Get a free Ecoegg worth £9.99 for just the cost of £2.99 P&P

https://www.ecoegg.com/product/student-laundry-egg/

Perhaps not the right group to post this in, but I think Trump is one of the greatest threats to the planet. A man who thinks he’s “the second coming” and has his finger on the button which could trigger the annihilation of all life on the planet.
https://apple.news/AfxQUMO0MQ4GYyVB-xCgK_A

HI All

I’m helping someone who is looking to do a panel type event about sustainability and vegan nutrition. She has an amazing free event space in central London and the event will be free for everyone to attend.
She wants to to cover anything from sustainable fashion, makeup, plastic usage, reusable goods etc..
Do you know of any small businesses, start ups, charities etc that would be interested in taking part ?

Please feel free to send me a private message if you do.

Thanks everyone.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/climate-change-six-positive-news-stories-you-probably-missed-in-2018-108785

Article/podcast discussing the pros and cons of supermarkets. Not 100% sure if it`ll let you all access it but thought it was worth a try.... https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/podcast-episode-4-should-we-leave-supermarkets-checkout?

Has anyone tried these, and if so, what did you think of them? I looked at one in the supermarket the other day. £9.99 for 70 washes, then £4.99 (I think) for a refill, good for 50 washes.
Thanks

Hackney Fashion Festival - Summer Series

Date And Time
Sat, 17 Aug 2019, 11:00 –

Sun, 18 Aug 2019, 18:00 BST



The Hackney Fashion Festival brings 40+ of the nations most inspiring clothing and accessory vendors to Hackney Central. From vintage and rare clothing to handmade jewellery and handbags. This Sat & Sun we launch the Ethical Emporium on Bohemia Place! Ethical & sustainable fashion, independent brands, jewellery crafting, casting, up-cycling, swap shops, knitting and crochet! Plus street food, drink and live music!

👕 A Range of Workshops throughout the weekend including; 👗

👢Knit with Reused Materials

👢Jewellery Making - Sign up - http://bit.ly/STOOKI_BOHEMIAS1

👢Learn the Basics of Crochet

👢Rework DIY Fashion

👢Zero Waste Sanitary Pads

👢Betsys Closet Swap Shop

👕 MARKET DATES 👗

👢 August 17th

👢 August 18th

👉 Plus:

🍔 Street Food

🌿 Vegan Options

🍺 Craft Beer & More!

More info via www.bohemiaplacemarket.com

Sign up for free here:


https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hackney-fashion-festival-summer-series-tickets-69004794197?fbclid=IwAR1R7UdHowLS5nznNO1Ug6TotCsoG3-w-3fJOlag-rfWs6Df0Fmj-gLWMi0

It belatedly occurred to me that I may know more than others about how the new interest in repairing (rather than replacing) our stuff is developing in practice.

When the Restart Project ran seminars about its Restart Party system, I brought in Sustainable Hackney, who then developed Hackney Fixers jointly with the local branch of Friends of the Earth. HF hold regular repairing events all over the borough - helping people not only with small electronic repairs (the Project's original focus) but also clothes, furniture and bicycle repairs.
Other groups around London and, increasingly, further afield (including abroad) evolved likewise, some with an even more 'analogue' focus. They all contribute to Restart Party Hosts, a Facebook group which helps new volunteer repairing groups to get going.
All the repair events notified to the Restart Project are listed on its searchable events page at https://therestartproject.org/parties/.

Not everything can be fixed on the day by whichever volunteer repairers happen to be there, so the owners are referred to small professional repairers wherever possible. The Project has therefore set up a Repair Directory of small and medium-sized repair businesses, based on a pilot run three years ago in four east London boroughs. That's still in beta form, available at https://therestartproject.org/repairdirectory/ but it now covers eleven north and east London boroughs.

For instance, I was trying to get a very old Dyson vacuum cleaner repaired this summer, after finding that our local domestic repair shop had recently closed down. After Dyson's official repairer condemned it as irreparable, I resorted to the Repair Directory which offered me three possibilities, including an excellent small repair business within feasible travelling distance - even for a non-driver. I wrote a community post about that, which no-one seems to have noticed; hence, this more general post. I hope that it's useful.

