This is our moment. We cannot turn back time. But we can grow trees, green our cities, rewild our gardens, change our diets and clean up rivers and coasts. We are the generation that can make peace with nature. Let’s get active, not anxious. Let’s be bold, not timid.

 Information from the United Nations official website:

REIMAGINE. RECREATE. RESTORE.

For too long, we have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems. Every three seconds, the world loses enough forest to cover a football pitch and over the last century we have& destroyed half of our& wetlands. As much as 50 per cent of our coral reefs have already been lost and up to 90 per cent of coral reefs could be lost by 2050, even if global warming is limited to an increase of 1.5°C.

Ecosystem loss is depriving the world of carbon sinks, like forests and peatlands, at a time humanity can least afford it. Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown for three consecutive years and the planet is one pace for potentially catastrophic climate change.

With this big and challenging picture, the World Environment Day is focus in the ecosystem restoration and its theme is “Reimagine. Recreate.Restore.”

Ecosystem restoration means preventing, halting and reversing this damage – to go from exploiting nature to healing it. This World Environment Day will kick off the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a global mission to revive billions of hectares, from forests to farmlands, from the top of mountains to the depth of the sea.

Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity.

Ecosystem Restoration Playbook

UNEP has published a practical guide to ecosystem restoration that provides an introduction to the range of actions that can slow and halt the degradation of ecosystems and foster their recovery.

Investing in ecosystems is investing in our future

World Environment Day 2021, which counts with Pakistan as the host country this year for its official celebrations, calls for urgent action to revive our damaged ecosystems.

From forests to peatlands to coasts, we all depend on healthy ecosystems for our survival. Ecosystems are defined as the interaction between living organisms - plants, animals, people - with their surroundings. This includes nature, but also human-made systems such as cities or farms.

Ecosystem restoration is a global undertaking at massive scale. It means repairing billions of hectares of land – an area greater than China or the USA – so that people have access to food, clean water and jobs.

It means bringing back plants and animals from the brink of extinction, from the peaks of mountains to the depths of the sea.

But it also includes the many small actions everyone can take, every day: growing trees, greening our cities, rewilding our gardens or cleaning up trash alongside rivers and coasts.

Restoring ecosystems carries substantial benefits for people. For every dollar invested in restoration, at least seven to thirty dollars in returns for society can be expected. Restoration also creates jobs in rural areas where they are most needed.

World Environment Day launch the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. 

 This decade aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part. Find out more about ecosystems and the UN Decade, and join the global movement to restore our world.

 Join the #GenerationRestoration movement through the official website of World Environment Day 2021. You can access more interesting information about ecosystems, the actions you can carry out to contribute to their restoration, as well as a large number of materials to promote the movement through social media. Every performance, no matter how small, matters.

If we all work together, we can at least slow things down, keep up the war against plastic production by reducing, when we can, the amount of plastic containers, single use plastics, refuse plastic bags (or better still take your own along with you, I have cloth ones that fold up really small and fit in my bag) and in general think before we buy or use!

 Happy World Environment Day to our only World.

 The blog song for today is: " All over the world" by Electric Light Orchestra

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Turkey has announced a ban on almost all UK plastic waste imports.

 

 

A message from our friends at Greenpeace, for more information and what more people like us can do, visit the website!

Finally, the government is showing real leadership to protect people, wildlife and our oceans. Unfortunately it’s not the UK government - it’s the Turkish government. Turkey has announced a ban on almost all UK plastic waste imports. [1] That’s incredible news!

 

While it’s great that Turkey is acknowledging the problem with plastic, we can’t let the UK government just find another country to exploit and dump our waste onto instead. The government must take responsibility for our waste and fix the plastic crisis by stopping waste exports to all countries and reducing the amount of plastic that is produced.

 

Plastic is all over the news right now, can you help pile the pressure on Boris and tell him to stop dumping our waste on other countries and take proper plastic action? 

 

 

Last week, a Greenpeace investigation found British plastic recycling being dumped and burned in the open air in Turkey.  And we released Wasteminster (https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/wasteminster-downing-street-disaster/) a film that exposes government hypocrisy on plastic pollution. It’s been watched over 6 million times, with journalists and politicians sharing it. Just two days later, Turkey announced a ban on 95% of UK plastic waste imports. But the UK government, who call themselves plastic leaders, are still silent. Below is a report about the film from Greenpeace.

 

This is a huge milestone in the fight against plastic pollution - but there’s still more to do. Nearly 40% of our recycling goes to Turkey. The government can’t just find more countries to dump that on. First China said no to our waste, now Turkey, where’s next?  The government must take responsibility for our waste, and not expect another country to deal with it for us. 

