Consumers hoodwinked by Gillette ‘recycling’ scheme! (May25)
Here we go again — another shiny new recycling initiative promising to solve a minuscule part of our vast waste problem. This time, it’s Gillette’s razor blade recycling programme, offered in partnership with TerraCycle. It might sound noble: send back your used blades (any brand!) through the post and feel good about “doing your bit.” […]
Rubbish In Indonesia (Mar23)
It felt like Armageddon. We went on a ‘nature bike ride’, but the trip highlights were piles and piles of rubbish. Plastic bottles, old flip flops, a child’s shoe, fishing nets, polystyrene, foil packets and general household detritus. We were in Indonesia staying at the Banyan Tree on the northern coast of Bintan, which is […]
Rubbish Cups for the Wilding Weekend (Jun22)
The Rubbish Project is hiring! (Jan22)
Brilliant opportunity for an entrepreneurial commercial director to work with circular economy pioneers. Click here to find out more. The Rubbish Project is a fast-growing company with too much work and not enough time. Would you like to be part of a team creating a ‘waste-free world’? Do you want to make a positive environmental […]
Is the EU’s Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive better for the environment (Feb21)
No. I don’t think it is – at least not all of it. Mid 2021 the EU is planning to introduce the Single-Use Plastics Directive. The key objective appears to be moving business and consumers away from single-use plastics and towards re-usable solutions. On the surface of it, this sounds like a good environmental move. After all, using […]
Green Consumer Compilation – TV Clips with Julia Hailes from 1988-90
Many people will be surprised to know how much interest there was about green consumerism in the late 80s and early 1990s. It was kicked off by the publication of The Green Consumer Guide, co-authored by myself and John Elkington, in 1988. The book had 11 print runs in the first month, shot to the […]
The Green Consumer Guide & Week Green Consumer Week TV Clips with Julia Hailes 1988
Published in 1989 ‘Green Consumer’s Supermarket Shopping Guide’ was written by John Elkington and myself – Julia Hailes. It was launched on our ‘Green Shopping Day’. When I was researching The Green Consumer Guide, none of the supermarkets had a clue about ‘green products’. When I asked them what environmental things they were doing they […]
TV clips CFCs and the ozone layer – 1988/89 Julia Hailes campaigning for ozone-friendly aerosols etc (Posted Nov20)
The campaign to remove CFCs from aerosols was one of the most successful that I’ve been involved with. In the late 1980s, the link between chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and the destruction of the ozone layer was made. However, it took a while to convince the industry that this was a real problem. I remember giving a […]
Simply switching from plastics to other materials could actually increase carbon emissions. (Mar20)
This is the conclusion of a new report from the Green Alliance: Fixing the System – Why the circular economy for all materials is the only way to solve the plastic problem. One of the rather intriguing insights in this report is that plastics were invented to prevent the extinction of elephants! How so? At […]
Getting better at a ‘Green’ Christmas (Dec18)
Christmas decorations at home – including reindeer made from recycled bolts and springs and motorbike and lemon Christmas trees My son Connor led the way to a greener Christmas. He had some inspiring ideas, from wrapping presents in ‘Who Gives A Crap’ loo paper wrappers, to creating re-usable Christmas gift boxes, that will come again […]
Watching ‘Blue’ made people angry (Dec18)
It was difficult to decide which part of the film made me more angry. High on the the list were the scenes cutting the fins from living sharks and throwing them back into the sea. I think the film said that 60 million sharks are killed for their fins each year – but looking it […]
Converting people to Sodastream (Nov18)
Many of us remember having a Sodastream in our childhood. Then it seemed to disappear from consciousness. Now it’s back. It’s only been 10 years since I started liking sparkling water. Before then, I couldn’t understand why people weren’t happy with tap water. Now, I’ve quite keen on having a cool glass of fizz with […]