Eco Ideals...

Ramblings on my confused eco mind today...

FACT: Tefal Quick Cup kettle doesn't heat water enough, tea goes cold quickly, gotta drink quicker, need another cuppa straight away = NOT ECO!!

Booo!!!

It's all rubbish!!

Ha! I've finally got my bin out for collection on the 'right' day and in the 'right' place... it's taken me a little old while to get used to the steps in my front garden and the fact they come at silly o'clock in the morning, but we're there! All empty and looking good... well, as good as a dirty old bin can look?!

Anyway, as a result of my 'tardy' bin behaviour I have been honing my recycling and composting skills again (and even feeding a few worms in the 'can-o-worms' that my landlady left in the garden!)

So, now I am demonstrating best practise bin skills I am hoping that I never have to sneak stuff into the neighbours bins or get Dom from HastyWaste to clear some bags.

BUT if you ever do need anything removing.. be it household rubbish, garden rubbish or even bulking one offs get in touch with him. http://www.hastywaste.co.uk/

Or One Call Clear are pretty good too: http://www.onecallclear.co.uk/main.html

Ecovenient

Hey Guys... As you've noticed my blog has well and truely dried up... this is mainly because I have been spending my time developing a new website www.ecovenient.co.uk and drinking coffee in Boscanova! Have a look... x

If it's not traded fairly then it's not in my basket! Death by Chocolate....

So this year Cadbury's have pledged to make their Dairy Milk Bar certified fairtrade and, as soon as they can, to convert the other brands of Cadbury's chocolate.
Well done Cadbury I guess....it's a good start to the year.
and after this happens a grand total of 15% of all chocolate bought in the UK will be fairtrade!!!

In 2001, after an international outcry and a warning from the United States Congress, the global chocolate industry signed an agreement known as the Cocoa protocol. At first they promised to have made serious inroads towards ending the problem by July 2005. But they missed their targets, and Congress gave them three more years.... (does anyone else work that out to be July 2008?!)

Anyway, in July 2005, International Labor Rights Fund filed suit against Nestlé in Federal District Court on behalf of a class of children who were trafficked from Mali into the Ivory Coast and forced to work twelve to fourteen hours a day with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent beatings.
What was Nestlé's response to court questioning? "We are only buyers of a product.”

Shocking?? But then are 'we only buyers of a product' when we choose to ignore what we know about the product and how it was produced and take the slightly cheaper, more convenient option??

In 2007 a Dutch TV producer Teun van de Keuken decided enough was enough and that as 'the buyer of the product' he was just as guilty.
He ate 19 chocolate bars and then turned himself into police for knowingly buying a product made with slave labor, something he says is criminal under Dutch law. "At first, I just called the police and said I did a terrible thing. They said, 'Don't worry, we all eat chocolate, good-bye.' Then I hired a lawyer."

His attempt to prosecute himself was dismissed by the court, but Van de Keuken launched an appeal. In the meantime, he took his TV show to Burkina Faso to find some of the children forced to work on the cocoa plantations — kids, he says, who had never tasted chocolate until he gave them some. (They liked it.) Van de Keuken says recruiters from the Ivory Coast cross the border into the destitute country and lure children over with promises of money or even bicycles. Once they get there, he says, "they're forced to work, not paid, and not allowed to leave — the U.N. definition of slavery."
So... what did he do next.. no he didn't end up in prison.. he began producing his own 'slavery-free' chocolate!!!
Not something we can all do maybe, but it's a nice end to his story I guess!?

So, as consumers, the ball's in our court... we can boycott chocolate produced by companies who continue to buy cocoa from plantations that use slave labour and support companies that trade fairly with ethical cocoa suppliers OR we can choose to ignore the facts about how our 'little luxury' is produced and continue to show support to the darker side of the chocolate industry.... and my choice??
Well, if it's not traded fairly then it's not in my basket!

http://www.montezumas.co.uk
Get your free range organic eggs from montezumas this easter.... fairly traded chocolate of course!

Trick or treat??

So Halloween is fast approaching! I know this because every shop I pass in Boscombe is filled with weird orange plastic things (and they're not Sainsbury's carrier bags!) I notice also that we, the British, have followed the US in its celebration and commercialism of this event, including the large amounts of candy (sweets to us) that we are supposed to give out to "trick or treaters". Americans seem to purchase huge amounts of cheap sweets to reward the tricksters that ring on their doorbells all in the name of festive fun, us Brits have taken to this to stop or bribe the "little shits" from putting fire crackers through our letterboxes and setting fire to our homes!!
But this led me to think... when we give out these sweets is that a treat or in fact a covert trick aimed at sending the kiddies hyper active, rotting their teeth and increasing the chances of them becoming obese!!
I did wonder if I purchased a large amount of Fruitina fruit bars (made from 100% dried fruits) and gave them out as a 'treat' to the tricksters who will be ding donging on my doorbell come the 31st October would this be classed as a treat (as i would assume) or a blatant trick (and therefore reaping the penalty of the 'gift' through my letterbox) or should I just buy sweets and although i would feel this was a trick, my halloween victims would be pacified and I would remain safe...
you know what? I'm just going to pretend no ones in and not answer the door... halloween has become far too complicated for my liking!!

No Plastic bags in Sainsbury's Boscombe??

Sainsbury's have a new policy where they do not offer you free plastic bags at the checkouts now, they are available but you have to ask for them..... except for the check out I went to in Sainsbury's store in Boscombe, Bournemouth where the check-out girl was enthusiastically demonstrating the usual 'heap of bag creation technique' so often seen in the supermarkets (I'm sure you know what I mean here... the checkout person tears of far too many bags, opens them all and creates some sort of messy heap at the end of the till, which invariably means you end up scrabbling for your groceries like a disappointing school fete lucky dip and leaving behind the essential items from your basket)
So.... very politely, I asked 'does Sainsbury's not have a new 'no plastic bag on the checkout' policy?'
The answer.... classic! "Yes but it's too much bother reaching down each time to get bags for the customers who want them"
So, Sainsbury's your effort is, for a company who's sales for 2007 were around £18 million, pathetic!

Shopping Bags!

Loving the new Boscombe Reusable Shopping Bag!! On one side it says, 'become fantastic - refuse plastic' and on the other side it says 'the Boscombe Shopper - you get out what you put in'... how witty!!

I'm a Boscombe Shopper and i'm glad that when I support independent local businesses I get back what I put in... these businesses add so much to the local shopping experience and without them we'd be left with soul-less chain stores churning out the tonnes of the same old stuff!

And these fab bags are being given away to Boscombe shoppers in some of the local outlets.

If you spend £10 or over in Urban Evolution, 3 Ashley Road Boscombe they'll give you one to take your shopping home in (which is good really because they're so ethical they won't give you a plastic carrier bag unless they've got some donated ones) but be warned £10 worth of shopping probably won't fit in just one shopping bag!!