Eco Evolution Blog

Ireland has officially banned the sale, manufacture, import and export of products containing microbeads. Microplastics are tiny non-biodegradable solid plastic particles. These particles enter the marine environment in a variety of forms including fibres shed from clothes, lost raw material pellets or microbeads used in cosmetics, cleansing products and detergents.

The Microbeads (Prohibition) Act 2019, which was signed into law on 6 February 2020 by Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy T.D., comes into effect today. 

Plastic microbeads are mostly used in soaps, shower gels and facial scrubs to exfoliate skin, although they also can be found in toothpaste and abrasive cleaners.

The Act Prohibits:

The Act prohibits the manufacture or placing on the market of cosmetics and personal care products that may be washed or rinsed off with water. Household and industrial cleaning products that contain plastic microbeads are also included.  

Placing on the market is defined as to:

• sell;
• offer or expose for sale;
• advertise or invite an offer to purchase;
• distribute free of charge,
• import or export;
• or supply for any of those purposes (whether or not for profit).

The Act also makes it an offence to dispose of any substance containing microbeads by pouring it down the drain or into marine or freshwater environments.

A person convicted of an offence under the Act could receive a fine and/or a prison sentence of up to six months. Conviction on indictment may mean a fine of up to €3,000,000 and/ or a prison sentence of up to five years.

The Environmental Protection Agency is assigned as the responsible for implementation with support from Customs Officials and the Gardaí.  

Ireland will continue to work with the Commission and other EU Member States to develop further robust regulatory measures to address microplastic pollution.

In October the EU gave Ireland the greenlight to outlaw plastic microbeads but has yet to introduce legislation for an EU-wide ban. The UK banned the manufacture and sale of microbeads back in 2018, following the US’s ban back in 2015.

Microbeads represent only a fraction of the microplastics in our oceans

While plastic microbeads represent only a fraction of the microplastics in our oceans, it has still been estimated that many billions are being washed into the world’s rivers, lakes and seas each year. Once in our seas and rivers they can last for centuries without breaking down. Due to their shape and size, they can be confused for food by fish and other aquatic creatures and they cannot be removed once they are in the marine environment.

Tiny plastic particles are sold in thousands of personal care products globally. With wastewater treatment plants not designed to filter them out they can flow down the drain, into the sea and into the marine food chain. Microbeads are not biodegradable and once they enter the marine environment, they are impossible to remove. Each year, an estimated 8 million metric tonnes of plastics enter the ocean, and it’s estimated that currently, 150 million metric tonnes circulate in our marine environments.

The burning of waste is illegal and is subject to prosecution.

Burning of waste is not only a nuisance to neighbours; it can release many harmful chemicals into the air you breathe.  Many people may think that they are doing the right thing in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and saving money but they are both causing long term environmental pollution and interfering with the lives of others living in their area.  Burning waste in your home or garden can damage your health, as well as that of your children and your neighbours.  Such illegal practices lead to the release of toxic dioxins which are a real hazard for peoples’ health and the environment.

Burning of waste is illegal ~ Credit Dept. of Environmental Conservation

In September 2009, a law concerning waste disposal by burning came into force. These regulations make explicit the offence of disposal of waste by uncontrolled burning and prohibits such disposal within the curtilage of a dwelling. If reported, there is a hefty fine to be paid but the threat of this hasn’t stopped the back yard burning of waste which is still the norm in some households across the country. The term ‘backyard burning’ also refers to the burning of any waste in open fires, ranges and other solid fuel appliances or in the open. It includes the burning of green waste and also to the burning of waste on building sites.

Why is it still a common place sight around the country? – are people not aware of the risks to their health and the damage caused to the environment, is it to avoid paying for regular waste collection services, do they believe they are reducing waste or is it just too inconvenient to separate waste and reuse or recycle it?  Years ago it was traditional to burn waste but today there is absolutely no excuse for it!

Stop before you strike that match! 

Photo Credit: www.wikihow.com

Today, bleached paper, plastic packaging or plastic products, and printed materials with glues, plastic coatings and coloured inks make up a large portion of society’s waste. When these items are burned in low temperature fires like those that take place in a backyard burn barrel, very high levels of toxic chemicals and fine particulate matter are released with the smoke. Many of these toxins don’t readily break down, leading to accumulation and persistence in the environment.

What harm am I doing I hear you ask!

Backyard burning is far more harmful to our health than previously thought. The compounds in the smoke that comes from the burning can increase the risk of heart disease, aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema, and cause rashes, nausea, or headaches. Backyard burning also produces harmful quantities of dioxins, a group of highly toxic chemicals that settle on crops and in our waterways where they eventually wind up in our food and affect our health.