 

The government has announced a few things like a ban on plastic stirrers, cotton buds and straws and increasing the charge on single-use carrier bags. But these measures won’t stop the plastic crisis. As the UK is the second biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the USA,  what the government needs to do is introduce targets to cut single-use plastic by 50% by 2025.  Thanks to your pressure, supermarkets like Sainsbury’s and then Aldi have already done this, so the government should too.

 

One great way to deal with our plastic crisis would be to finally introduce a deposit return scheme (DRS) - when you buy a drink you pay a tiny bit extra, which you get back when you return the container. It’s so effective, some countries with DRS have seen up to 95% recycling rates! The government announced one in 2017, but since then has delayed and tried to water down any potential scheme, making it less effective.

 

To tackle the plastic crisis the government must be the leader it claims it is. It must stop dumping our waste on other countries, and introduce proper measures to reduce plastic waste and improve recycling - like a DRS and plastic reduction targets. Can you make sure Boris Johnson knows people want him to be a plastic leader, and message him on social media?

 

We’ve already made an impact. Thanks to people like you, Turkey has stopped importing almost all of our plastic waste. The UK government has to deal with that now, and with the huge public support and outrage that’s been shown in the past week - we can make them take responsibility. Make sure you use your voice.

P.S. The government currently has a consultation open for Deposit Return Schemes - they’re trying to water it down, again. 

 

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.

If we all join together and work on this now to decrease the amount of plastic produced then we have a chance, if we just carry on like this the planet will not recover.  I cannot see what people do not get about it.

The blog song for today is: " Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin 

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Los peores supermercados en la lucha contra el plástico (2019) - Espana - El Mejor esta Eroski

 

Carrefour y Mercadona, los peores supermercados en la lucha contra el plástico

17-12-2019 (lo mas nuevo no esta disponible aun)

• Por segundo año consecutivo, Greenpeace publica un ranking de los ocho principales supermercados, según sus compromisos contra el plástico de un solo uso
• Ningún supermercado cumple las demandas solicitadas, pero Eroski es el que más avanza este año
• La organización lanza un breve informe con su propuesta de “supermercado ideal”, basado en la reutilización y el fin del usar y tirar
• La reciente COP25 ha mostrado la urgencia de revertir la grave situación medioambiental, pero los supermercados no se comprometen a eliminar la mayoría de sus envases desechables para 2025

Madrid, 17 de diciembre de 2019.- Lentitud y falta de ambición. Con estas palabras resume Greenpeace la evaluación anual que ha realizado a los ocho supermercados con mayor cuota de mercado del país, para analizar sus progresos en la lucha contra el plástico de un solo uso. A día de hoy, ninguna de las marcas evaluadas (Eroski, Lidl, Alcampo, Aldi, El Corte Inglés, Día, Mercadona y Carrefour) ha integrado las diez medidas de mejora solicitadas por la organización ecologista.

“Muchos supermercados siguen sin apostar por una eliminación real de envases para tratar este problema, y, tras un año de deliberaciones, han decidido tomar medidas poco valientes, como simplemente reducir el grosor de sus envases para usar menos cantidad de plástico o sustituir los plásticos de un solo uso por envases biodegradables o compostables, pero estos también son de un solo uso y muchos pueden seguir conteniendo plásticos”, explica la responsable de la campaña de plásticos en Greenpeace, Alba García.

Eroski se sigue manteniendo a la cabeza, un año más, al haber implementado las mejores medidas por ahora, como aumentar sus frescos a granel e introducir las mallas reusables, entre otros. Aunque el compromiso más ambicioso lo ha presentado Alcampo al comprometerse a reducir el 30% de todos sus envases plásticos para 2025 y un 50% para 2030. Mercadona, Carrefour (1), DIA y El Corte Inglés siguen suspendiendo en este ranking, al no alcanzar ni la mitad de las metas establecidas.

“Con hasta 12 millones de toneladas de plástico llegando a los mares cada año, no podemos esperar diez años más. Urgen medidas ambiciosas que cambien el rumbo de esta situación de forma drástica. De lo contrario, los supermercados seguirán participando en la destrucción de nuestro medio ambiente. Para frenar la contaminación por plásticos hace falta muchísimo más que cambiar las bolsas de caja o eliminar el envase de un par de frutas”, añade García.

Para aumentar la presión e implicar a las y los consumidores, Greenpeace invita a la ciudadanía a llamar a su supermercado para pedirle más avances, por lo que les facilita, en el documento, el contacto público de cada marca.

“Supermercado ideal”

Para explicar qué cambios han de realizar los supermercados, la organización ecologista ha publicado un breve informe titulado “El supermercado ideal” en el que especifica las características de ese establecimiento idílico que, entre otras cosas, tendría que eliminar los envases de un solo uso y ofrecer alternativas reutilizables, rellenables y sostenibles como la venta a granel, los productos de higiene sólidos y sin envases, o los sistemas de retorno y depósito para poder reutilizar el mismo recipiente

 

El cancion del blog hoy esta¨ I want to break free" de Queen.

