St Ursula's Eco-Tips
A Church of the Anglican Communion, caring for God's creation and welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ
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This page contains the Eco-Tips which have been suggested since the beginning of the St Ursula's Eco-Church project. If you have a (brief) tip you feel you would like to share, send it to ecochurch@stursula.ch or talk to Hector or Helen about it.
if you have to buy cottage cheese, margarine etc. in plastic tubs – save them. They make good, sealable containers for leftovers or even nails, screws etc.!
Antibacterial agents have found their way into all sorts of consumer products - soaps, hand disinfectants, shoe inserts, surface wipes etc. Though they may sound like the clean healthy option, they actually kill beneficial bacteria and may promote the development of more dangerous resistant strains.
By controlling the pests that damage crops, pesticides have increased yields and raised standards of life across the globe. But this has had a price. Wiedespread use of the wrong kinds of pesticide has led to the deaths of unrelated species of animal and plant - or sometimes to injury or malformation or even worse. The insects that ate the aphids, the birds that ate the slugs, the foxes that ate the rabbits have gone hungry - perhaps even been poisoned. Plants have lost their natural resistance to certain types of disease, and at the same time, pests have developed resistance to pesticides. Adjacent crops have been affected. Groundwater has been contaminated.
This is the tip of an iceberg. We do not know what the effect is of what we are pouring on our plants. If bees die out, we will get less honey, but is this a bad or a good thing? Some plants will not get pollinated - but other insects may fill the gap. People who work regularly with pesticides, such as farmers, may be at greater risk of cancer, but how certain is this? Some pesticides may induce allergies, autoimmune diseases and inflammation, especially in children.
Believe it or not, it's better to be safe than sorry.
In Switzerland, it's 1 August. In France, 14 July. In England, 5 November. And all over the globe, it's New Year - whether Chinese, European or whatever. any excuse for fireworks.
As the smell of gunpowder suggests, fireworks are responsible for spreading large quantities of particulates into the air. About 2% of a whole year's supply is released into the atmosphere within a few hours. and it is not surprising that this gives rise to respiratory problems, not only in humans but in most animals and in other forms of life - not to mention the way it terrifies domestic pets, farm animals and wildlife.
The bright colours have an environmental cost too. Reds commonly use strontium carbonate, and the chlorides that produce blue and green usually contain copper and barium respectively. These salts are expensive to produce and use resources that could be employed more usefully elsewhere.
Environmentalists are not killjoys. The first of August without any celebration would be a drab event. But use reason and moderation. That is why big municipal firework displays mame sense - pooling resources to get the maximum effect with less damage than if we all did the same thing ourselves ten times over.
Mass-factory-produced beer doesn't have to taste like the proverbial rodent by-product - in fact many prize-winning beers come from large breweries, who have the resources to provide consistent quality and guaranteed purity. However. the large factories rely on a constant supply of hops, and to increse yields, hop-farmers typically spray their crops with fungicides and pesticides up to a dozen times a year.
This heavy use of harmful chemicals is seldom damaging to drinkers' health. Strict controls ensure that any residue on the hops themselves has been absorbed or neutralized by the time the hops are picked. After picking the hops are often boiled and transformed into pellets before coming into contact with the brew. The more serious issue is that the insecticides not only kill the aphids and red spiders which they target, but other nearby insect life as well - and through the food chain, this affects birds and other wildlife in the neighbourhood too
Organic hops need more care in growing, and the fungicides that guard against mildew are more expensive. But the hops are claimed to have a richer taste, and to contain more of the bacteria that keep the beer fresh for longer. That is a matter of opinion, but the benefit to the environment is a matter of fact!
The average Swiss uses 162 litres of drinking water a day, and pours 48 litres of it down the loo, 32 litres down the plughole beneath the shower and 30 litres through the washing machine. But each of us also puts four litres of drinking water a day on the garden.
If we garden sensibly, we will be growing plants that thrive in the Swiss climate, and which have thriven for hundreds of years without addtional water. Admittedly, our gardens are an artificial environment, without the shade, the humus and the natural fertility that plants need, so a little extra watering is needed. preferably from a can with a fine spray head, preferably with rainwater collected in a butt, so that we know how much we are giving them. Too much watering cuts off the oxygen supply a plant's roots need. It can also lead to yellow, droopy leaves, to leaf burn, or it can encourage the growth of fungi that attack the roots. A couple of watering cansfull daily should be adequate for a typical garden.
Everything has its place, but sometimes a doctor will prescribe medicines which are not needed. Manufacturers try to produce an optimum range of dose sizes and packaging quantiies, but we can end up with a fw pills or capsules left over.
It is senseless to keep these "just in case". Unless we have a relevant degree, we don't know what "the case" is. And although the "use by" dates can sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt, pills lose their efficacity after a time. It is even more senseless to throw these away. Under no circumstances should they go down the drain - they will just poison the fish in the Rhine. In the household waste, they will go to landfill, and will take so long to break down that their active ingredients will leach into the soil, with the same long-term risk to nature.
Your pharmacist or apothecary has systems in place for disposing of used medicines and their packaging in a manner that may not be ecologically perfect, but which is at least sounder than just sending it to landfill. And it's their job to do this - so make use of this facility.
Despite best efforts, grapes get mushy, garlic may sprout in the fridge, and sometimes when you cut into what you think is going to be the perfect avocado, it's gone soft. But for every vegetable or fruit there is a second chance. Composting should be the last resort!
Broccoli stalks are still broccoli. Brown bananas are still bananas. There are many recipes for leftover food - including one compilation (Refresh - Love your leftovers) from the Environmental Team of St Nicholas, Basle.
