photo of pen beside ink — Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com

“Stop waste. Stop waste of any kind. Stop wasting energy, stop wasting food, stop wasting plastic and stop wasting time. This is a precious world and each of us can use our actions and our voice to save our planet.” - David Attenborough 

We can all make changes in the way we live, while transport is the overall highest cause of emissions in the North Somerset area – it’s also true that consumption is the lesser talked about ‘elephant in the room’. We don’t have to cut out all the things we enjoy in life, but to ensure we can all live a sustainable life we do need to address the amount of waste we produce and the main reason for this waste – consumption. It’s a well known fact that clothing and fast fashion is a major contributor to this with an estimate that over 11 million garments end up in landfill every week. Technology is no better with billions of phones being discarded every year, and many in the UK admit to just throwing them in their general waste bin.

North Somerset Emissions from https://impact-tool.org.uk/

It’s very easy to be sustainable these days, with a variety of good quality second hand shops for clothes, toys and technology among other things. North Somerset has a wealth of second hand and charity shops, and even online purchases can be much more sustainable. A great summary can be found here Here are 7 ways to reduce your waste | WWF.

Reduce, reuse, recycle is a well-known mantra, yet often overlooked is the importance of repair. Repairing items stands out as the cornerstone of sustainable practices. Not only does it curb waste and resource depletion, but it also has financial benefits by prolonging product lifespan and nurturing secondary markets.

Repairing plays a significant role in advancing a circular economy, proving more efficient than discarding or replacing broken items while conserving energy and raw materials compared to recycling. In North Somerset, numerous repair cafes operate monthly, offering repair services facilitated by local volunteers. For further details on repair cafes in North Somerset, refer to our webpage or calendar.

Local Reduce & Reuse Initiatives include: