The Eco Bloke

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Time to evolve your jeans...

While the snow is here and the schools are shut I thought that I would put together a resourceful post for all of those with kids and for those that want to enhance their creative side!

Today I am going to share with you some ideas on recycling textiles.

Here are some ideas for breathing new life into those old rags.

1. Crafty lunch sack made from an old pair of jeans
2. Mittens made from an old woolly jumper

Plastic free apples

I have just got off the phone to a nice chap at Waitrose. I called them because on Saturday I was in their Witney store and I was peckish for some apples. I always buy British apples where possible and saw that they stock my favourites, The English Cox.

But I had a dilemma; all of the British apples were being sold in plastic bags. Not only that, but the bags were not recyclable or compostable!

Do I buy British in wasteful packaging or do I buy apples that have been shipped in from Spain or Israel?

Do you recycle?

Following on from the question, which I received from a reader and posted to the blog a few days back, I have received a few more questions from a couple of other readers who would like our help.

Today’s question comes from Sally.

Hi Ecobloke!

I’m becoming a slightly obsessive recycler. But I get somewhat confused & concerned about some of the information particularly on plastics and don’t want to contaminate plastic recycling bins with the wrong type of plastics. Any quick tips on how to judge what plastics can be recycled. I’ve also heard that all plastics get shipped to China. I’d be interested in a thread about recycling generally to debate some of the quandaries I have about good recycling practise.

Time for a Walk to Help Beat the Blues?

I was reading this week of an emerging therapy referred too as EcoTherapy.

At its core, EcoTherapy uses nature as its active ingredient to help treat mental health issues and improve mental wellbeing. Research has shown that in many cases, EcoTherapy is as effective in treating depression as mainstream antidepressants.

The UK based mental health charity Mind conducted a study where they found that 90% of people enjoyed an increased level of self-esteem after just one walk in the countryside and 71% reported decreased feelings of depression.

I don't need a bag!

According to our friends over at AbolishPlasticBags.org.uk plastic bag usage has fallen by 26% in just two years. No one can deny that this is a fantastic start, but it still means that a staggering 10 billion bags are still being made, used and then shipped off to landfill each and every year!

Today’s post is a challenge that I hope that you will not only take me up on, but will also share with friends, family and colleagues, so that we can continue to stop this wasteful practice together.

Freecycle instead of landfill

So, now that it is officially blooming freezing and we are just over a week away from Christmas I thought that I would write about FreeCycle.

The figures show that here in the UK we use as much as 83 square km of gift wrap making our presents look pretty under the tree. To put that into perspective, you could easily wrap the entire island of Guernsey with that.

With all that paper comes all those new presents. In many cases – toys, clothes and other stuff that replace things we had in the past. So as we enjoy our new things, our old stuff gets demoted to the bin.