The UN wants all children to be educated about climate change and wants teachers trained to understand the issues and teach effectively. Sounds like a really good idea. Children can be powerful influences within a home.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/30/north-of-tyne-mayor-signs-schools-up-for-climate-training?

Clipper tea comes in plastic free tea bags. Can buy it in Sainsburys.

Free Family Fun Eco Festival

https://g.co/kgs/P9VBdt

https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/04/specials/climate-change-solutions-quiz/?fbclid=IwAR0ds5s5nMra3nXeLUAgh656fuFZvE8h2Jru2nk5QLX51bphK0VY42M1Rak
So surprising I have trouble believing some of them!

Haven’t quite finished it but this is an interesting article.

https://theecologist.org/2018/feb/22/why-economic-growth-not-compatible-environmental-sustainability

Think this may have been discussed before but if not here’s all you need to know to make an informed choice.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/home-garden/shopping-guide/toilet-paper

https://oxfamapps.org/secondhandseptember/?

Oxfam are asking people to avoid buying new in September.

This subject is all over the BBC news today but it's far from new; the serious media have been discussing it for years eg https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/11/eat-less-meat-dairy-diet . So why did it take so long to become a mainstream concern? It's only because the UN's IPCC has taken the initiative that we're now being told this, as if it were somehow novel.

I've been eating like this since I was a broke student who'd grown up in a 'meat and two veg' home but then spent a semester living with a German-Jewish Quaker family who didn't eat meat at all but seemed to have much more interesting food than I'd been fed for the previous 18 years. They introduced me to 'Diet for a Small Planet', which discussed the science of balancing vegetable proteins at great length but. more usefully, then provided lots of recipes for putting that into practice.

The theory has been slightly debunked since - one doesn't have to eat the various types of protein at the same time to maximise the usable protein in one's diet, for instance - but the sustainable principle of feeding people grains and pulses, rather than growing vegetable crops to feed to animals and eating those, still holds good.

Apparently B & Q take back plastic plant pots and recycle them

This is a link to the Mayor of London’s environment newsletter saying what they are doing in the capital.

http://email.london.gov.uk/interface/external_view_email.php?AL846359559742404592886462816

According to the Ethiopian government, yesterday, 353,633,660 trees were planted in Ethiopia by volunteers to help tackle climate change. I hope they remember to water them.
The aim is to plant a total of four billion indigenous trees.
The previous record of 50 million trees planted in a day was set by India in 2016.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-49151523

We are supposed to be planting an additional three billion trees. How long will it take us?

As it was a nice day we took two of our grandchildren to Southend yesterday and intended to have a swim. We got knee-deep and noticed hundreds of jellyfish so decided to get out. My eight-year-old granddaughter asked me if there was any useful point to jellyfish and I said "probably not". I googled it anyway and was amazed to find in Asia people eat them, and they also have medicinal uses as well.

A clever idea that I'd never heard until today but will adopt immediately: to help one sleep in this hot weather, fill a hot-water bottle with cold water and put it in the fridge until bedtime. Enthusiasts can also freeze their sheets and pillowcase but the cold-water bottle seems likely to have a longer-lasting effect.

https://coach.nine.com.au/latest/summer-sleep-tips-to-beat-the-heat/e7e20fb5-242c-4c5c-bb4f-aaccb49094dd?fbclid=IwAR1ExhGwklOVVtxW-BYk-CjYS9FXrv0fYZ2YJMrDpIM2q5wP2kD7Pd67zBA

I found this article interesting and challenging.

https://medium.com/@wtmsinclair/the-real-problem-of-hypocrisy-for-extinction-rebellion-4a6851dcdeb7

https://pebblemag.com/magazine/doing/plastic-free-shopping-13-of-the-uks-best-zero-waste-stores

Green roofs are becoming fairly common - although often only visible from flats high up in developments, so not of much (if any) benefit to the public realm generally. I find them fascinating, especially on small structures like garden sheds and bin cupboards.

