Introduction
What a year it’s been! 2022 has been our biggest year to date, and there’s so much for us and our amazing, loyal customers to celebrate. At EvenGreener, we’re on a mission to make the world a better place, and we are so grateful to all of you who are doing just that. Here’s our very own 2022 sustainability news, wrapped!
Food Waste
To the relief of environmentalists across the world, 2022 was the year that ‘Food Waste’ finally started trending. Worldwide searches for ‘Food waste’ and ‘food waste climate change’ increased by 50% and 200% respectively over the past 5 years.
We know that food waste has a massively negative impact on the state of our planet - but what have we, and others, been doing to fix this problem?
Here at EvenGreener, we sold 311 food waste caddies from January 1st to November 31st 2022. That means, if these caddies were even used just once since being bought, we would have helped save approximately 4,043 litres of food waste over the past 11 months! That’s around 50 baths worth of food waste.
We’re not the only ones who’ve been doing our bit to help divert food waste from landfill into compost piles and food recycling facilities. The UK based charity, Waste and Resources Action Programme, ran its second annual Food Waste Action Week in March this year, and the results were amazing for some uplifting sustainability news. This year's campaign was sponsored by industry giants, including KFC, Aldi and Ocado, and reached a whopping 8 million people across the UK - 55% of whom said they changed their behaviour towards food waste as a result.
Composting
Composting has made all sorts of headlines this year; from the UK government’s announcement that it will ban peat compost in 2024, to the devastating fire that originated from a compost heap during this summer's colossal heat wave.
In August, it was announced that from 2024 onwards, the government would ban sales of peat-based compost. The decision garnered widespread support throughout the gardening community, as it took action against the detrimental effects of peat compost. Peatlands are crucial for sequestering carbon, and thus limiting potential warming. Did you know that although peatlands cover only 3% of the planet’s surfaces, they sequester twice as much carbon as is held by the world's forests combined?! Luckily, the ban on peat compost does not come without environmentally friendly alternatives, of which we are experts in! This year we’ve sold enough composters to create the weight of 70 elephants in compost! Nothing makes us happier than seeing more and more people discover the joys and benefits of home composting.
Water Saving
If there’s one thing 2022 will be remembered for here in the UK, it has to be the scorching summer that wreaked heatwave havoc across the country, triggering some of the most outlandish sustainability news we've ever had. Record breaking temperatures of 40.3 degrees celsius were reached in Lincolnshire on the 29th July, and widespread hosepipe bans were enforced to help cope with the searing heat. Pictures of an almost unrecognisable Hyde Park went viral, as the arid grass highlighted the true impact of this summer's heatwave.
This heatwave marked a milestone in UK climate history, with 40°C being recorded for the first time in the UK, and 35°C being recorded for the first time ever in Scotland.
Britons were on a mission to save water, and that was made clear in the demand for water butts! We sold 6,312 water butts throughout the year, helping to save the equivalent of about 1,500 family sized paddling pools worth of water. Grave predictions from the MET Office have said that 2023 looks to be even hotter for the UK, and so we encourage as many households as possible to get kitted out with water butts, before the heatwave strikes!
Recycling
Recycling has long-since been touted as an important way to tackle climate change, and environmental pollution. This year has seen the advent of companies, governments and individuals trying to reduce waste; from India’s ban on single plastics, to Mars Wrigley’s announcement that it will be launching fully recyclable packaging by 2025.
Christmas can result in some horrifying waste statistics, so make sure you act with the planet in mind. Some of these figures include 42 million dishes of Christmas food being thrown away, 100 million black bags emerging full of packaging from toys and gifts, and 125,000 tonnes of plastic from advent calendar trays, sweet wrappers and gift boxes! Fortunately, our customers saw the value in 2022 of investing in wheelie bins to dispose of their rubbish and waste. Our sales of 140 litre bins in 2022 equates to a capacity of over 5,000 litres! Even more staggering, the total number of 240 litre wheelie bins we sold this year can hold over 60,000 litres of waste! With Christmas just around the corner, we encourage all of our customers to put their recycling bins to use, disposing of rubbish safely and more sustainably for an EvenGreener future.
Sources
Christmas waste facts - It's not very Jolly (businesswaste.co.uk)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/64039177
https://gbr.mars.com/news-and-stories/articles/sustainable-packaging
https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/trending/stark-images-show-extent-of-uk-s-drought-conditions.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63244353
https://michellerafter.com/2012/12/10/10-posts-to-write-before-the-end-of-the-year/