Brown bananas can be baked or transflrmed into smoothies. Bruised apples make good apple sauce. Unripe or over-ripe tomatoes are delicious baked. Roast broccoli stalks make excellent pesto. Recipes for strawberry honey butter or roasted grapes with herbs or home-made vegetable stock can save many items of produce from the compost bin. Why not experiment?
We all know that chilled or frozen food lasts longer. Much frozen food is significantly fresher than "fresh" food from the fruit or fish counter. Frozen peas, cod, soft fruit are typically frozen within minutes, almost before the taste and the vitamins have started to break down. The moment you leave the air-conditioned store - indeed, the moment you take the pack out of the shop's freezer or refrigerator, the bacteria start multiplying, the enzymes start breaking down, the decay begins to accelerate.
Counter this by taking a cool bag to pack your cold shopping- The cooler it is, and the sooner it reaches your fridge or freezer (or stomach!) the better.
Refrigerators are among the biggest energy consumers in every household. Apart from obvious things like not putting hot things in the fridge if they can be cooled to room temperature naturally, the easiest way of saving energy is by not opening the fridge door.
This is obviously not practicable, so we should try to minimize the amount of heat that is lost when we open the door. Vegetables, meat and other foods consist mainly of water, and water retains cold much better than air. If you think of the cold air in the refrigerator as all falling out when you open the door and needing to be replaced, then clearly a lot less air calls out of the fridge when it is full, and far less needs to be cooled when you close the door again. So a well-stocked refrigerator saves you money - as long as you eat the contents by their use.by date!
You'll be surprised at what you can recycle... ...and by what you can't. Some councils collect bottle corks. Some don't. Some accept cooked food and bones as compost. Others don't. Most councils accept window envelopes as waste paper, but some set a limit on the ratio of cellophane to paper. Others decline to accept corrugated cardboard, photographic paper or the covers of hardback books.
Anyone who has been inside a modern glass recycling centre knows the trouble it takes to separate plastics, steel, aluminium caps, paper labels and glass contaminated with lead from the recyclable stuff. Think ahead. If we all planned our recycling in advance, the world would be a happier place.
If the drum of your washing machine is packed full, the water cannot circulate freely around your washing. This means that the detergent cannot penetrate it efficiently and the dirt will not get rinsed out properly. It also means that traces of detergent will remain on the washing after you take it out. These could potentially irritate your skin.
A good rule of thumb is that if you cannot reach through the washing and touch the back of the rotating cylinder, the drum is too full.
Worn out clothes can happily be tied or bagged up and put in the bins around the city devoted to Texaid and other clothing charities. It is a mistake to think that these charities are only looking for garments in good condition that can be sold on or given to the poor. According to Texaid, 65% of the stuff in their bins is still usable (compared with a European average of 45%), but of the remainder 15% can be made into dusters and the like, 15% can be recycled into other forms of fabric, and 5% can be burnt.
Even old shoes, which Swiss Recycling tell us belong in the general waste bin, can be taken to shops like Vögele or Bingo, who will give you a one-franc voucher for each pair of worn-out shoes or slippers you bring them. (The shoes are shredded and used to make padding for new soles. Everything has a use!)
After our pot-luck lunches, our book-sale catering, our seminars and one-off events, we often have food left over. We do not waste it, but give it away, and try to package it sensibly. We have plenty of reusable plastic containers for this - what many of us call "Tupperware". To ensure that we still have a supply of containers in the future, do please bring us your unneeded Tupperware boxes - resealable plastic containers . so that we can continue to save food and to save the environment on your behalf. Thank you!
Very few people use cloth napkins nowadays. They find caring for them too labour intensive, and even with careful washing, ironing, storage and laying out, they require more attention than cheap paper napkins.
Many of us make a "lifestyle choice" and go for expensive paper napkins. The extra money usually buys us a prettier pattern or a larger size. We expect our napkins to be absorbent and waterproof at the same time for them to do their job.After they have been used, we throw them away - often even if they are untouched by drip or crumb! In fact, they have good service left in them - they can still wipe, clean and absorb food waste and dirt in the kitchen - and often better than a kitchen town. So why not use them for mopping up the kitchen after a meal? This will save money and save resources.
This is not another "meat is bad for you, bad for the environment, bad for the economy, just plain bad" rant. But common sense tells us that a varied diet is healthy, and that our digestive system works better with the addition of the fibre, the vitamins and the trace elements which vegetables provide.
If vegetables really were so marvellous, everyone would be eating them. But one problem is that a life eating nothing but carrots, potatoes and chickpeas would be intensely boring. But there is a solution. Vegetarian restaurants have long had a reputation for crankiness - indeed London's most significant vegetarian restaurant of the 1960s named itself Crank's. But their chefs have been pioneers in producing food that tastes and looks enticingly good, and their coockey books have been treasure chests of exciting eating.
so hunt down some ideas and try them out. With luck, they will change your outlook on vegetables. For eating a balanced diet should not be a duty but a delight.
90% of the electricity used by a steam iron goes to heating the water to make steam. Many materials iron perfectly well without steam, especially if they are only lightly creased. In other cases, it is easy to sprinkle a little water on the fabric - this has almost the same effect.
Better by far is to iron your things when they are still a little damp. This kills two birds with one stone. Your iron does not have to produce steam, and ironing will help to dry your things, as well as improve their appearance.
Still not convinced? Then check whether your iron has an economy mode, and use that.
This tip was provided before the Covid-19 crisis, which has restricted our social contacts and reduced the need for make-up (unless we see ourselves as film stars when we conduct our Zoom conferences!). And it is not meant to remind you of the recommendation in 1 Peter 3 that we should not adorn the outsides of our bodies but "the hidden person of the heart", or Isaiah's warning that the Lord will come and whisk away our finery, laying us bare.
Make-up has many uses, but does not need to be made of rare, scarce or exotic ingredients. Reducing the amount we apply puts less pressure on the supply of these, and may even improve our health and our appearance (At two metres social distancing, or over the internet, nobody will notice our scent!)
