Counting On … – Page 31

Counting on … day 13

17th January 2025

It is not just businesses that need to change, government also needs to use its power to change the system. “We need the Government to stop tinkering with measures that create tiny insignificant changes and tackle single use waste in the way they finally tackled smoking, helping to make our public spaces litter free as well as smoke free. That requires putting in place systems which significantly disincentivise single-use and makes reuse a convenient and viable option for both businesses and consumers.” (1)

https://www.refill.org.uk/about/what-is-reuse/

Counting on … day 12

16th January 2025

Changing how we consume, reuse and refill products to ensure a sustainable world requires more than just consumer action. It needs systemic change: “big brands and businesses need to be held responsible for cleaning up their act! We need an end to corporates buying too much stock and then encouraging us to buy things we don’t need via sales and Black Friday. We need an end to corporates promoting more and more “seasons”, constantly trying to persuade us that things in our home are no longer in vogue, that our clothes and furnishings are out-of-fashion. It’s corporate behaviour that has created the single use system and we need to change that system – so it’s the corporates that need to change.” (1)

https://www.refill.org.uk/about/what-is-reuse/

Counting on … day 11

15th January 2025

Reducing waste and the pressure we put on the Earth, we should also consider how many single use items we are discarding, including those that we put in the recycling bin.

Plastic yogurt pots can be recycled but that still uses oil to produce the plastic (very little food packaging is made from recycled plastic) and energy to produce it. Could there be a more sustainable way of getting yogurt? One way might be for yogurt to be sold in reusable glass jars – as per milk. Another might be to make one’s own yogurt in reusable pots.

The same is true of margerine tubs – might solid margerine (vegan butter) that comes wrapped in greaseproof paper be better?

And what about refilling and reusing wine bottles, beer bottles etc? We do it with milk and fruit juices.

And what about avoiding single use coffee cups and plastic bottles of water? Tap water is free! And coffee tastes better in a proper cup.

Four different types of refull/ reuse consumer practice

What Is Reuse

Counting on … day 10

14th January 2025

When I was growing up, households typically had a metal dustbin that that dustmen could lift into their shoulder tipping the contents into the truck. Now domestic dustbins are twice the size with wheels and are designed with handles which the dustbin truck latches onto in order to empty the bin. But not only do we have a much bigger dustbin, each house also has at least two large recycling boxes and a food recycling bin too. In 2022/3, annual waste per household varied from 450kg in the South West of England and 600kg in the North East. (1)

Whilst such waste is only a small portion of the waste we expect the Earth to absorb, domestic waste if something we can control – and curtail. Why not do a survey of what you discard each week?

Could any of it be reused?

Did you need to use in the first place? Might you not need to buy/ acquire it in the first place?

(1) https://www.statista.com/statistics/996467/regional-waste-volumes-england-united-kingdom-uk/

Counting on … day 9

13th January 2025

Bio capacity (the metric used to calculate Earth Overshoot Day) includes both the biological productive land and sea area that provides the resources we need and the Earth’s capacity to absorb the waste produced including pollution.

In this context waste includes sewage, greenhouse gas emissions, excess fertilisers that leak into the water system, exhausts and brake dust from vehicles etc. The limits on the capacity of the Earth to absorb waste and to keep the environment healthy, is something we often forget. Producing waste is just as much about consumption as cutting down trees or catching fish. To live within the resource constraints of the Earth, we need not just to consume less but also to produce less waste.

Counting on … day 8

10th January 2025

Daily travel is an area where we can both reduce adverse effects on the environment and improve our health and wellbeing. Recently the Lancet carried out an extensive piece of research on the co-benefits of active travel.

The report began -“Private car use contributes substantially to carbon emissions, air pollution, and noise pollution. Furthermore, car dependency fosters a spectrum of health and social issues, including congestion, road injuries and fatalities, psychological distress, and sedentary lifestyles that increase susceptibility to obesity and chronic diseases. Conversely, active travel (also known as active transport or active commuting), which refers to travel behaviour involving physical activity such as walking and cycling to or from destinations, contributes to higher rates of physical activity overall…active travel interventions are likely to yield broader co-benefits, such as environmental (eg, carbon emissions and air pollution), economic (eg, travel costs and productivity), and safety (eg, traffic safety and personal safety) benefits.”

