Wasteminister- A short documentary by Greenpeace - absolutely brilliant, it is very short

 

 

Here is the link:https://youtu.be/6NHiv5zDuZQ 

 

The UK is the 2nd biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the USA. And because we’re producing so much plastic, the government is dumping it on other countries who can’t cope with it either. 

It’s hard to get your head around the true scale of the plastic problem, so we worked with the talented animators at Park Village Studios to show what it would look like piled up on Boris Johnson’s doorstep.

he UK is the 2nd biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the USA. And because we’re producing so much plastic, the government is dumping it on other countries who can’t cope with it either. 

It’s hard to get your head around the true scale of the plastic problem, so we worked with the talented animators at Park Village Studios to show what it would look like piled up on Boris Johnson’s doorstep.

What you see in the film is the amount of plastic we dump on other countries every single day. That’s on average, 1.8 million kilograms a day – or 688,000 tonnes a year of our plastic waste that is fuelling health and wildlife emergencies around the world. Plastic kills hundreds of thousands of marine birds, sea mammals and turtles every year – but it’s not just harming wildlife and our oceans, it’s harming people too.

Plastic being sent overseas is being dumped or burned in the open air, with local communities in Turkey and Malaysia reporting serious health problems, like respiratory issues, nosebleeds and headaches. We have all lived through a health emergency over the past year in the form of Covid-19. But by dumping our plastic waste on other countries, the government has been fuelling another health emergency for even longer.

Time to take responsibility

It’s illegal for the government to send plastic waste to countries if it’s not going to be recycled. But a new Greenpeace investigation has found more evidence of plastic waste being dumped in Turkey.  Turkey receives over a third (38%) of all of our plastic waste exports. The government must take responsibility. 

The government wants to be seen as a leader in tackling plastic pollution, and every line in the film is an actual quote from Boris Johnson and Michael Gove (brilliantly voiced by Matt Forde and Jon Culshaw). And although they’ve announced positive yet very small steps to reduce the UK’s plastic production, they must take proper action to reduce our plastic pollution – and stop dumping our plastic waste on other countries.

 The blog song for today is: "Little lies" by Fleetwood Mac

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stop new oil and gas licences in the UK

 

 

 

The world’s leading energy industry organisation, IEA, has just said the UK shouldn’t green-light any new oil or gas projects. [1] That’s pretty huge. But the government recently said they will still allow new oil and gas licences and despite thousands of us speaking out, they’re yet to back down. [2] With the industry’s report fresh off the press, it’s time to turn up our volume. 

 

We are closer than ever before to ending the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels. Kwasi Kwarteng is the minister in charge of energy and business and is officially responsible for what the UK does next on this. He supported Boris Johnson in his bid to become Prime Minister and they have a close personal relationship - he can persuade the Prime Minister the UK doesn’t need to rely on fossil fuels. 

Just a few weeks ago Kwasi Kwarteng encouraged people to go vegan to cut carbon emissions. [3] But he’s also accepted fossil fuel donations. [4] As the UK prepares to host the global climate talks, COP26, and Kwasi Kwarteng positions himself as a key power player, it’s time he picked which side of history he wants to be on. The UK should be acting like a climate leader right now, not embarrassing ourselves on the world stage.

 

This week’s news just shows that Johnson and Kwarteng are clinging on to a sinking ship. Even the most ardent supporters of fossil fuels are having to see sense after years of protest and people powered action. It is proof that even when we feel ignored, even when we are tired of campaigning, change is truly possible. A fossil free UK is within reach - if we continue our fight. 

 

Here is a report from the Independent newspaper:

‘Colossal failure’: Government refuses to rule out new oil and gas licences in North Sea deal

Long-awaited deal between government and oil and gas sector a missed opportunity to ‘show climate leadership in the year of Cop26’, say campaigners.

The government has refused to rule out the granting of new oil and gas licences in a deal agreed with the fossil fuel industry.

On Wednesday, ministers announced the details of the North Sea Transition Deal – a long-awaited agreement between the government and the oil and gas sector.