 Photo Credit:  chemicalfreelife.org

Sounds scary doesn’t it?  Well it is! And you need to STOP!

Dioxins

Studies have shown that only small amounts of chlorinated materials in waste are required to support dioxin formation when burning waste. This means that even when materials containing high levels of chlorine, such as PVC, are removed from household waste, burning the waste still creates dioxins because nearly all household waste contains trace amounts of chlorine.  Much of the dioxins created and released into the air through backyard burning settle on plants. These plants are, in turn, eaten by meat and dairy animals, which store the dioxins in their fatty tissue.

People are then exposed to dioxins primarily by eating the meat, fish, and dairy products, especially those high in fat. Backyard burning occurs most commonly in rural areas where dioxin emissions can more easily be deposited on animal feed crops and grazing lands. These dioxins then accumulate in the fats of dairy cows, beef, poultry, and pigs, making human consumption of these harmful chemicals is difficult to avoid.

Particle pollution

Microscopic particles with a diameter smaller than a human hair are released from back yard burning and pollute the air. Shutting the windows and doors of your home will not protect you from fine particle pollution because the particles are so small that they will infiltrate even the best quality double-paned windows and doors. These particles that are small enough to get into the lungs and can cause numerous health problems. Particles can aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis, and have been associated with heartbeat irregularities and heart attacks. People with heart or lung disease, the elderly, and children are at highest risk from exposure to particles.

Make clean air a priority!

Carbon Monoxide

Another major pollutant generated by backyard burning is carbon monoxide. At low levels of exposure to Carbon Monoxide, humans may experience a variety of neurological symptoms including headache, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. Carbon monoxide  is a colorless, odorless gas emitted from combustion processes.  At extremely high levels Carbon Monoxide can cause death!

Ash

Backyard burning also produces ash residue, which can contain toxic metals such as mercury, lead, chromium, and arsenic.  These metals can be toxic when ingested. When a person ingests hazardous amounts of lead, for example, he or she may experience high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, kidney damage, and brain damage. Unaware of the potential danger, some people scatter the ash in their gardens or bury it on their property. Garden vegetables can absorb and accumulate these metals, which can make them dangerous to eat. Children playing in the yard or garden can incidentally ingest soil containing these metals. Also, rain can wash the ash into groundwater and surface water, contaminating drinking water and food.

What are the alternatives I hear you ask?

Avoid making waste in the first place and you won’t have to worry about disposing of waste or recycling it later. Changing your habits is the key — think about ways you can reduce your waste when you shop, work and play. There’s a ton of ways for you to reduce waste, save yourself some time and money, and be good to the environment at the same time.

Photo Credit: Backyard Burning by Theodore W. Marcy,

Follow these simple steps and STOP BACK YARD BURNING TODAY!

• DO NOT BURN WASTE.
• Avoid over packaged products and choose packaging that can be recycled
• Separate your waste and if you don’t have a recycle bin take recyclable waste to your nearest Civic Amenity Centres
• Compost Organic Waste
• Use only Properly Permitted and Regulated waste collectors and waste facilities.

Does back yard burning still take place in your locality? What steps do you take to reduce your waste both at home and in the workplace?

Some other great blog posts worth reading on this subject:

Should we be burning plastic – that’s the burning question?

A new breed of gangsters

Earth Day 2014 is the 44th, since its inception in 1970, which was widely viewed as marking the beginning of the contemporary environmental movement.

Every year on April 22, over a billion people in 190 countries take action for Earth Day. Like Earth Days of the past, Earth Day 2014 will focus on the unique environmental challenges of our time. As the world’s population migrates to cities, and as the bleak reality of climate change becomes increasingly clear, the need to create sustainable communities is more important than ever.

Earth Day 2014 will seek to do just that through its global theme: Green Cities. With smart investments in sustainable technology, forward-thinking public policy, and an educated and active public, we can transform our cities and forge a sustainable future. Nothing is more powerful than the collective action of a billion people.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy

As the global organizer behind Earth Day, Earth Day Network creates tools and resources for you to get involved with Earth Day in your community. The environment faces a multitude of challenges today. From climate change to species extinction, our planet and its inhabitants are continually facing man-made threats that must be averted. Lend your voice to a campaign, stand up for the future we deserve and help to work toward a sustainable future.

Earth Day 2014 Green Cities Campaign limited edition poster

Together we can make a difference!

