Eco Friendly House And Garden

Renewing your magazine subscription on time is helping the environment?

I recently received a subscription reminder for my National Geographic membership - way in advance of my current subscription ending.  And I almost put it to one side.

Knowing that I would renew it - why did I leave it to one side for later?  Was it because I thought why give them my money several months before they needed it?  Was it because I was hoping to book a vacation and thought I’d leave the money in my account just in case? 

It doesn’t matter why - because I didn’t do it in the end - I paid for another 2 years (the most you can pay for in advance) there and then.

Why Was I So Prompt?
Firstly, I know that - like every other organisation in the world - they would remind me again nearer the time - sometimes several times in fact so there was no chance that I would forget to do it.  And that was one of the reasons.

Why create all that extra administration and paperwork and postage and energy waste - when all I needed was 1 piece of paper.

If you follow the possible paper and energy trail of not renewing until the last minute - it starts to get a bit messy……

1) Computer system at NG HQ flags my account up as needing renewing - so 1 staff member or just the computer software itself triggers the 1 renewal letter to be sent to me - along with the renewal form and their standard complimentary envelope.  It gets printed, gets posted and gets delivered to my door.

2) I receive the reminder and leave it on the side.

3) After receiving no reply, the NG computer triggers a further reminder letter, payment form and complimentary envelope which is printed, posted and delivered again.

4) I receive the reminder and immediately throw it away into the recycling - as I know I already have the original form - and I remind myself to send it off this time - but leave it a week or so.

5) The NG computer still hasn’t received my renewal and has passed through various screening systems that NG staff are no doubt monitoring and keeping details of.  This processing isn’t free and certainly uses up a lot of NG’s time and resources.

The system then triggers a final reminder letter for me - with the obligatory renewal form and envelope - all printed, posted and delivered.

6)  I receive the final reminder and am encouraged to act on it - sending the payment in the post - and throwing out the other reminder letter, form and envelope for recycling.

I’m also sure that if you allowed your subscription to expire - that most companies would continue to write to you to try to in you back again - wasting more resources and putting up the price of it in the process! 

I mean they can’t staff all those offices, computers and memberships and send all those letters for free every 12 months to millions of people!

What a waste!

And It Doesn’t End There…..
I have the choice to renew for either 1 or 2 years on the form - and if I only do 1 year - this all gets repeated every 12 months!

If you can subscribe for longer - do so.  Not only does this save on renewal paperwork - but it’s better for you!  You get to pay today’s price for it rather than the cost in 2 or 4 years time - which will no doubt be higher!

If memberships give you the chance to sign up by direct debit then do this instead as it saves them having to send out the renewal form and envelope to you - they just need the ‘Thank You’ letter to be sent every year.  You sometimes get a better deal this way too as you are saving them money.

If your membership company is a UK charity - then make sure you sign up for the Gift Aid scheme - where they can claim back the tax on your donation or membership fee - raising more money for something you believe in and support - and at no extra cost to you!

If you can, sign up for their details and/or magazines to be sent to you via email - saving on printing and postage.  Make sure that you also tick the boxes to say that you don’t want to receive whatever it is that you know you won’t read - that way you get less wasted mail - whether it’s their newsletter or junk mail.

If you are joining a company for the first time - make sure you tell them if you do not want their ‘joining’ gift.  Again, this will save them money and ultimately the environment as it won’t be affected by them getting it to you!

And Finally:
Unless it says FREEPOST only on the envelopes - always put your own stamp on the envelope so that the companies you are supporting can keep more money for themselves.

Companies or charities with more money in the bank (rather than being spent on postage and renewal letters) will ultimately stay in business longer, give you a better service and achieve their goals more successfully as a result!

Walk To Work Week - Go On, Give It A Try!

It’s the first ever Walk to Work Week - organised by Living Streets, and why don’t you become a part of it?  It’s planned for the week of April 27th to 1st May, this year.

We all know that driving short distances to work adds to the rush hour traffic, costs money and isn’t great for the environment - so why not change to walking.

I don’t mean you have to walk all the way to work from home - and we all know that this isn’t even possible for many people these days - but using a combination of walking and public transport can have a huge impact on the environment - and your health!

Why Do It?
Well, I walk to work along the canal and through a park at the moment - although I also have to walk past a building site - I arrive at work after having had my own little adventure!

