Counting On … – Page 19

Counting on … day 108

14th July 2025

The UK has committed to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30by30), to support the global 30by30 target agreed at the UN Biodiversity Summit (COP15) in 2022. (1) Currently just over 14% of land in England meets this target so achieving this goal will require significant change and input from landowners and government.

Gardens can make a small contribution. Rewilding part of a garden is not to waste one’s garden but to create a space where wildlife – be that insects, beetles, birds etc or wild plants (often discarded for being weeds) can thrive. Collectively wild spaces in gardens can provide green corridors for wild life.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criteria-for-30by30-on-land-in-england/30by30-on-land-in-england-confirmed-criteria-and-next-steps

Further information

https://greentau.org/2022/04/04/the-green-tau-issue-39/ (Since writing this blog, the green proportion of Greater London is now almost 50%)

Counting on … day 107

11th July 2025

Once the jam – or peanut butter/ marmite/ olives etc – has been eat, is that the end of the road for the empty jar?

If nothing else it can be recycled. Glass is readily recycled time and time again – but there is an energy cost involved in melting and reforming the glass. Reusing the jar is a better outcome. In our kitchen jam jars are filled and emptied in a rotating cycle as jam/ marmalade/ peanut butter/ bottled fruit/ chutney/ pickles are eaten and refilled. Peanut butter comes from the refill shop; marmalade is made in January when Seville oranges are in the shops; jams, chutneys etc are made as fruits are picked in the garden or bought when gluts appear in the shops.

In an ideal world jam jars like milk bottles would be collected and reused – a better use of a ‘waste’ item.

Counting on … day 106

10th July 2025

Using waste water. Is rain water from the roof waste water or a valuable resource? Collected in a rainwater butt it is ideal for watering plants. Rainwater butts are also useful in terms of preventing flood because the flow of storm water is delayed before it enters the drainage system and therefore helps the system cope with peaks.

Mains water coming into our homes is drinking water quality. We don’t need that same quality of water with which to flush toilets. ‘Grey water’ – ie water that has been used to wash hands or shower, launder clothes, etc – is perfectly adequate for flushing toilets. Grey water is waste water that can be reused. We have a small bowl under the taps in the wash basins to collect hand wash water and a jug to empty it into. This jug of grey water is used for flushing the toilet (unless a bigger flush is needed). We also collect water in a larger bowl from the shower when waiting for the hot water.

A jug by the kitchen sink collects water from cleaning or boiling vegetables, rinsing plates etc and goes to water the garden.

Households are asked to keep a 2-3 day supply of drinking water on hand in case of emergencies. Not wanting to stock up on bottled water – which will in time have to be replaced – I keep two demijohn jars full of drinking water. I empty one (into the pond) and refill it each day so that that our emergency stock of water is constantly fresh without wasting the water.

Counting on … day 105

9th July 2025

Mend, darn and repair clothes. Ideally clothes and household fabrics will give us years of use and pleasure. And even as they wear out, they can still be of use.

Initially we can avoid waste by looking after our clothes and household fabrics will – ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ is a reminder that the sooner we restitch a broken hem or seem, or mind a tear, or darn a hole, the smaller will be the necessary repair. It can be tempting not to repair an item if it’s replacement is cheap – eg holes in socks, but we should consider not just the cost of replacement but the cost of discarding the sock. On that basis darning a hole makes even more sense. (1)

We have moved from a society that would turn collars and replace cuffs rather than buy a new shirt (2), or that would cut old sheets in half and resew, sides to the middle, to get maximum use from the sheet (3)

You can also patch clothes, sheets and even towels (4) but eventually you may get to the stage where the item is no longer useable in its present form. Then rather than being throw away waste, maybe the item can be repurposed. An old sheets and even might be transformed into a pillow slip or a pile of handkerchiefs. A towel might become a set of flannels or cleaning clothes. Old socks make good dusters or shoe polishing cloths. A t-shirt might become a duster or a pair of pants. (5)

(1) https://www.woolovers.com/page/how-to-darn-a-sock

(2) https://mathomhouse.typepad.com/bluestocking/2016/11/turning-shirt-collars.html

(3) https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/turning-a-sheet-sides-to-middle-saving-the-planet-one-mend-at-a-time/22619

(4) https://designmom.com/living-well-4-secrets-to-patching-clothes/

(5) https://www.redhandledscissors.com/2010/06/17/t-shirt-to-underpants-upcycling/

Counting on … day 104

8th July 2025

Waste paper – not all waste paper needs to go into the recycling bin. Much can be reused.

Writing paper that has been used on one side only, can be used in the printer – including business letters which are often printed on really good quality paper. (But use discretion if you are sharing print-outs that you don’t accidentally share private information).

