How to drive greener

There’s no denying that transport is essential. We need it to get ourselves from place to place, to ensure goods get to where they need to go, and even to transport the fuel that makes transport possible. Transportation based on fossil fuels, such as petrol and diesel, (including planes, trains, cars, trucks and ships) contributed 20.5% of the global Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE) in 2014, making it the second highest contributor after electricity production (49%), with manufacturing and industry coming in close third (20%). Furthermore, personal transport and freight transport are both expected to increase by  1.7% and 2.3% respectively between 2000 and 2050, with the majority of the increase coming from rapidly developing nations.

Senzabamboo natural silk floss

Photo credit: https://www.senzabamboo.com/

One Percent Changes: Buy in bulk

Tips to improve your recycling game

I’m obsessive about recycling! I recycle everything I can, even to the point of trying to clean aluminium foil (not that it’s always successful). More and more initiatives are popping up that use recycled material to make everything from benches and school desks, to light-weight bricks, road surfacing and roof insulation. However, current recycling stats for South Africa show that the recovery rates for recycled cans is at 69%, but only 17% for plastic (visit Treevolution for more stats and lots of really good information on recycling). This means that of all the plastic waste that is generated across the country, only 17% of it makes it to a recycling facility. This low figure is due to a combination of factors:

Upcycle Sunday: plastic bag dispenser

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a small mountain of plastic bags left over from the bad old days before they were regulated. Of course you can recycle them, but it works out a lot more ecofriendly if you keep using them for as long as possible and only recycle them when they have worn through.

One Percent Change: Choose produce with fewer types of packaging

Is zero-waste a privilege?

A couple of weeks ago an account I follow on Instagram asked the question “Is a low or zero-waste lifestyle a lifestyle of privilege?”