100 Ways To Save The Planet - The Next Generation

Well I did promise to come up with a new title. After the release of the first eBook of 100 Ways To Save The Planet we’ve had a lot of interst, help and suggestions - thanks to everyone who contacted us. The follow-up will be released sometime in the future (I’m a bit vague on it at the moment) but I’ll be ploughing on with ideas so please keep your suggestions coming. Here are 10 more ideas to help save the planet.

101. Be green as a thistle. Now, I’ve no idea what that phrase means, but at http://greenasathistle.com Vanessa is becoming greener every day - literally (sort of, we’re not if we’re talking about a colour). The Toronoto-based journalist is doing an extra green thing every day for a year. She’ll then be doing 365 more eco-friendly things than when she started. Whether she carries on after that isn’t clear, but keep visiting her every day and you’ll find out. Go Vanessa!

102. Have a green party. Everyone loves a party right? Well if you’re 16 or 60 you can have it in an environmentally friendly way - from the cups you use to the where the food comes from. However if you are feeling flush you can get companies to organise the party for you and there are some which will do it in a green way. Eco Events Ltd uses local services, fairtrade uniforms for staff, recycled galssware, locally grown flowers etc and can offer a carbon neutral event.

103. Take the roof rack or case off your car when it’s not being used. It decreases the aeordynamics meaning you’ll use more fuel. Also empty the boot/trunk to make it lighter.

104. Be friends with the government. Well green friends anyway. The have some great sites with helpful tips like here. And on a local level, go to your local government website. An example of one is here where they’re working with the community and engaging them creating ‘green champions’. Get involved in your local area.

105. Reuse those plastic bags (again). No, not as shopping bags dummy, but as things like hats and wrapping paper. Real Simple has ten more ways to use the blighters. Not sure about the hat one personally, but maybe the style will take off.

106. Don’t have sex. Well what I wanted to write was don’t use contraception but you shouldn’t do one without the other - unless you want kids of course, but too many of them isn’t good for the planet either. Contraception involves a lot of packaging and with the pill there’s presciptions etc as well. So maybe if you’re single you should give it up for a while. Come on control yourself!

107. Buy your lovely compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) from Ikea. I know Ikea is a drag but they will recycle your CFLs when they’ve finished. CFLs contain small amounts of mercury so while better for the planet than normal lightbulbs, aren’t wonderful for it either. If they’re a different brand, don’t throw them away, look for recycling places in your area. You can even send them away to be recycled (look here) or keep hold of them until the time comes when you can recycle them.

108. Recycle your Christmas cards. It doesn’t matter what time of year you read this, it’s bound to be close to Christmas. Not only can you buy recycled cards from charity shops, recycle ones you receive, you can also make ones you get into tags for presents next year. Save the ones you like, cut out the best bit into a nice shape and put them on your new presents. And while I’m on about presents, who really cares about the wrapping paper? You may recycle it, but who needs it anyway? I’m going to use newspaper and magazines this year and see what the reaction is. I’ll probably never receive another present again, we’ll see.

109. Get a solar powered shaver. Time to forget those batteries and constant recharging, get yourself a solar shaver. Maybe better when you’re travelling, rather than for daily use, but then the rugged look is always in. You can get it from here.

110. Influence others. A couple of comments after the release of the first 100 Ways suggested that they’re a waste of time if corporations and industry don’t change their ways. But the point is that if you choose to use recycled toilet paper for example, and you tell your neighbour and they make the change and tell their neighbour and so on, then all the toilet roll industry will make is recycled rolls - as that’s what the consumer demands. They if you go into work and tell them to used recycled toilet paper and all your neighbours do the same, eventually everywhere will be doing it and the production of ‘normal’ toilet rolls will stop.
That’s what people are talking about when they say little things make a difference. It’s a cumulative effect. Companies only make and sell things we buy - otherwise they’ll go out of business. So making the changes is a great start, but you can do more by helping others make changes too.

Songs Of The Day - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

Two songs today from the album Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (more usually known as Sam Duckworth). Probably one of the best names for a band I’ve heard in ages. Firstly Call Me Ishmael which is a cracking tune, a little quiet so you might need to turn it up a little. The second video is an amateur recording of the title song Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, urging consumers to “Open your eyes, you don’t need to buy it”. Find out more (and listen to 5 album tracks for free) at http://www.getcapewearcapefly.com

CNN’s Planet in Peril

CNN is about to premiere tonight a two-part environmentally focused documentary called Planet in Peril.

According to their press release, “Planet in Peril uses first-hand investigative reporting to provide a better understanding of the environment’s present state. Bringing viewers the stories behind the statistics, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin will focus on four main issues that threaten the planet and its inhabitants: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation.” You can watch a trailer for the show below.

The show, which was filmed across four continents and 13 countries, airs over two nights on CNN/U.S. on Tuesday, October 23rd, and Wednesday 24th, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET/PT) and globally on CNN International. You can find out more on the Planet In Peril website. If you do manage to watch it, we’d love to know you thoughts, please leave a comment below or email us.

