The Classic – Reusable Drinking Bottle:

In Germany, 43 million non-reusable plastic bottles are used every day. (1) This means that everyone in Germany uses on average 192 plastic bottles per year. But there is a simple way to reduce this to only one plastic bottle: Using a reusable drinking bottle.

You can take it anywhere and as Germany has high quality tab water, you can simply refill it. Thus, you can even safe money, as tab water is usually free. There are many different types of reusable drinking bottles: Some made of plastic (make sure that they are BPA free as BPA can be harmful to one’s health), some made of glass, some made of steel. Every type has its pros and cons, so you should have a look at them and figure out what works best for you. For me, it was a reusable, BPA free plastic bottle, as it is light and cannot break.

A little side remark: You should never use single-use plastic bottles more than once, as potential toxic chemicals are seeping from many disposable plastic bottles when used more often or after contact with hot liquids. (2)

Fruit, vegetables and bread bags:

In many supermarkets, you’ll find these thin plastic bags in which you can pack your fruits and vegetables. For a long time now, I’ve tried to use them as little as possible, putting individual vegetables in my shopping cart without any bags. But it is nearly impossible not to use these plastic bags, when you are buying for example lots of small tomatoes or a lot of vegetables. An easy solution for this dilemma is to use bags made from cotton or tulle (so you can see what’s inside). Many come with a sewed in information about their weight, so it can be subtracted at the checkout. Another great way is to use them when you are buying rolls at the bakery or if you go to the weekly marked. There are many options to buy these bags e.g. on amazon, but it is also really easy to make them by yourself. If you google “diy fruit and vegetables bags” you can find many tutorials, e.g. this one. Now the only thing left is to to take the little bags with you. You could place them next to your shopping list or within the bag you usually use for shopping. As I usually go groceries shopping spontaneously after my classes, I simply keep one or two of those in the bag I take to uni.

Buying vegetables and bread with reusable cotton bags. (Photos: Katharina Funk)

Bee’s wrap:

Have you ever heard of Bee’s wrap? Bee’s wraps are cotton cloths covered with beeswax and jojoba oil, which makes them the perfect alternative to plastic wrap and tinfoil – and you can use them many times. You can wrap in you sandwich, pack a snack for the next lecture or cover a bowl in your fridge. To keep the wrap in place, you simply warm the beeswax with your hands and shape the wrap the way you like. If the Bee’s wrap gets dirty, just clean it with cold water. Easy, isn’t it? You can find the original store here but if you want to save money you can also make them yourself, check out e.g. this tutorial here.

Bee’s wrap. (Photos: Katharina Funk)

Silicone Baking Mat:

One thing I never liked about backing was that I had to use and throw away the baking paper every single time. Especially when you roast vegetables with oil – one of my favourite dishes. But then my flatmate came up with this incredible silicone baking mat. You simply use is as you would use baking paper and clean it afterwards. That’s it. One bonus: It is non-sticky, so you can remove everything very easily from it.

Different kinds of baking mats. (Photos: Katharina Funk)

Reusable Cotton pads:

When you need to remove make-up, it can easily happen that you’ll use 3-5 cotton pads per day (depending on the amount of make-up of course ?). One possibility to reduce waste here is to use reusable cotton pads or little sponges. You can wash these in your washing machine and they are as good as new. When I used sponges, I had to buy new ones every two month or so, and my (newly purchased) reusable cotton pads are said to be able to be used 100 times per piece. They came even with a little cotton bag in which you can store and wash them. I bought them at the shop where I bought my shampoo bars and my deodorant as well: Wolkenseifen.de. But you can get them from Amazon, too.

