How easy is it to be green? I think it’s about being organised and consuming less and being more aware of what we buy.
I’m not a militant green who has forgone all unethical goods. I’m just me, who can only do a little at a time. Maybe it’s not enough. It probably isn’t. And maybe I’ll get judged for still doing this or that or the other.
But surely it’s better to do something, no matter how small?
Every year I come up with new year resolutions, usually broken by the middle of the year. But what if this year, 2019, was different? What if that was the year in which I kept my environmental resolution?
So here goes, five green resolutions.
1. Check for palm oil in ingredients. Making palm oil as commonplace as it is these days has unfortunately come at a high cost to the rainforests – and to animals such as orangutans who live there.
For more information: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/surprising-everyday-palm-oil-products-13588303
2. Cut down on plastic. This may mean buying fewer bottles of water and Irn-Bru. One thing I did this year was drink water from a cup at work, rather than getting plastic cups from the water machine. There is so much plastic in our seas that the less we use the better for the planet.
3. Drive less. Get the bus, train or walk. Might do my waistline some good too!
4. Renew my membership of The Woodland Trust. They create and maintain woodland habitats for wildlife, vitally important at a time when we humans are destroying their places to live at an increasingly rapid place.
http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk
5. Start writing to MPs about green issues such as loss of wildlife habitat.
Are you doing anything green for 2019? 🙂
I agree – sometimes it all seems pretty hopeless and we think, ‘what’s the point in our small contribution?’ but if we all make a small contribution then things must change. 🙂
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Yes, I think it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at what’s going on in the world and think what’s the point? I have thought that before but then I realised if we all think that, nothing would get done. So I believe it’s best to try and stay positive and do something, no matter how little. As an advert slogan once said, every little helps. And people are becoming more aware which is great.
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These are great. I’m trying very hard to use less plastic this year.
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It can be tricky, I’m finding plastic everywhere it seems. I think, for me, it’s trying to be more mindful of what I buy and use and to be more organised. 🙂
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I’m doing a course at the moment through Future Learn which has looked in detail at the issue of palm oil. I have learned that it is in 80% of all supermarket stock, which means it is lurking in just about everything both edible and not.
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Yes, it does seem to be in everything and a lot of the time it doesn’t say if it is sustainable so I have to assume it isn’t. I was going to buy a chocolate bar yesterday but when I looked at the ingredients, palm oil was mentioned. So I bought an organic chocolate bar, with no palm oil, instead. It was more expensive but I had a clear conscience and it was delicious!
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I was really pleased to find a jar of chocolate spread in Lidl with no palm oil.
Overall, I’m uncomfortable when a product claims to be from sustainable sources. Apart from questioning the truth, I wonder if buying stuff which might be a concoction of so many ingredients is encouraging the wrong food.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chocolate bar, Clare 😊.
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It’s great when we find a product which doesn’t have palm oil, it seems to be everywhere. The chocolate was excellent, proof that palm oil is not needed in chocolate bars! Will definitely try it again… 🙂
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Good to hear you enjoyed the chocolate 😊.
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My resolution was to cut back on plastic as well! Milk in bottles, that can be returned for deposit, “Purify You” mesh produce bags instead of the store plastic bags, my own grocery bags …its a start. If everyone encouraged supermarkets to buy bulk instead of pre packaged goods it could be a great next step (or shop at Farmers Markets) I think things can change the way organics found their way into the light!
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Those are good ideas. I got a note through my door a while ago about milk deliveries. I must enquire about it as they would be glass bottles. 🙂
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Those are all admirable resolutions Claire – it is sad when I see pictures of the sea creatures and shore birds who have been strangled or hurt by all the plastic in our oceans. It is us, the humans, that are doing these horrid things to our planet, and I pray we stop before it it too late. Bravo to you!
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It is really sad to see animals hurt by plastic pollution, it’s only really in the last few years that it has been realised just how bad the situation is. I’m as guilty as anyone of buying plastic goods without thinking but hopefully if I start becoming more mindful of what I buy and use, my plastic consumption will go down. I’m so pleased that people are becoming more aware of the issue but yes, I do hope we stop our destruction of the planet before it’s too late.
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I agree with you Clare – years ago people never thought of any of these things and now our planet is paying the price for it. Look at global warming – that scientific article that came out yesterday and made all kinds of headlines (here in the U.S. anyway) that last year was the warmest year on record on Earth and how it will make our weather more erratic going forward … that scares me. We’ve had unusual and often dangerous weather for over a year now – I know in the UK you had an especially warm Summer which followed an usually snowy Winter. We are on a roller coaster ride again this week … last week we had the Polar Vortex with subzero air temps and three days later it was seventy (typing it out so you know it’s not a typo) degrees warmer! We are dropping thirty degrees in the space of a few hours tonight with a raucous wind storm/cold front coming in. The swings in the weather are very worrisome. I’d like to go back to the traditional seasons I grew up with!
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Yes, the weather has become very unpredictable. From your blog and the news, it sounds as if America has suffered from extreme weather this winter. It’s bad enough now but what will it be like in the future? Very worrying for future generations and for wildlife. I wish political leaders and big corporations, which do have power, cared more.
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Yes, it has been very unpredictable Clare and big weather swings – not how it used to be for years and years. I worry about the future generations and wildlife too – our current administration does not believe there is global warming and does not strive to help our environment at all. I agree with you – they should care more as it is both sad and scary the way things are now.
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Less plastic where I can. I avoid buying small bottles of pop in bottles, but if I do, I reuse these plastic bottles to drink out of by refilling with my own cold drinks. I avoid plastic cups and hence use my plastic water bottle when at work to drink from.
I have my own traveling cup, so make my own hot drinks than use a takeaway cup.
I use cotton shopping bags and this is something I have done for years now.
Any recyclable product brought from a shop that can be recycled in my green bin, goes in there.
I have saved bottle tops for charity in the past, instead of throwing away.
I still save them, but I don’t know if my friend is still collecting for this charity or not. But I do have another place to take them, if it turns out I am taking them elsewhere.
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These are all good tips. I haven’t heard of saving bottle tops for charity. I’ll see if there’s anywhere near me that collects them. I try to avoid plastic bottles but, like you, if I do buy one I reuse it. It’s funny how I’ve got used to things, a few years ago I thought nothing of using plastic cups for water at work, a different one every day, and now I see that as using and wasting a lot of plastic (I use a reusable mug now). Sometimes it’s about being organised, I still sometimes forget to take a reusable bag with me to the shops but I’m getting a lot better than I used to be.
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