Garry Knox

Much has been discussed and documented during recent years about microbeads, microfibres and microplastics – be they in cosmetics, fashion or indeed drinking water. Well, now a recent study has reported that plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water. The study has been carried out by McGill University in Canada. The research group examined four different tea bag brands by placing each bag into boiling water. On average a single bag would shed 11.6 billion microplastic particle. In addition, they would release 3.1 billion nano-plastic particles. To put these results into context, the number of microplastics released is thousands of times higher than any other previous food type tested. The team removed the tea from inside the bags to prevent it from interfering with the results, before boiling the bags in water to simulate the tea-making process. Humans eat an average of 5 grams of plastic each week, according to a separate study earlier this year – the equivalent of a credit card’s weight in plastic. In its first review of the health risks of plastic in tap and bottled water, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last month that microplastics “don’t appear to pose a health risk at current levels,” but the key finding came with a big caveat – the review said available information was limited and more research was needed on microplastics and how they affect human health. Perhaps will see a shift back to loose tea in the tea pot, rather than tea bags? To find out more about the work that GreenEarth Cleaning is doing to keep plastic out of our oceans and also our food chain, please take a look at our recent article about current innovation.

The inaugural Daily Telegraph Responsible Fashion Forum took place on June 18th 2019. It attracted many brands, many suppliers and a great array of speakers. The conversations taking place could be summed up in three words, “Forward Thinking Fashion.” The purpose of GreenEarth attending, was to see the level of conversation around garment aftercare. Quite often people want to discuss the ethics of manufacturing design and production, but not often do they want to talk about how you can make clothes last longer, Therefore, avoiding clothing going into landfill. The brands who attended included Stella McCartney, Burberry, Zara and many more. It was impressive and interesting to see a large range of subjects being discussed in a panel style format. The topics included ‘How to impact change throughout the value chain’, ‘Evaluating the lifecycle of a garment’, and ‘Changing attitudes towards post-consumerism in sustainability’. Some of the contributors on panels included Peter Maddox of WRAP, Amy Jackson of BCI and Mary Creagh M.P. who has led the Parliamentary group on fashion sustainability. On that particular day, the UK government had rejected all the findings of the committee, much to the dismay of Mary. As suspected, there was a gap when it came to sustainable after-care. There was a significant focus was on production and recycling, but not a lot on what happens in between. I took it upon myself were appropriate, to ask questions about making garments last longer, adapting the type of question to the discussion area of the panel. Listening to the conversations around this, lead to interest from brands and manufacturers to find out more. It was good to see that many areas of fashion sustainability and ethics being discussed and demonstrating some great improvements. If there is to be a solution that is both environmentally and financially sustainable, brands MUST change the operating model that they work within. Whilst it’s understandable that there is not a huge appetite to make less close from a commercial point of view, we cannot continue to produce a surplus of clothes, fill wardrobes with unworn clothes, and see such high levels of clothing go to landfill. Education is key within the industry… and not just its consumers.

When I graduated in the 1990s, I never thought I’d have been working in the dry cleaning industry for nearly 15 years. And those years have been really interesting, full of so many journeys, both literally and figuratively. My GreenEarth journey started with Johnson Cleaners, the largest GreenEarth Affiliate. At that point in 2005, 75 percent of their stores were operating using perc. The initial trial using GreenEarth had just been completed in all the Scottish (UK) branches. And the rest, as they say, is history! Johnsons always saw GreenEarth Cleaning as the solution to suit them, knowing some of the legislative changes that were underway and the size of their retail estate. Sure, there were some changes for the branch teams to get used to, but as time went on and a better understanding of the product range took hold, GreenEarth soon became part of the Johnsons core proposition. During my 10 years at Johnsons, I saw the conversion of 100 percent of their machines to GreenEarth, the rebranding from blue to green to reflect the full adoption of GreenEarth, plus a number of sustainability awards. Fast forward to 2015 when I joined GreenEarth as Sustainability Director—a varied role that has allowed me to see the other side of the coin. Over the years, I have developed strong relationships with the team. And like the solution, they care for people, the planet, and the clothes that people wear—truly living the brand! The main part of my role has been dealing with retailers and manufacturers who have a strong presence in Europe but who have a global customer base. More and more are recommending GreenEarth on their care labels and also starting to communicate GreenEarth benefits on packaging, in-store marketing, as well as colleague and customer communication. And the reason is, they carry out testing to examine the performance levels of their garments in GreenEarth versus other cleaning methods, and the results speak for themselves. This gives them the confidence that their customers will be happy with their product and our product, leading to stronger commercial performance. Sometimes, you can pick the CORRECT thing to do or you can pick the RIGHT thing to do; with GreenEarth, retailers and manufacturers do both. I look forward to many years of achievement to come for GreenEarth and its wider family of Affiliates.

The U.K. introduced a 5 pence Plastic Bag Tax in 2015 to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated from the country’s consumers. Since then, there has been a reduction in the number of bags issues by 85 percent. This has led to government plans to not only increase the tax to 10 pence but to apply to ALL Retail brands. Previously, all brands with less than 250 employees and those who were service only, such as take-aways and dry cleaners had been exempt. It remains to be seen the full extents of the increase, but it is already been described a “profiteering”. But when you consider the implications of plastic waste contaminating the oceans and recent reports of a Whale’s stomach containing 30 plastic bags, an additional 5 pence and a change in human behaviour by taking ‘bags for life’ to the supermarket, perhaps it’s a small price to pay. U.K. dry cleaners take note… Check out this video from SkyNews The post Plans for an increase in the UK Plastic Bag Tax appeared first on GreenEarth Cleaning.