What are the barriers to a Plastic-Free Food shop? Originally written for the Surfers Against Sewage Blog found here, I talk about the cost differences I have found between packaged and loose groceries in our supermarkets, and just how hard it is to complete a Plastic Free Food Shop. I'm reposting it here as the issue still stands - why are supermarkets charging more for loose food compared to options wrapped in plastic? The silent barrier to cutting down plasticIt seems the world is beginning to wake up to the impact of plastic. Viral videos of animals tangled in debris and recent heartbreaking footage from Blue Planet II have awakened a desire in the general public to do something about the deteriorating state of our oceans. And whilst it is great that people are becoming aware of the problems related to plastic pollution, the reality is that many people will struggle to cut it out of their lives. It’s not for a lack of empathy or education, or even will… Many of the most aware people will still struggle to live without it, and I ashamedly include myself in this. For all intents and purposes, I should be living a plastic-free existence – I’m a biologist. I’ve studied conservation. I’m well informed on the problems, reading up on plastic pollution and the latest scientific papers almost on a daily basis. Yet I still find myself buying products wrapped in single use plastic… I’ve got the basics of cutting down to a T – I carry a KeepCup, use shampoo bars instead of bottles, ask for strawless drinks if I’m out and bring a homemade lunch to the office most days. I use paper stemmed cotton buds and a cotton shopper, and I always use a refillable water bottle – but I can’t say I’ve gotten rid of this pervasive material altogether. I’ve successfully done Plastic-Free months the past two years, and it upsets me and makes me feel incredibly guilty that I can’t seem to sustain it for much longer. The reasons why are even more frustrating: both times, I went way over budget and spent a lot more time searching to find alternatives. It is incredibly disheartening that my personal barriers to living plastic-free seem to be time and money. The challenges of a Plastic-Free Food ShopI’m working hard to pay off student loans, cover my rent and living costs, and I’m trying to keep expenses down. This means I need to keep a close eye on what I spend at the supermarket and choose the cheapest possible options whilst still trying to maintain a healthy diet. I don’t have a car, which instantly limits the shops available to me, and living in a city means that my food shop nearly always comes from a supermarket where, you guessed it, everything is wrapped in plastic.
And here is where the problem lies. My situation is by no means unique, and more often than not, the plastic wrapped options at supermarkets are cheaper than loose options. Let’s look at three staples of my weekly shop… Loose satsumas at Sainsbury’s would cost me £2.90/kg whilst a plastic-wrapped pack would set me back £1.67/kg (Prices correct at time of writing and discrepancies like these are common at most supermarkets, not just the one mentioned). I could buy a paper wrapped loaf of bread from a bakery for £3 or spend £1 on the equivalent, wrapped in plastic. And a single loose bell pepper could cost me 50p, or I could pay £1 for a plastic wrapped pack of three. Those differences might not seem like much, but if you consider everything you would buy in the average weekly shop, it starts adding up quickly. For me at least, it soon becomes unaffordable and unsustainable. What’s worse is that a lot of the packaging, especially for fresh fruit and veg, is non-recyclable. Plus there are other things to consider, such as the monumental amount of food waste in the UK. Could I justify buying discounted fruit or veg wrapped in plastic if it means that it is saved from going to landfill whilst still perfectly edible? With the majority of the UK population living in cities and undoubtedly doing their food shop at a supermarket, it seems apparent to me that the solution to many of our plastic woes may lie with them. Even with the best of intentions, many people may find themselves bound by tight financial pressures and plastic wrapped options simply make sense from this perspective, taking immediate priority. If we are to truly change our ways as a society, we need to have viable, cheaper alternatives available, and in my opinion, this has to start with the main suppliers. It seems absolutely bonkers to me that you can save money by buying items with an extra material included in the price – surely they should cost more than loose items? On top of this, in a league of their own is the #PointlessPlastics found in many of the big chains – one quick search on twitter brings up plastic-wrapped orange segments or individually packaged muffins… the plastic is completely redundant and these need to be the first to go. Whilst plastic free grocery shops do exist, they are still few and far between and from personal experience, come at a bit of a premium. The onus, therefore, in my opinion, should be on the supermarkets to make plastic-free options more widely available. This is why I welcome the plans for a bottle deposit scheme, which the Co-Op and Iceland have recently backed publicly. It’s not the solution by any means, but it’s a start. The next step in the fight against single use plastic is for supermarkets to lead the way, and I’d implore all of the UK’s leading grocers to consider ways of making plastic free alternatives a financially sensible option for their loyal shoppers. As with the charge for plastic bags, maybe targeting people’s wallets is the incentive people need to make a more permanent change.