There are some extra-sustainable ideas at http://greenengineers.co.uk/green-roofs, where they try to reuse materials, wherever possible.

This was a question raised in a local community thread, prompted by the labelling of Sainsbury's (cheap) colourless malt vinegar.

The simple answer is: 'yes', which I discovered by reading a section of the Wikipedia article about vinegar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar#Spirits

This is the relevant paragraph:
"The term "distilled vinegar" as used in the United States (called "spirit vinegar" in the UK, "white vinegar" in Canada) is something of a misnomer because it is not produced by distillation but by fermentation of distilled alcohol. The fermentate is diluted to produce a colorless solution of 5% to 8% acetic acid in water, with a pH of about 2.6. This is variously known as distilled spirit, "virgin" vinegar, or white vinegar, and is used in cooking, baking, meat preservation, and pickling, as well as for medicinal, laboratory, and cleaning purposes. The most common starting material in some regions, because of its low cost, is barley malt, or in the United States, corn. It is sometimes derived from petroleum. Distilled vinegar is used predominantly for cooking, although in the UK it is used as an alternative to brown or light malt vinegar. White distilled vinegar can also be used for cleaning, and some is actually sold specifically for this purpose. "


[As an aside, if you are ever offered "non-brewed condiment" for your chips, the acetic acid has been produced using chemical processes rather than fermentation. It's kind of 'artificial vinegar'!]

https://www.zerowastelife.co.uk This looks like an interesting blog. https://m.facebook.com/groups/JZWUK/? And this is a facebook group (Journey to zero waste). They also have some local groups . Enfield has one for instance.

Microplastics in the environment were referred to in the post ‘Reusing expanded polystyrene’. A petition to 'Install microplastic filters on new washing machines as standard' can be found on the parliament website. There are 16,027 signatures and a long and non-committal response from the Government. 100,000 signatures are required to force a parliamentary debate on the subject.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/248269

Apparently, the decision for this year's Glastonbury Festival to ban the use of unnecessary plastic was a success. I hope other major events will follow suit, eg, Wimbledon, other rock festivals, flower shows, etc. Fingers crossed!

One of the last things we buy wrapped in plastic is yoghurt...specifically greek yoghurt . I do have a yoghurt maker but don’t find the results less than pleasing. It seems, thin, watery and just a bit slimy. Has anyone perfected a nice thick creamy yoghurt at home with or without a yoghurt maker.

A neighbour with a sack of polystyrene block pieces was bemoaning the local council's lack of facilities for recycling this tiresome form of plastic packaging, so I wondered if there were any options. Recycling seems to be very rare - even though the material can be reused to make other things.

There are more ways of reusing it at home than I'd realised, though; see https://www.greenredeem.co.uk/greener-living/lifestyle/10-ways-to-reuse-polystyrene. I particularly like the idea of using it instead of perlite, since heavy London clay often needs lightening.

This scheme looks inspiring though a bit expensive. What do you think? It suggests planting one sequoia can offset a lifetime of carbon emissions.

https://onelifeonetree.com/?

Morning, can anyone please recommend me your ideal eco-friendly dishwashing and clothes washing liquid? I really want to know what is the best brand with good value for money out there. Thanks!

Thanks to the efforts of Gardeners' World et al., we now know that black plastic plant pots can't currently be recycled exactly like other hard plastic items because automated recycling systems rely on optical sorting - which apparently doesn't recognise black.

So one can only get black plastic plant pots recycled (once they're completely beyond reusability) by collectivising their collection locally, eg where the local garden centre operates a collection point, and then deliver them in bulk to the local recycling facility.

Unfortunately, not only pots but also plant pot trays, vegetable trays etc are made of black plastic. (Our local garden centre only takes the pots.) And I've just realised that the best shampoo I know comes in black plastic bottles, too. So I've written to the product's current owners, asking them urgently to alter their packaging so that it doesn't contaminate the recycling stream and end up in landfill. Can't think of an easier solution....

