Lemons and Penguins

You don’t have to look very far to find the answer to this question.

I’ve made a conscious descision not to fly anywhere, and haven’t flown since 16 April 2007. That’s over a whole year without any flights. That might not sound like a big deal, but in this aviation-obsessed world sometimes it feels like I’m the crazy one whilst other people are jetting off for weekend breaks left right and centre.

It’s difficult to recognise how serious an issue aviation is when even the government seem to be hell bent on expanding Heathrow and increasing flights.

Last week I attended a public “debate” at the RSA, entitled “Does London need a bigger Heathrow“. The panel comprised, among others, Ruth Kelly (minister for transport) and George Monbiot (Guardian columnist and author of Heat). I say “debate” because it was quite farcical in places. The audience was so unimpressed by Ruth Kelly’s arguments in favour of airport expansion that at a couple of points in the debate the chair stopped taking questions from the floor and instead reverted to asking “is there anyone from BAA in the audience who wants to ask a question?”. So basically it started turning into a “public debate” where the only questions that could be asked or the only points that could be made we those in favour of aircraft expansion. Right.

I still don’t understand how on one hand the government can be introducing a Climate Change Bill to limit the country’s emissions and say that tackling climate change is one of their priorities, while on the other hand looking to increase aviation – the largest growing source of emissions. If aviation continues to increase at its current rate, by 2050 it’s predicted to count for between 90-250% of the entire UK’s carbon emissions allowance. How can aviation expansion be justified?! I’m not convinced that anyone at the government even understands how it’s possible to reconcile this, because the only way they seem to be justifying it right now is by conveniently ignoring aviation emissions from the Climate Change Bill.

Someone in the government needs to face up to the fact that we have a choice. Either we choose airport expansion and climate change, or we choose a sustainable transport policy (think decent, reliable and affordable trains) and climate change mitigation. If you had the choice between clean, green transport or contributing to worldwide food shortages, mass hunger, flooding, and the potential for millions of people in the developing world to die, which would you choose?

That’s why on Saturday morning I’m going to the Make a Noise carnival at Hatton Cross/Sipson (on the boundaries of Heathrow airport), wearing my “Stop airport expansion” T-shirt.

I stayed at a lovel hotel last Monday: the Hoxton Hotel (technically it’s in Shoreditch, not Hoxton) is advertised as a “budget boutique hotel”. I’m not sure how you can describe a hotel whose rooms go up to £189 a night as “budget” (!) but it was definitely boutique. From artwork in the lobby to illuminated room numbers and carpets with stripy floors, it was a lovely place to stay. The hotel is owned by the founders of Pret a Manger, the food chain known for their non-additive, natural food, and the mini bar includes free Pret water and a free “light” Pret breakfast. I love Pret food, and I was very happy to see that my breakfast yoghurt pot was 100% recyclable.

But… where was I supposed to recycle it?

Pret have a huge section on their website devoted to sustainability. With this in mind, I’d have thought their approach to the hotel would be similar. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so. Ok, I understand that recycling isn’t at the top of people’s minds when you’re on holiday but if hotels can put a little note in your bathroom asking you to re-use your towel for environmental reasons, they can at least provide a recycling bin in the room? (I left them a note on the guest comment card to say so too!). As it was I ended up taking my used plastic bottles (water and orange juice) and my newspaper away with me to recycle in one of the street recycling bins provided by the council, but I’m sure that most people who stay in the hotel don’t bother to do that!

In fact, I don’t know anywhere that collects yoghurt pots for recycling. I’d love to be able to recycle such things but currently Camden council only has street bins for “plastic bottle” recycling. I’m not sure if this means they can ONLY recycle plastic bottles and nothing else, or if they just put “plastic bottles” on the side of the recycling bins because they think they will confuse people by putting specific details of what types of plastic are recyclable.

I recently discovered that both types 1 and 2 of plastic can be recycled – that’s every piece of plastic that has a triangle logo on it with a 1 or a 2 in the middle (picture is on the right). So surely whether the plastic is in bottle shape or not is irrelevant…. and surely not all bottles are plastic types 1 and 2?  I think I ought to ask Camden council about this…their website doesn’t make this clear.

