The 22nd April of every year is 'Earth Day'. And while it seems strange to have just one day of the year dedicated to protecting the future of this wonderful orb we call home, it's no bad thing to use Earth Day to raise our consciousness of the role we all need to play in protecting our planet's future, every day of the year.
Do you know what’s in your shampoo? Or how it achieves that “squeaky clean” feeling? Four years ago, I ditched bottled shampoo for good. My hair was dry, damaged and prone to breakage. I was fed up of spending a small fortune on hairdressers and expensive shampoos with fancy-sounding ingredients only to be disappointed that I hadn't magically transformed into a hair goddess overnight.
Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a conventional laundry detergent? No, I don’t blame you. It’s a long and frankly unintelligible list and we all have better things to do. But, what are all these chemicals and what do they do?
Even Jeremy Clarkson has got in on the act, rewilding 300 acres of his Diddly Squat Farm. But you don’t need to have a huge amount of land in order to do your bit. Your own garden is the perfect place to start.
The kitchen is one of the major contributors to plastic waste in our homes. Every sponge, piece of clingfilm, bin liner or bottle of detergent we have ever thrown away still exists.. Maybe in landfill, maybe in the ocean, but it is still out there somewhere and will be for at least the next 500 years. Here are five things that we have done to reduce plastic in our kitchens:
Did you know that switching to a green energy provider is one of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint and possibly your bills too? Some of the cheapest energy suppliers are green ones. Green energy is generated from natural resources like sunlight, wind and water. Unlike traditional fuel sources, these are renewable, so they will never run out, and they cause less pollution.
Most wrapping paper is designed to be used once and binned. Even though it is paper and most people will put it in the recycling, it will still end up in landfill. This is because the fibres are not strong enough to recycle and the paper is often dyed, laminated and contains colouring, glitter and plastics. Plus it will normally have plastic sticky tape attached to it. In the UK, we send 5 million tonnes of paper to landfill every year and on average, it takes 6 mature trees to make a tonne of paper - that’s 30 million trees!
According to National Geographic, the production of toilet roll wipes out 27,000 trees a day – almost 9 million a year. The average British consumer gets through 127 rolls a year. And all that toilet roll comes packaged in single use plastic which can’t be recycled and ends up sitting in landfill for the next few hundred years. Your average supermarket toilet roll also contains bleach, BPA, formaldehyde, de-inking agents, chlorine dioxide, sodium sulphide, sodium hydroxide, sodium sulphate, anti-slime agents, filler, adhesives, wet strength enhancers and more…
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