Check out our new bling bling Magno Chutney rubbish bin which we recently found abandoned on the streets of Brick Lane. When we spotted it, the empty container was lying on the side of the road with a load of other rubbish waiting for the binmen to cart it off to landfill.

Magpie Marco was instantly drawn to the bright colours and after a quick clean up in the shower it’s now looking well smart in the kitchen.  Someone commented on Twitter when they saw the pic that perhaps the manufacturers should incorporate the dual purpose into the design which is not a bad idea, its very fit for purpose and after hunting in the shops for a suitable bin for some time now, our freebie re-used little number is a more than welcome addition to our home.

Recycle Week starts today, June 22nd and this years message ‘Let’s waste less’ is encouraging everyone to try something new in an effort to cut back on waste and reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill.

I’m pledging to recycle my old clothes which haven’t been worn for a while (inspired by Mary Queen of Charity Shops!).  I’m also going to get a lot stricter on food packaging this week and not buy anything over-packaged and finally one of my pet hates is seeing cans and plastic bags littering the street outside so whenever I spot any I’m going to take them home and recycle them.  And of course, it will be business as usual with all my usual recycling duties.

Over to you now!… what’s your pedge going to be?

Friday night I had a domestic emergency, piles of washing up to do and not a drop of Ecover washing up liquid to be found.  Shamefully for someone who should be better prepared I have to admit I resorted to a trip to the corner shop and one of those leading detergent brands.  Lesson learned though and I quickly vowed never to let it happen again.

Not wanting to hang around with my new resolution I hopped on the bike on Saturday and headed down to Unpackaged in Islington, London with my refill bottles in tow.  The idea behind this innovative store is to remove as much packaging as possible from the whole business of buying groceries.  You bring along your own refill containers, in my case this time a couple of empty Ecover bottles and another empty bottle for olive oil which you then simply refill from a large bulk container.  The result is less waste going to landfill and it’s cheaper too so everyone’s a winner!

I was very impressed with the product range on offer which included lots of organic wholefoods (rice, pasta, beans etc) as well as the whole Ecover range in refillable containers.  It’s also one of the nicest shops around to visit with great attention to detail and it comes as no surprise to learn when you see the place that Unpackaged was voted runner up in the Jupiter Big Idea category at this years Observer Ethical Awards. Such a good idea and full credit to Catherine the owner who has done such a great job in making it all happen.

It’s not hard to notice the increasing dominance of the major supermarkets. You only have to walk 100 meters or so up any highstreet these days before passing the next big shiny giant of hydrogenated ready-made meals.

Lets be honest though, the vast majority of us all shop in supermarkets at some point or another but when you look at some of the facts , buying locally and from smaller independent grocers needs to be up there at the top of new years resolution list for 2008.

An average big supermarket emits three times more CO₂ per square foot than an average greengrocer shop and it would take more than 60 greengrocers to match the CO₂ emissions from a single average superstore. Supermarkets also generate vast quantities of waste – both in terms of packaging and wasted food as fresh produce is often rejected because it fails to meet supermarket cosmetic standards.
Something which was highlighted in the recent Channel 4 food series is also the huge purchasing power of supermarkets which allows them to push down the prices they pay to farmers thus making it harder for the farmer to invest in ethical or environmental measures. Then there’s the fact that most people tend to travel to them in cars, increasing pollution and congestion.

Friends of the Earth are currently running a campaign to slow down the increasing expansion of the giant supermarkets. In a recent report the Competitions Commission recommended the Government free up planning rules to allow more supermarkets to be built on the edge and out of towns. There is a Government Consultation on the subject until April so now is the time to have your say. If you agree with Friends of the Earth that the Government should instead be tightening planning rules and introducing new tests to ensure high streets and independent stores can thrive then take action and email your local MP here expressing your concerns.

If we don’t do something it could all go horribly wrong. To see what might be in store for us check out this clip from Armando Iannucci’s brilliant satire Time Trumpet on Youtube.

There was an interesting article in The Guardian yesterday by Leo Hickman regarding the carbon footprint of tap water. Apparently piping water around the country to our homes produces around 0.5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions or 4m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents every year. They also calculated the footprint of delivering 1 litre of water to our taps which came in at 0.298 grams of CO₂ equivalents or greenhouse gases.

In a strange co-incidence I was out in town last night and noticed for the first time people were drinking Fiji bottled water. I had read somewhere how Fiji water was growing in popularity in the US but until last night had never come across it in the UK before. Seeing it made me remember an article I’d read online by Pablo at Triplepundit where he calculated the ‘true cost’ of a bottle of Fiji water.

