. Not only does it save trees but also is colourless so harmful dyes don’t make it into the sewage works and the sea.

94. Donate and buy scrap. Not just in the sense of a car that’s been flattened into a box, but everyday scrap for making shelves or a fence. Or even an art project, like here.

95. Write to your local politician about environmental issues and put pressure on the people who can make big changes. In the UK, that’ll be your MP, try www.writetothem.com or look here.

96. Shut it! Keep fridge and freezer doors closed. For every minute a fridge is open, it can take three energy-intensive minutes for it to cool down again. Similarly, it can take up to half an hour for a freezer to regain its temperature once a door has been opened for just 60 seconds.

97. Drive the speed limit. Not a safety warning (although using a seatbelt is always recommended) but a way to use less petrol. Driving a steady, sensible speed is better for the environment (and your sanity) that racing around like a maniac.

98. Don’t use the standby button. Soon, new electrical items won’t have them, but as most people keep electrical items for a while that doesn’t help. Just use the big button on the front or switch it off at the plug. Some items use the same amount of electricity whether it’s on or on standby. Leaving your TV and all accessories attached to it on standby all the time could cost you £46 a year.

99. Give up the car. Okay, that’s not always practical for everyone, so why not just be sensible about using it. Can you walk to the shops? It may take and extra 15 minutes to get there but at least you get to keep that perfect parking spot outside your house.

100. Join these people - www.wearewhatwedo.org. They’re the makers of ‘This is Not a Plastic Bag’ and writers of this book but they also have a thing called a Personal Action Tracker on their site. This is a “list of simple, everyday actions you can do to help change the world (and have fun while you’re doing it). It could be doing something for the community like shopping locally, something for the environment like avoiding plastic bags, or something for you, like learning to paint, sing or speak Spanish…”. Basically it’s a list a bit like this one where you can keep track of things you’ve done to help save the planet. Good luck.

So that’s it. Sort of. It’s the end for the moment with the release of our 100 Ways To Save the Planet eBook, which you can get for free here. But they’ll be more soon (I’ll think of an imaginative new title, maybe) with an updated book for you to download and share. As usual if you have any suggestions, please let us know.

Eco-Friendly Skateboards

Comet Skateboards from San Francisco uses poplar and hickory from sustainable forests for a board’s core, topped with bamboo or maple veneer and coated with water-based paints. They’re also working with manufacturers and universities worldwide to help develop ‘green’ epoxies, reinforcements and coatings.

The boards are designed and manufactured in the world’s only solar-powered skateboard factory, in downtown San Francisco. The company is committed to manufacturing locally and sources supplies locally whenever possible. Of course, a green aura isn’t enough to sway buyers from other brands, which is why Comet also builds boards that are stronger and lighter than most.

[Via: Springwise]

The Low Carbon Lifestyle Tour 2007

Mukti Mitchell is sailing around Britain in a zero-emission microyacht. Why? To promote low carbon lifestyles. It’s a 6-month voyage around Britain that will visit forty ports including Swansea, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, London and Southampton.

You can read his diary and find out his latest position, as well as read a free pdf guide to low carbon lifestyles. He should be finishing in early October, good luck to him!

Why The Tube Strike Was Good For London

Those of you who live outside of London, or the UK, can probably still be able to appreciate the problems a public transport strike causes - one that closes the major form of public transport in a large city. Besides annoying people immensely, doubling journey times and a massive increase in vehicles on the road, I believe in the long run it was a good thing thing.

Why? The number of cyclists on the road was about 5 times more than usual from my non-scientific (i.e. counting) estimates. The people walking was around 8 times more than normal. Yes this was out of necessity, yes there were a lot of people out with maps, yes some people were angry, but they were out of their cars (due to increased road traffic) or off public transport. Of course, public transport is better than individuals driving in cars, but still consumes vast resources.

According to walking route planning site Walkit.com, for the week affected by the strike, traffic through the site increased by approximately five fold (compared to the week before). The site generated 176,116 miles of walking routes and therefore maybe helped people burn off a possible 6.6 million calories.

A lot of people I’ve spoken to have said “I didn’t realise it was so close”, “It was only a short walk”, or “I quite enjoyed it actually”. At least 10 people where I work have said they’re going to walk or cycle at least part of the way now, directly as a result of the strike. Multiply that up by the thousands of companies in London and you might just have a mini-revolution.

Whilst not always feasible, walking is an excellent way of exercising, as of course is cycling. However as we approach the winter, and dark mornings and nights, will the promise of walking or cycling be gradually forgotten? We’ll see, I hope not.

Environmentally Friendly Plastic Bottles

There have been great advances in the manufacturing of sustainable product packaging, rather than using plastic (three million tons of plastic are thrown away in the UK annually).

British company Greenbottle make a biodegradable milk bottle that uses a smart two-part system to aid recycling. The bottles are composed of a cardboard outer manufactured from pulped, recycled cardboard, which is lined with an inner sleeve of biodegradable plastic made from corn starch. The plastic keeps the cardboard from becoming soggy, and the cardboard makes for easy transport, storage and pouring. Once the bottle is empty, the inner sleeve can be pulled out and will decompose in a landfill within six weeks. The cardboard outer can be put out for recycling with other paper or thrown in with kitchen and garden waste for home composting.

The bottles currently cost up to 30% more than their plastic counterparts, but costs will go down once production steps up.

Also a French company called Sidel have created a new bottle called “water skin” that is a lighter alternative to traditional PET bottles. A regular plastic half-litre water bottle weighs 13 - 16 grams, however Sidel’s NoBottle weighs just 9.9 grams. According to Sidel, “Water is the largest beverage market by volume with 160 billion litres consumed in 2006. It also represents the highest growth sector and is expected to expand by 5.7 percent annually between now and 2010.” On that scale, waste reduction of 20-30% adds up.

By using a highly flexible type of plastic with shape-memory, which lets the bottle bounce back into shape after being gripped or otherwise compressed, they can achieve these impressive gains. Whilst clearly using plastic at all isn’t eco-friendly it is definitely eco-friendlier than current bottles.

Do you know of any better or innovative solutions to reducing plastic bottle waste?

[Via: Springwise here and here]

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