What Can We Do About Global Warming Here In The UK
We live in a modern world where much of our foods, clothes and household goods are beautifully presented in plastic containers, cardboard boxes and protective polystyrene layers- the problem is that all this packaging has a huge impact on global warming.
The manufacture of every kind of packaging that you can think of uses valuable resources including water, energy, chemicals, petroleum, minerals, wood and other fibres. The manufacturing process of the packaging also creates all types of air emissions including greenhouse gases, heavy metals and particulates.
The other big negative is that a huge amount of waste water is produced and this often contains toxic contaminants – which further negatively impacts our beautiful world.
Climate change is certainly already having disastrous effects across the globe with changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and the polar ice caps melting at an alarming rate. It is already too late to reverse the impact of climate change, but it is critical that action is swiftly taken to prevent any further damage.
Many countries are committed to halving their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve zero emissions by 2050. The Paris Agreement, came into force in November 2016 and was endorsed by 196 countries. The agreement is legally binding with the aim to limit global warming to 1.5°C as soon as possible.
What Can We Do About Climate Change Here In The UK?
Reduce Your Use Of Plastics Where Possible
The damaging effects of some packaging materials such as plastic are now firmly ‘in the spotlight’. The manufacturing process contributes to climate change and the resulting plastic products spread toxins and damage wildlife.
Think About The Origins Of Paper Packaging
Many companies have pledged to stop using plastic packaging for their goods and are switching to use paper or card instead. It is certainly true that paper and cardboard do not pollute the world in the same way as plastic, they do not cause damage to marine life like plastic does and do biodegrade much more quickly, however, paper production brings its own huge threats to our planet.
Deforestation is taking place in numerous areas of the world at an alarming rate and much of it is not being done sustainably. It usually uses even more energy to produce paper than plastic.
10,000 years ago, 57% of the world’s land was covered by forest. The world has already lost more than one-third of its forested areas – an area about twice the size of the United States.
In the last 100 years, the world has lost as much forest as it did in the previous 9,000 years. The wood is used for fuel, building materials and packaging materials.
In the UK alone, 25% of domestic waste is packaging and much of it ends up in landfill sites.
What Are Packaging Companies Doing?
Many companies have been taking the initiative to reduce the type of materials and the amount that they use in their packaging. Many are now switching to alternatives that are more environmentally friendly and are also increasing the amount of recycled materials that they use.
These moves have already reduced the emissions caused by production and the level of transportation needed.
Companies that use metal packaging are moving to recycled aluminium which consumes 95% less energy than brand new aluminium.
And What About Supermarkets?
The introduction of the ‘Bag for Life’ scheme in supermarkets around the world has seen an 83% decrease in single-use carrier bags. Customers now purchase a stronger, re-usable carrier bag rather than be given a handful of plastic single-use carrier bags.
The scheme has worked well, but the UK’s Discover Wildlife has found that the average number of durable carrier bags bought by shoppers averages a disappointing 54 per year – making it almost a bag per week.
Some supermarkets are now selling reusable bags for customers to fill with loose vegetables, rather than buy pre-packed fruit and vegetables.
Fruit and vegetables sold in markets are best as there is no packaging, all shapes and sizes of produce are sold – which reduces waste- and the produce is not waxed to look good.
Clothes shops are addressing packaging problems
Clothes shops have many challenges to meet to make the materials used for their garments sustainable. There have been changes in packaging as most items are now no longer sold in boxes, plastic hangars are removed from all jumpers, dresses and shirts when they are sold and customers are encouraged to bring their own bag to carry their shopping home.
Delivery companies such as Amazon have been widely criticised for using excessive amounts of packaging for the goods they are delivering. The only way to really make a difference is to comment online when you grade the product you have bought – if enough people complain, something will be done. You can also contact the Customer Service team to ask them to mark on your account that you do not want any plastic packaging and only minimal cardboard and paper to be used as you are concerned about global warming.
What Are Gentlemans Face Care Club Doing About It?
We unfortunately have to have packaging for our products. But where possible we do not add seals, plastic wrap or excessive packaging and to offset our impact on the environment, we donate a potion of every sproduct sold towards planting trees. We’re avid tree planters – GFCC Planting Trees
We’re not perfect, but with every opportunity we are looking to improve and change the packaging we use to be more sustainable and have less impact on our beautiful world.
What Can Everyone Do?
Always try and recycle as much packaging as you can. It will take a few moments to separate it and sort it, but this is well worth doing.
Save all clean pieces of paper for shopping lists and cut out the panels of cereal packets etc. to re-use in the home- they are perfect for children to use for drawing.. ?
Bulk buy washing liquid, toilet tissue and anything else you can because this dramatically reduces the amount of packaging that you are buying- and you will find the price of the product reflects this.
If you cannot fit a larger plastic bottle under your sink, keep re-filling your normal sized bottle – it takes a few minutes but you will be dramatically reducing the amount of packaging in your dustbin. ?
Always complain about excessive packaging to the companies concerned as this is the only way to draw attention to the problem.
Several online supermarkets in the UK such as Tesco give customers the option to be ‘plastic free’ and have their groceries delivered in cardboard boxes that the supermarket has had deliveries in.
Check the packaging carefully on all your purchases and ask yourself whether it is excessive. Sometimes it is necessary for manufacturers to display their fragile products in protective packaging and this is understandable.
Before you decide to buy a certain product check and see if its packaging has been made from recycled materials- a definite plus. ?
If you have a birthday or anniversary coming up, why not give the very special gift of a tree?
Treedom is worldwide tree planting programme and you can choose from a wide range of tree varieties and countries including a baobab tree in Ghana, buying a coffee tree in Colombia or an avocado tree in Tanzania. https://www.treedom.net/en/plant-a-tree
The British Government also has an exciting scheme in which you get paid to create your own woodland on your land https://woodlandcreation.campaign.gov.uk/