The aim of the deal is to facilitate the country’s transition away from extracting oil and gas from waters surrounding the UK. The extraction process alone accounts for around 3.5 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and much more pollution is caused when the fuels are burned.

The government said that a package of measures agreed through the deal would cut emissions from oil and gas extraction by 15m tonnes by 2030 – the equivalent of the annual emissions of 90 per cent of British homes.

However, it refused to rule out the possibility of new oil and gas licences and instead announced the introduction of a “climate compatibility checkpoint” to ensure that any future licences awarded would be “aligned with wider climate objectives”, including its legal target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Announcing the deal, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “When it comes to fighting climate change, we must all stand together.

“From the Shetland Isles to Orkney and Peterhead to Falkirk, the oil and gas industry is the economic artery for many communities in Scotland, and we are doing everything possible to ensure that this vitally important sector is not left behind as we transition to a green economy.”

The government added that the full details of how this checkpoint will work are to be set out by the end of 2021.

Previous analysis by Greenpeace found that any new oil and gas licences would not be in line with the world’s climate goals – if emissions from burning the fossil fuels were counted in addition to emissions caused by the extraction process.

Mel Evans, head of Greenpeace UK’s oil campaign, said: “Refusal to rule out new oil and gas licences when the evidence is already clear that they are incompatible with UK climate commitments is a colossal failure in climate leadership in the year of Cop26.

“Instead of finding ways to prop up this volatile and polluting sector, a better proposition for workers and communities would be for the government to confirm a ban on new licences, and put all its energies into a nationwide programme of retraining, reskilling and investment in renewables and green infrastructure.”

The decision comes just months after Denmark announced plans to end all oil and gas offshore activities in the North Sea by 2050.

Ryan Morrison, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said the government’s refusal to rule out new oil and gas licences “exposed the outrageous hypocrisy” in its approach to tackling the climate crisis.

“The science on this is already crystal clear: burning fossil fuels is the key driver of this crisis, so to avoid climate breakdown there can be no new licenses and existing production must be wound down over the next decade – a new ‘climate compatibility checkpoint’ isn’t going to change that reality,” he said.

Dr Jonathan Marshall, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a non-profit based in London, added: “For a government usually so keen to set targets, the absence of an end date for extracting fossil fuels from the North Sea is a glaring omission.

“It is clear that the energy future of our seas is renewable. A bold announcement on ending oil and gas extraction in the North Sea while supporting jobs and workers through the transition would have made waves comparable to plans to stop generating electricity from coal and ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars.”

It seems that unless we all keep on top of the politicians and watch very carefully what they are doing they are undermining everything that people like us are doing, and it´s all in the name of MONEY.

Are we ever going to learn? What is this obsession with more and more, GREED is the worst trait that we humans have.  It really makes me wonder if thoses people who are like this are really from this planet? They can´t take it with them, and can only spend so much of it, to me and a lot people the same it is baffling!

 The blog song for today is: " Here come the Fleas" by White Noise

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Seaspiracy – how can you help save the ocean?

 Here is an interesting article from a really great organisation:

 

 

 

Seaspiracy – how can you help save the ocean? 

The film’s impressive success has drawn much attention to the problems faced by the ocean, but sadly it doesn’t do a great job of exploring solutions, leaving many viewers feeling worried and powerless.

But there are solutions. We know that together we have the power to save the ocean. So we decided to continue the film’s good work and wrote this short blog on the ways we can all get involved: 

The problems facing our ocean are clearly covered in the film. But the solutions… not so much. If you’ve watched Seaspiracy and want to take action to save the ocean, read on!

It’s not just about eating less fish

Sure, eating less or different fish can be a part of the answer to restoring ocean health, but saying we can fix the ocean by simply adapting our diets is like saying switching off the lights when leaving a room is the most effective way to tackle the climate crisis. It’s a good thing to do – but it misses much bigger opportunities that could have real impact. 

If we want systemic, lasting change, we need to think bigger, and to act together. We need to hold our leaders to account. When we campaign together, we can achieve great and positive changes, whether locally, nationally or across continents. And frankly, we need to change the system, not just our individual behaviour, as climate scientist Michael E. Mann has written. 

