UK - London launches plastic bag free day for Londoners

The Mayor of London has called on Londoners to reuse their plastic bags and say 'no' to accepting new plastic bags. On average, Londoners use over 37 million new plastic bags each week - a weekly habit that adds to an annual total of 2.2 billion new plastic bags in the capital. To help Londoners on their way Recycle for London and thelondonpaper were handing out 10,000 free reusable cotton bags on Oxford and Regent Street, London's main shopping locations.At the campaign launch in Oxford Circus this morning the Deputy Mayor of London, Nicky Gavron, was joined by media partner thelondonpaper to encourage Londoners to use a reusable bag as well as reusing the plastic bags that they already have, instead of putting them in the bin where they will end up on landfill sites - this is a real waste of resources, causes harmful pollution and contributes to climate change. The Recycle for London campaign encourages Londoners to reduce, reuse and recycle their rubbish.

The campaign aims to remind Londoners that creating less rubbish must also be a long-term aim. The majority of the 2.2 billion new plastic bags received by Londoners each year end up in landfill and it is estimated that each bag can take up to 400 years to breakdown. If every Londoner cut out just one in every five of the new plastic bags they receive it would save almost 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions - the equivalent of taking over 3,375 cars off the road for a year.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "I am giving my full support to this Recycle for London and thelondonpaper campaign, which will give away 10,000 free reusable cotton bags. Londoners don't have to reduce their quality of life to tackle climate change, but we do need to change our wasteful habits. Using fewer plastic bags and remembering to carry a reusable bag is a great way to brush-up your green credentials."

It is a shocking fact that Londoners use 2.2 billion plastic bags per year and of these only only one in 200 bags are being recycled. This is a real waste of resources and the needless use of so many plastic bags causes harmful pollution and contributes to climate change.

From LONDON
Technorati Tags: Recycle for London waste prevention plastic bags Ken Livingstone plastic bag free day London

USA, NY - Paperless houses VS Energy eating monster

The New York Times reports that families are going paperless far faster than businesses; they have to pay the price of ink jet cartridges. “Paper is no longer the master copy; the digital version is,” says Brewster Kahle, the founder and director of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library. “Paper has been dealt a complete deathblow. When was the last time you saw a telephone book?”

However while paper consumption is dropping, it is not necessarily a boon for the environment; "While these digital toys reduce dependence on one resource, they increase it on another: energy. Some devices are always plugged in, eating electricity even when not in use, and gobbling huge amounts of power when they are. Others, like digital cameras and laptop computers, use electricity while they are recharging."

From Treehugger

Technorati Tags: paperless waste prevention paper consumption The New York Times reduce paper paperless offices

UK - Milk bag uses 75% less plastic than bottles

Today's Evening Standard reports that the notion has spread to the UK, where supermarket Waitrose will expand sales Calon Wen's organic milk in Eco Paks (they started a trial last summer) that reduce packaging by 75% . Lloyd noted that his milk bags aren't recyclable -- the high-density polyethylene jugs they replace are -- and it is unclear if the Eco Paks will go to the recycler or the landfill.

For those who think milk in bags would be tough to handle, read The Steps to the Usage of the Milk Bag for tips on getting the milk from the bag to your glass or bowl of cereal; hit the jump for a useful video from our pals at Hippyshopper on the same subject. Seems that the bag of milk is gaining popularity; what are your experiences (if any) with the milk bag? ::Calon Wen Eco Pak via ::Evening Standard

From Treehugger

Technorati Tags: milk bags waste prevention Calon+Wen milk bottles less+packaging

UK - M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange

Donate an item of M&S-labelled clothing to Oxfam, and get £5 off your next M&S purchase of £35 or more*. Give your clothes a second life and help end poverty with Oxfam.

How it works?
When you bring a bag of donated clothes containing at least one item of M&S clothing to any of Oxfam’s 750 high street shops in the UK and 40 shops in Ireland, you’ll get a voucher for £5 (or €7 in Ireland) off your next purchase of £35 (or €50) or more of clothing, homeware or beauty products in M&S. Vouchers are valid during the calendar month in which they are received.

What's in it for you?
Well, the £5 voucher will do for starters. But this offer is about more than money.

Get a great feeling from recycling clothes you no longer need to raise funds to help people living in poverty. Reduce waste. 1 million tonnes of clothing is discarded every year in the UK alone, a lot of which is of good enough quality to be re-sold or recycled.
Rest assured that we extract the maximum value possible from every single piece of donated clothing.

Oxfam is the only major charity with its own textile sorting facility. So even if we can’t resell your item in the shop you donate it to, the chances are we can reuse it in another way to raise cash.

The M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange explained.

Technorati Tags: clothes waste prevention clothes reuse reuse M&S OXFAM