In the developed world, we are scarcely short of nutrients. Bran is one of the layers of the kernel of wheat, barley and other grains. It is low in fat, and is usually stripped away during the milling process. Yet it is rich in minerals, and especially in fibre. It is also a source of protein and carbohydrates.
Fibre is important to our digestive system, and by eating it we feel full faster, which helps prevent overeating. All in all, a good thing!
Magazines catering to the personal beauty market occasionally extol the virtues of shampoo bars. They are said to irritate the scalp less, to be more effective at cleaning and restoring hair, and to be cheaper in the long term. They are easier to use in the shower, especially if you do not rub them directly on your hair. They are bio-degradable, and good to use on children's hair.
Must of this is advertising puffery commending different brands. There is nothing inherent in a shampoo bar that means it cannot contain damaging ingredients or that it hasn't been tested on animals - although the sort of people who make shampoo bars are also the sort of people who use natural ingredients and who do not test their products in unethical ways.
The chief ecological advantage of a shampoo bar is its packaging. Since it does not contain large amounts of liquid, it is easier to transport, and does not need to be sold in bottles - almost inevitably plastic ones. The smaller volume means lower use of resources for distribution, and more space saves in your bathroom and your holiday luggage.
And if you are obliged to be eco-unfriendly and fly, you can take them in your hand luggage without any limit!
Why, we hear you ask? Just think!
Every tube of toothpaste is made of unrecyclable plastic. The stuff in it is fairly harmless - the main ingregident is some sort of mild abrasive which will lift the plaque off our teeth without harming the enamel they are made from, and that is basically all we need, and what tooth-powder is. But the toothpaste manufactures add:
Dentists tell us to throw away our toothbrush when it gets soft, and this is usually after about three months. But the handle is usually made of plastic, and the result of throwing millions of toothbrushes away is an increased strain on the environment, for plastic takes hundreds of years to break down. Did you realize that every plastic toothbrush ever made still exists?
Bamboo plants grow quickly, are easy to cultivate and seldom need fertilizer or pesticides. Bamboo is biodegradable, and old toothbrushes also make handy props in the garden. The wood also has bactericidal qualities, and is kinder to your teeth, your hands and your bathroom.
If you want to go the whole hog and use biodegradable bristles as well as a biodegradable handle, then bear in mind that these are usually made of boar hair. This is seldom processed in an animal-friendly manner, and the bristles tend to be so hard that they damage your tooth enamel and lead to receding gums. Better progress one step at a time, while more research goes into the bristles that do the real work (bristles infused with activated charcoal are the current fashion!)
One of today's scandals is food waste. We read in our newspapers how farmers, supermarkets and restaurants throw tons of good food away because it is the wrong shape, or because it hasn't been sold quickly enough, or because fashions in food have changed. Do you do the same?
"Well," you may say, "but it's on a much smaller scale." But when your neighbour and your neighbour's neighbour are all doing the same, the scale starts to get larger.
It makes sense to cook only what we need to eat. There is nothing wrong with cooking double the quantity with the intention of making it last two days - this can save energy and time. But if there is a little left over, do not throw it away. It may look unappetizing, but there are recipe books that suggest ways of transforming our leftovers - either in a simple way, but adding a curry sauce or a new ingredient, or by making a whole new meal.
Our friends in the Anglican Church in Basle have produced a leftover cookbook, Refresh - Love your leftovers as part of their own eco-church project. Why not ask your contacts in Basle to get you a copy?
The washing powder industry has always sought to produce the perfect detergent, that cleans whiter than white (or brighter than bright for coloureds - or even blacker than black!) At the same time, white fabrics, especially those which are artificial, have a natural tendency to turn yellow with age. The easiest way to counteract this is to add a dye to the detergent which reflects ultra-violet light and makes the fabric appear whiter than it is. This process has been known for centuries, and was known as bluing.
There is some evidence (but not much) that modern brighteners can cause skin irritation in a very small percentage of humans. It has also been claimed that they cause genetic mutations in fish and plants. The only thing that is certain is that these brighteners are not biodegradable. Bacteria cannot break them down, and their concentration in the environment gradually grows. The same applies to fabric conditioners.
For safety's sake, use an eco-friendly detergent that has no whitener. Bleaching fabrics actually changes them from yellow to white, rather than hiding the yellow with an optical illusion. Some artificial bleaches are also dangerous to wildlife. Sunlight, lemon juice, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide are relatively safe. Household bleach ("Javel water", sodium hypochlorite) is poisonous and corrosive and definitely unsafe.
To sum up, know what chemicals you are using, and find out what they do!
Aerosols mean different things to scientists and lay people. To a scientist, an aerosol is any kind of airborne particle - soot for example. To us lay folk, an aerosol is a kind of spray can.
There cans are a notorious danger, both to our climate and to our health. The propellants in them used to include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which damaged the ozone layer. Now the principal danger is of inhaling chemicals from the aerosols that can cause allergic skin reactions, asthma and breathing difficulties. This can partly be averted by using deodorant in non-pressurized cans, where the spray is produced by squeezing a rubber bulb, and consists of air.
But part of the problem is inhaling the droplets. Most people will use deodorants in a bathroom or bedroom with the doors and windows closed. Adolescent boys are particularly prone to overuse deodorants. In extreme cases this can be fatal - if oxygen is not being breathed in and something else is inhaled such as chemicals then suffocation can occur.
A better solution is to use a roll-on deodorant, preferably of natural ingredients, preferably without the use of pore-clogging aluminium. The human body can tolerate a wide range of chemicals, but there are limits.
This sounds like a counter-intuitive tip. How can transporting wine from the southern hemisphere half way round the world to Switzerland make sense? In fact, the transport is only a fraction of the question. Wine from South Africa comes by ship, and sea freight is one of the eco-friendliest ways of mass conveyance there is.