"Individual efforts to reduce one's carbon footprint are laudable," writes @MichaelEMann in The New Climate War. "But without systemic change, we will not achieve the massive decarbonization of our economy that is necessary to avert catastrophic climate change."

— David Williams (@ddub_news) April 17, 2021

Holding politicians to account

Overfishing is the biggest cause of ocean destruction. By taking out more fish than can be replaced, fish populations are reducing every year. As fish get harder to find, industrial fishing vessels are burning more fuel and using more and more destructive fishing methods to find what’s left. 

EU politicians have the power to end overfishing and protect the ocean. The solutions are so simple – all they’re missing right now is the will to do it. It’s time that we stand up together and demand action.

Get active

Here’s how you can make your voice heard. 

1. Join the movement!

Join a growing movement of passionate ocean protectors by signing the Our Fish petition calling on EU politicians to end overfishing. After joining the campaign we’ll keep you up to date with the latest actions to save the ocean, including participating in a key EU consultation this summer.

Sign the Petition now!

2. Write to your representatives about bottom trawling

Members of the European Parliament will have to make several important decisions this year that will affect the health of the ocean. They represent you in the EU, so they care about what you have to say. Find your MEP(s) here then call or email them to ask for their support to ban bottom trawling, a highly destructive way of fishing that’s doing enormous damage to biodiversity, ecosystems and the climate.

3. Get involved in a local campaign

There are lots of fantastic campaigning groups across Europe. We recommend checking out Ocean Rebellion, who are a part of the wider Extinction Rebellion Movement. Or the youth-led movement Fridays for Future. 

4. Vote. 

Perhaps the most obvious one but never to be overlooked. Vote locally, regionally and nationally. Find out which candidates are demanding real action to protect the ocean and speak to candidates about why this issue matters to you. 

5. Get your friends and family involved! 

There’s strength in numbers so we need as many people as possible fighting for the ocean. Why not host a film night (in person when possible, or remotely when not), attend talks, webinars and workshops. 

On the other side of this fight is the very wealthy international fishing industry, which makes billions of Euros every year exploiting our common ocean. By using big budgets and influence, they pressure politicians to continue their reckless overfishing. To win, we’re going to need to stand together and make our collective voices even more powerful than the fishing industry’s money. Will you join us?

Want to read more?

1. ‘Seaspiracy shows why we must treat fish not as seafood, but as wildlife’ – George Monbiot, The Guardian
2. ‘OP-ED: Seaspiracy or Conspiracy? Truth and Hyperbole Behind the Controversial New Netflix Exposé on Fishing’ Alex Rogers, ECO
3. ‘What Netflix’s Seaspiracy gets wrong about fishing, explained by a marine biologist’ Daniel Pauly
4. Overfishing explained 
   

There are many things that we as individuals can do and continue to do to slow down the destruction of our only home.  Sometimes I really to wonder if some of the people I talk to really get what is happening or do they just prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend it is just us environmentalists over-reacting?  There is always a reason why this is happening, nothing at all to do with humans! 

It seems that the more technology that we have, the stupider the species seem to be getting, surely that is the wrong way round? Technology is supposed to assist us.  

The blog song for today is: " Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

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The way we normally recycle plastics is a downward spiral of waste and degraded materials, but there is another option – turning plastic back into the oil it was made from.

Here is a really great report from the BBC .  It is about my main interest and what I feel really strong about, PLASTIC. When you have read it, see if you reach the same conclusion as I did!  There have been so many of these initiatives before!

There is one man-made material that you can find in the earth, the air and in the deepest ocean trenches. It is so durable that the majority of what has been created is still present in our ecosystem. Having made its way into the food chain, it permeates our bodies, flowing from our blood into our organs, even finding its way into the human placenta.

It is of course plastic, and this durability is also what makes the material so useful. Cables stretching across ocean floors, water pipes under the ground and packaging that keeps food fresh all rely on this property.

