I like to travel all over the world for pleasure (Australia for three weeks next year) and  I have to travel all over the world for work (Hong Kong in a week or so – very exciting).  However these airplane based activities are really terrible for my dirty black (carbon) footprint.

It’s such a difficult thing to sort out in my head.

If I recycle all our household waste (which we do) but I then take one return flight to Paris then that flight totally outstrips my recycling for probably more than a year (I haven’t done the exact sums by the way).  So you could think – what’s the point then?  I have to admit that five years ago I did think like this. Thankfully Chad is a lot wiser (and younger) than me on this, and he has re-educated me on the need to do our little bit and put in some effort.

My little olive roll up bag (the fabulous envirosax) has become a permanent feature in my life – it lives in my man-bag and I reckon I have, in the last nine months, used it nearly every day (often a couple of times a day).  I estimate that I have used 400 fewer plastic carrier bags that would by now be attempting to rot down for the next couple of hundred years in a land fill somewhere in this green and pleasant land.
Overall I think that it is just really important to think about what we are doing

• Is there an alternative?
• Could we reduce waste?
• Could we be less wasteful in our actions?

Some recent examples in the world of Crump:

• Can I travel to Paris from London on a train rather than fly – yes – CHECK (and the Eurostar is so much more civilised than Heathrow / BA hell)
• Could I cycle to work rather than take my car – yes – CHECK (although when it’s raining the spirit wavers)
• Could I turn off lights in a room that I’m not in – yes – CHECKISH (I’m in high performance training on this one)

So every little helps – we cannot be ostriches on this one – it’s too important.

Now where is my passport.  D’oh…  See what I mean!

Now first of all I did use the evil plastic bag because I ended up buying more than I expected – five rolls of kitchen roll (recycled!) takes up lots of space (and I walked so I couldn’t just chuck it in the boot of the car!). I did also use my Envirosax bag – which I love – but I only have one and normally this meets my plastic bag replacement needs (Chad does the main food shop and he ALWAYS uses his bags for life).

I actually bought Chad an Envirosax bag for Valentine’s Day from a cool gift shop in Crouch End – so we actually have matching bags!!! I know passion is alive and well in my relationship.

Anyway I did use the bad plastic ones that live forever and strangle the tortoise’s aquatic cousins, turtles, in the Pacific Ocean, and there will probably be a time when I will use the naughty plastic bags again. Anyway, I am sure that Envirosax will save the day and pacify my inner-ecowarrier as I use it more and more.