February 2018 – My Outdoor Living Room

It probably wasn’t a great philosopher that said it, but things are better when they’re free aren’t they?

Free drinks? Go on then! Free food? Great! Free money? Have I died and gone to heaven? What about free exercise? Technically all exercise is free, after you’ve paid out for the kit and equipment you’re going to need, because the outdoors is free.

Gyms aren’t normally free though, but let’s ignore those for now as this is a family show, geared at getting out, not in. In my opinion, the best free stuff is stuff you can enjoy with others. This also supports my opinion that sport should be accessible to all, regardless of status and income. Every weekend, I kick things off with my local ParkRun. These are free to take part in, are timed and you get a placing. At my local, we get over 300 people a week, all abilities, with multiple goals and motivation. For me, it is about the challenge through the year of chasing the elusive personal best, and largely about the community feeling that goes with it. We welcome new runners almost every week as well as running and chatting with familiar faces. If you asked everyone, you’d probably get a different answer every time. I personally look forward to Saturday mornings as I’m sure others do too. As it’s a free event, it is ran on a tight budget by volunteers. You can in turn volunteer some weeks to put a little bit back into it.

We’re very lucky in my part of the world to have free access (both physically and financially) to public rights of way, making walking in scenic or rural areas realistic for the majority. All you need to do is treat those areas with respect. Of course, aside from the physical benefits of being out in the open, there’s the mental health boost too, fighting depression and stress.

If you want to get fit, what can you do for nothing where you live? If there aren’t many options, could you create a group? The possibilities are relatively endless!

I’m usually anti anything that’s trending as it’s usually something irrelevant to me and my lifestyle, ‘celebrity’ antics for example or getting the Royal look for your summer wardrobe so you’ll look nothing like a Royal when you’re sat on your arse watching the Royal wedding.

What is trending now though, significantly, is the problem of plastic. It baffles me it’s taken this long for the majority of superpowers to start taking action. Maybe it’s thanks to several TV documentaries on the subject, bringing it to the attention of the (voting) majority. It affects us all.

I have a deep personal regard for the environment in which I live and recreate. To me, recycling and renewable energy are the two most important and achievable changes we can make in the world now. My previous blog covered the subject of littering. There are several crossovers here. The majority of litter I see is recyclable. Plastic left sitting in the town, countryside and ocean does just that – sits. It doesn’t break down. It’s a massive problem.

Let’s look at the facts.

90% of all trash floating in our oceans is plastic.
That is roughly 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.
1 million seabirds, and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually as a result of plastic pollution.

So that’s the current damage that’s happening now. What about the long term future? Let’s see. Some plastics take 1000 years to decompose. Meaning that every single piece of plastic ever produced is still around somewhere.

Between 2004 and 2014, more plastic was produced than in the entire 20th century! And what happens to the plastic we throw away? 50% of it is only used once, and that’s it. Currently we recover a paltry 5% of the plastic we produce. But if it’s in the ground or bobbing around in the sea, it’s not causing us harm is it? Well it is. It gets into our food chain too, among other things. 93% of Americans tested, showed up positive for BPA (a plastic chemical).

Despite the bleak facts, we can do something to help and there are organisations already trying to do their bit. In the UK, Surfers Against Sewage are making great strides to fight the tide of plastic (bad pun). You can also sign up for beach clean ups, or just clean up where you live or where you walk. Recycle as much as you can, both at home and what you pick up. You can turn your back on plastic packaging altogether or just single use plastics. If you find a single use plastics in your home, be creative and think of another use for it before tossing it away. I’m considering using unrecycleable plastic food trays as seedling trays at my allotment.

I generally hate huge corporations. I also hate huge corporations that sell unhealthy food and drink. But I was impressed with Coca-Cola’s plan recently to recover all of their plastic bottles. I’m not quite sure how they will achieve it, but credit where credit’s due, it’s a bloody good start.

The bottom line is it may not be all of us to blame but all of us can make a difference.