Efficiently recycling plastic by conventional means is notoriously difficult, and only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled into new plastics. But what if there was a way to turn plastic back into the stuff it was made from? The "next grand challenge" for polymer chemistry – the field responsible for the creation of plastics – is learning to undo the process by turning plastics back into oil.

Instead of a system where some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong colour or made of composites, chemical recycling could see all types of plastic fed into an "infinite" recycling system

This process – known as chemical recycling – has been explored as a viable alternative to conventional recycling for decades. So far, the stumbling block has been the large amount of energy it requires. This, combined with the volatile price of crude oil sometimes makes it cheaper to produce new plastic products than to recycle existing plastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

plastics that could be recycled end up in landfill because of poor facilities, or confusion about what is and isn't recyclable (Credit: Alamy)

Every year, more than 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide. That's about the same as 2,700,000 blue whales – more than 100 times the weight of the entire blue whale population. Just 16% of plastic waste is recycled to make new plastics, while 40% is sent to landfill, 25% to incineration and 19% is dumped.

Much of the plastic that could be recycled – such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used for bottles and other packaging – ends up in landfill. This is often due to confusion about kerbside recycling or contamination with food or other types of waste.

Other plastics – such as salad bags and other food containers – find their way to landfill because they are made up of a combination of different plastics that can't be easily split apart in a recycling plant. Litter dropped in the street and lightweight plastics left in landfill sites or illegally dumped can be carried by the wind or washed into rivers by the rain, ending up in the ocean.

Chemical recycling is an attempt to recycle the unrecyclable. Instead of a system where some plastics are rejected because they are the wrong colour or made of composites, chemical recycling could see all types of plastic fed into an "infinite" recycling system that unmake plastics back into oil, so they can then be used to make plastic again.

The way plastic is currently recycled is more of a downward spiral than an infinite loop. Plastics are usually recycled mechanically: they are sorted, cleaned, shredded, melted and remoulded. Each time plastic is recycled this way, its quality is degraded. When the plastic is melted, the polymer chains are partially broken down, decreasing its tensile strength and viscosity, making it harder to process. The new, lower grade plastic often becomes unsuitable for use in food packaging and most plastic can be recycled a very limited number of times before it is so degraded it becomes unusable.

The emerging industry of chemical recycling aims to avoid this problem by breaking plastic down into its chemical building blocks, which can then be used for fuels or to reincarnate new plastics.

In the UK, Mura Technology has begun construction of the world's first commercial-scale plant able to recycle all kinds of plastic

The most versatile version of chemical recycling is "feedstock recycling". Also known as thermal conversion, feedstock recycling is any process that breaks polymers down into simpler molecules using heat.

The process is fairly simple – take a plastic drinks bottle. You put it out with your recycling for collection. It is taken, along with all the other waste, to a sorting facility. There, the rubbish is sorted, either mechanically or by hand, into different kinds of materials and different kinds of plastics.

Your bottle is washed, shredded and packed into a bale ready for transportation to the recycling centre – so far, the same as the conventional process. Then comes the chemical recycling: the plastic that formerly made up your bottle could be taken to a pyrolysis centre where it is melted down. Next it is fed into the pyrolysis reactor where it is heated to extreme temperatures. This process turns the plastic into a gas which is then cooled to condense into an oil-like liquid, and finally distilled into fractions that can be put to different purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chemical recycling begins the same way as ordinary mechanical recycling, with collecting and crushing plastics and taking them to a plant (Credit: Alamy)

Chemical recycling techniques are being trialled across the world. UK-based Recycling Technologies has developed a pyrolysis machine that turns hard-to-recycle plastic such as films, bags and laminated plastics into Plaxx. This liquid hydrocarbon feedstock can be used to make new virgin quality plastic. The first commercial-scale unit was installed in Perth in Scotland in 2020.

The firm Plastic Energy has two commercial-scale pyrolysis plants in Spain and plans to expand into France, the Netherlands and the UK. These plants transform hard-to-recycle plastic waste, such as confectionery wrappers, dry pet food pouches and breakfast cereal bags into substances called "tacoil". This feedstock can be used to make food-grade plastics.