Add to this that over 95% of South African wine is produced sustainably, with stringent restrictions on the use of herbicides and pesticides, and the national quality control programme, and it is clear that South African wine cannot be ruled out on ecological grounds. (And there are social benefits to the local economy there, too - although this applies just as much to France, California or the Canton de Vaud!)
So the advice is, not necessarily to buy, but to consider buying wine from South Africa - or anywhere else where it is produced sustainably. The real question to ask is - does it taste good?
Sanitation is an essential part of modern civilization, and the water closet is an essential part of modern sanitation. Local design and local culture have produced an amazing variety of designs of WC pedestal, from the basic Mediterranean squat to the hi-tech Japanese automaton, but nearly all of them work on the same principle as the latrines built at Pompeii two thousand years ago. A flow of water carries away the waste.
The waste can be a source of infection, as well as of unpleasant smells and other inconveniences. Some is worse than others - indeed in principle urine is sterile. There are normally fewer bacteria in it than in tap water. (But there are still bacteria, and it is a good nutrient where germs can multiply!). In the last century, it was normal, each time one went to the toilet. to flush it with some 25 litres of water.
The water had come from the mains supply, had been processed and filtered, and was essentially drinking water. If a family of four each used the loo five times a day, that was 500 litres of good drinking water that had to be provided, and 500 litres that had to be disposed of via the sewage system.
In countries where water is scarce, they developed techniques for limiting this wastefulness, from homely rhymes suggesting circumstances where flushing was not always necessary, to dual-flush and composting toilets. With modern design, it should be possible to flush using only five litres of water, often less - where local regulations allow it, virtually none at all. Think about it - and think of the saving on your water bill!
You may wonder why this is an eco-tip. But storing foodstuffs sensibly can save a lot of energy and a lost of money - and potentially a lot of food, too. It is all too easy to slip into the habit of throwing everything into the refrigerator in the belief that this will make it last longer.
The lower temperatures in a refrigerator slow the growth of bacteria that cause decay. They also slow the natural ripening process. This can be a problem, as ripeness and flavour go hand in hand. Tomatoes, for example, lose flavour and texture in the fridge, and turn mealy, mushy and less tasty. They also release gases that encourage other fruits to ripen prematurely. Potatoes, too, lose texture and flavour as the temperature inside your fridge is too low for their natural starches.
Apples decay very slowly (unless they are bruised), so can be safely kept for weeks in a cool place, below 10°. The refrigerator is cool enough, but too dry, and will gradually make them less crisp.
There is a useful guide at www.farmers almanac.com/foods-dont-refrigerate-20518.
Even if your laundry is filthy, smelly, and stained, more detergent isn't the answer. Look at your washing machine. If soapsuds remain the rinse cycle, your clothes aren't getting clean.
It is easy to assume that more means better. In fact, using too much detergent can lead to stains or residue on clothes, smells left behind in the washing machine, loads not draining properly, wetter clothes, increased wear and tear on the washing machine's pump and motor from the suds, and greater energy required to wash clothes as the machine adds extra rinses and pauses to break down excess suds.
Small local stains need small local treatment. Hard soap is ideal for this (or if you wish, regular detergent and the aid of a used toothbrush.
Indeed, try and avoid synthetic fabrics altogether. Give what you would buy yourself.
And if you are environmentally conscious, and realize that most of our old clothes end up in landfill, buy second-hand rather than new this Christmas. Shift the stigma and celebrate 'pre-loved' items.
Take the time to seek out quality and nearly new clothes, accessories and homeware. In turn, have a timely clear-out and donate your unwanted items in time for any pre-Christmas shoppers.
In Britain, it is reckoned that around one in ten homes and businesses has a leaky loo. A toilet leaking clean water from the cistern to the pan can waste up to 400 litres of water a day (that's five full bath tubs) and add tremendously to your water bills if left unfixed.
You may not even realize that your cistern is leaking. The definitive test is:
There are several possible causes for this - some of them easy to fix yourself, some needing professional assistance from a plumber. And dripping taps, showers and radiators can also be a source of leakage. Don't just say "Water here in Switzerland is abundant. We can afford it." Collecting, storing and purifying our water supply places a greater strain on the environment than we think!
Do not imagine that a satisfying holiday means flying off to some exotic destination and mopping up the sun on a foreign beach. Travel places a strain on the environment, especially if we take the car or go by air. And the further away the go, the greater the strain.
Switzerland has a great diversity of holiday destinations, offering scenery, tradition, comfort, relaxation, activity, different cultures, different cuisines. Whether a cycling tour of the Emmental or a stay in a luxury hotel in St Moritz, a week's hutting in the Glarus Alps or a tour of the stately homes surrounding Lake Geneva, there is something for everyone. Give it a try!
Have you ever noticed the mounds of plastic ribbons that go into the waste bin on Christmas Day? Or wondered just how they make wrapping paper so shiny and colorful, who made it, and where? (Hint: Asia.)
As you might suspect, much of this glossy stuff isn't recyclable - the bright and metallic papers contain plastics, and need to go into the general waste. Most communes won't accept wrapping paper of any kind, and tissue paper is often already made from recycled content, meaning it can't be recycled again.
Gift wrapping is an art-form, and almost part of the present itself. It gives us the challenge of making it look sophisticated, neat, and pretty, without the waste, exploitation, and environmental impact. Why not exercise your creativity? And for next year, lay in a stock of reusable ribbon, recycled glossy pictures, and old scraps of cloth? If you don't use them for your Christmas presents, the patchwork group would love to hear from you!
