When single use plastic is everywhere in your office, how do you go about cutting it down? “Ugh. Forgot my bags again, that’s another 5p.” We’ve all had it happen, finally getting to the front of a busy checkout and realising our bags are at home, somewhere in that redundant drawer in the kitchen. And whilst some see this as a modern inconvenience, we forget that less than 60 years ago, plastic bags didn't even exist. The average plastic bag is used for around 20 minutes before it is discarded. More than 1.6 billion gallons of oil are used each year to manufacture them and they can persist in the environment for almost 500 years. And whilst biodegradable plastic bags sound like the perfect solution, they only degrade under certain conditions and are never really gone – they simply break down into smaller bits of plastic. In the first 6 months after the 5p levy on plastic bags was implemented, their use in the UK decreased by 85%. And whilst this is a victory for environmentalists, wildlife and, well, everyone in the long run, there are many more unnecessary single use plastic items we still use to excess that are under no scrutiny. For example, disposable coffee cups and single use plastic bottles. I have been lucky enough to have travelled quite a lot and have stayed in places where it’s advisable to avoid drinking tap water and bottled water is the safe alternative. So I find it bizarre that in the UK, where tap water is perfectly safe, the population drink 2.8 billion litres of bottled water each year. Having recently graduated from MSc in Conservation & Biodiversity at University of Exeter, where a lot of research is focused on plastics and their impact on the environment, I learnt more about the direct and indirect impact single use plastic has especially on marine life. I started with the easy options of cutting out plastic, like always asking for drinks without straws and boycotting products which are unnecessarily wrapped in plastic, but single use plastic is insidious and increasingly difficult to avoid. When I arrived at the BBC, I noticed there were disposable coffee cups on nearly every desk each morning which would be added to during the day by single use water bottles. At one point I remember seeing 4 at one co-workers desk and genuinely felt my heart sink a little. If this was just one person within an organisation of over 20,000, imagine the waste generated each day from coffee cups and bottles alone? Across the UK, it is estimated that 7 million coffee cups are used each day. The awful thing about them is that only 1 out of 400 is recycled, going through a very energy intensive process. The other 399 will end up in landfill and remain there for years. Moment on the lips, lifetime in the tips. I explained the many problems caused by single use plastic to my team as well as its prominence in our office and the fact it was actually making me sad. This gave me an idea to impose a “Naughty Jar”, where any time someone brings in a single use coffee cup or plastic bottle, 10p goes in to be donated to Surfers Against Sewage, a fantastic environmental charity working to protect our UK beaches. After only a week of this self-imposed office tax, nearly every member of the Terrific Scientific team had a reusable coffee cup and bottle. There is now so little money in the jar that I personally have to add a much greater amount when donating to the charity! But this behaviour change within the office is the real victory. It just goes to show that every little does help, and that behaviour and habit change in relation to plastic use is possible, we just need a bit of a nudge. P.S. Many coffee shops offer a small discount on hot drinks when you take in a reusable cup - yet another reason to get one for yourself!
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Our planet has a human population of over 7 billion people. This is mirrored by a growth in demand for food and other consumables, and has unfortunately caused a rise in the amount of waste generated worldwide. We aren’t brilliant at dealing with this waste, as Professor Margaret Bates explained in her talk on Waste Management in Uganda at the Greenbank Hotel last Monday, hosted by the Falmouth Rotary Club.