After all, the recyclable Pret yoghurt pot is more or less the same thing as a bottle with the top chopped off? I will email the council tomorrow! In the meantime I’m going to pay more attention to what types of plastic I’m using, I don’t think I’ve really paid any attention to it before!

This week I joined the Great Plastic Challenge in an attempt to make an effort to cut down on the amount of plastic I send to landfill. It astounds me how no-one thinks twice about sending a huge bag of rubbish (or two…or more…) to be buried in a big heap in the ground every week. How is it ok to chuck a big heap of plastic and other non-biodegradable junk in a big hole in the ground? Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it ok. And what happens when we run out of space to do this? (Even right now as I type this the ocean is full of floating plastic).

Waste incineration (burning rubbish) is often hailed as an alternative to landfill but is arguably even worse as it encourages more waste to be produced and releases toxic substances in to the air. (Read more about incineration and landfill). So, I’ve been trying to follow the 3 R’s – to reduce the amount of rubbish I create, to re-use (or repair) items, and to recycle as much as possible.

Plastic is difficult to recycle. In Camden, where I live, we can only recycle plastic bottles. I don’t actually use an awful lot of plastic bottles. I don’t drink bottled water, and most of the juice I drink is from tetrapak cartons (tetrapaks are also recyclable). But I find that a huge proportion of my rubbish every week is plastic. Where does all this plastic come from? Where doesn’t it? When I look around everything I own seems to be made of plastic. From the keys on my computer keyboard, to the lenses in my glasses and the polyester in my clothes…even the exfoliating beads in my facewash… it’s all plastic. And everything seems to come packaged in plastic. At the supermarket mushrooms are in their own little plastic box which is wrapped in plastic film. Frozen pizzas are placed on a plastic tray before being wrapped in plastic film and packaged in a cardboard box. Yoghurts, soup, pasta, even potatoes, they all come packaged in plastic. I can’t for the life of me find a sensible way to reuse any of this plastic packaging, I can’t recycle it, and as far as I can see most of this packaging is pointless anyway.

So, I’m trying to be more aware of the plastic in my life and to take steps to reduce it. Step one I have already taken, to re-use plastic bags whenever I go shopping. I carry round a cotton bag in my handbag all the time for impromptu shops (see right), and when I know I’m going to go food shopping I take 4 large “bags for life” with me to Sainsburys. I know, “bags for life” are made from plastic too, but I have been reusing them for almost a year now and that’s better than using new plastic bags every time, right?

Step two is also already in progress. I’m trying to forgo putting fruit and vegetables into those transparent plastic bags. This isn’t too difficult. 99% of fruit & veg is peeled before I eat it, and if not, then it’s washed, and c’mon, if I’m fine with the idea of eating mushrooms that have been grown in manure and then washed then I should be ok with eating an apple that’s been washed after some other people have touched in the supermarket.

But…. big but.. it’s so difficult to avoid plastic. Last Thursday I felt too tired to cook and went to Marks & Spencer to buy some nice food…. I brought it home and unpacked it… only to realise I’d managed to buy a whole load of plastic along with my food. Even though I admire M&S’s environmental stance (their Plan A is a brilliant idea and an example to all other businesses), they still mainly sell highly packaged “ready meals”. The chinese spring rolls and rice that I bought were both packaged in huge black non-recyclable plastic trays. ugh.

You might think this is par for the course, that if I’m trying to avoid plastic I should avoid ready meals. But why?! Just because they’re ready meals doesn’t mean they have to be packaged in plastic or non-recyclable materials!

Yesterday I bought a scrumptious pieminster pie (from Fresh & Wild in Camden), whose packaging was an ingenious origami-type piece of cardboard. Below is a photo of the packaging laid out flat. As you can see, it’s just once piece of cardboad. Nothing else. No plastic in sight. Why can’t all food companies do this?

P.S. I’ve just emailed M&S to ask them about this, let’s see what their response is!

What time better than a long bank holiday weekend to start a new project?! I’ve set myself the task of writing about lemons and penguins and everything in-between. This could be interesting! Read about me and this blog and why the bizarre title.