How Can You Help The Environment?

Some of you may know I have a passion for the environment and doing my bit to help limit the impact of climate change. This is a passion / side hobby of mine, which I thought I would start writing about. Maybe this ‘blog’ / ‘article’ will inspire you to try one or two things that I will talk about…if everybody made a few small changes it would result in a big positive change for our beautiful planet.

The first topic I thought I could talk about is recycling and litter picking!

Up until a few years ago, I was never big in to recycling, but in a previous employment, we had no recycling facilities. This did concern me, as although I was not hard-core about recycling, I would ensure I was separating plastics, cardboard and bottles etc. Therefore; I ended up taking the recycling waste home and recycling the recyclables at home. My former colleagues used to call me a ‘womble’ as it would be quite common to see me walk to the car with my workbag and another bag full of empty tins, bottles, cardboard, plastics etc. I was also known to reprimand colleagues (including my boss) if they would put any recyclable items in the generic bin, rather than leaving for me to take home. It worked though and I made an impact as our cleaner mentioned just a few weeks later how much lighter the general waste bin was! Others in different offices took it further and encouraged their landlords to provide actual recycling facilities. So, if you are a property manager and don’t provide recycling facilities, maybe you could look into it? And if you are an employee and this isn’t offered, maybe you could challenge your managers to make a change!

I’ve taken this a bit further as well and regularly go litter picking around where I live. Apart from the fact it annoys me to see rubbish on the street, I worry if an animal were to eat the rubbish or become tangled in it, the impact on the poor animal (I’m also an animal lover). I often find if I am having a busy day and I feel ‘head fuzzy’, there is nothing better than taking 30 – 45 minutes to listen to music or a podcast (usually about conspiracy theories) and go litter picking. I tend to take one bag out with me and can usually fill this in my lunch break. Word of warning though - I am now on my fourth litter picker – if you do want to take up this hobby, invest in a decent litter picker (￡20 from eBay should do the job) as the cheap ones break easily. Some local authorities will provide you with the supplies if you do want to litter pick, so you can always check with them. There are also often local litter picking ‘groups’, so if you wanted to do this on a regular basis with a group of like-minded people, the groups are often easily found on social media. I don’t litter pick for fame or glory, but I can guarantee each time I go out someone will stop and talk to me and say thank you and start a conversation. People have even offered to join in with me as well! So as well as getting fresh air and exercise I get a warm glow from making a difference to my environment, however small (picture below from a recent haul).?

Please check in next week, where I will cover another topic!