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St. David said, ‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things…’
Little Things You Can Do to Help the Environment:
Wash Laundry in Cold Water
About 90% of the energy used by the washing machine during laundry goes towards heating the water. Using cold water to wash some of your clothes eliminates this energy, making your clothes and the planet happy! Decreasing your carbon footprint can be as easy as switching to cool water.
Go Compare have developed an interactive energy cost calculator tool to find out how much something costs to run. Use the calculator below to pick the appliances you want to compare and select how long they’ll be in use for.
https://www.gocompare.com/gas-and-electricity/guide/energy-calculator/
Grow Something That You Will Eat
Our modern food culture makes food appear as if by magic, but growing something that you will eat (even if it’s just herbs in a pot) challenges us to see food as a gift – something that takes time, attention, and much to our frustration, is still outside of our control.
Read a Book
Knowledge is powerful. Read a book to learn more about the environmental and ecological crisis we are facing. Looking for a place to start? Greta Thunberg’s anthology The Climate Book brings together over 100 expert voices, providing an easy-to-read introduction to the topic. To make it fun, why not read a book with someone else, and you can discuss it over a cuppa?
No Mow May
We’ve lost 97% of our wildflower meadows in the UK in the past 70 years. No Mow May is a national campaign to encourage people not to mow their lawns until the end of May in order to boost the flowers and nectar available to pollinating insects such as bees, butterflies and moths.
The Results are in from the Big Plastic Count!
225,000 participants joined in The Big Plastic Count this year. UK households are throwing away an estimated 1.7 billion pieces of plastic per week! (That’s 90 billion pieces per year.) The UK is second only to the US in plastic waste per person. As part of the UK Plastics Pact supermarkets promised to make all their plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. These results prove they are nowhere near that goal.
We’re all doing our part; but we need government, big brands and supermarkets to do theirs. Governments have now started UN negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty. We need to keep the pressure up to make sure the treaty is as strong as it can be. You can help by writing to your MP directly to urge them to back a strong Global Plastics Treaty. Click the link to use this handy tool to send your MP a message.
Ask your MP to pledge to cut plastic production (greenpeace.org)
It’s International Compost Awareness Week
Why is composting food and garden waste so important? It decreases methane which is a greenhouse gas twenty-five times more powerful than carbon dioxide. It increases the health of our soil and helps store carbon. Compost is a huge benefit for both water conservation and quality, and it reduces landfill space and incineration by at least one-third. If you don’t already compost, this is a little thing you can do to help care for the environment.
World Bee Day
Did you know? Every third spoonful of food you eat depends on pollination. Bees are some of the most important pollinators, ensuring food security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity, and they significantly contribute to the mitigation of climate change and the conservation of the environment.
5 Things You Can Do for the Bees:
- Plant bee friendly flowers.
- No Mow May (leave the flowers in your grass for the bees).
- Don’t use pesticides in your garden.
- Buy organic food (which means the farmers didn’t use pesticides on their fields).
- Put up a bee nesting box.
Clean Air Day
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to your health, no matter who you are or where you live. It can harm every organ in your body, causing heart and lung disease, dementia, and strokes. Air pollution is linked to 43,000 deaths per year in the UK. The World Health Organization and the UK Government recognise that air pollution is the largest environmental threat to our health. This Clean Air Day, write to your local candidates and ask them to take action on clean air.
Sustainable Travel Guide
As you start to think about your Summer holiday plans, take a look at this handy guide to sustainable travel put together by Cardiff Metropolitan University. This Summer, make your travel greener!
Buy second-hand to save resources and reduce waste!
Have you ever tried Vinted? Buy and sell second-hand clothes and other items – you can search by brand name and items are posted to your door. Easy and helps the planet.
Vinted | Sell and buy clothes, shoes and accessories
Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Try to reduce how much plastic you buy during the month of July. Make a concerted effort to buy loose fruit and vegetables and plastic free versions of things you would normally buy.
Zero Waste Shops
A zero waste shop enables customers to live a more zero waste lifestyle through eliminating packaging and encouraging the use of containers from home to fill and refill with bulk wholefoods, natural beauty and cleaning products plus much more. Check out some of our Cardiff Zero Waste shops:
Siop Sero has two locations:
3B Beulah Road
Rhiwbina
CF14 6LT
102 Albany Road
Roath
CF24 3RT
Lechyd Da @CF14 (a Welsh language shop)
53C Merthyr Rd
CF14 1DD
Fairtrade and Ethically Sourced Goods
Fairtrade is about better prices, safe working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers. There are over 6,000 Fairtrade products from coffee and tea to flowers and gold, so when you shop, look for the Fairtrade Mark or other ethically sourced goods. We are a Fairtrade Kitchen here at the Cathedral serving only Fairtrade tea and coffee. If you use our kitchen, please respect our commitment in this area and also only serve Fairtrade tea and coffee.