Until recently, it made good economic sense to buy vegetables loose, because they were cheaper that way. In many countries, this is no longer always true. Supermarkets try to justify this with the claim that loose vegetables are harder to store, need more attention from staff, and are a source of waste. They also point out that allowing people to feel vegetables and fruit is unhygienic and can spread disease. Packaging also allows stores to show the processing and sell-by dates for their produce, which can be quite revealing!
From an ecological point of view, the main complaint about packed vegetables is not so much the large amount of packaging material used unnecessarily - although this is a factor - especially since most of the packaging is one-way, non-reusable and non-recyclable.
The main complaint is the waste caused by not being able to buy the quantity that one needs. If a recipe calls for 300 grammes of carrots, there is no reason to buy a whole kilo just because that is the way they are packaged. If we are looking for a piece of broccoli of just the right size, why should we put up with some plant of a more uniform size chosen simply because it will fit into a certain weight of packaging? And often fresh fruit tastes better - especially at the farmers' market!
WiFi has become part of modern life. But it is a mixed blessing. We know that high doses of electromagnetic radiation can affect living tissue - that is what we use our microwave ovens for. And radio waves in high doses can be damaging. However, the very low doses emitted by our mobile phones are a subject of debate. There is no proven link between WiFi activity or mobile phone usage and any damage to living things. But then for many years, nobody could definitely prove a causal link between smoking and cancer, or lead piping and illness.
Some people are certainly susceptible to radio-frequency radiation - it may cause headaches or disturb their sleep. There is certainly a lot more of it around than there was fifty years ago - but then the world has moved on (some may say progressed) in the last fifty years. For our health's sake, it makes sense to keep this "electrosmog" to a minimum.
Another practical problem is the security risk of keeping one's WiFi on all time. It is very unlikely that criminals will try to hack into your home network, but in theory they could get access to valuable data, and giving them extra time to experiment with passwords and codes flying around the network is not a good idea. Other people believe that turning off your router at night extends its lifespan- probably untrue.
There is one certain ecological advantage: turning WiFi off when you are not using it saves electricity. After all, when you are not using it, why keep it on? We use up to Fr50-worth of electricity a year keeping our WiFi on, and most of the time it is never used. If you have no essential devices relying on your WiFi, try installing a time switch to cut off the current to your router. And if you have essential devices, like a smart refrigerator, think about whether they need to remain connected through the night. Fr50 is a lot of money (and a lot more, multiplied by every household in Switzerland)!
The environment has a lower priority among donors than many other concerns. such as medical research, religious charities and those devoted to children and young people. These last three areas receive almost half of charitable giving in the U.K.
This is only right. There is a tremendous public conscience about poverty, but there is no corresponding conscience about the environment. The situation is changing, as people become more aware of the dangers of climate change, but it is changing slowly. The sheer scale of environmental concerns is also off-putting to potential donors. >p>Clearly there are high-profile charities, locally, like Pro Natura, or internationally, like the Worldwide Fund for Wildlife (WWF) or the Friends of the Earth - and even activist organizations (not necessarily classed as charities), like Greenpeace, which target environmental issues. But if we gave to the Krebsliga, to UNICEF or to Tear Fund, we need to be sure that they too are looking after the environment, working sustainably and ensuring that the world their beneficiaries inherit is a better one.
These are big questions, and ones that can be answered better on our member Dominic Roser's site Effective Altruism.
A lot of energy is wasted by misusing our radiators. Turning the thermostat down does not instantly lower the temperature in a room. And if a room feels cold, turning the thermostat up will not instantly make it warmer. A thermostat has no control over how quickly your room heats up. It merely sets the final temperature, so that the heating is fully on until that temperature is reached. At that point, the thermostat turns the heating off.
Wearing an extra layer of clothes (especially woolly ones!) can increase the temperature you feel by up to 3 degrees. In addition, research has shown that lowering the average temperature in your home by 1 degree can save up to 10% on your heating bills. In other words, wearing a pullover allows you to set your thermostat at a lower temperature and can save you a lot of money on your annual heating bill - as well as being good for the environment.
Real plants are lasting gifts. A bouquet may look wonderful on the day it is given but it will only last a few days. It is dead. It has no roots.
A potted flower, on the other hand, is a living bouquet. It will last for weeks. It is alive, and living plants grow, eat, and breathe. Its flowers will deliver long-lasting charm and remind your recipient of you for longer. Pot plants are easy to keep alive and vibrant - and all they need is water and light.
Two-thirds of cut flowers are grown in South America and Africa, and jetted to flower shops around the world - often under refrigeration.
Living plants naturally remove carbon dioxide and produce oxygen during the day. Many pot plants attract bees that pollinate vegetables and fruit. When you water a living plant, the water is supporting plant growth; a vase of water for a bouquet is only slightly extending the time until the flowers wither and fade.
Why not turn off the lights and dine by candlelight? It's a great way to set the mood, and at the same time to reduce the amount of electricity you use. For a whole range of reasons, practical and psychological, food can often taste better if we use our other senses to appreciate it.
Candles can themselves be a source of soot and unhealthy fumes. Buy candles made of organic beeswax, of soy, or from other natural materials to make sure they burn cleanly.
In most parts of the world, this instruction would be obvious, and it would be unnatural to use an electric drying machine. Line drying makes sense. It saves money - a line and pegs cost little, wooden or metal drying racks are not expensive, while electric dryers normally account for about 6% of the average household's bill. It saves your clothes, since tumbler-dryers all weaken fabrics. It saves harmful chemicals, especially if you hang clothes in the sunlight, which has a natural bleaching and anti-static effect.
Even at temperatures below freezing, clothes will dry, though if they develop a layer of frost, you may need to turn them round to evaporate the ice!
The package holiday industry of the 1960s led to the availability of cheap charter flights, and in the 80s and 90s, deregulation in the States and in Europe ushered in the age of the no-frills airline, the low-cost carrier. Today it is possible to fly from Basel to Manchester, Geneva to Lisbon or Zurich to Berlin for less than the cost of the train fare from Berne to the airport.
