ZIMBABWE

It is a sobering thought that it is a luxury to have time and energy to worry about environmental issues like stopping the proliferation of plastic bags. Should we buy bottled water or drink filtered tap water? Compost or anaerobically digest our food waste? Take the car or ride a bike?
Our range of choices may be confusing but at least we have them.
Zimbabwe is in meltdown and people are terrified that they will not eat, drink or live another day.
Please everyone TRY in any way possible - MP, Media, UN, Aarvaz whatever you can think of to get action against Mugabe's regime started.
love peace
Sally

SHOPPING BAGS

I think I might be getting a tad obsessed with this issue but yesterday a spokesperson from Sainsbury's featured on the BBC Breakfast Business programme. He was there to announce some plastic bag news and to accuse the government of jumping on the plastic bag bandwagon to win votes. He had lots of good points and made them for five minutes in front of a full screen rendering of the Sainsbury's logo on one of their bags. Let's see what would that exposure cost on the commercial TV channels? I have smoke coming out of my ears about this.

The government may well be seizing an opportunity to gain the green vote by banning bags or taxing bags but at least they are not exploiting the issue as a marketing exercise. Its not that I'm hugely impressed by the way the government has dealt with the plastic bag issue, in a late-responsive rather than a trail-blazing way but I actually think that the government does have a genuine interest in decreasing the use of plastic bags. They have a landfill crisis to deal with, our carbon footprints to consider, emissions targets, the Kyoto Protocol etc. Sainsbury's just have to sell us stuff and the more their name appears in front of our eyes the more they will sell.
They gave away "free" jute bags recently. Sweet little house printed in one corner along with the web site address of their Home Insurance division. That is a gift alright - a gift to them because you are walking down the street doing their advertising for them. I would believe that they cared about the environment if they cut down on packaging in their stores across the board not on a few eye-catching offers and if they gave their customers bags that didn't turn them into walking billboards. And in the interest of fairness I have to say that M&S and Tesco's are just as likely to come up with something to steal Sainsbury's thunder.
I print CARRYABAG on all my bags because its my company name and I chose it because it is what I want you all to remember to do.
So do it. For yourself, those you love, the countryside and the planet.
Then once we have the place cleaned up we can sort out some other issues.
love and peace
Sally
x

Clean up the Beach

Our beaches are more polluted with plastic now than ever before. The thing about a beach is that its the edge and gets plastic blown down to it from the land and also brought in on the tide. Even if we were blameless and we are not we would still have the problem. Trust me, I live in seaside town where I see people walking away from their own litter on the beach and ignoring everyone else's. So even if we all cut down on our individual use of plastic and made use of the bins provided the tide would still come in twice a day carrying everything that floats and stays behind on the tide-line when the sea retreats. Other country's rubbish, other side of the world's rubbish, ocean liner's rubbish, probably rubbish from the sky as well - all bobbing about in the sea. It's time for us all to pick up the trash - never mind whether its your own or not - it affects us all and maybe, just maybe someone who watches us picking it up will think twice about dropping it next time. It may take a while but the more we see this as our responsibility the cleaner the beaches will be.

Let's give it a try - for all our sakes.

love & peace

Sally