AN ADVERTISING ATROCITY

Sometimes when an apparently good thing is being promoted I wonder whether I am the only one yelling abuse at the television set.
I currently have a big problem with Ariel. Their latest campaign Advert opens with a scene in Africa where impoverished children are seen scooping water from a muddy puddle...This is their only choice we are told...but wait...we then see that with the addition of some marvelous magic potion the same water becomes clean clear and perfectly safe to drink. So the children will now have a better chance of survival. The good people at Ariel then tell us that if we buy their product with the special tokens or whatever they will make this happen.
I say IF YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN THEN DO IT ! It is morally indefensible not to and are we seriously being asked to buy washing powder to save lives?
It made me think of Annie Lennox 's recent question which went along these lines - "If Cocoa Cola can be delivered to every corner shop in the world - why is it so difficult to deliver life-saving retro-viral drugs to the patients who need them?"
So here's the thing, you people marketing Ariel - if I had heard you provided children with clean drinking water simply because it was right and possible.... then I might buy your washing powder to show my appreciation. But using these children's hardship to persuade me to do so is just plain wrong.

SUMMER

Having just returned from a week's holiday in Ibiza I have been thinking about recycling in other countries - I have only really had to deal with the separation of rubbish into plastic, glass and cardboard in Italy, France and Spain and am pleased to discover that there is no great mystery. The language and terrain might be different but we are all using recognizable recycling areas with easily identifiable graphic symbols to assist us in putting the right bits in the right bin. I read somewhere that holidays are a time for relaxing rather than stressing about green issues and that perhaps it is enough to simply turn off your hot water and save energy while you're away from home. I agree that everything should be switched off and unplugged at home but strongly believe that separating and recycling the rubbish must be done wherever we go. If you usually use your own shopping bags at home then you will want them with you on holiday too. Wherever you go this summer try not to leave a trace.
Love& Peace
Sally

GOVERNMENT POLICY ON PLASTIC BAGS

On this morning's radio news bulletin an environmental expert criticised the government's focus on the plastic bag issue being dealt with by voluntary initiatives through retailers. The publicity surrounding one retailer's charge and another's free bags is just that - publicity generated by their PR machines. His complaint was that plastic bags were a very small part of our waste problem and as they are so visual they are an easy concept for the public to latch onto and feel they were doing something useful by carrying a bag of their own.
They are! they are! they are!
Just because there are other, bigger waste issues people should not be made to feel their efforts are not valuable or valued.
I believe that people come to a state of environmental awareness by many different routes and whatever the starting point is it is just that - their starting point. The plastic bag issue does not stand alone and once you take the step of remembering to take your bag to the shops you will feel a part of the environmental movement and become aware of other ways that you can support our planet's regeneration instead of contributing to its degeneration.
If a girl loves a Stella McCartney dress she may read an article about Stella's attitude and take something positive away, same with a Katherine Hamnett Tshirt - it may start as a fashion statement but it will also be a talking point and the issues that arise will be thought provoking.
I recommend reading the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine - its chocka with eco-fashion and really intelligent comment on the all things organic, Fairtrade, sustainable and ethical in fashion. And it is full of fun and fabulous clothes, bags and shoes.

love&peace
Sally
x

Warmer weather warnings

The sun is shining at last and we are all feeling the benefit. These are days of picnics and spontaneous get-togethers. This is when you have to be on your guard and REMEMBER to
to carry a bag! A sudden desire for cold drinks and a bag of fruit to take to the beach can
strike at any moment and even the most diligent of bag carriers can be caught in the moment.
Put your shopping bag in your car or your handbag or your pocket RIGHT NOW so you can shop without plastic bags anytime. And when the fun is over, if you're driving bring the bottles and cans home where you can be sure they will be properly recycled. These are such small things to do and if you make them automatic it won't feel like hard work.
Enjoy being outside.
love & peace
Sally

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