The airlines who offer these flights do not make a loss on them, but the environment does. Taking off and landing are the most wasteful periods of a flight. 100 grams of kerosene per kilometer for each passenger carried may not seem much, but it is a lot. A 217 km flight from Zurich to Milan generates 104 kg of CO2 for each passenger carried, while the equivalent train journey produces only 3 kg. And aircraft release other dangerous substances into the air, which break down the protective ozone layer that saves us from ultra-violet radiation - nitrogen oxides, ozone, water vapour, soot and sulphur compounds.
And as anyone who has experienced Malpensa airport can tell, airports are in the middle of nowhere, while the train takes you to within walking distance of the Duomo, La Scala and the shops!
More than 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging are produced worldwide every year. The industry is worth nearly $198 billion. Just a fraction of that is recycled while the vast majority is thrown away. Plastic litter now clutters every part of our planet, from remote parts of the Antarctic to the deepest ocean trenches.
Over 60 countries have introduced laws aimed at reducing the use of single-use bags. Many multinationals have pledged to make sure all their packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Plastics are not inherently bad. It is single-use plastics which are potentially harmful if they cannot be sensibly recycled. So supermarkets at changing from plastic trays to wooden or paper ones, and from plastic film to cellulose, which is made from wood.
We can help in this when we pack our own food, for storage, for picnics, for school meals, for snacks. Containers should be washable and reusable. Plastic is a good option for this, sturdier than glass and chemically more neutral than metal. But not to be used once and then thrown away! >p>And when it comes to throwing them away because they have become deformed, or unhygienic, or otherwise unusable, then dispose of them sensibly - which means the plastic they are made from should itself be recyclable - look for the triangular recycling sign.
Microplastics are small particles of plastic less than 5mm in length and often thinner than a hair. They are a big problem for fish and other marine life. According to the International Institute of Sustainable Development, a significant amount of the microplastic concentration in our oceans comes from laundry wastewater, presumably from loads containing synthetic fabrics, such as polyester and nylon, and artificial fleece.
It has been estimated that 1900 individual fibres can be rinsed off one synthetic garment in a single wash.
To cut down on your microplastic impact, consider purchasing a wash bag that can acts as a filter and capture these fibres in the wash. Alternatively, educate yourself on the types of fabrics that typically contain microplastics and adjust your purchasing habits accordingly.
Every car has an ideal speed at which fuel consumption is lowest - often somewhere in the region of 80 km/h. Driving above this speed increases fuel use dramatically, while it has a minimal effect on the time the journey takes. A 30 km journey takes 22½ minutes at 80 km/h, 18 minutes at 100 km/h, or 15 minutes at an illegal 120 km/h, but the faster speeds use 12% or 30% more fuel. Is the trivial saving really worth it?
With petrol-driven and hybrid cars, fuel consumption is not exactly the same as air pollution. Aggressive driving, with frequent acceleration, deceleration and braking leads to higher fuel consumption, but also to inefficient combustion of the fuel, resulting in an even higher production of carbon dioxide and particulates.
A lot of research has gone into evaluating various traffic calming techniques. such as traffic circles, stop signs, reduced speed limits, synchronized traffic lights, speed humps or width restrictions. Sometimes these do not work because they trigger aggressive acceleration, or cause traffic tail-backs.
Perhaps the guideline should be to drive not more slowly but more calmly.
Your washing machine was designed to wash a particular weight of laundry, and the amount of water it uses and the time it spends on each part of its cycle are fixed. If you put a smaller quantity of washing in the machine you may use a smaller quantity of detergent but the machine will add the regular quantity of water, which just means that the detergent will be more dilute.
And by the way, is your washing really necessary? Many articles we wash are not really dirty. Small patches of dirt can be cleaned with a hard soapstone. And a lot of what we think of as dirt is simply sweat, which can be rinsed out easily with warm slightly soapy water and does not need a full wash cycle.
There tips will return to the question of detergents later, for they can sometimes contain artificial perfumes which are toxic to wildlife, and brighteners which can act as irritants!
The food we eat accounts for about a sixth of all carbon emissions worldwide, so clearly changing the foods that we eat can have a big impact on our carbon footprint. It may also have a beneficial impact on our purse.
Counting all the emissions produced in the farm, on the way, in the shop and in the home, meat, cheese and eggs have the biggest carbon footprint. It is estimated that a kilogram of lamb gives rise to 39.2 kilograms of CO2 emission - the same as driving a petrol-driven family car for 150 kilometres. Beef is two-thirds as wasteful, pork one third, as is cheese. The humble chicken accounts for seven times its own weight in carbon dioxide, and even a 50-gramme egg generates 240 grammes of CO2 by the time we eat it.
Green plants, by their nature, take carbon out of the air, but even then, transport and processing costs reduce their efficiency. Think before you eat.
There is an informative calculator here.
Most of us have remote-controlled devices which leap into action when we press a button on the controller, or other devices which come on instantly without the inconvenience of waiting for them to warm up.
This convenience comes at a price. The standby button ⏻ does not always turn a device off. Indeed standby buttons on many appliances use up to 90% of their normal power in standby mode.
If you have a smart meter, you can see how much power they use. Figures show that 8% of the total electricity used in our homes comes from appliances left on standby.
In Britain, this is the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year, and adds up to £740m a year of wasted electricity. Wasted energy from appliances left on standby is also responsible for 4m tonnes of excess carbon dioxide each year.
The biggest culprits are stereo sound systems. In Britain, these waste £290m worth of energy and 1.6m tonnes of CO2 a year when left on standby. VCRs waste the second biggest amount of energy, followed by TVs, games consoles, phone chargers, computer monitors, DVD players and set-top boxes.
