Single Use Seas

25/02/2025

My book is published!

Its a collection of my social media posts, articles poems and essays that I wrote during lockdown.

There’s some fantastic insights into plastic pollution and some philosophical works too.

A really interesting read for anybody wanting to know more about the plastic crisis and what they can do to help

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

18/10/2021

19/07/2021

The recent news stories about English and Scottish football fans trashing London following the UEFA Euro 2020 cup final do not make for a good read. And I cant help worry that the behaviour highlights some disturbing character flaws that we as a species really need to get a handle on.

Why is it that one relatively meaningless game should invoke more passion than the lasting environmental damage caused by its aftermath?

The cup final showed that we commonly put social identity before all else, including ironically our future. ‘The world can go to hell as long as we win and if we don’t, we’ll take the world down with us.’

Tribalistic behaviour like this is evidently a survival mechanism, and its probably the reason we don’t share the world with other species of hominid. But just because a trait was effective in the ancestral environment, doesn't mean it’s effective today, on the contrary its likely to be leading us to our demise.

Imagine if climate change invoked the same emotional response as a football.

Try and visualise for a moment some pink faced, beer bellied skin head, tearing his shirt open to reveal a tattoo of the ice caps. It sounds ridiculous, but the fact that is sounds ridiculous points to our ineffective programming.

We should care infinitely more about the ice caps than we do football because the icecaps melting represents a real threat to our survival.

It’s interesting that scientists have chosen to use the football pitch as the unit of measure to describe the daily loss of the amazon rainforest. It’s like they felt they needed to put it in terms that the average person could understand.

Incidentally, if you are Jair Bolsonaro (or a Brazilian who voted for him), a football cup final is apparently more important than the entire amazon basin. His political party has ensured through deforestation that the ‘lungs of the earth’ and one of our last great hopes for survival have become a net contributor to climate change….you can read the rest of this post on my tumblr account https://gazrhind.tumblr.com/post/657132552855994368/the-human-coming

21/03/2021

Have you ever noticed that sustainable practices often overlap with a healthy lifestyle? I’ve come to realise that being ‘green’ has far wider implications than just the environment.

When you reduce single-use packaging, you are forced instead to buy fresh vegetables and wholesome foods. Fatty, salty or nutrient poor foods are typically excluded.

When you decide to drive less, you inadvertently choose to walk or cycle more. Our carbon footprint is never lower that when we are doing the most basal forms of exercise.

This interesting duality also seems to work in the other direction. I was tempted by the health benefits of veganism for years, but I only really committed when I learned about the environmental impact of the meat industry. In the end my excuses were simply broadsided by two highly consequential endpoints stemming from the same damn life choice.

But it’s about more than just physical health. In a previous post entitled, ‘Hurting the planet becomes an act of self harm for those with sustainable values’ I highlighted that the path to sustainable living helps one find greater meaning in life. The mental health connections are perhaps the most poignant of all.

You may find that you have to avoid the ‘convenient’, but in doing so you rediscover simple pleasures in life. I find there are few endeavours more rewarding than the art and therapy of cooking, it reminds me that the pursuit of happiness was never about convenience. Life is about richness, the more you put in, the more you get out.

It appears that which pollutes the natural world also pollutes the inner world and I’ve begun to wonder why. What if they represent two halves of the same message? A message that only makes sense when read as a whole.

Charles Darwin coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’, which means only those adapted to their environment will pass their genetics to the next generation. It stands to reason that the ‘fittest’ are not only the healthiest, but also those that live in balance with the environment. An environment that their progeny will inherit.

The connection may simply point to our ‘natural being’ or a lifestyle that sits closer to the way we have evolved...

14/03/2021

In the immortal words of Gimli from Lotr, “That still only counts as one!”

07/03/2021

Many people are hesitant to adopt sustainable living practices because of the belief that it could radically change to their current life choices.

Although this statement is often true, it slightly misses the point about sustainability. It needn’t be radical, but for those that get in to it, the drive for serious change comes from within.

It’s not about cutting the things that you need, its about cutting the excess. The hesitancy comes from a miss alignment of the two.

In a world that spoon feeds us convenience, we begin to place importance on the superficial, the time saving and the ‘easy’. But convenience is often the enemy of responsibility and can drive self-centricity.

“I buy plastic wrapped convenience food because I’m too busy to cook”
“I like single use water bottles because I don’t want to carry a reusable one”.
“A 4X4 is important for my self image”

Such superficial ‘need’ becomes so habitualised that change feels as radical as joining Greenpeace.

Until I began my own journey, I used to be like this. With my learning, I discovered that change isn’t as hard as it initially looks, on the contrary, it’s positively addictive.

Rome doesn't have to be built in a day so I learned to take small manageable steps.

With every step, I learn new things about myself. As I looked back, the excesses I left behind began to loose meaning. As I looked forward, I could see new things to care about, things of substance that bring real purpose and happiness. My very perception of need changed as I grew and eventually began to pull me forward.

Choices become less governed by ‘hedonism’ and more by balance and reason.

“Do I have time to cook or do I have time to sacrifice from my children’s future?”
“Do I need my water to come in plastic bottles, or do I need my water to be free from plastic particles?”
“Do I need others to perceive me as a successful person, or would I rather perceive myself as successfully changing humanity?”

In the left hand you hold the void of hedonistic goals that amount to nothing of real consequence.
In the right you hold the planet, nature, life and humanity, but perhaps most pertinently a meaningful existence for yourself.

03/03/2021

One thing I have learned on my journey to becoming plastic free is that you don’t have to be an activist or a political campaigner to make a difference. On the contrary, we are actually far more powerful as individual consumers.

The choices we each make on a daily basis send ripples through society in ways that we simply don’t appreciate, and seldom use.

Those that attack their shopping basket are infinitely more influential then those that attack their supermarket for the simple reason that demand is the lifeblood of supply. Supermarkets can weather public opinion so long as sales are good.

So powerful are your choices, that one weekly shop no matter how mundane it may seem, has greater effect on society than a day spent beach cleaning.

Why? Because demand works to prevent pollution. Beach cleaning as honourable as it is, amounts to pollution management at best.

By leaving that plastic bottle on the shelf, you have done your bit to slow demand and a slower demand means less plastic is brought in to this world. If a plastic bottle doesn't get made, it doesn't need to be reused or recycled. It’s very absence IS the solution.

This ‘choice’ is relatively easy to make when compared to the hard frustrating work chosen by beach cleaners. Their payoffs are no where near as great. It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of marine plastic will never be collected. Of that which is, most will lack the quality to be recycled and will end up in landfill.

It’s a deeply dissatisfying truth that once plastic is brought in to the world, it will do its damage.

We congratulate the beach cleaner for trying to manage the crisis, even if their effect is minimal. So its high time we start congratulating our selves for actually preventing the plastic from getting to the beach.

Become an activist today - leave the bottle on the shelf.

28/02/2021

Quick beach clean on a beautiful Saturday afternoon...

23/02/2021

Winner gets a bamboo toothbrush!!Tip - You might need to zoom.

16/02/2021

Dedicated to for his love of munchies