A Day In The Life Of The Bin Police

The BBC recently spent a day in the company of two recycling advisors from Test Valley Borough Council in Hampshire, England. Known locally as the “bin police”, they spend their time encouraging people to dispose of their rubbish correctly.

It makes for quite interesting reading, and shows the lengths that local councils are going to in order to hit their targets and get their residents to follow the rules. Test Valley Borough Council first employed advisors almost two years ago but will have none on its payroll by March 2008. It has spent £117,500 of its annual budget of £11.6m on them. You can read the article here

Bottled Water To Be Recycled More?

Forgive the awkwardly phrased headline, but The Independent newspaper in the UK reports there’s been a backlash against the number of plastic bottles that aren’t recycled and pressure is mounting on drinks manufacturers. In fact, one city council (Liverpool) have banned bottled and dispenser water on their premises – saving £48,000 a year, as well as the planet.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released figures showing that sales of mineral water in Britain amounted to 965 million litres last year – up a third from 2001. That’s around £1.6billion worth of bottled water – still small compared to America’s £5.4billion, but still significant.

So has the backlash begun? Partially thanks to a EU campaign and lobbying Congress in the US, both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, who make 55% of the plastic bottles we use, have announced they plan to overhaul their operations to recycle more.

Coca-Cola has announced it plans to recycle all its plastic bottles in the US within five years and PepsiCo’s chief executive has said it needs to do more to recycle.

So they’re reacting to the pressure by the looks of things, despite sales of bottled water going up steadily, but they may see the tide is turning. You can find out more about what Life Goggles thinks of bottled water here.

Latest Environmental News

The Evening Standard reported that Londoners are being asked to back a ban on plastic shopping bags. A major debate between councillors and MPs is under way on how to reduce the estimated 1.6b bags used in the capital each year. Alternative plans for a city-wide levy of about £0.10 per bag are also being considered, with the cash used to fund improved recycling facilities.

The News of the World reports that staff at the first green Marks and Spencer store will wear fleeces made from recycled plastic bottles. The store in Bournemouth will also only use renewable energy, cutting carbon emissions by 92%.

The Guardian reported on the vision of high street retailers, who claim that a green revolution can be driven from the shop floor. However, the article looks at the inconsistencies in some of the more notable corporate policies, and even claims that whilst Marks & Spencer is leading the industry in selling fashionable fair trade cotton T-shirts, possibly fashion itself is the very antithesis of a sustainable approach.

Royal Mail has acquired 140 double deck trailers, estimating that they will lead to a 20% reduction in the carbon emissions and road miles covering this element of the UK-based group’s operation. The trailers can handle 50% more mail than Royal Mail’s normal single deckers and can each hold around 100,000 items of mail.

Environmentally-friendly funerals are becoming increasingly popular with more than a third of people saying they would like a green send-off, a survey showed. Around 34% of people said they would like an eco-funeral, more than double the 15% of people who said they would like to have a traditional service, according to Post Office Financial Services.

The Liberal Democrats stated that companies should face fines if they fail to meet new legal targets for cutting down on packaging. They will call for a new scheme to ask customers to pay a refundable deposit if they take a plastic carrier bag. The MPs will also call for a new national body to be established to help trading standards prosecute companies who flout guidelines on packaging.

Product Review: Soapnuts (Or The Amazing Natural Cleaning Nuts!)

Thanks to Anne over at Summer Naturals, I was sent some magically soapnuts to test out for use with my laundry. The instructions tell you to put between four and eight half shells in a cotton bag (or old sock or tights), tie securely and put in your wash with no need for any fabric conditioner or laundry detergent.

Hang on a minute - “half shells”? Yep soapnuts are actually real nuts. Soapnuts grow wild on trees in India and Nepal and the shells contain saponin, a natural soap, and are suitable for people with sensitive skin. But do they work?

The short answer is yes. While it felt a bit strange not putting any fabric softener or powder into the machine’s trays, if you’re familiar with putting one of those nets in with the tablets inside, this is just the same. Anne gave me a nice cotton bag with the shells in and I tied it securely and threw it in there. And the result was lovely clean washing, even on muddy trousers which will happen even more now winter’s arriving with haste.

Initially when I took the washing out to dry, it was hard to tell whether the soapnuts had done their job. There’s no ‘laundry fresh’ smell (you can add a couple of drops of essential oil to the drawer if you want) but that doesn’t mean the clothes aren’t clean. And they were clean and the little bag of nuts was secure. Seems almost magical, especially when you can use them around four times before needing more nut shells.

One question in my mind is that they’re imported from abroad and I know nothing about the conditions they’re harvested in. But as I know little about all the ingredients in Ecover for example, until they start making washing powder at my local farm, this is something that cannot really be a factor in whether to use a particular washing method.

Soapnuts contain nothing chemical at all so obviously don’t have the same whitening power of major brands but for something so natural, they’re remarkable. And cheap, an average of 3p a wash compared to 25p with washing powder and softener. And you just throw them on the compost heap when you’re done with them so there’s no waste. You can buy them here.

Oh, and before you ask, they’re not my hands in the photos….

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