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I have to admit, when I first realised I had a trip to Kew Gardens for my Terrestrial Biodiversity and Conservation module, I was only mildly interested. But over 3 days this week, my preconceptions of Kew and what they did was completely overturned, and I have left this field trip with incredible respect and admiration of the work they are doing to protect plant species across the world. The field trip took us behind the scenes at Kew Botanical Gardens to meet the scientists and learn about the different projects Kew supports globally. We also had the chance to walk around the herbarium (brimming with pressed and dried specimens, some of which were hundreds of years old) and the plant nursery (where curators care for around 33,000 species of plants, growing them for scientific study and for display in the botanical gardens). We visited one of three nurseries, which had plants on the floor, the walls and the ceilings, ranging from huge palms and cycads to tiny water lillies, carnivorous plants and orchids as far as the eye could see (these are apparently a flight risk in the main public Botanical Gardens - some collectors can't get enough). I can honestly say I have never been so excited about plants. Yes, PLANTS. Let me tell you something, there is so much more than meets the eye to those green things we see in our back gardens and countryside. They are INCREDIBLE. Some of the adaptations we learnt about are absolutely spectacular, and just by looking at the photos below, you may get a sense of how biodiverse and beautiful they are and why plants are worth protecting. (Apologies for the lack of species names - alas, I am not a botanist! If anyone reading this is, please comment the names below!) This trip was designed to teach us about the ins and outs of Conservation work, but the main thing which has stuck in my mind is that of the 40(ish) MSc Conservation & Biodiversity students on the trip, I don't think any of us had any clue that a whopping 1/5 of all plant species are threatened with extinction around the world. ONE FIFTH. This ignorance to the peril plants are facing mainly stems from the fact that plant protection isn't really talked about in comparison to Animals. I am guilty of this myself. I usually rant about how charismatic megafauna always gets the attention when we should really be focusing Conservation efforts on those species which are lesser known, but it hadn't crossed my mind that plants have it worse. How naive I and many others are, for of course, no animal can survive without plants first. We heard from experts about the problems this causes with their Conservation efforts. In particular, about a partnership with the Natural History Museum, where Kew conducted a Global Assessment of the state of the world's plants; Plants Under Pressure. It was here that the figure of 1/5 appeared, as well as the concern that over 33% of the estimated 380,000 plant species 'are so poorly understood that we still don't know if they are endangered or not'. No prizes for guessing why plants are dying out: Of course, it's us. Humans. All the effects of Agriculture, Harvesting, Logging, Disturbance, Pollution, Mining and Invasive species (to name a few) are catching up with us and account for 81% of the threats to plant species. Whilst this is incredibly disturbing, our lectures this week taught us about the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, where the main aim is to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity globally. So what are Kew doing to combat this? Many things, actually. Here are a few initiatives we learnt about:
Of course, this is no where near the full extent of their work, but it was incredibly inspiring to hear that many of their projects have been successful. There is still a very long way to go to meet targets set for 2020, and this is a little disheartening, but after meeting these experts (who seemed to know everything about every plant ever) I have every faith that Kew will continue to achieve the goals they set themselves in the future. Here's some more photos of the field trip, and please do visit Kew Gardens to support their amazing work. The start of October is a bit of a bleak time; not much is going on. Summer has come and gone, the next proper holiday to look forward to is Christmas and Halloween is far less appealing than when you were a kid. But there is a special day, today in fact, which you might not know much about: World Animal Day! The mission: "To raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards across the globe". Anyone who knows me will know how much I love animals, and today is very special as it is a celebration of all animals, whether our pets or our favourite animals, those we see at the zoo or those which are so endangered we may never see them at all. The idea of today is to raise awareness and education about the state of all animals, especially those which are threatened with extinction or mistreated and hopefully raise the profile of charities and organisations trying to better the lives of these creatures around the world. Today is also a celebration of groups involved in Conservation, stopping the illegal wildlife trade, protection of natural habitats, animal care and children's education as they are really championing the causes relating to animal care. Many celebrities are also voicing their love of animals and the need to look after them by supporting groups involved in World Animal Day, especially through their