In the US, the chemical company Ineos has become the first to use a technique called depolymerisation on a commercial scale to produce recycled polyethylene, which goes into carrier bags and shrink film. Ineos also has plans to build several new pyrolysis recycling plants. 

In the UK, Mura Technology has begun construction of the world's first commercial-scale plant able to recycle all kinds of plastic. The plant can handle mixed plastic, coloured plastic, plastic of all composites, all stages of decay, even plastic contaminated with food or other kinds of waste.

Mura's "hydrothermal" technique is a type of feedstock recycling using water inside the reactor chamber to spread heat evenly throughout. Heated to extreme temperatures but pressurised to prevent evaporation, water becomes "supercritical" – not a solid, liquid, nor gas. It is this use of supercritical water, avoiding the need to heat the chambers from the outside, that Mura says makes the technique inherently scalable.

"If you heat the reactor from the outside, keeping an even temperature distribution is really hard. The bigger you go the harder it gets. It's a bit like cooking," explained Mura's chief executive, Steve Mahon. "It's hard to fry a big steak all the way through but if you boil it, it's easy to make sure it's cooked evenly all the way through."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pilot plant has shown that the use of very hot, supercritical water can help chemical recycling scale-up to useful levels (Credit: Licella)

The plastic waste arrives on site in bales – contaminated, multi-layer plastic such as flexible films and rigid trays that would otherwise have gone to incineration or energy-from-waste plants. The bales are fed into the front-end sorting facility to remove any inorganic contaminants such as glass, metal or grit. Organic contaminants such as food residue or soil are able to pass through the process. The plastic is then shredded and cleaned, before being mixed with supercritical water.

Once this high-pressure system is depressurised and the waste exits the reactors, the majority of liquid flashes off as vapour. This vapour is cooled in a distillation column and the condensed liquids are separated on a boiling range to produce four hydrocarbon liquids and oils: naphtha, distillate gas oil, heavy gas oil and heavy wax residue, akin to bitumen. These products are then shipped to the petrochemical industry.

As with other feedstock techniques, there is no down-cycling as the polymer bonds can be formed anew, meaning the plastics can be infinitely recycled. With a conversion rate of more than 99%, nearly all the plastic turns into a useful product.

Mahon said: "The hydrocarbon element of the feedstock will be converted into new, stable hydrocarbon products for use in the manufacture of new plastics and other chemicals." Even the "fillers" used in some plastics – such as chalk, colourants and plasticisers – aren't a problem. "These drop into our heaviest hydrocarbon product, heavy wax residue, which is a bitumen-type binder for use in the construction industry."

The hot, excess gases generated during the process will be used to heat the water, increasing its energy efficiency, and the plant will be powered by 40% renewable energy. "We want to use as much renewable energy as possible and will be seeking, wherever practical, to aim for 100%," says Mahon.

Mura's Teesside plant, due for completion in 2022, aims to process 80,000 tonnes of previously unrecyclable plastic waste every year, as a blueprint for a global rollout, with sites planned in Germany and the US. By 2025, the company plans to provide one million tonnes of recycling capacity in operation or development globally.

"[Our] recycling of waste plastic into virgin-equivalent feedstocks provides the ingredients to create 100% recycled plastics with no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled – decoupling plastic production from fossil resource and entering plastic into a circular economy," says Mahon.

Scientists such as Sharon George, senior lecturer in environmental science at Keele University, have welcomed Mura's development. "This overcomes the quality challenge by 'unmaking' the plastic polymer to give us the raw chemical building blocks to start again," says George. "This is true circular recycling."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant that is being constructed at Teesside in the UK aims to process 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year (Credit: Mura)

Yet in the past 30 years, chemical recycling has shown serious limits. It is energy-intensive, has faced technical challenges and proved difficult to scale up to industrial levels.

In 2020, a report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia), a group of organisations and individuals who promote social movements to reduce waste and pollution, concluded that chemical recycling is polluting, energy intensive and prone to technical failures. The report concluded that chemical recycling was not a viable solution to the plastic problem, especially at the pace and scale needed.