Pablo’s calculations are based on transporting a 1 litre bottle of Fiji water from Fiji to San Francisco (8,700 km) so I have scaled up this part of his data to take into account the increased journey to London from Fiji (22,000 km). The result is the total amount of water required to produce and transport one bottle of imported water amounts to 7.84 kg (or litres) and the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in making it to the bar last night comes in at 484 grams. That makes the bottled water 1624 times more carbon intensive than tap water if my calculations are correct (please feel free to check!).

From the website…We all make assumptions. For instance, we assume that bottled water is better than water straight out of the tap. But is it?

Erm…no I think is the short answer to that question. Here’s a list of other reasons why drinking bottled water is environmental madness.

Ireland, Australia, Bangladesh, Italy, South Africa, Taiwan, Uganda, Mumbia and San Francisco…just some of the countries and cities so far that have banned or taken action to discourage the use of plastic bags. Here in the UK, Friends of the Earth say 8m plastic bags are used every year, that’s 134 bags each! So how long before we ban the bag?

The small Devon town of Modbury took the lead earlier this year with an outright ban on all plastic bags. Now it looks as though their days might be numbered elsewhere too. The Welsh Assembly government are reported to be looking at legislation to ban plastic bags under their new devolved powers whilst here in London this coming November a new London local authorities bill will be put before MPs requesting an outright ban on the bags or the introduction of a 10p levy on them.

At breakfast today, my normally pleasant view was slightly ruined by this particular offensive bag that managed to make it’s way up to the roof terrace and attach itself to one of our trees. It remined me of the following pledge I came across a while ago on Myspace and which I’ve been following when I see bags out on the street. The pledge is now closed but it’s still a great idea to put into practise until the UK gets around to saying goodbye to plastic bags.

Marco’s back…

I thought I’d do a little experiment today (more mud pies really) with compostable corn starch plastic.

As Innocent Drinks are currently trialing their breakfast thickie bottle, a new design made entirely from a 100% renewable corn source and Ikea are about to introduce their new carrier bag which is also made from corn starch, I thought I’d get my hands dirty and bury a bottle to see how long it takes to biodegrade.

The best place to carry out this experiement is in a home compost bin or patch. My own food waste gets composted by the council so I’ve had to compromise. We may all have to be patient, reports on the net give anything from 5 weeks to a year for it to disappear.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be cropping up at a number of Farmers markets around the country in the form of some brown paper bags. We thought this would be a fun and interactive way to try and convey the message of ECOutlet. Of course, the most eco-friendly thing you can do whilst shopping is to carry a re-usable bag but not everyone remembers or thinks along those lines just yet, so hopefully these paper bags are a good eco-friendly alternative to disposable plastic ones.

The brown paper bags are made using 100% recycled, unbleached paper and are recyclable. The design which includes a mysterious dot-to-dot is printed using water based inks and the paste is starch based and biodegradable. They’re also a fun little exercise for kids and adults so we hope people like them.

They will be available at select farmers markets around the country for a limited period so if you pick one up let us know. As a little incentive, the first person who emails us in at info@ecoutlet.co.uk and tells us what the boy is pointing at in the dot-to-dot wins themselves a copy of the new book ‘Birthday Party’ by Tracey Benton which went on sale today at ECOutlet.

Our latest video ‘Ship in a Bottle’ can be viewed by clicking play on the top right-hand column. Alternatively you can view it on our youtube page.
The following points go some way in explaining why drinking bottled water is environmental madness:

• Tap water in the UK is amongst the safest and purest in the world
• Bottled water is on average 1000 times more expensive than tap water
• The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) showed tap water met stringent water quality standards in 99.96% of cases during 2005
• Labelling of bottled water carries no requirement to reflect its chemical or bacteriological content
• 2 billion bottles of water are consumed in the UK every year
• On average Britons consume 37 litres of bottled water per year
• 22 million tonnes of bottled water are transported between countries every year
• Britain imports 25% of its bottled water, the majority from France
• The bottled water industry in the UK is calculated at generating 33,200 tonnes of CO₂ annually
• Most water bottles are made using PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) - less than 15% are recycled and PET takes up to 450 years to break down in landfill
• In 2004, the plastic bottles that delivered 26 billion litres of water to Americans required more than 1.5 million barrels of oil
• An estimated 2 gallons of water are used for every gallon of water purified to put into the bottle
• One third of the money spent on bottled water would be enough to halve the number of people without ready access to clean, safe drinking water

To quote Bod Geldof – Bottled water is bollocks