social media campaigns. Other forms of support come through fundraising and global events. In 2003, 44 events were held in 13 countries, and this has now grown to around 1000 events in 100 countries, ranging from conferences to spay & neuter marathons. A list of events can be found here if you would like to get involved or have a look at the organisations working with animals in your area. Simply using the hashtag #WorldAnimalDay will help get the word out about today and will help many charities and grass roots groups raise their profile online by receiving support and attention they need to campaign for their causes. Even if it is just to see beautiful photos of animals, please visit the website, or use the hashtag to spread the word about October 4th. As many of the posts so far on Twitter have been of people's favourite animals, I think I will finish off here with my own, the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), and some information about it. Happy World Animal Day everyone! Photo: Green Sea Turtle via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_turtle_swimming_in_Kona_May_2010.jpg
Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a tad by calling myself a Country Bumpkin, I'm not quite that remote but I have moved from the Big City lights of Central London to the beautiful coastal town of Falmouth! After much kerfuffle, I am finally settled in to my cute little flat and I'm primed and ready to start a Masters in Conservation & Biodiversity at the University of Exeter's Cornwall Campus. I seem to have neglected my blog for a couple of months (the stress of moving and a cheeky family holiday can account for that) but hopefully I'll be able to post more this coming year about the course I am undertaking and the awesome research and opportunities that will arise from it (including a field trip to Kenya in January which I am ridiculously excited about!) As this post isn't strictly Biology related, I'll keep it short! Over the past week I've had the chance to wander around Cornwall before lectures start on Tuesday and I am so excited to be living in such a beautiful part of the UK. Lizard Point in particular is one of the most spectacular places I have been to in the UK, with beautiful views of the turquoise blue sea, I felt like I was somewhere in the Med! We were, however, held up by a cow traffic jam... certainly a new experience for me and not one I am used to in London! I was lucky enough to go and see Much Ado About Nothing at the famous Minack Theatre; an experience I recommend to all. Even if Theatre isn't really your thing, there's something almost magical about the atmosphere there, and again, the views are incredible! I had a little explore of Land's End too, and even went to the Tea Festival at the Pavillion here in Falmouth. All in one week! This was all in between 3 days of First Aid training, introduction seminars and a couple of trips to the local beach! You could say it's been a busy first week here in the south west! I am super excited to be getting started with my course this week and to start working towards this Masters I have been saving up for all year! Until my next entry, here's some pretty photos... Twitter, Facebook and the world of news today has been outraged at the death of a Lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe, whose fate was sealed when American dentist Walter Palmer paid £32,000 to shoot it with a bow and arrow. The lion in question was 13 years old, lived in Hwange National Park and had a GPS collar as he was part of a study at Oxford University. He was cruelly (and illegally) lured out of the park to be killed by Mr Palmer and his two Zimbabwean hunters who are now facing poaching charges in court. The Metro this morning published photos of Mr Palmer next to Cecil's lifeless corpse, as well as photos of him posing with a dead leopard, white rhino, bighorn sheep and African buffalo. What could possibly drive a person to pay so much and take pleasure in killing such majestic creatures is beyond my comprehension. Mr Palmer had the audacity to state: "I had no idea the lion I took was a local favourite and part of a study until the end of the hunt", although this did not stop him from decapitating Cecil with the intent of keeping his head as a trophy. The fact that a lion (or any animal) is not part of a study should not be a reason to justify its death. Mr Palmer has it so wrong.
The African Wildlife Foundation states that 85% of the African Lion's historic range has already been lost, making them more vulnerable to extinction along with other iconic wildlife such as the black rhino and African elephant. In this particular case it is quite upsetting that Cecil was the alpha male of his pride and the father to 6 young cubs which are now likely to be killed by the remaining males. Infanticide is common in lions to ensure the remaining males are the ones to pass on their genes to the next generation, so Mr Palmer has effectively killed 7 lions in one go. Whilst it is great that this case has got so much media attention, the senseless murder of defenceless animals is incredibly widespread, not only in Africa but across the world. Mr Palmer has had much backlash on his social media pages and is likely to lose a lot of business from his dental practice. Hopefully making an example of this man for demonstrating how wrong the world of trophy hunting is will dissuade others from committing the same senseless, murderous crimes in future. |
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