When we throw rubbish away in the UK, our bins are collected and the waste disappears from sight and mind. We have no idea where it is going, what happens to it or what impact it might be having to our environment, nor do those thoughts even cross our minds. So what happens in countries where it doesn’t ‘disappear’? Professor Bates from the University of Northampton conducted a study into waste management in 4 towns in Uganda, looking at human health, pollution and waste segregation. During her visits to Uganda, she found there was minimal segregation of waste, meaning that medical, plastic, household, electrical and organic waste was generally disposed of together. In an attempt to clear waste, many rubbish dumps would light fires, releasing toxins from burning plastics which have been found to affect fertility, have a heritable impact, and are the major ingredients in agent orange. This was occurring in areas with around 74,000 residents where children were free to play and animal grazing took place, and even had banana plantations were next door. Professor Bates described these polluted areas as “more toxic to human health than Chernobyl” and found there was an increased incidence of cancer in people living near waste points due to the carcinogens produced in burning. Waste found in these areas included medical waste such as used needles, which, instead of being incinerated, were mixed with solid waste; worrying in a country where HIV/AIDS is endemic. However, any spread of disease that may have been caused by this was simply attributed to ‘evil spirits’ by local people, rather than poor waste management. Sadly, she found that there was knowledge about why segregating waste was important, but in many cases it simply was not viable due to a lack of money and resources. For example, an incinerator was available in one town but was not greatly used, as it was too expensive to run. In some cases, it was also found that the skips used to transport waste on any given day might be used to transport food the next day. Even when there were good intentions, this was often detrimental. For example, in the creation of compost, 60% organic material and 40% plastics and other materials were used, rather than organics alone. This was then applied as fertilizer. So instead of being beneficial, it may have been polluting their land further, with these plastic build-ups leaching chemicals into the soil. Unfortunately, many local people were so desensitised to seeing rubbish in their streets and around their towns that they saw no incentive in clearing it. But by getting town councils to share best practice and teaching them techniques to improve their waste management, Professor Bates is hoping an improvement may be seen in Uganda. Only time will tell... I would like to thank Professor Bates for her brilliant talk, as well as Falmouth Rotary Club for hosting the talk. Whilst I am not usually one to rant about UK Politics online, I feel that the issue of the Tory Government abolishing pretty much every green policy of all time has not been talked about enough, and as much awareness as possible is needed in this area.
For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about, both the BBC and The Guardian today wrote about the "gross hypocrisy" within the Tory Government, specifically referring to Amber Rudd (the Energy and Climate Change Secretary) and her reckless destruction of environmental policies. It has been earmarked as the worst period for environmental policy in 30 years. Prime Minister David Cameron promised to lead the world to a climate change deal at a summit in Paris in November, but Amber Rudd and George Osbourne are abolishing policies relating to Solar Panel Subsidies, the Green Homes Scheme and the Green Tax target, amongst others. Frankly they should be ashamed to use a lush green tree as the Conservative Logo. But perhaps the two most alarming policies which are being scrapped are those relating to the taxation of new cars being standardised (so the most and least energy efficient cars will be charged the same fee) and fracking in SSSI's (Sites of Special Scientific Interest). All in the same week where it was announced the Tories will be suspending a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides which are known to cause serious harm to bees and other pollinators. Friends of the Earth said that David Cameron was "sticking up two fingers" to nations at the French climate summit and I could not agree more. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?! Or perhaps I should be asking WHY AREN'T they thinking?! It is quite simple actually. Money. Let's have a look at the woman who has been appointed as the Energy and Climate Change Secretary - Amber Rudd. She is described on her own website as having a background in "business & finance" and in HER OWN WORDS says: "With my experience in working with businesses, I know how important cashflow is." And here is the problem! This woman studied History at Edinburgh University, she worked as a financial journalist, worked in business media, investment banks and venture capital. Whilst I have no doubt she must be very skilled in matters of money, she has no background WHATSOEVER related to either Energy or Climate Change, and evidently no awareness of the horrendous impact the UK is having on the Environment or the technologies becoming available in this rapidly changing field either. If the job of "Energy and Climate Change Secretary" came up in any other organisation apart from the UK government, a person with her CV would stand next to no chance of securing the job, yet there she is, with that title next to her name. So why is she in the job? She's cutting all these green policies for cold hard cash. These policies simply don't make enough money to be worth it in her eyes, even though in the long term they will be worth so much more by offsetting the many environmental problems caused by the UK's ever growing emissions. Let's face it, money is the same reason Jeremy Hunt has been trying to undermine public confidence in the NHS. How miserable and greedy of the Conservatives, but in the most despicable way possible, it's incredibly clever. David Cameron and his band of lemmings are leading the UK off a cliff into a deep, dark abyss, but not before leading us through a sunny pasture. Everyone seems to be following blindly because in the short term these savings from policies will go straight into the UK economy (which means short-term solutions to the job crisis etc.) and the Tories will be able to claim credit for helping to strengthen our economic standing. However, they are severely screwing over all of us in the long term and most of us don't even realise it. What a Rudd-y big mess. |
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