Shampoo bars:

I used to use shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, all of them neatly stored in plastic containers. This meant I would produce a lot of plastic waste during the year. To avoid this, I recently started to use shampoo bars. Shampoo bars look like common soap bars but are specifically produced to wash your hair with. Note that there is a difference between solid shampoo e.g. from lush, which you can use like any other shampoo, and shampoo bars. It takes a little time to adjust to shampoo bars, as the hair will go through a transition phase and it might be harder to untangle. To avoid this and to add shine you can also rinse your hair with apple vinegar afterwards (don’t wash it out though). Your hair will not smell like vinegar as soon as it is dry, but this might still not be for everyone. I seldom use the vinegar rinse as I don’t like the smell and use common conditioner instead. I still have to work something out there. Nevertheless, it is worth trying it out in order to avoid waste. Additionally, there are many benefits for your hair when you are using shampoo bars. Bloggers write about how much stronger their hair feels, that they have to wash it less often or how their dandruff has vanished. It is also quite easy to travel with shampoo bars: You simply cut off a small piece and put it in a little container. It is super small and handy if you don’t have a lot space in your luggage. You can order them at various online-shops (Wolkenseifen.de, Amazon…) but you can usually buy them in organic supermarktes, too. I’ve seen very recently that Cafe Freundenherz in Bayreuth offers shampoo bars as well.

Deodorant:

I was looking for a good, ecological deodorant for a long time. I felt that the natural deodorants I could buy in the drugstore where less effective than “normal” ones. So, I kept using the normal ones for a long time, until my flatmate let me try out her deodorant – might sound weird but it is not a roll-on as you will see. Coming in a little aluminium container it was a deodorant lotion, which you can simply apply with you finger just as any other lotion. When using enough (and you don’t need much) it was for me just as effective as any other deodorant. And it is free from aluminium salts and palm oil! (Read more about palm oil here.)Two little flaws: Until it is absorbed by the skin it looks white, but it won’t colour you clothing at all. And it “melts” if the temperature outside is too high. So you cannot use it when traveling in warm countries. It is a bit more expensive than common deodorants but keep in mind that one container will last for several months. We bought this deo at Wolkenseifen, a German natural cosmetics store.

How are you avoiding waste? Is there anything we could add to this article? Tell us in a comment!

The post How we avoid waste in our shared flat appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

What might sound like the introduction to a meditation guide or something similar, is actually what happens to me almost every time I go running. The reason I stop breathing (and running) is in the most cases very small. But also very destructive. It’s trash. Trash spilled on the floor, the plastic bag of some gummy bears thrown mindlessly into the meadow next to the trail, the empty carton of a juice in the shrubbery.

Every time, I stumble upon these thrown-away things while I am running, I get angry and sad. Angry because I can’t understand why people are not able to take their trash with them and throw it into the next bin – they carried it with them to the place where they left it, so what is the matter with carrying it back? Sad because I see out precious planet suffering from our human misbehaviour.

Some time ago, I told myself “That’s enough, we have to do something about it!”. The next time, I went running, out of instinct and without thinking, I just picked up the trash. It was only a small candy paper – but I felt so good about it. So, during the whole run, I picked up as much as I could. When I passed a trash bin, I just threw my waste collection in there. Quite easy, isn’t it?

Later, I found out, that I had actually followed a trend: Plogging is a movement coming from Sweden. It derives from the two words “plocka up” (Swedish for pick up) and “jogging”. It basically is a new term for a very simple sport which is combined with an environmental aspect: You go running and pick up the trash you can find around you. In cities all around the world, this activity has become a real trend: groups of people run together, take bags, shopping cart or even chairs as a means of transport in order to carry the trash they pick up.

Social Media helps the “ploggers” if they want to show their success or if they want to engage others: a quick video or a photo documenting their activity, uploaded to social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. This is not only meant to make people feel good about their engagement for the environment, but also as a means of environmental education. Of course, it would be better if nobody threw their trash away into nature – but to get to this point, more environmental education has to be done. Plogging seems like a playful way to do so.

When you are plogging, you will definitely have direct contact with trash. To hold the hygienic standard, it is therefore good to use gloves as you can avoid touching the waste with your bare skin. This way, you inhibit injuries from harmful waste such as wire or sharp items like aluminium cans – and also you don’t get in touch with smelly or nasty substances.

There are two positive aspects about plogging compared to normal running. First, due to bending down to reach trash, straightening when you start running again and the stop and go, it is more of an interval training than just endurance sports. Picking up trash while running is therefore an activity that keeps your body fit and benefits your health. Second, you do something good for the environment as you free it from poisoning trash – which is not only good for the plants but also you delete a source of harmful “food” for animals who might confuse the waste with something they can eat. So, it is actually a typical win-win-situation: your body wins, environment wins – what are you waiting for? Grab some paper or reusable bags, motivate your friends and do something good for yourself and the planet!

