Baby care products (Jun11)
I first got involved in the debate about disposable nappies vs re-usables in the early 1990s. The comparisons were being made in eco-labelling research and I was sitting on the UK Eco-Labelling Board. The over-whelming concern about disposables was the amount of waste they produce. Local authorities have teamed up with campaigning organisations to encourage […]
Green Mobile Company Lives and Dies – C Mobile (Jun11)
C Mobile promised a greener approach to using your mobile phone. Their idea was to give a proportion of their profits to community renewable energy projects, to minimise waste, offer re-conditioned hand-sets and recycle phones wherever possible. Unfortunately they both launched and folded in 2010 and 2011 – they weren’t able to keep up with the big […]
P & G 4th Expert Baby Care Advisory Group (Jun11)
I’ve sat on P&G’s Expert Advisory Panel for Babycare since is started a few years ago. The fourth meeting was held in June in Geneva and had several new participants. Most interesting to me was the new focus of looking at nappies and baby care in developing countries. Also the innovations that are coming through. […]
Qualms about gold teeth…. (May11)
I’ve already got one gold crown and it looks like I’m due for some more. My worry is that I don’t think they’re the best environmental option – I’m actually rather anti-gold on eco grounds. Gold mining is one fo the dirtiest industry around, commonly using cyanide, arsenic and mercury. And the process is hugely […]
Incredible Edible was amazing (May11)
They’ve planted corn on the cob outside the police station. They’re lettuces in rose beds. And tomatoes on waste land. There’s even vegetables planted by school children in the graveyard. Incredible Edible, based in Todmorden is guerilla gardening at its best. The station master loved broccoli, so when he died, they planted broccoli all around the […]
Waste Watch Big Green Society Conference (Mar11)
I’m chairing a morning session looking at the role of government, business and education in promoting the Big Green Society.
The E-Waste Campaign (Mar11)
I’m working with Melinda Watson from the Raw Foundation to set up an E-Waste campaign. The WEEE man, whose head is in the photo on the left illustrates the amount of waste one person will throw away in a lifetime. WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. But the WEEE man was made about a decade ago, so if another one […]
I’ve had laser eye treatment (Dec10)
It’s brilliant – I’m over the moon! I now have 20:20 vision again. I had the surgery just before Christmas. It was totally painless – although a little frightening. But I was completely confident in the surgeon – Dr. Dan Reinstein from the London Vision Clinic, which he set up. I’ve been a contact lens […]
P&G Leaflet on Disposable Nappies (Jan11)
One of the most difficult eco-decisions I’ve had to make is whether to use cloth or disposable nappies. I chose disposables. Given that I’m a big campaigner on reducing waste, this might seem surprising. But my view was that the environmental differences between the two products were not so great – and disposables performed better. […]
The Secret Life of Stuff (Jan11)
Julie Hill thought I’d be uncomfortable with her view that we’ve had enough of green consumerism, where people are left to choose to be green or not. What we want, she says, is more ‘choice editing’. That effectively means that businesses and retailers only offer products that have a minimal environmental impact or are deemed to […]
Eco-Sheets – Using Recycled Plastics (Jan11)
In January 2011 I took my son Connor (far right in picture) to see the Eco Sheet factory. Melinda Watson from the Raw Foundation came too (pictured far left) – and Amanda Barry-Hirst from Greenhouse PR. Omer Kutluoglu, one of the founders showed us around. They’re making brilliant use of recycled mixed plastics – turning them into […]
Recycling in Somerset – new scheme includes plastic bottles and cardboard
I got stuck behind the recycling truck. What frustrated most was that it had just passed my house and I’d forgotten to leave anything out for them. But I’m a supporter of recycling. When household collection was first introduced – about 7 years ago – my non-recyclable waste dwindled to almost nothing. Our home recycling […]