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Be careful what you buy
Everything we buy new comes with a carbon footprint.
By the time it reaches your home, energy will have been expended:
- gathering and processing raw materials
- making all the components and the item itself
- packaging it and shipping it, potentially around the world
- getting it from the store or warehouse to your home.
Every step generates carbon emissions, the quantity depending on the sort of energy used and how it is produced. China and other low-cost manufacturing nations still use lots of coal to generate electricity, for example. Some carriers - Royal Mail and DPD, for example - use electric vans for 'last mile' deliveries, while others still use pertol and diesel.
On that basis, the first question you need to ask yourself is “do I really need this?” The fewer new things we all buy, the greener the planet will be!
Here are some things you could try ...
Avoid fast fashion
Clothes and fashion account for about five percent of UK carbon emissions – between 0.3 to 0.6 tonnes of carbon per person per year.
The quickest way to tackle this is to cut back on the number of items you buy. On average, it’s about 30 items a year, with the result that the average number of times an item of clothing is worn before it’s discarded is just seven. Yes – just seven! Look for items you’ll want to wear time and time again and you’ll get much better value for money.
Choose natural fabrics
Before you buy clothes, take a look at the label.
Man-made fabrics like polyester, acrylic and lycra are made from oil. That increases their carbon footprint and makes them harder to deal with at the end of their life.
Cotton, linen, viscose, and rayon are all plant based, and wool is a natural product. Cotton is a good choice, but lots of water is used growing and processing it, which makes the other natural products better for the environment.
Be sure to read the label
Labels using terms like ‘eco’, ‘responsible’ or ‘sustainable’ are ambiguous and can be misleading.
The Competition and Markets Authority says statements about green products should be clear. Companies should use terms such as ‘organic’ or ‘recycled’ and make the share of such materials clear.
Buy less plastic
Avoid buying plastic whenever you can. It isn’t the easiest material to recycle and takes years – sometimes, decades – to decompose in land fill or when carelessly discarded when people are out and about.
Many hard plastics can be placed in your recycling bin – see East Suffolk Council’s website – while plastic film (bags, etc) can be taken to bigger supermarkets to be recycled. There’s a drop-off point for plastic packaging at the entrance to the Martlesham Tesco, for example.
Buy refills
If you’re passing, take empty bottles to local social enterprise, Poppy’s Pantry, near Melton Station to get them refilled. They stock washing up liquid, laundry liquid, shower gel, all-purpose cleaner and more.
Alternatively, look for concentrates and refills available in supermarkets.
If it’s broken, fix it!
Making new things uses energy and more of the world’s limited supply of raw materials. There are costs to throwing things away as well – even if you recycle them.
So why not repair stuff that breaks, give it a new lease of life and take pressure off the environment? The answer is usually that people don’t know how to complete a repair or where to get spare parts.
That’s where the Martlesham Repair Hub can help. You’ll find it in the Martlesham Parish Rooms on the second Saturday of each month between 10 and 12.
If it’s broken, fix it!
You might have had enough of it, but would it be useful to someone else?
To give things away, post them on Ipswich Freecycle or take them to a charity shop. There's a drop-off point at St Elizabeth Hospice on Gloster Road, or a wider selection of charities happy to accept serviceable donations in Woodbridge and Felixstowe.
Or you could try selling them. Try eBay, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace, or set up a stall at a local car boot sale. There's one every Sunday at Trinity Park.
If all else fails, recycle!
If all else fails, do your best to ensure materials get recycled:
- Use your blue bin for cans, paper and hard plastics - taking care to follow the instructions!
- Put bottles in one of the banks you;ll find around Martlesham - for example, by the Douglas Bader and at the entrance to Tesco
- Take plastic film back to the supermarket. There's a drop-off point at the entrance to Tesco
- In the case of electrical items, check out the Recycle Your Electricals website
- Use the appropriate skips at the Foxhall Recycling centre
You'll find a recycling directory on East Suffolk Council's website.
To probe further…
- Reducing the carbon footprint of clothing [blog – PDF]
- Your waste, your planet: a rethink [blog – PDF]