With the UK being the world’s biggest wine importer (over 1.6 billion litres a year) it makes sense to stop the importing of individual bottles into the country in an effort to cut waste (we’re importing 630,000 tonnes of packaging along with the wine).  Instead, if wine is imported in bulk and then bottled in the UK in lighter weight bottles made out of recycled UK glass, we have the opportunity to reduce the weight of what’s being transported (fewer carbon emissions and monetary savings), as well as using locally recycled glass (closing the loop).

The good news is that WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) have had tremendous success with this project, and have kept over 20,000 tonnes - equivalent to over 3,600 African elephants - of glass out of the UK by filling over 115 million recycled local glass bottles right here.  This delivers both environmental and commercial benefits. [source: WRAP]

You can help close the recycling loop by buying recycled glass products too.

Photo credit: TheLizardQueen

The Belgian city of Ghent is encouraging their citizens to go veggie once a week to lower the city’s carbon emissions.   Civil servants are going to be served vegetarian fare one day a week, and it looks as though school children will also be getting the carbon footprint reducing treatment in their school meals. [source: edie]  Isn’t this amazing?  Do you think that the population of London, or Manchester, or Glasgow could be persuaded to try it?

Here are some interesting facts about why going vegetarian is better for the planet:

1.  It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans.

2. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.

3. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. [source: British Meat]

I mentioned reusing spray-bottles in my previous post, so thought that it would be appropriate to follow up with some home-made cleaning recipes of the sort that your grandmother probably used.  Either save spray bottles that you bought with cleaning products in them, or you could buy some from your nearest garden centre, or online, like these ones.

Window cleaner - Dilute white distilled vinegar with water (50/50) for a quick, easy and cheap window cleaning solution.  Put it in a spray bottle to apply, and wipe windows off with newspaper that can be composted afterwards.

All purpose cleaner - Mix 1/4 cup distilled (white) vinegar and 4 Tbsp bicarb. with 1 litre of water.  Keep in a spray bottle and use for general cleaning.

Air freshener - Put a few drops of lavender essential oil into a spray bottle of water and use as an air freshener spray.

Recycling is good.  It has it’s place and it should be practised to save energy, raw materials and waste.  In the UK, it’s made so easy for most of us as the council will collect it from our doorsteps.  But there is an alternative to recycling that should be considered wherever possible before we throw our waste into the bin or our recyclables into our recycling bins, and that alternative is, reuse.

Here are some ideas for reusing things that we usually throw away/recycle.

Egg-boxes can be shredded and put in your compost, or use egg boxes to sow seeds into.  Once the seedlings are ready to be planted out the box will be starting to rot away, so you can plant it out egg box segment and all and won’t disturb the roots.

Greetings cards can be cut up and used to make new greetings cards or gift tags.

Paper can be used on both sides, so don’t recycle until you’ve used both sides.

Wrapping paper can be reused time and time again if you’re careful when opening gifts.

Envelopes can be reused as envelopes or as note paper.

Yoghurt pots are the bane of my life because the little devils can’t usually be recycled.  So reuse them as paint pots, seedling pots or to freeze small portions of food.

Spray bottles are perfect for using with home made cleaning products.

Tights that have ladders can be cut up to be used as hair ties, stuffing for soft toys or for tying up plants in the garden without damaging them.

Vegetable bags of the sort that oranges and lemons come in can be cut open and sewn together to make shade cloth for your garden, or use one of them as a bath toy bag for your children’s bath toys.  Hang over the tap for bath toys to drip dry.

String should always be saved and reused.

Glass jars can be used for storage in the kitchen (sugar, rice, flour, pasta, pulses) and the bathroom (cotton wool, soaps), or for preserving your garden produce.

Kitchen scraps.  The festering food that makes your bin smell bad and languishes in landfill producing greenhouse gas that will further warm our planet and jeopardise our future.  So, what should you do with these scraps?

