Help from the planet "Greenstar"

Ey up my faithful "green" blogworms, it would appear that last weeks blog captured a lot of peoples imaginations and aroused some pretty strong feelings.

I realised that last week that with my blog: "Even shopping can be green....." that I'd only just scratched the surface of what I wanted to say.

So this week I'm taking the unusual step of a follow up on the same subject. Wasteful plastic !
Stick with it because there's a ray of hope at the end of the story!


We're all used seeing plastic bag trees where this ugly phenomenon is a blot on our landscape, in the pic to the left 2 of the offenders can clearly be seen in a fishing net. The 2 swans in the next picture aren't playing, they're stuck !! caught in  a discarded plastic bag. 

Waste plastic is killing our wildlife, some of the pictures I found, I felt were too upsetting to put in this blog. I don't know which idiot thought that charging for plastic bags was going to make the problem go away ??? Get rid of them completely, go back to paper, it's biodegradeable and can't do any real harm to our birds and sealife, at least if they try and eat it there's more chance it will pass through with no lasting damage.


I make no apologies for the cartoon I've shown here because it sums up probably how many thousands of responsible people in the UK are feeling !! I thought it was perfect for the point I'm trying to make.

Some of the damage caused by plastic bottles, yoghurt pots and those strong plastic things that hold 6 cans of beer together beggar belief. The deformed wildlife that have suffered at the hands of that stuff is truly appalling. 

We need to recycle all the plastic we can to keep it out of harms way and stop the huge environmental damage it's causing.  

Talking about supermarkets and retail outlets last week, it struck me that, apart from our homes, we probably spend more time in these places than anywhere else.

These major shop chains only seem to pay lip service to environmental issues without embracing them properly ..... so, here's an idea !! Get them to lead the way !!

Next time you go into your local supermarket ask them to start, for an easy example, a yoghurt pot & plastic bottle collection scheme to encourage parents and children to bring back their used yoghurt pots and bottles to be collected and sent to reprocessors to be turned back into something useful and stop them going into landfill.

They're always issues vouchers for school computers or something so let's get our kids involved in helping us clear up an environmental mess !!
The chap in this picture works for a company called Greenstar, based in Redcar, Middlesborough. and they've just won government funding to boost our yoghurt pot and plastic bottle recycling efforts.

I'm absolutely certain that he would be glad of the raw material to reprocess as recycling mixed plastics is certainly one of the weakest areas of the UK's recycling infrastructure

Go on their website : http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/environment/greenstar-wins-wrap-funds-to-boost-yoghurt-pot-recycling/ and have a look at their efforts, pick up the phone and talk to him, set up a deal, become active in making a positive contribution.

In my eyes, this guy is one of the unsung heroes of our world and he needs our help, so come on supermarkets, take note !! get a recycling scheme going and walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. We'll help you reuse the products he makes, back into your shop counters, wall panelling etc and that would then be truly " closing the loop "

The cynics among you, and I'm sure you're out there, will be saying that all this is just a boost for our own products and business but would you rather help us to put recycled plastic back to gainful use or would you rather see it killing wildlife .... you decide !!

I'm knackered now !  see you next week. Jules