Recycling – Paul Noël

Reducing Plastic Consumption – Mouthwash Tablets

Posted back in 2018 and here we are in 2023 and we are using more rather than less plastic. Remember to try and reduce by choosing carefully what you buy and consume.

In searching how to reduce our consumption of plastic my partner came across these mouthwash tablets from georganics. The bottle is glass and the lid is metal. It would be great if they could sell refills in a plain cardboard box but hopefully that will eventually come.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Recycling – don’t bin those pens

Pens are cheap, for many at least but not for the environment. We have a small collection of them where they have run out of ink. One of our national stationers doesn’t sell cheap pen refills. I guess that there’s no money in it. I found these on the big A. I now have four working pens and six spare cartridges. Every little bit of pollution we save happening and every bit of precious resources that we save using is vital. Now if all 8,000,000,000 of us , or at least those that have access to pens and are able to write and that have been educated to write could only do the same.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

How to Save the World – Part 1

A return visit to something I wrote a couple of years ago and yep we’re still refilling that egg box in the photo. We all need to change.

Posted a year ago or so. While it’s great that the UK government is making a move to get rid of single use plastics we can still do our bit and stop using so much packaging. It’s not hard.

Trying to make a difference. These days convenience is the cheapest way to buy items in terms of money but the most expensive in environmental damage. This is one of our old egg boxes that we have been buying eggs in for years but unless you have a farmer’s market or a small shop that sells loose eggs at a reasonable price then the average person will be buying these boxes and recycling them if we are lucky every week from one of the large supermarkets.

So how do we change that without all the supermarkets complaining that it will cost the consumer more? Of course they are not going to lose out. In the UK as we know they are screwing farmers where they can and as the dopey and very greedy boss of Sainsbury’s was caught out singing recently, “We’re in the money”.

So, it will have to be the big and bad state getting involved again to force business and individuals to do the right thing because there will always be people, many people probably who won’t do the right thing even if long term it affects their health and that of the their children. It’s not about asking people for an extra 5p for every egg box they use, it’s about reducing the need to have many egg boxes produced because everybody brings their own egg box when they shop. I think our egg boxes still have some life left in them.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Wasting resources, the final “straws”

First posted in January 2021. We are still a long way from the mindset change that individuals and societies need to make in terms of resource usage on a finite planet.

Marketing and advertising and the wasting of resources go hand in hand in the 21st century. These cranes I think had clearly been signposted with the site name that they were working on but why? Because they could. The cost of doing so was in the local currency, it might have even been tax deductible but there was no associated cost to the environment. OK you might say it’s some materials on a one way trip to landfill or burning but it’s not much. Unfortunately it is though. It may only look like a “straw” to you but there are 7,800,000,000 of us all using “straws” that are often unnecessary and therefore part of the over use of natural resources that humanity extracts from the natural world at every moment. Earth Overshoot Day gets earlier every year. Make sure you consider the environmental cost of what you use and not just its monetary cost.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

A great idea for a sustainable future – modifying old bicycles

First posted in January 2021. Hopefully, it’s still happening and in business.

Here’s an excellent BBC article about a couple of people in Wales who are modifying old bikes and turning them into electric ones. Our private ownership of cars is part of the reason we hit a peak of 417ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere in May 2020 and this cannot continue. Cycling, walking and shared transport are the logical options. For that to take place though we are going to need to change our infrastructure as Anne Hidalgo in Paris is doing with the 15 minute city where everything you need is a maximum 15 minute walk or cycle ride away. This idea from Wales is very green and gives new life to old bicycles and is a scheme which generates least human environmental loading on the planet, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55533981. If you want to find out more about the 15 minute city idea here’s an article, https://eurocities.eu/latest/parisians-will-live-within-a-15-minute-radius/.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Litter and waste. Time to get tough on everyone from the individual up to the corporation and country

First posted 3rd January 2021. Two years later we, humans, are polluting the planet even more than we were then.

Let’s make 2021 the year that we also ask for the people responsible for the state of the planet pay. In the UK there seems to be little that’s done against those individuals, criminals, organisations or even our country. What do I mean by that? The microplastic pollution is out there. It covers every part of our environment and it appears to be in most living organisms including us. The corona virus is making it far worse with discarded face masks filling our landscapes, seas and oceans. Since this waste is potentially very dangerous those who discard it need to face the proper penalties and it needs to be taken for the serious problem that it is. First we need to catch the individuals. If we do what would be a suitable punishment? How about a week street cleaning and the street cleaner gets a week off? Fly tippers? Well that should carry heavy fines and a prison sentence for repeat offenders. That might already happen but we obviously don’t catch enough of them. Corporations? We need to protest to our governments to make them pay heavily for using non recyclable materials. Governments? We must stop 1st world governments dumping our waste on 3rd world countries. A government that does this is no better than an illegal fly tipper. OK, I’m being frivolous but we need to start somewhere. Waste, especially plastic based waste, is something that needs to be taken far more seriously than it is.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

This plastic madness of wrapping vegetables has to stop

First posed 31st December 2021. Are we reducing the amount of unnecessary plastic wrapping and use? it doesn’t seem like it.

