Plastic has become such a huge issue in 2018, and rightly so. When starting The Paddock in 2013, I was increasingly aware of the overuse of single use plastics and inspired by my time in New Zealand using ever more eco friendly alternatives. On one farm we worked on through Help X (a site similar to WWOOFING), we spent 3 weeks living with the family who had built a completely sustainable eco house – there was no mains water, only rain water. Electric was all solar powered. Toilets were composting. They had thought of everything, even down to the windows and floors which were all designed to make the house as eco friendly as possible. It became the norm, to the point where coming home was strange – using a proper toilet and not diluting your urine to put on the acidic loving fruit trees (which love it by the way, due to the high nitrogen content!)
I instantly came home to my parents and had separate bins set up in the kitchen for food scraps, compostable waste and became somewhat of a recycling warrior – sorting through the rubbish and telling everyone which bin to put things in! Whilst I felt this was completely normal in New Zealand, I was disheartened to find our options somewhat limited back at home. There was no real way of composting food waste unless your local council provided this scheme, so I set about building compost bins at our smallholding from recycled timber. Luckily enough, we had the space we could do this but I can see this would be somewhat more of a challenge for others.
There is often limited recycling in the North East, for example Northumberland Council don’t take away any glass or plastic trays to be recycled. We are quite limited to tins and cardboard among a few other things and the rest has to be taken to a local recycling centre. I can fully understand how this could put people off from sorting their rubbish.
The idea for The Paddock was seen as somewhat unusual in the beginning – a delivery service with an ethos centred around ethical, sustainable food produced locally in an environmentally sustainable manner. A complete contradiction to the ethos promoted by many of the larger chain supermarkets which has become the norm. Not that different, however to if you were to look back say 50 years to when every village had its own individual grocery stores – a butcher, a baker, a greengrocer, and most people had an allotment, growing their own food and keeping a few hens. In many ways, everything I have done with The Paddock has been somewhat nostalgic in the sense that it promotes food as it used to be. Organic is not a new term we have created, but rather something which has always been there, but fell out of fashion when we were given the opportunity to buy everything on a large scale, whenever we wanted it – tomatoes in Winter and eggs every day of the year! But more on the topic of seasonal eating in another blog post. Back to the issue at hand – PLASTIC!
Even my dad (who has always been a constant source of support) wondered whether The Paddock would work in the early days, but the growing awareness of how and where our food is produced, the packaging it comes in and the environmental impact this has means the response has been incredible. Not to say this hasn’t taken a lot of hard work, but rather the shifting consciousness of a growing number of people toward their environmental footprint is so empowering.
I was recently asked to speak at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation festival for the Teenage Sprint centred on the Blue Planet programme which aired early in 2018. This was without doubt one of the key triggers this year in the media to raising awareness of the issue of plastic in our oceans. I attended the event not quite knowing what to expect, as we are often invited to various events and you never quite know how they will turn out. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed my day. The young people in the session in which I spoke were so enthusiastic and all had some great ideas about how we might tackle the issue moving forward. Whilst I have been conscious of the issue for a number of years now, it was really interesting to me to actually research the facts behind the issue, some of which even surprised me!
Did you know? Scientific evidence has shown that around 8 to 12 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans EVERY YEAR where it harms the whales, dolphins, turtles and seabirds, 80% of which is coming from land, blown out of bins by the wind, accidentally dropped during waste collection and transport or deliberately littered. It makes its way into waterways and drains and then out to sea. 50% has been produced for single use.
These statistics are truly shocking! But there is hope.
In the years since I started The Paddock there has definitely been a growing awareness amongst individuals and businesses alike toward the use of plastic. The most recent series of Blue Planet has without a doubt raised huge awareness of the issue of plastic in our natural environment. More and more people are looking for ways to make a difference.
There are countless options on the market now to help you make a change to move away from single use plastics. Here are just a few ideas:
· Switch to a bamboo toothbrush
· Use a shampoo bar
· Try a beeswax wrap
· Buy in bulk or use a refill system
· Use a local milk man who delivers milk in glass bottles
· Look for a local greengrocer or veg box delivery scheme focusing on un-packaged fruit and veg
· Look for as many products as possible in brown paper or glass bottles
· Use a bamboo coffee cup or a reusable water bottle
· Take a reusable carrier bag shopping with you
· Try a natural soap bar rather than shower gel
· Try a deodorant bar
There are countless zero waste shops popping up across the UK where you can take your own containers and fill up with items such as nuts, pulses, seeds and cleaning products. In our own farm shop we are trying to source more and more products in brown paper bags and we now have a refill system for eco friendly household products where you can bring your own bottle of any kind and refill from our bulk cleaning products. One 20L washing up liquid could save 40 single use plastic bottles from being purchased! That makes a huge difference!
There are also numerous blog spots which are a great source of information for shops or projects in your area for sharing info such as www.thezerowaster.com/zero-waste-near-you/ or Plastic Free Pantry www.plasticfreepantry.co.uk/blogs/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-plastic-free-and-zero-waste-shops-in-the-uk. Facebook groups such as Plastic Less Living and Gradually Getting Greener are a great way to connect with other people taking on the challenge!
Plastic Free Pantry also offer a delivery service for dried goods packaged in brown paper. Plastic Freedom offers a great selection of plastic free products from sunglasses, to clothing to deodorant www.plasticfreedom.co.uk/.
Personally, I can’t understand why we are still able to sell an item in plastic when there is a more environmentally friendly alternative such as bamboo – toothbrushes are a great example of this. They do the same job, but are much kinder to the planet, yet still you go to a supermarket and see shelves of plastic toothbrushes.
So why Bamboo? Bamboo is a fast growing grass, it requires no fertiliser or pesticides and self-regenerates from its own roots, so it doesn't need to be replanted. It is a natural, sustainable resource that will full biodegrade, leaving no trace.
I could ramble on all day about the topic, but there will be time for more blog posts on the topic soon I’m sure, so I suppose what I’m trying to say is why not give it a go, reduce your use of plastic by making a few simple changes.