eco efforts: trying harder

In my post the other day, I mentioned how much I wanted to improve on our lifestyle and make it far more ethical and environmentally friendly. Shamefaced, I listed all the areas that we had failed in massively (and these are teeny tiny things, I’m talking real basic stuff here), and decided that I wanted to make a change right now, this week. So, focusing on probably the easiest point, I got out some fabric I bought at a car boot sale, the sewing machine and my dressmaking scissors, and got to work.

Plastic bags, the bane of the environment, banned completely in Modbury, Devon and currently only available for purchase in WHSmiths, were probably our biggest eco-failure. We have loads, literally three large bagfuls, scattered in cupboards and drawers, and in the back of the car – yet somehow, amazingly (shockingly), at least 70% of the time I go to the shops, I always forget to take them and end up coming home with more. I hate them – there is nothing good about plastic (I’ll bring up the subject of BPA in babies bottles in a separate post – plastic craptastic), or its impact on the environment – only one in 200 in the UK are recycled, and it takes anything up to 1,000 years for one bag to degrade. Gah. I’ve been known to stuff things in my little satchel before, in a desperate bid to prevent us having to go home with yet another plastic bag – it’s not even that I haven’t thought about using the cotton tote bags either; they sit at home with the plastic carriers. Fail.

So, in a last-ditch attempt to stop us bringing home the plastic for good, I made this handy little plastic bag holder. Hung on the wall in the hallway, right next to the front door, it’s made from old fabric (car boot sale – upcycling at it’s best) and some printed tape I bought from a little shop called Utility on our honeymoon in Brighton (seriously, I urge you to look at the website – the shop is amazing). I think it looks quite good, it fits in with the rest of our flat (charity shop chic!), and more importantly, it works – I caught the Husband pulling a reusable Asda carrier out of it the other day. And what’s more, I’ve got enough of the same fabric left for a cushion cover – recycling at it’s best.