And my route is a shorter distance than the equivalent drive, so it doesn’t really take any longer to walk!

And driving to work adds to the endless traffic we see in towns and cities - which no-one wants to sit in it - yet many of us choose to drive and ultimately cause it!  I hate being stuck in traffic, so I try my best not to cause it. 

My theory is that everyone should work close to home anyway, so walking to work shouldn’t be a problem!

Can you walk to work all year - not just the one week?

The Environmental Cost of Cheap Plastic doesn’t make for a great story.

However, there are some people out there who want to make a difference - and a crazy millionaire is about to set sail in a 60ft boat made of plastic bottled stuck together to prove a point!

He is trying highlight the problem of the ever growing ’sea of plastic’ in the Pacific Ocean. This ’sea’ is a place where all floating rubbish from the worlds oceans eventually ends up. It then becomes ‘trapped’ there, stuck together in this one place somewhere between Hawaii and mainland US.

This mass of rubbish floating just under the surface currently weighs an estimated 3.5 tonnes and is around 3 times the size of Japan or larger than Bolivia!

The Problem:
The UN estimates that there are over 45,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the oceans - devastating the wildlife that depends on it for survival. We are all aware that turtles eat carrier bags thinking they are jellyfish and seabirds collect them from the seas and feed them to their young instead of actual food - dooming them to starvation.

Because it isn’t biodegradable, plastic is with us for ever. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made since it’s invention is still here today. Yes, it’s not all whole pieces - plastic is gradually worn down or crushed by animals and people and much is buried under the earth - but it is all still there, doing nothing but damage.

More frightening is the fact that figures suggest that over 100m tonnes more plastic is being produced each year!!! All because of human demands.

How it’s generated:
Starting with food: Think of all those individual bottles of kids fizzy soda available, all the individually wrapped cheeses rather than fresh chunks off the deli counter. Shrink wrapped vegetables rather than fresh from the farm store!

Then the home: Disposable pens are thrown away, dropped or broken every day. Because they are cheap we don’t really care about them. Like so many modern technologies, it’s cheaper to throw them out than get them repaired. Disposible anything is a disaster waiting to happen - lighters, cups, cutlery, bottles, plates, straws, jewelry, razors and diapers to name a few.

If you buy things that have been designed to be thrown out after a short time or even one single use then you are directly contributing to this environmental disaster. Companies are not going to invest money in making these disposible items recyclable either if you are buying them as a product you know you are not going to use again.

Would you put loads of effort into making your friend an expensive gift if you knew it would be thrown out straight after?

What you can do?
Here is a list of ideas for you to help reduce your plastic use, affect manufacturers and clean up after yourself and others:

1. Never drop litter or expect someone else to take care of your waste.
2. Try to avoid buying over-wrapped products - even if the packaging is recyclable, it still had to be created and who is to say that the person who uses your recycled plastic won’t dump it later.
3. Buy larger containers of your favourite packaged products so that there is more product per outer wrapping. You could even write to the companies to ask if they could reduce their plastic packaging or offer refills rather than whole new products.
4. Let your local stores know that you would rather see less packaged fresh produce by actively buying those products that are currently loose. These include meat, fish, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread and pastries to name a few. This way the stores sales reports will hightlight customer shopping patterns and improve their service in those areas.
5. Spend that bit extra for technology and office equipment so that it lasts longer. Better quality products will be cheaper in the long run as when maintained they will have a very long shelf life. Think about what you want to buy before you make a purchase so that your technology isn’t overtaken in a month forcing you to upgrade again. If you reduce your demand on manufacturers of cheap appliances, they will have to improve their products to stay in the market.
6. Don’t buy disposable anything. If you plan your time and activities better, you will never just need that one little thing to tide you over - and disposable goods usually come in large pack sizes creating more waste than you needed!
7. Take time to reuse everything plastic you can - use bottles for mini garden cloches, tubs for jams and preserves, to store leftovers, and many more uses.
8. Recycling can sometimes be trickier as many agencies send waste to other regions or other countries to be processed creating more energy waste than necessary - as long as it’s cheaper, it will be done like this. Make sure you know where your waste and recycling is processed and voice you opinions if you aren’t happy about it.
9. Organise a beach-combing or woodland team to collect litter and plastics before they do more harm. Not only are these great fun, they make your own environment look better and improve the health of your wildlife all at the same time. And then you can dispose of the waste more responsibly.