Once again the only choice of buying cauliflower was to buy one all wrapped up in plastic poison and pollution. We must stop this as it is a danger to all life on this planet. Dramatic? Not really when you know the facts. Maybe not this plastic but some other piece of plastic’s breakdown products could cause you harm. Few of us know where the plastic will end up. Maybe it will be burnt locally causing the release of toxic particles. Maybe it will be exported to some poorer country and will end up poisoning their environment. Except it’s not their environment, it’s our environment and microplastic and nanoplastic particles have been found from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches and on into the human placenta. Wrapping vegetables in plastic has polluted the whole planet so why do it and why accept it. 2021 has to be the year where we say no more and we start demanding change.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Smashing up glass, that’s insane

First posted December 2020 and since then nothing has changed.

We take materials from various sources and then use huge amounts of energy to heat them up to make container glass, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_glass#:~:text=Container%20glass%20has%20a%20lower,storage%20of%20beverages%20and%20food.. Then we fill it with something and transport it potentially long distances. The jars are put on shelves where shoppers who have often driven to the supermarket by the jars and take them home. The contents are emptied and then if they are lucky the glass containers are smashed and possibly recycled. A lot more energy will be used to make them back into glass containers again. Others are just chucked in the rubbish. We have developed highly inefficient one way supply chains and here we sit with a high in May 2020 of 417ppm CO2. Nothing to be surprised at if you look how inefficient our systems are. Those same shoppers have to drive back to the supermarket to buy another jar full of their favourite content. The lorries delivering the jars to the supermarket have to return to the depot. Lorries or vans supplying the depot have to return to the suppliers. There is therefore something very wrong with both our economics and our one way supply chain both of which have contributed to the amount of climate change generating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We need to change and we need to change now. The value of the environment is not costed or not fully costed into our supply chains because otherwise those glass containers would be reused over and over again.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Plastics use – it really is up to us as individuals

First posted in December 2020. Has anything changed? Not a lot, if anything. Time for us all to act.

The link at the foot of this post will take you to a very interesting article on plastic. Just as with normal fossil fuel derived plastics and our confusion over what is actually recyclable the same appears to be true for bioplastics. We are probably all a little confused by the term and what it means in terms of the environment that we live in. Just because it says bio doesn’t mean that it might be any better for a sustainable future. The article notes that reduction of use is the only way forward not that the companies making plastics from any source are going to agree with that because they profit from our single use convenient lifestyles. How can we change things? But first why should we change things? Well presumably, let’s say you are a woman of a certain age thinking of having children, you would want to have born healthy children. Very recent research carried out in Italy has discovered microplastics in the placenta of a group of woman. The health consequences are unknown along with of course whether microplastics made their way into the babies. What is known is that these microplastics can link up with other toxic chemicals and pathogens and be the cause in some cases of endocrine disruption in humans. So let’s return to how we change things. Boycott products is a good start. Don’t buy drinks in plastics containers, I’m sure that you know the brands and as for bottled water just don’t. Avoid fresh produce plastic wrapped and when it’s the only choice ask your vendor why it is wrapped this way. Contact your local political representative. Social media is a great way of embarrassing corporate brands so when you see a discarded drinks bottle or other packaging just blast it out on all your channels. The large companies making this poison won’t stop on their own, only we can do that. Here’s the link, https://ensia.com/features/bioplastics-bio-based-biodegradable-environment/.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Christmas wrapping and packaging – make sure it’s properly disposed of

First posted in December 2020. Time to remember that the tiny bits of plastic from Christmas’s past are still out there and polluting the environment and ourselves. They are very real “ghosts” so try and be a little less plastic this Christmas even if it’s a little less “pretty”.

There will be literally mountains of wrapping and packaging waste associated with today. Try and make sure that it is properly disposed of. It’s in your interest as well as everyone else’s as just like a boomerang some of it might come back to you and you will be eating it or breathing it in as microplastic and nanoplastic particles. We live in a soup of this stuff already so don’t make it worse. We’ve already messed this planet up enough as it is.