Additionally, if the end product of chemical recycling is an oil used for fuel then the process does not reduce the need for virgin plastic, and burning such fuels would release greenhouse gases just as ordinary fossil fuels do.

"Environmental NGOs are keeping a close eye on emerging recycling methods," says Paula Chin, sustainable materials specialist at the conservation organisation WWF. "These technologies are in their infancy and they are by no means the silver bullet solution to the plastic waste problem. We should focus on increasing resource efficiency as a way to minimise waste through greater reuse, refill and repair systems – not relying on recycling to be the saviour."

But Mura argues that their plant will fill a much-needed niche. "[Chemical] recycling is a new sector, but the scale at which it is developing, specifically for Mura, shows both the urgent need for new technology to tackle the rising problem of plastic waste and environmental leakage, and an opportunity to recycle a valuable ready-resource, which is currently going to waste," Mahon says.

Mura's process aims to complement existing mechanical processes and infrastructure, not compete with them, recycling materials that would otherwise go to landfill, incineration or into the environment. All the waste plastic they process will be made new plastics or other materials, none will be burnt for fuel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many chemical recycling plants in the past have gone bust, but Mura believes the supercritical water technique it uses will make it economically viable (Credit: Mura)

Mura hopes its use of supercritical water for efficient heat transfer will allow them to scale-up to industrial levels, lowering energy use and costs. It could be a crucial factor for success where others have failed.

One of the main reasons chemical recycling has failed to take off so far has been financial collapse. In a 2017 report, Gaia noted multiple projects that had failed, including the Thermoselect facility in Germany which lost more than $500m (£350m) over five years, the UK's Interserve which lost £70m ($100m) on various chemical recycling projects, and many other companies that faced bankruptcy.

Financial difficulty is something that has held back not just chemical recycling but all kinds of plastic recycling. "The economics do not stack up. Collecting, sorting and recycling packaging is simply more expensive than producing virgin packaging," says Sara Wingstrand, New Plastics Economy Project Manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Wingstrand says the only path to "dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding at scale" for recycling is through mandatory, fee-based Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. These would see all industries that introduce plastic contributing funding to collect and process their packaging after its use. "Without them, it is very unlikely recycling of packaging will ever scale to the extent required," says Wingstrand.

But Mahon believes a system like Mura's is another way to shift the balance sheets in favour of plastic recycling by producing an oil that can be sold at a profit. Mura has recently announced partnerships with the plastic manufacturers Dow and Igus GmbH, and the construction firm KBR.

"The interesting thing here is that Mura can find value in plastics that aren't usually economically viable to recycle mechanically," says Taylor Uekert, researcher at the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre, University of Cambridge.

Even with the ability to unmake all types of plastic so they can be reused again, it is unlikely to make all of the problems with plastic pollution go away. With so much ending up in landfill and the environment, plastic will continue doing what it was made to do – endure.

The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Find out more about how we calculated this figure here.

I can´t help but wonder if this is just another one of those gimmicks that will gain certain companies a great deal of money, the government some breathing space and in the end not work.  

Why aren´t governments encouraging less use of plastics by giving incentives to those companies trying to do zero waste? Those shops where you take along your empty containers (preferably not plastic) and refill them.  This is the way forward.

I know that a lot of people are saying that the responsibility for reducing plastic waste shouldn´t rest completely on the shoulders of the consumers, but at the end of the day aren´t we all consumers? The companies who make the plastic have employees who buy plastic, the owners buy plastic, the town where the factories are situated is full of people who buy plastic.  WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE and the more time everyone tries to keep passing the blame on to others the more time the only world we have is turning to SHIT.

Reduce the amount of plastic you put in your shopping basket/trolley each day/week, it is really very easy, pick the glass container instead of the plastic one, choose a canned container instead of a plastic one, the difference in price is not that great.

It is really quite bizarre that we all have more free time than ever before but never have any time to cook at home, care for others, recycle or keep our streets and beaches free of litter! Preferring instead to eat take-aways and sit glued to mobile phones, believing everything that is put on the internet.  The older generations have been criticised for not questioning the newspapers and tv news but isn´t this just the same?

