I had read for a long time about Scottish bothys and wanted to include a bothy stay in our highlands trip. They seemed so adventurous and romantic to me: hiking long days with your pack to stumble upon a perfectly placed hut for a night’s stay! I realised that the reality wasn’t quite like that, and being not so experienced with multi-day walks and maps we chose the Glen Feshie bothy – officially called Ruigh Read more…
Sally In The Woods was a rumour at our climbing centre. There was somewhere in the direction of Bath that you could climb at. The nearest place to us that wasn’t sandstone. Hooray! When we googled the place to see what to expect there was nothing about climbing, only ghost stories about a Victorian girl called Sally who had died whilst locked in a tower in some woods close to…. Oh. Bath! There’s a bit Read more…
I think your first visit to a refill shop could be a little daunting (what do I do?! Is my container okay?! How do I know how much it is?!) but at Keep in Farnham, they were so helpful and relaxed that you can quickly see how this welcoming way of life fits in to the laid-back vibe that our less waste journey is taking us on. I have found that one of the biggest Read more…
Happy new year to all of Bracknell Less Plastic! It’s January 2019 and our community has grown faster than we imagined it would. We have bought together both residents with a recent interest in reducing their unnecessary waste, and residents who had cottoned on to this long ago: individuals who have been making their own toothpaste, beeswax wraps and soap. People who have long been collecting so-called ‘un-recyclable’ wrappers to both raise money for a Read more…
After I became tuned in to the need to reduce waste and lessen my plastic use, I saw opportunity everywhere. Some changes were simple, others require a bit of adjustment. Once you are in the mindset, it becomes a new way of life and I saw my new habits reflected in less waste changes, as well as just less plastic. I think that by now most of us have reusable bags, water bottles and coffee Read more…
As someone who has only recently started replacing plastic household items with non plastic ones, I thought I had reached ultimate hippy status when I switched to a shampoo bar. Shampoo bars are great because they (obviously) don’t come in plastic bottles. A simple change which will avoid the purchase of 10+ plastic bottles per year. Easy. I opted for Lush because it’s a good go-to in terms of trustworthy eco-ness. I chose the Seanik Read more…
I hadn’t heard much about Gothenburg, except from my Sweden-travelled, friends who had recommended Stockholm instead! The name conjured images of Gothem City, which was what I was thinking of when we touched down on a grey morning in December. Firstly, where was everyone?! The streets and transport were surprisingly quiet. Everything was very… organised. We took the Flygbussarna from the airport, which was only 20 minutes to the city centre. It has a few Read more…
Sue and I met when we both volunteered to be part of a BBC report on recycling in the community. We came with different approaches (Sue had been making her own cleaning and beauty products for years and has great interest in plastic alternatives. I was just back from a year of travel, appalled at the plastic pollution I’d seen, smacked by the realization that the use of this needed to change). Our goal however Read more…
A tour of the dump!? A tour of the dump?! My sister repeated. Why? Firstly, it’s not a dump. It’s a Material Recycling Facility – as I learnt on the tour. This was an opportunity our local council had offered, in order to learn more about how rubbish is recycled and sold off. We (hi-vis) suited and (steel-toe-cap) booted ready for the tour. Although it didn’t smell as much as I was imagining, it did Read more…
After seeing an advertisement on our local council’s website recruiting residents with an interest in recycling, I sent in one of my blogs on plastic and applied. I was called and offered more details, which resulted in me finding myself en route to the region’s Material Recycling Facility (aka ‘MRF’, but definitely not ‘dump’, which I referred to it as on the phone!) on a Monday morning. Upon arrival I found BBC staff and producers Read more…