Christmas cards can be cut up for gift tags (but how many do you need?) or alternatively cut up into useful sizes for shopping lists, memos and phone messages.

You can cut the picture from a greeting card and reuse it as a post card. Oxfam even prints postcard outlines on the box of their cards. And if you are hand delivering a card, write on the envelope in pencil – and don’t stick down the flap – so that it can easily be reused. Reusing envelopes is generally another idea.

Wrapping paper too can be reused if carefully folded and kept after use. Using string or ribbon – or elastic bands – instead of sticky tape is good practice.

Old paper bags or sheets of newspaper can be used to line kitchen compost buckets.

Counting on … day 103

7th July 2025

Making good use of ‘waste’ food. Food waste is a sizeable problem in terms of food that could be eaten by people who struggle to afford food, in terms of the ‘waste’ of water and other resources used in producing wasted food, and in the unnecessary contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

In our household situations we can avoid wasting food by not buying more than we need /can store; not cooking more than we will eat – portion control; reusing left over food such as making bread pudding with stale bread, making salads with left over potatoes; making jams and pickles with excess fruits and vegetables; making compost using teabags, outer leaves of cabbages etc; making vinegar with apple cores.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/stale_bread_recipes

Vegan bread pudding – https://www.wandercooks.com/chester-squares-gur-cake/#recipe

Jam, chutney and pickles – https://greentau.org/2021/08/23/preserving-fruit-and-vegetables/

Cider vinegar – https://greentau.org/2021/10/07/count-down-75/

– https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/gardening-tips/how-to-make-your-own-compost

Counting on … day 102

4th July 2025

Fast fashion is as destructive of our environment as fast tech and is fuelled by many of the same features. Fast fashion is cheap (in terms of purchase price only – its lifetime cost is considerably more when factoring in disposal); its new and trendy and it – and its advertising – is designed to attract our attention; it’s intended to have a short life.

Yet just like fast tech, fast fashion produced vast amounts of waste that cannot easily be recycled. And like fast tech, a lot of the materials used in production are plastic based (ie synthetic fibres, plastic zips etc). Instead discarded clothing ends in landfill sites, in incinerators, clogging up oceans, and strewn across deserts.

Again we need to ask ourselves: Do I need this item of clothing? Should I buy the cheapest, or should I look for the durable, repairable option? Will I value it?

And we also need to ask questions about the system that allows so many cheap (and not so cheap) items of clothing to be produced and as quickly discarded. Does the fashion industry need to be held to accountable? Should manufacturers also be responsible for end of life disposal or recycling of garments? Should manufacturers be reviewing how much plastic goes into their garments? And on a related issue, should manufacturers be reviewing how much they pay those who actually do the making? Cheap products are often cheap because wages are cheap.

Counting on … day 100

2nd July 2025

Plastic recycling is now much more common place, with local authorities making collections of certain frequently used items such as plastic bottles, margerine and other food tubs, shampoo bottles etc. Soft plastics can be recycled if they are kept separate from more rigid plastics – and some supermarkets have collection points for these. However there is, apparently, no guarantee that plastics going into a recycling bin will be recycled (sometimes it is cheaper and easier to incinerate the waste which causes air pollution). Nor are there many effective closed loop recycling programmes – each a system where a plastic bottle, for example, is recycled and returns as a ready to use plastic bottle. It is often cheaper to make a plastic bottle from virgin oil based polymers than from recycled plastic.

These problems are a further incentive for us to reduce the plastic we use so rescuing the problem at source. If we don’t buy things that come in plastic bottles, plastic tubs and tubes, in plastic wrappers etc then we reduce the amount of plastic that is in circulation before it becomes a problem.

Counting on … day 101

3rdJuly 2025

Plastic waste pollution doesn’t just come from single use items; it also comes from ‘fast tech’ – cheap plastic-encased electronic items that whilst not single use are quickly discarded. Eg hand held fans, electric toothbrushes, mini torches, fairy lights, head phones and ear buds. (1)

Conventional thinking goes:-

Being cheap we don’t worry of it breaks – we just throw it in the bin (from where it will go to landfill)

Being cheap we buy it as a fun gift whether it’s needed or not.

Being cheap we don’t worry about buying another if we forgot to pack it.

Being cheap, well discard last year’s model because this year’s looks so much nicer.

Being cheap we don’t try and look after it or to mend it if it breaks.

The problem of plastic pollution needs us to ask: Do I need this product? Should I buy the cheapest, or should I look for the durable, repairable option? Will I value this product?

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/throwaway-culture-products-repair-reuse-recycle-obsolete?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 100

2nd July 2025