The blog song for today is:"People are strange" by the Doors

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What’s the Tea? Brewing a More Sustainable Cuppa

Workers harvesting tea in Vietnam

A standard cup of tea requires one-eighth as much water as a cup of coffee, but tea is no eco-beverage. In fact, the carbon footprints of tea and coffee production are almost identical. But producing tea contributes less to its footprint than how you drink it. Brewing a truly sustainable cuppa might be impossible, but a little education about your tea choices makes it easier to shop your values. Here’s what you need to know about tea.

Farm

The UN FAO launched a project in Kenya last year to support the production of carbon-neutral tea. Another initiative, Tea2030 crosses all sectors of tea production. But for now, most tea is grown on chemical-intensive farms that contribute to deforestation, erosion, and pesticide contamination. Monoculture farms damage soil health and make plants more susceptible to disease, leading to more intensive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizer. Half of the 62 teas tested by the FDA in a 2015 study contained pesticide residues.

Using biological controls instead of fumigants against soil nematodes; site-specific fertilization plans or organic farming; and the introduction of shade trees to plantations are all methods for reducing the impact of tea cultivation.

People

A labor-intensive crop harvested by hand, tea is grown all around the world with China, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka as the largest producers. China produces half the world’s tea on 15 million small farms where there is little awareness of the dangers of agrochemicals. Two-thirds of Kenyan tea farmers are also smallholders with few employees (some of whom may be children). By contrast, three-quarters of Indian tea (particularly Assam) is still produced on near-feudal plantations with a history of human rights abuses that particularly impact women. But everywhere, low wages, pesticide exposure, and brutal working conditions are rampant.

The vast majority of tea is still purchased in bulk by multinational corporations. Only Sri Lanka has developed much local processing, but this has not led to direct trade options or improved conditions for workers.

With the rise of tea consumption and a higher demand for sustainable products, the tea industry is moving in a greener direction. 

Tea is becoming a sustainable business in terms of the environment, economy and society.

In 2013, Forum for the Future created a campaign called Tea 2030. The project involves companies and individuals across the tea industry, from pickers and packers to producers and purchasers, coming together to solve tea’s sustainability issues by the year 2030.

Fair trade — trade in which fair prices are paid to producers — is being implemented around the world as well. 

Companies partner with independent farmers and, with the fair-trade certification, ensure that workers receive just payment in fair work conditions and use environmentally sound farming methods.

Sustainable Tea Brands 

While Tea 2030 is at work, it’s time for consumers to ditch big-brand brews and invest in sustainable ones. Look for organic, Fair Trade-certified teas in recyclable packaging to maximizesustainability.  Most grocery stores and health food stores carry multiple sustainable tea brands. Here are a few of our favorites: 

 

Honest Tea

This sustainable company is mostly known for their line of iced tea, which is ethically and sustainably produced. 

 

Their tea leaves are certified organic, their company is certified Fair Trade, and they avoid unnecessary pesticides and fertilizers.

 

Arbor Teas

Both human and environmental health is a priority for this tea brand. Arbor Teas farmers usesustainable farming methods, including minimizing their water use. 

 

Their teas are organic and some are Fair Trade, and, best of all, their packaging is compostable.

 

Numi 

Numi successfully balances taste with sustainability, producing flavorful organic and Fair Trade bagged tea. The company is committed to recycling and keeps that in mind when designing packaging. 

Due to their waste-free processing, Numi saves thousands of trees every year.

Due to the severe lack of choice of tea bags here on Menorca, it´s either PG Tips or Typhoo, the spanish tea is not too good! (three bags to get a half decent cup!) and they state that they are environmentally friendly but I am not so sure!

It really is difficult to buy anything these days without wondering how it got to be on the shelf and what damage has been caused along the way to people, animals the environment and of course the sea. 

Saying that, I am doing the very best I can to make a small difference along with many other like-minded people and I do not intend to give up, at all, ever!!

 The blog song for today is: "Astronomy domine" by Pink Floyd

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