Research found that 75% of us habitually waste high levels of energy on a daily basis by leaving appliances on permanent standby and leaving chargeable appliances plugged in, with up to 12 different gadgets left on standby or charging at home at any one time. And one in seven (16%) of us wrongly believes that turning appliances off uses more energy than leaving them on standby.
The EU plans to limit the standby power consumption of set-top boxes and television sets, and has called for them to be fitted with special devices to switch off standby power.
Manufacturers are finding ways to be greener, but if you are finding it hard to get into the habit of switching off appliances properly, there are a number of gadgets on the market now which will do it for you.
These include energy-saving mains controllers which automatically switch off TV and PC peripherals (printers, monitors etc.) when you turn off the machine.
Why not turn off your devices at the switch, rather than leaving them on standby?
Driving our car, heating our house, flying here and there, using goods from the supermarket, packaging goods, reading this on our computer monitor, all involve the creation of carbon dioxide, CO2. And if we create more carbon dioxide than the world can absorb, this creates a cloak of gas which contributes to global warming and climate change.
Many companies nowadays offer an opportunity to contribute money to offset this imbalance - by paying something extra for our airline ticket, for our package cruise, for our new car, for our car hire. And the government also collects money - the CO2-Abgabe, or Taxe sur le CO2, when we buy oil or gas from fossil sources.
Our eco-page offers you an opportunity to measure your own carbon emissions - and to compensate for them. There are different ways of doing this. For example, we can plant trees which will take the carbon dioxide out of the air. We can encourage more efficient farming, or the more efficient use of energy (as in the federal Buildings Programme). The important thing is to ensure we are playing our part in bringing the carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere into equilibrium. And to realize that when we offset our carbon emissions, we cannot just pay the money and continue to pollute the atmosphere as we did before!
Many devices in our homes today use low-voltage circuits, either because low voltages are safer than the 230 volts that come out of the sockets in our walls, or because most electronic devices work with tensions between one and six volts. Many of these use batteries, and to save the expense of constantly replacing these, the batteries are charged - your phone will come with a charger, your laptop with a power-pack. These chargers and power-packs obviously consume power when the batteries are charging, or when the device is plugged in. But what when it is not?
In fact, your charger continues to use electricity. The amount consumed is very small. It is limited by EU regulations to no more than 0.5 watts, and in practice phone chargers only consume about a quarter of a watt, so would need to be plugged in for about seven months to consume a single unit of electricity. But every little counts. You may have other things too that require charging - your robot vacuum cleaner charger uses more than half a watt, because it is also sending out a radio signal to help the cleaner find it.
These are trivial amounts, but they all add up. Unplugging your charger will help you reflect on the numerous small things which have only a small effect on their own, but cumulatively mean we need to generate more electricity without any productive benefit. So think before you take your phone away but leave the charger plugged in!
Dentists would like us to brush our teeth after getting up in the morning, after every meal. and for five minutes before going to bed. Too often, we just turn the tap on and do not turn it off again until we have finished brushing. The US Environmental Protection Agency claims that this can waste up to 30 litres of water a day, depending on how hard we turn the tap on, whether we use an aerator or a pressure limiter to reduce the flow, and how long we brush for.
By turning the tap on only to rinse our toothbrush, the amount of water we use is cut by up to 95%. Water does not mysteriously come from nowhere, and storing and purifying it uses valuable resources. Anything we can do to reduce our demand for tap water helps to make our world more sustainable.
And the same thing works with shaving too.
Many household remedies do not really work. A recent study in the UK consumer magazine Which looked at some "old wives" stories, and dispelled some myths. White wine and salt will not effectively remove red wine stains. Soap and water will. Denture tables will not clean your WC bowl.
But vinegar will remove limescale - often better than shop-bought proprietary products. Vinegar, too, is usually half the price of a dedicated limescale remover. Where vinegar falls behind is in its ability to remove the dried soap deposits found in bathrooms. Vinegar also has a lingering smell, which many find unpleasant.
A natural alternative is lemon juice (lime juice is even better). In fact, any acid will get rid of limescale, and the best limescale removers are the ones that use the least energy to produce and which leave the fewest harmful products (phosphates in particular) to flush into the public sewer.
You can buy eco-friendly products to remove scale. Most of these are plant based (usually containing citric acid), and are packaged in environmentally-friendly ways. But better still to stop limescale building up at all, by wiping up splashes of water before they dry!
If you lead even a moderately clean life, the water and energy that you use, and the substances that go down your drain really add up. Modern detergents and modern washing machines are far more sophisticated than the primitive days of boiling cotton and linen with washing soda in a wash-boiler. In particular, they are designed to work at lower temperatures, and to produce waste which is biodegradable - if you use the right detergent and follow the instructions.
So check the temperature your detergent works at. It is not true that clothes washed at 40° come out cleaner than clothes washed at 30°. It is not true that clothes washed for two hours come out cleaner than clothes washed for one hour - there is an optimum time after which they are as clean as they can ever become with that detergent. It is not true that using twice the recommended amount of detergent will make your clothes twice as clean - indeed, the increased amount of foam may well leave them less clean. It is not true that washing powders and liquids which are organically-based or free of phosphates clean less efficiently than their more aggressive shelf-companions.
Washing at 30°: uses about 40% as much energy as washing at 40°. Yes, less than half! Your detergent packaging will tell you how much to use and what temperature to use it at - read what it says, and keep to it. This will benefit not only the environment but your purse.
It makes sense to position work desks near windows and to use natural light as much as possible, but to have your monitor and TV screens as far as possible in shadow. The same goes for kitchens - you need good light to prepare food, and good light to ensure crockery, cutlery and utensils are clean.
