Spring Tips

Living in Holbrook, trying to recycle our plastics in our blue bins and at soft plastic recycling points, we could be forgiven for not realising plastic is still a real problem. We don't see the mountains of plastic waste and plastic containing used clothing dumped in developing countries. 69% of clothing is partially or entirely synthetic, made of plastics such as polyester. These synthetic materials shed tiny fibres of plastic into the water and air.
Plastic pollution is a massive problem worldwide. Currently we produce 430 million tonnes of new plastic a year, with 60% of this destined for single-use and only 9% recycled worldwide (https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/global-plastics-treaty). At current rates, production is set to double by 2050. Plastic waste, micro plastics (minute plastic particles) and chemicals from plastic products have been found everywhere on Earth. In our oceans, rivers, rain, ice, air, soil, plants, fish, worms, eggs, animals, human lungs, human blood and human fetuses. There is increasing evidence that these microplastics and chemicals from plastic products can have serious negative effects on our health, and cancer causing effects, when they build up in our bodies over time.
If we imagine the Earth is a bath, and plastic production and waste are running taps, we're trying to prevent the bath overflowing by bailing out (recycling) with a teaspoon. Which is probably why nearly 3 million people, 103 countries, and 175 nations agree we need to unite and decide on a Global Plastics Treaty to curb the problem. It's hoped that this treaty will steer food and clothing manufacturers in particular towards circular economy principles. Using plastics and making products which can be readily reused and recycled. Creating more return and refill schemes and stopping unnecessary single-use plastics.
While the big companies and governments work on this we can keep trying to do our bit to help. We can make sure we don't leave plastic litter in our gardens and countryside. Plastic litter can persist in the environment and end up as tiny plastic particles in our rivers and soil. We can try to buy food products with less plastic packaging and try to buy sustainable clothing. For more information on how to help please see the Earth Day 2025 website (earth day.org). Earth Day is on Tuesday 22nd April 2025.

Autumn Tips

This Halloween, I'd love to encourage you to try to go a little more sustainable.  In our very busy modern lives it's easy to just grab Halloween decorations, sweets and costumes from Supermarkets, but these decorations and costumes are mostly plastic, and most sweets are plastic wrapped.  Every year in the UK, it's estimated that 7 million Halloween costumes are thrown away, and 2,000 tons of plastic waste is created.  Micro plastics are a serious pollutant in the environment and in our own bodies.  This kind of waste and 'throw away culture', without reuse or recycling, uses up the Earth's resources at a far faster rate than the Earth can replenish (so it's not sustainable).  

If you start thinking of ideas for decorations and/costumes early, you'll hopefully have a bit of time to gather together natural items, or items you can reuse or recycle.  For example, maybe you could find an old sheet for a ghost (cut small holes to see through and paint larger black eyes around the holes) or a black fluffy jumper for a bat costume, with black recycled material from a charity shop to make wings. 

 Maybe you could plan a walk to collect colourful autumn leaves, conkers or old twigs to make decorations.  Old twigs can make spiders legs with black painted cardboard bodies, or put twigs in a vase and hang cut out cardboard spiders or bats on the twigs. 

Try using recycled cardboard cut from cereal boxes or other packaging.  Recycled card can also be used to make silhouettes of cats, bats, owls, moons and stars, or spiders to stick to your window.  Then hang an old sheet over the silhouettes in your window with your curtains open.  From the outside the light inside your house will glow through the old sheet, showing up the silhouettes.  You could make cardboard 'day of the dead' style masks, painted with bright coloured designs and decorated with tissue paper flowers.  

Pumpkins are more sustainable, if instead of just carving them and throwing away the flesh and seeds, you use them to make soups or meals, or toast the seeds to make snacks.  CBBC has some good ideas at: bbc.co.uk/news round/50241354.  

Sweets wrapped in foil are more sustainable because aluminium foil can be easily recycled.  Just collect up and squash together small foil wrapping pieces into a ball about the size of a tennis ball and put it into your blue bin.  

There are lots of sustainable Halloween ideas online, some are more sustainable than others.  Trying not to buy new plastic decorations and costumes, and trying reuse or recycle where possible is a great way to enjoy Halloween with less harm to our World (www.worldwildlife.org/pages/10-greener-halloween-tips).

MORE FROM GHGW

Here are a couple of special dates, which I hope will encourage you to think about how you could help to make a 'Greener Holbrook, Greener World' this Festive season, and at the start of the New Year 2026:

December the 5th is World Soil Day 2025, in conjunction with the United Nations (UN), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).  You might think 'soil' isn't something which concerns you, but it is absolutely vital to all of us, and to the nature and biodiversity on our amazing world.  Globally soils provide 95% of our food, and 15 of the 18 essential chemical elements for plant life.  'There are more living organisms in a tablespoon of soil, than there are humans on the Earth' (https://www.fao.org/world-soil-day/en/).

Soils around the World are being degraded by human activities, pollution, erosion and climate change.  Again, you might think it doesn't concern you if your not a farmer, but even small areas of soil in gardens, rural and urban areas are important, and together all of these small areas add up.  

So how can you help?  One of the aims of World Soil Day is to educate the public, so just reading this, thinking about how important soils are for life on Earth, and maybe reading a little more about it if you have the time is a great start (https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-soil-day).  In your garden not using harmful chemicals such as glycophosate weed killers, reducing plastic where you can (to reduce microplastics in your soil), and composting are some ways you can help maintain soil health (https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardening-for-the-environment/soil).  Maintaining soil health in your garden will support other wildlife such as insects, frogs and toads, small mammals and birds.

On the 23rd - the 25th January, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is holding 'The Big Garden Birdwatch 2026'.  You can register to take part anytime from mid- December onwards and once registered you'll receive information to help you identify any birds you see on the day, and time you choose to watch and record birds in your garden or park/public garden (https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch).

Over the years, results from 'The Big Garden Birdwatch' help the RSPB to identify which bird species are doing well, and which are in decline.  They can then research why a particular bird species is struggling and find ways we can address this.  For example, Starlings are on the 'red list' as a species in serious decline.  Although they eat a wide variety of foods including: seeds, nuts, berries, grains, spiders, larvae, worms, caterpillars and leatherjackets, their decline may have something to do with declining insect and butterfly populations, and less availability of soil born foods such as worms and larvae.  So we've come full circle and explained why soil health is important for our wildlife, as well as vital for World food security (https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch/the-bigger-picture).  As Albert Einstein said; 'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.'  We can move towards a brighter future if we learn from nature, to understand how to live on Earth in a sustainable way, as nature has been doing for several billion years.