Bottle up and Explode...

Gosh, is it tuesday already? Doesn't time fly when you are saving the planet*

*if saving the planets means spending the weekend in the sunshine supping far too many bottles of red wine!

Well, come on then, how are you all doing? Are any of these changes sticking yet? I'm genuinely enjoying the veggie bit and although I have had to use a couple of plastic bags, for the most part it is now second nature to take a bag out with me whenever I go shopping. Although if they have good cheap meats I always buy far too much. Sarah tries to ban me, but I can't resist a bargain. Our freezer is now full of half price kangeroos and various bits of animal all put aside for the summer barbeque that somehow never happened (all that rain... climate change? Or just Belgium???)

This week we are upping the steaks a bit! Steaks? oops, I meant stakes. This meat deprivation comes out in many forms...

Ok, so what are we going to do, well it is a simple challenge, STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER!!! There are these shiny things in the kitchen called taps where you can get all the water you need. Of course at a later date we'll need to have a look at how we save that, but for now, here are some facts about the bottled water industry you may find surprising:

Americans consume about 29 billion water bottles a year. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.

Worldwide, 2.7 million tonnes of plastic is used every year by the bottled water industry. And not many bottles are recycled - perhaps 20% in USA, 10% in UK. The rest go to landfills or incineration ... or are just thrown away in the countryside or in the ocean.

Around a quarter of the 90 billion litres of bottled water drunk each year is consumed outside the country of origin. It is flown and shipped around the world, from France, Italy and Norway at best, from Japan and Fiji at worst, creating millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Pretty amazing eh!

So good luck with the challenge. Keep me posted on how you are getting on...

All the best!

Ok: I will give one of Sarah's ecofriendly washing machine balls to the first person to recognise the song title of this post... I want the artist and the album it is on. No googling!

Green greens...

Well hello there,

Been a while! Must admit, I haven't been busy, just being very lazy. Luckily, a lot of this environmental stuff does point to a 'Less is More' attitude, so I like to think that by sitting around in my pants watching TV most of the weekend I did my bit.

So how did you get on with last weeks challenge? After declaring war on plastic bags I haven't used one for over a month now (except that one last week which was old, full of holes and left me in so much fear for my bottle of rum and coke that I opted to drink it as quickly as possible - and recycled the bottles)

I guess with these challenges it is important to remember that by trying something we are making changes. Some of them might not stick, but I think the war on plastic has begun and I shall endeavour to keep it up...

So on to this weeks challenge, and another reason why I am late writing this... Did you know that one of the biggest problem with the enviroment is caused by the meat industry? The methane (yes, this is farting and burping) produced by cows makes the emmissions from planes seem tiny by comparison. Add to this the devastation of forests and the cost (environmental) of bringing a burger to your plate, it is a scary beast indeed.

Did I ever mention I am actually scared of cows? Really give me the heebyjeebies!!!

However, I do love eating them!

So the challenge this week is to try and cut down the meat you eat. Try to go veggie for a day (or longer if you want). Especially, try to do it when you are going out so it makes a difference (lunch in Belgium is not easy either)

I am also pretty scared of horses, but don't eat those!

Oh, and the other reason I am writing this on Tuesday was that I had a lovely chicken soup last night.

Good luck, tell me your successes, failures, veggie recipes and experiences. Feel free to send me your ideas for future challenges too!!!

Sheep can't be trusted...

This weeks challenge!!! Back to the beginning!

Righto, now I have got your attention, it is time to get busy with extending out these challenges.

To keep it simple (it is Sunday, I have just spent a lovely weekend in Antwerp drinking beer with Billy Bragg no less and frankly can't be bothered to think of something new and, let's be honest now, the first time round even my own wife was useless) so this week I am asking you all to give up using plastic bags.

Easiest way to do this is to take your own canvas bag into the supermarket (most of them sell reusable ones these days) with you or carry a fashionable man bag type thing and look cool like me!

Of course it is not that easy, what about fruit and veg? Well Sarah got a few funny looks, but this worked... take tuppaware or similar, weigh the veg and stick the price tag to the box.

What else? Well, if you must use a bag, ask for paper. Start looking to the market instead of the supermarket for your food (we'll get onto food miles later) or best yet, sign up to a local organic service and get random dinner for a week.

If anyone has any recipes for kohlrabi, we seem to get the stuff every week...

Please let me know how you are getting on, and ask questions, make suggestions for future challenges and please, teach me how to be better at the environment!

Good luck!