Adios!

Plastic packaging: which supermarket topped this year’s league table? UK

Here is the latest information from Greenpeace, very good.

Supermarkets still aren't doing enough to reduce plastic - but who's making the most progress? And how has the pandemic changed things? Find out where your supermarket ranks in the latest plastics league table.

Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year, and plastic pollution is now the biggest killer of marine life. Supermarkets are playing a major part in this tragedy, but they can also be a major part of the solution.

They’ve been talking the talk when it comes to reducing plastic – making pledges and commitments – but more importantly, have they been walking the walk?

For the third time Greenpeace has teamed up with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to dig deeper into what supermarkets are really doing to cut plastic. Let’s take a look at our updated league table!

The supermarket plastic league table

		Reduced plastic	Reusables	Reduction commitment	Reuse commitment	Recycling	Supply chain	Transparency
1.	Waitrose	60%	60%	78%	48%	29%	76%	91%
2.	Aldi	42%	40%	71%	41%	40%	59%	81%
3.	M&S	67%	30%	22%	24%	43%	46%	77%
4.	Lidl	40%	30%	46%	35%	54%	63%	98%
5.	Sainsbury’s	33%	50%	72%	22%	67%	56%	91%
6.	Tesco	11%	70%	63%	63%	47%	76%	89%
7.	Asda	29%	70%	30%	59%	26%	46%	80%
8.	Co-op	22%	50%	57%	11%	43%	59%	80%
9.	Morrisons	9%	40%	46%	48%	49%	54%	91%
10.	Iceland	22%	60%	63%	19%	11%	22%	57%

Colours
Green: good
Yellow/orange: needs improvement
Red: poor

Key findings:

• Overall, supermarkets still aren’t doing enough to reduce plastic. In 2019 UK supermarkets produced 896,853 tonnes of plastic packaging. This is a slight decrease from 2018 (less than 2%), but it’s way off the progress that our planet really needs, and is certainly nothing to shout about.
• Aldi climbed from last place to second. They reduced their overall plastic footprint, removed single-use plastic carrier bags and committed to halve their plastic footprint by 2025.
• Morrison’s slipped down to ninth place as their plastic use increased. A significant rise in plastic bags and water bottles is a particular area for concern.
• Waitrose have remained top of the league table for the second year in a row. They reported a big reduction in plastic use (in relation to their size), showed good engagement with brands and suppliers and have committed to increasing reusable packaging and unpacked ranges.

Online shopping could mean less plastic

One change you might have guessed was a big increase in online shopping, which is expected to remain after the pandemic. It’s a huge opportunity to reduce plastic. Just last year Tesco partnered with Loop, who uses completely reusable packaging, which is returned, cleaned and reused. If supermarkets replicated this on a large scale they could ditch thousands of tonnes of plastic.

It’s fair to say that COVID-19 has been a setback in the fight against plastic pollution. But from what we can tell, there’s still an appetite from supermarkets to reduce single use and unnecessary plastics.

Shoppers still care about plastic – and change is on the way

Despite the pandemic, plastic packaging is still at the forefront of shoppers’ minds. As you can see from our league table, supermarkets have lots to do if they’re going to stop fuelling the problem and start solving the problem.

Aldi and Sainsbury’s have committed to halving their plastic footprint by 2025. Greenpeace is urging the other major supermarkets to do the same. Increasing ambition on reusable packing and refill stations in-store is vital to reducing throwaway plastic. So Greenpeace is also calling for 25% of packaging to be reusable by 2025, and 50% reusable by 2030.

Trials in reuse and refill are picking up pace across all UK supermarkets. Last year Asda opened a sustainability store in Leeds, which uses refill stations to give shoppers plastic packaging-free groceries. The store stocks big brands like PG Tips, Kellogg’s, and Persil, as well as own-brand staples like pasta. Asda says the store will cut around one million pieces of plastic per year.

If Asda and other supermarkets roll out schemes like this across the UK, it will go a long way to properly reducing plastic packaging.

The biggest supermarkets must lead the way

Shoppers take the single-use plastic wrapping off their bought fruit and vegetables outside Tesco in London. © John Cobb / Greenpeace

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Morrison’s and Aldi are the five biggest supermarkets in the UK. Because they have more stores and more customers, they produce a lot more plastic than some of the other supermarkets in the league table. That means they have a responsibility to lead the way – and an opportunity to have the biggest impact.

The pandemic has been a testing time for supermarkets – in particular their frontline staff – but they have also been making massive profits.

These profits shouldn’t be lining the pockets of executives or shareholders. Instead supermarkets have a responsibility to build back better from the pandemic.

Greenpeace has even given supermarkets all the solutions they need to halve their plastic footprints. The time for talking is over, in 2021 we need to see more action!

 

The blog song for today is: "Slap and Tickle" by Squeeze

 

TTFN