In Bayreuth, there is a free running group called “We Run BT” which has organized a plogging event in April – maybe they are interested in plogging frequently. You can contact them on their facebook page or on their website. In autumn, there is going to be a plogging event again. Of course, you can also just call your friends or go alone – there are no limits to plogging!

To not to choke in a giant mountain of waste and trash, we must change the way we consume. This article is the part of a series dealing with the chaotic and broad topic of waste. We want to give you different views on the topic and highlight ways how to reduce your personal waste generation. Find more articles here.

The post Plogging: A win-win situation for body and planet appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The trash cementary can be found in outdoor classroom of the waste-to-energy plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany (Gemeinschafts-Müllheizkraftwerk Ludwigshafen GmbH (GML)). Thanks to their environmental education concept, young people from kindergarten to senior grade can visit the GML and learn what happens with their trash, why it is important to separate waste and how it can be used to produce heat and energy. The concepts were developed by the University of Landau and adjusted to the different age groups: Kids from kindergarten learn the very basics of waste separation (how and why?), older children can study the operating principle of a steam engine. And one highlight is always the terrarium with living stick insects. Are they producing waste as well? What happens then? And who is brave enough to hold one?

Learning how to separate waste. (Photo: Katharina Funk)

During their day at the GML, the visitors get a tour through the plant and learn how the waste can still be used and what happens with the leftover slag. 200 000 tons of waste, more precisely residual waste, are delivered every year – produced by 800.000 people. Up to 110 trucks are arriving every day, loading off the waste of Ludwigshafen but also of other near cities. The visitors get a chance to catch a glimpse into the refuse bunker and see the enormous cranes at work. They can also meet the crane operators and observe closely how they grab the waste and toss it into the combustion chamber. The waste is burned twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, as it is quite expensive to shut the plant down. The temperatures in the oven reach up to 1000 °C – enough to burn plastic and aluminum, but not enough to melt iron. The emerging heat is then used to produce energy and district heat. Up to 70 million kWh can be produced in the plant every year – that is enough to provide 17500 average households (four persons) with energy. But besides energy also     60 000 tons of slag (i.e. the ash that is left over after burning) are produced every year. As there are still toxic substances left in the slag, it is quite hard to put it to a good use. A certain part is used for road construction, the rest has to be stored in huge landfills.

Inside the waste-to-energy plant: Refuse bunker and buring chamber. (Photo: Katharina Funk)

To reduce the amount of slag (that cannot really be used for anything else), it is on the one hand important to separate waste – because a lot of waste is recyclable. Organic waste can be put on a compost and or in a biogas plant. Plastic can be melted down and form new plastic-things. Paper can be reused as well. (By the way, a great way to preserve the environment is to buy recycled toilet paper.)

But it is also essential to reduce the amount of waste you are producing. Some things cannot be recycled and have to be burned. Currently, one third of the waste is turned into toxic slag. To avoid that, we all need to try to reduce our waste production.

“You want to tell me that earth is actually the poo of earthworms?”

Let’s come back to the trash cemetery. Visitors of the GML are allowed to dig in the graves and find out what happened with the waste. The younger children are always astonished when they can’t find anything in the grave of kitchen wastes. The newspaper from 2002 is gone as well. But the plastic bottle – having been in the earth for 18 years – is still there, almost unchanged, as well as the can and the shampoo bottle. It is an impressive sight, and we should keep this in mind, when going to the supermarket for the next time and have the choice between the cute snack-tomatoes in a plastic box or the loose egg tomatoes, still attached to the little green branch.

A can, buried in 2011 (left) and a ghost insect (right) . (Photo: Katharina Funk)

To not to choke in a giant mountain of waste and trash, we must change the way we consume. This article is the part of a series dealing with the chaotic and broad topic of waste. We want to give you different views on the topic and highlight ways how to reduce your personal waste generation. Find more articles here.

The post The trash cementary or how to separate waste appeared first on Global Change Ecology.