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a899f44b1ffb63e0c81fed9/t/5bd606380852291fdf5b1d2b/1540753006345/Everyday+Plastic+-+What+we+throw+away+and+where+it+goes.pdf

Shredded paper - it's strange that we are told not to put this in the recycling [apparently it clogs the machines] but have to bag it and put it in the general waste.
Surely it could be used for something as recycled paper products must have to be shredded first i would think. (less)

Anyone know of any place where these can be donated for recycling?

I collect in a jar and when I have a few, I put in my recycle bin; however, I am now thinking they are likely to get thrown away or not recycled, especially as they are so small.

So, just wondering if anyone knows of a better use or a specific recycling station for used staples.

Inspired by LesleyA's post about making your own cleaning products, I stumbled across this page on the Sarson's site!

Now, Sarson's are known for their malt vinegar, so it is encouraging they are suggesting uses beyond sprinkling it on your chips!
https://www.sarsons.co.uk/vinegar-tips

Most intriguing are the tips for cleaning ballpoint pen ink, chopping boards, carpets and, particularly, hardened paint brushes!! (although this one you might need to do while your 'other half' is out, and don't use the best saucepans!)

I thought this video was very clear.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J0304MYCNA4

This looks to be a good resource- publishes a series of articles on a variety of recycling issues .

http://www.wasterecycling.org.uk/home_recycling/recycling_other_items.php

I have hundreds of them which I have collected over time but I actually have no use for them whatsoever yet it is not easy to find anyone who collects.

It seems a great pity to throw into a landfill.

Any ideas?

I thought it would be a great idea if we could all make a specific pledge to reduce our carbon imprint.

I am going to stop buying plastic bottled water for myself and discourage others to do the same!

What is your pledge?

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young-gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/?fbclid=IwAR321UzhBmx-318CXI4k-RvQkhkfWOnc5Ne2K6odjWFXUjQgKM8oUQL4B_8

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190613143520.htm?fbclid=IwAR0kBNbtSFmFamygCQjpUIkqPniUGep-W8UU_UKTJVoqfGgDrRzmPwP0E5Y

Almost 600 plant species have been lost in the last 250 years.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48584515
Human encroachment is one reason.Human population is out of control for the size of the planet and we haven`t got `to the stars` yet!! Global warming is another. Plants are very sensitive to temperature. This chilly spring my beans are way behind. A few years of that could kill off some species. That`s exactly what`s happening.
Now add 60% of all wild animals have died of in the last few decades(figures vary). This article says 50%.... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/29/earth-lost-50-wildlife-in-40-years-wwf
Companies are NOT keeping promises to do such things as stop any deforestation they may be responsible for ... https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/11/forest-destroyed-big-consumer-brands-greenpeace-report?fbclid=IwAR1qgjmGyQMprh_pjDmpxbUTtN6AmQNLLvyUAZrbX-2rqCA0gxZw6TMgIxU
No one is effective at reducing plastic pollution...
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/
They are still exploring for new oil feilds instead of converting to alternatives. More feilds have been discovered in the North Sea ( Greenpeace activists are currently occupying one ) and in Mexico. BP will exploit them,so global warming will continue apace!!
Sorry for the rant and all the links. It`s just SOOoooo depressing. We are running into the abyss!
Trying to reduce our own personal use of plastic or changing our Energy company seems so little!!
When I started this -nearly 50 years ago I joined Friends of the Earth-it seemed no one even believed it. Now people do and kids understand it`s their future being put in jeopardy and still things move so slowly!!😱😡

We think our plastic is recycled. Think again. Exported to Malaysia and just dumped. Now they had enough and will return where it came from.

Will be watching war on plastic.
More info:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48445290

This article illustrates the complexity. Eating seasonally and buying locally grown seems to be a way forward.

https://theconversation.com/why-some-plastic-packaging-is-necessary-to-prevent-food-waste-and-protect-the-environment-117479

Have signed this petition. Here’s the link if anyone else wants to sign.

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/climate_emergency_31/?ckepeab

Maybe you`d like to sign this petition about a Housing Associations proposal to turf over a vege garden in the name of"environmental improvement". Sounds like green washing to me!!
https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-john-hughes-garden.html