And in summer, ventilate as much as possible during the night, and keep your windows tightly shut during the day. In winter, air your house briefly in the middle of the day and at other times keep your windows shut. If you have shutters, use them during the summer to control heat, remembering that they are more efficient than curtains (which trap heat between window and curtain, and then slowly let it into the room).
We all know the caricature of the shopper who drives miles to a distant supermarket to save fewer rappen than the additional fuel cost. The big supermarkets are often cheaper than the local corner shop (but not always!), but they are usually easy to reach by public transport. If you shop there, it often makes sense to buy as much as possible - though not so much that it needs to be expensively frozen or if it risks going to waste before it gets used.
A comfortable trolley with large wheels and an adequate handle makes it easy to carry your shopping, and dispenses with the need to pack items into a car and out again. Try it out!
Good lighting is important for health, and also for safety. But switching off lights when you go out of a room, or making intelligent use of reading and spot lights, can help save energy, and potentially also reduce light pollution in the environment.
Some years ago, folk wisdom said that switching bulbs off and then on again shortened their life. This was true with compact fluorescent lights, where a rule of thumb said that if one was out of a room for less than 15 minutes it was cheaper to leave the bulb alight. But with modern LEDs this is not the case - and in any case, their life is much, much longer than the older type of fluorescent energy-saving bulbs.
Some 10% of the average household's electricity bill goes towards keeping your rooms lit, so the saving in terms of money is worth it too.
One related problem is that nowhere in Switzerland is really dark at night. The Gurnigel area in this canton is said to be one of the darkest places for astronomy. The Gornergrat, above Zermatt, is also very dark, but even there they have problems with the light coming from Milan, even above the high Alps. Really, unless you need to read or look closely at something, the less light the better!
Someone has calculated that shops around the world give away 160,000 plastic bags every second to customers. and less than 1% of these get recycled. All the rest end up in landfill or in rivers and in the sea. The life of a disposable grocery bag is said to be twelve minutes.
Obviously reusable grocery bags also cost energy to produce. A British survey found that paper bags caused three times as much global warming in their production than standard thin plastic bags. Thicker HDPE bags cost four times as much energy to produce, and "reusable" polypropylene bags cost eleven times. Cotton bags caused 131 times as much global warming, but in return would last several hundreds of uses.
A 2018 Danish study looked at all the environmental factors involved, not only at the warming effect, and reached an overall figure of the number of times a bag should be reused before being used as a bin liner and then discarded. It found that:
Even if it is possible to make single-use bags which are recyclable, it is normally easier and cheaper to use a bag again and again. For preference, a reusable bag should be light, sturdy, tear-resistant and easy to carry.
In Switzerland, each local authority has its own guidelines for garbage disposal and recycling. K%ouml;niz collects bottle corks, other communes don't. Berne accepts cooked meat and bones in its compost, other places reject them. Some areas provide containers for aluminium cans, some for all waste aluminium, some for mixed aluminium and steel, some for any kind of metal. There are different policies for recycling PET.
Read the guide your authority provides and find what to do when in doubt. Some guides are really helpful (can I put a window envelope into the paper collection? or an old blanket into the old clothes container?) - and in now, ask your Gemeindeverwaltung or your Administration Communale to do better!
If you are going to drink two cups of tea, it makes sense to measure two cup s of water into your kettle before heating it. There is no point in boiling water and then simply pouring it down the drain! The same goes for coffee, if you make it in a cafetière.
For cooking rice, in general, one cup of long-grain rice tastes best when it has absorbed 1¾ cups of water. For short-grain rice, use less water, and for brown rice, even less: the recommended proportion is 1¼ cups of water for 1 cup of brown rice. Experiment to see which is best for your own taste.
Note that it is best to use a fast-boiling kettle. In an open pan, water can lose up to an eighth of its volume to evaporation while it comes to the boil, and even in a closed kettle, some of it will be lost through the spout.
Paper towels were invented by the Scott Paper Company in 1907, perhaps to reuse another paper product. Individual paper towels went into mass production in 1922, and in 1931, rolls of paper towels were introduced for kitchen use.
In the USA, more than six million tons of paper towels are used each year, or 18 kilos – the equivalent of 80 rolls – per person per year. (That's one roll every four and a half days.)
This consumes a lot of resources, including 110 million trees per year, and 130 billion gallons of water, and well as the energy to manufacture and deliver it. After a single use, it goes to landfill, where it generates methane as it decomposes - a greenhouse gas.
To reduce the environmental impact of paper towels, use fewer. It will save you money. In toilets, where there is an electric hand dryer, use it. Here at St Ursula's, take just one towel instead of three or four. After each hand-wipe, shake it out flat to expose more dry surface and use it again!
At home, use reusable cloths. They work better than paper towels, they cost less and they're better for the environment. It may still make sense to keep a roll of paper towels around for limited uses like cleaning up blood or animal accidents, but for most everyday cleaning jobs, reusable cloths make sense.
There are many reasons to cook your vegetables just a little bit less, quite apart form the energy you will save. Several of the nutrients in vegetables, such as vitamin C, are water-soluble, and up to 35% of them will be lost if you boil them for a long time. The less time you boil them, and the less water you boil them in, the more nutritious they will be. For example, green beans will cook in four minutes if you only use enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.
Do not discard water used for boiling vegetables. You can retain the nutrients that seeped into the water by finding a way to consume it, such as making it the base of a soup or stew.
Microwaving (in an efficient microwave oven) is a quick and convenient way to cook vegetables in the absence of water and with a shorter exposure to heat. Stir-frying and roasting are other ways of cooking the vegetables in the absence of water. They also provide a crispy texture and a more interesting taste!
Spend some time working out how large your carbon footprint actually is. You may be surprised. And even better, take steps to offset it by paying for carbon-reducing measures. There's a calculator at the foot of this page.
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