Source: http://www.earthday.org/

The following piece ‘Being Green’ has been circulating on various social media platforms over the past few months and it really struck a chord with me. Like the woman at the checkout we didn’t have the ‘green thing back when I was growing up but everyday we were doing the ‘green’ thing without actually realising it.  Just take a few minutes to read it through and you too will see how easy it was, and still is to be green.

Being Green!

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Old Cash Register ~ Photo Credit ~ South Park City Museum via www.tripadvisor.com

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the shops

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.

Brown paper bags were used to wrap groceries and then reused to wrap books

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Solar powered clothes dryer!

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

A single radio to keep up with the daily news stories

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint. But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

No computers or electronic gadgets back then.

It struck me as I was reading it that life was so much simpler back then. I remember my mother washing out the milk bottles (the two in the photo escaped as I found them while doing a litter pick!), using brown paper to cover school books, washing the nappies by hand and we walked or cycled to the shops. My first introduction to typing was on the typewriter in the photo above (that’s not that many years ago!!). I remember strapping it to my bicycle and cycling four miles to the classes and back home again.

Whoever originally wrote this piece was right – we probably didn’t consume nearly as much oil/gas/electricity back then. However, it wasn’t because we were being ‘green’, it was more because technology hadn’t advanced far enough yet. What do you think? Were we being ‘green’ back then or was it just a way to make ends meet?

All photographs unless otherwise credited are copyright of Mary Gethings.

Over the past few months the children of Scoil Naomh Maodhóg in Ferns, Co. Wexford have been busy collecting two litre plastic bottles to construct their latest eco-friendly project. The bottles have now found a new lease of  life as the school’s eco-friendly greenhouse.

Plastic bottle greenhouse

Preparing greenhouse for vegetable planting

The lids and labels were removed and the bottoms were trimmed to allow them to slot into each other to create a long tube. The tubes were then stacked side by side and secured into the timber  frame with wires spaced at intervals up the frame and roof.  The wires hold the bottle in place and it is the cross tie wire that binds it into a solid wall, closing most of the gaps.

This is the perfect project for schools as it is a great re-use educational structure that really works.

The school has a ‘green’ ethos that is to be admired and is working towards becoming a more environmentally friendly and sustainable school.  School projects to date include the creating of  raised flower and vegetable beds, wildlife garden and pond, a  newly planted woodland area, the erection of bird boxes, butterfly boxes and an insect hotel that are all tended by the children. They make their own compost and water the plants with the rainwater they collect.

Cold frame protecting the young plant

Coldframe made from old windows

The children are introduced to growing their own vegetables. They plant the seeds and wait patiently for them to germinate.  They are then planted out when weather permits and  each class take turns to water and keep them weed free. There is great excitement when its time to harvest the produce as they get to divide it and bring it home.

Last year the potatoes were harvested and the children cut them into chips. They were then brought to the local diner to be cooked. A very tasty meal was had by all!

Planting potatoes in one of the many raised vegetable beds

Pond and wild flower garden

A  long side the pond the children have planted a variety of nectar producing plants and shrubs to encourage butterflies and other nectar loving insects into the garden. Rough grass margins have also been successfully established and this provides an excellent habitat for many insects and is ideal for the newly-emerged frogs that are a great attraction for the children every year.

Native tree nursery

Last year the school  began the task of extending the existing Woodland area. It was decided to plant only native species to the area  so the children brought in tree sapplings from their own gardens and created a nursery. When they were strong  enough they were planted out in the well prepared area. Their aim is to create natural habitats so as to introduce various insects, butterflies and birds into the school grounds. The children have great fun walking through the Woodland, turning up stones and wood to see what insects are lurking beneath.

Newly planted woodland area

Mature woodland area rich in biodiversity

Birdboxes are placed in safe areas to attract birds to the school grounds

Butterfly boxes

Last year a Tidy Towns Junior Committee was formed. They are a great asset to the community as they are involved in keeping the school litter free, promote energy efficiency and recycling and reusing in the school. They were also involved with the development of the Community Park.  They were presented with an Endeavour Award  in recognition of their great work and achievements. They are busy planning some very exciting projects at the moment which are so top secret thet they won’t even divulge the details to the Ferns Tidy Towns Committee. May just watch this space!

Sensory garden and hopscotch area

Picnic Area in the Community park

Members of Junior Tidy Towns enjoying the end of year party organised by Ferns Tidy Towns Committee.

Junior Tidy Towns receiving their well deserved Endeavour Award

It is one of the most energy efficient schools in the area. Over the years the school has taken on projects such as upgrading their insulation, installing new windows and replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs. The children have a great awareness of energy saving. Simple measures like turning off lights and closing doors when leaving a room help to conserve energy.