The London Boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond have taken the initiative and are collecting kitchen waste from the doorsteps a quarter of a million west London homes and taking it away to be turned into electricity through anaerobic digestion. With the food scraps being recycled in this way they don’t end up in landfill somewhere producing methane, and the process is enough to continuously power almost 3,000 homes. [source: edie]

It would be amazing to see this initiative rolled-out throughout the UK, but in the meantime, what are we to do if we don’t live in the areas where this is happening? Compost your kitchen waste, yes, all of it, with one of these clever little kitchen composters that take meat, carbohydrates and dairy products as well as the usual fruit and vegetable peelings. You can add cooked food to these composters, making them far more efficient than “regular” composting methods, and you won’t end up with a smelly bin full of fish bones and chicken skins, because you can put those in your kitchen composter too.

Here’s how it works:

It’s super convenient and pretty reasonable to buy your kids fairtrade and organic clothes these days. M&S have a great range that are available online, delivered to your door.  Easy peasy?  Oh yes.  Ethical?  Of course.

Clothing manufacturers are quick to sew “Dry clean only” labels into their creations, but is this always necessary?  Apparently not.  I’m not suggesting that you bung your precious threads into the washing machine.  Not at all.  But some “dry clean only” garments can safely have their stains removed and be hand-washed at home.  Saving a LOAD of money in the process.  Oh, and by the way, it’s way greener not to dry clean too.

Here are some tried and tested methods for getting stains out:

1. Cold Water

Top tip here.  Before you try anything else, try a little cold water.  Cotton wool and water, worked gently from the outside to the inside of the stain, on top of a folded towel.  The sooner you do this the better, and it won’t work on all stains, but it’s a good first port of call.

2.  To remove butter stains

Sprinkle on Fullers Earth, leave for an hour, then brush off well.

3.  To remove curry stains

Sponge with white vinegar (distilled) or a 50:50 lemon juice/water solution.  Then sponge with cold water.

4. To remove grass stains

To remove grass stains for wool or silk garments, dab with brandy on cotton wool (to save on the brandy, first soak cotton wool in water and squeeze out before applying brandy).

5. For washable fabrics

If you’re going to be putting your garment into the washing machine, E:Stain is an eco-friendly way of removing the stain.

Or if you decide that you’ll have to take your item of clothing to the cleaners, make sure that you take it to the green cleaners.

This would be amazing to see in the UK.  Cycling is the best form of transport next to walking for your health and that of the planet.  But in the UK, you still have to buy your own bike helmets.

There’s not much I prefer to sitting in my garden after the sun has set, with a balmy breeze blowing, sipping some lovely local ale and eating a meal prepared from my home-grown fresh produce.  Of course this is even better with good company, and with some pretty garden lighting.

You can make your own atmospheric lighting by reusing or recycling stuff you already have at home.  Check out this video for how to make gorgeous garden lanterns from a pierced-tin cans, or turn saved brown paper bags into “luminarias” by filling half-way with sand and then putting a candle in them.

If you’re looking to buy some pretty lighting for your garden, please consider the environment and choose an option that will save energy, like these solar lanterns from John Lewis (pictured above).  Perfect for on an outside table or placed elsewhere in the garden.  The lantern has an LED light bulb and needs to be charged in full daylight before use.

For the greener gadget lovers amongst us, here are some excellent green gadgets that will lighten the load on the planet and on your pocket.

USBcell rechargeable batteries

These revolutionary NiMH AA rechargeable batteries are only £5 from Robert Dyas and can be recharged from your computer’s USB port. You can recharge them up to 500 times and each battery saves 7kg CO2 and 3kg of toxic waste. Cool.

Water Powered Digital Clock

This little digital clock doesn’t need any batteries.  No electricity either.  Just add water.   It incorporates dependable water powered technology with conventional digital technology to allow you the freedom of not having to buy batteries again! £8.99 from allthingsgreen.

Water Powered Calculator

A basic calculator that runs on the same technology as the Water Powered Clock.  £9.99 from allthingsgreen.

Eco-Button

Eco-Button is a computer power saving device that can save you £££’s off your electricity bills and shave tonnes off your carbon footprint every year.  The Eco-Button acts as a strong visual reminder for you to save electricity each time your computer is left idle. £13.90 from GadgetPages.

Dryer Balls

Not exactly the most glamorous eco-gadget, but an important one if you’re a tumble-dryer user.   This will reduce the time that your clothes spend in the dryer by 25%, and cut out the need for a fabric softener. £8.99 from Amazon.