And concluded: “Based on evidence from 80 intervention studies, we have identified an expansive range of co-benefits that extend beyond physical activity, including safety, health, economic, environmental, transport quality, and social outcomes. The consistency of findings was high in favour of the interventions, particularly pertaining to environmental, economic, and transport quality outcomes. Findings from our study highlight the potential for promoting active travel as a promising strategy to jointly address major challenges in contemporary societies, such as traffic safety and road congestion, chronic diseases, fiscal constraints, air pollution, and carbon emissions. Active travel provides a unique opportunity to incorporate regular physical activity into daily life without requiring special skills or substantial monetary or time investments.” https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00201-8/fulltext

Counting on … day 7

9th January 2025

How we travel and use transport can feature large in our use of the Earth’s resources. We know that flying has a huge negative impact on the climate and on air quality, and that therefore the less we fly the better. As we start thinking about our summer holidays, now is a good time to explore all the amazing holidays that don’t involve air flights. And we might equally consider signing the Flight Free Pledge – https://flightfree.co.uk/

Counting on … day 6

8th January 2025

Plastic Free July is another mid year feature, but one which we might start working towards now – particularly when we recall that our use of oil in making plastic and the pollution we cause in disposing of it, unnecessarily sap the Earth’s resources.

Single use plastic seems so imbedded into daily life that it can seem an impossible challenge to live plastic free. Yet we know that the pollution from plastics – including microplastic particles which can now be found in every part of our bodies – is highly damaging.

Maybe starting small now could be a solution. Having coffee in in real cup, rather than as a take out, is an easier habit to adopt when the cafe is warm and outside is cold and wet, seems much more logical.

Equally do we need to rely on bottles of drinking water when the weather is cold? Can we train ourselves to have a glass of water when we stop for a drink or a meal, and then when the weather gets warmer, have a bottle we can refill for the in between times.

Winter fruit and vegetables are more robust and avoiding plastic packaging should be easier. If it becomes our mindset now, then we can embarking the habit before the summer comes.

Counting on … day 5

7th January 2025

We usually focus on Earth Overshoot Day in the summer as we approach that day in which we have consumed a full year’s worth of the earth’s renewable resources. (In 2024 Earth Overshoot Day fell on 1st August). But why don’t we focus on it sooner when we might have a greater motivation for change? ie at the start of the New Year?

Many of us use the New Year as a time to make improving resolutions, so making better or more considered use of the Earth’s resources would seem a good start.

January is also ‘veganuary’ and a considered vegan diet can also be good for the Earth. Locally grown, seasonal food has a lower footprint than meat and dairy whether that footprint is measuring carbon or methane missions, water use, fertiliser use or pollution.

Counting on… day 4

6th January 2025

A House Blessing for Epiphany

On the feast of the Epiphany we tell the story of the Magi – Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar – who visited the home of Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus. They offered gifts and knelt in worship because they knew that this child was both a king and the Son of God.

Each year as we remember the visit of the Magi to Jesus’s home, so we ask Jesus to bless our homes.

Take a piece of chalk and write on or above your door the following:-

20 + C + M + B + 25

Now you have the date of the new year. The + represents blessings and the letters stand for the Latin words Christus mansionem benedicat, meaning “May Christ bless the house.”

The letters can also represent the names of the wise men, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.

All: Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who inhabit it. May we be blessed with health, goodness of heart, gentleness and the keeping of your law. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our love for each other may go out to all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

May this home be glowing with warmth

in the chill of winter

And a cooling shade

in the heat of the summer sun,

May it be a place

where one awakes with eagerness,

And a haven from stress,

when the work of the day is done.

May God, our Mother,

safely cradle this house in her strong arms,

And breathe the comfort of her love

through every room.

May God, our Father, fire the minds

of those who dwell here with hopeful dreams

And give them the strength

to make those dreams come true.

May God, our Companion,

fill this home with laughter

And weave a satisfying peace

in times of solitude.

May the cupboards be forever full,

And the table spread with welcome cheer.

May friends come often through the door,

But yet the need for privacy

be respected here.

May the wild beauty of God,

May the indwelling peace of God

May the surprising mystery of God

Inhabit this home.

Amen.

(Prayer by Jean Gaskin, published in Human Rites: Worship Resources for an Age of Change compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, London: Mowbray, 1995, p.91