Rubies in the Rubble

We know you know that food waste is a real problem and we know you’re already making use of your leftovers and not automatically chucking out stuff according to ‘best before’ dates. But, amazingly, you can do more. Some clever people are getting hold of the ugly stuff before it heads to landfill and making very tasty things out of it. The ingeniously named Rubies in the Rubble are some of those clever people. Head here and salivate.

Earth Changers

Damn right you need a holiday! But we all know about emissions from flying, so how do you do it causing as little harm as possible? Earth Changers look at it a different way: how can you holiday and create a net positive for the planet?  They find the most sustainable tourism around the world, engage with the people behind the places to reveal their true passions and purpose, and educate visitors on the issues. They have a commitment to community and conservation for sustainable development through tourism.

The Bike Project

When it comes to transport options, what’s greener than a bicycle? Cars need (oil based) fuel, trains need power (more than 50% of which is generated by fossil fuels in the UK) but bikes: zero emissions right? Well … maybe. You still need power to make a new one. But you don’t if you buy second hand. Not only do The Bike Project have a range of bikes that look like new, but buying from them means you are supporting refugees, who are gifted bikes so they can save money on transport as they re-establish their lives in a new country.

Rowdy Kind

As sure as night follows day, at some point your kids will get dirty and need a wash. And when they’re young, they’re learning from their parents every day. So if you keep pouring stuff out of a plastic bottle to clean them with, they’ll just think that’s what they need to do as they get older. How to break the plastic habit? An old fashioned bar of soap should do it. But cleverly, one that smells really good, comes in a range of kid attracting colours and contains no nasties. Need to wash your dirty kids? Check out Rowdy Kind.

Bio-Bean

The UK consumes 98 million cups of coffee every day, creating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of spent coffee grounds every year. Much of this discarded resource ends up in landfill emitting harmful greenhouse gases, including methane. Bio-bean turn coffee grounds into lots of useful things, including Coffee Logs which burn efficiently – 20% hotter and longer than kiln-dried wood – and without the need to cut down any trees.

Sustenance/The Clean Kilo

Yes you’re dividing your rubbish and making sure the right stuff goes in the recycling bin. But, according to the UK government, only about 44% of our waste is getting recycled currently. A good start is to avoid the packaging in the first place. Zero waste shops are the pioneers here. Bring your containers, fill up with stuff you eat or use in the house and take it home. You’ve no need to buy more packaging. Two of our favourites: The Clean Kilo in Birmingham and Sustenance in London.

Fab Little Bag

In the UK alone 2.5m tampons and 1.4m sanitary pads are flushed down the toilet each day. FabLittleBag exists to protect rivers, oceans and beaches from the pollution caused by flushed period products. Their disposal bags are made of plants (which means they are carbon reducing) and recycled plastics, supporting the circular economy of waste. 

Too Good To Go

You’re out, you’re hungry, you want something quick. Or: you’re heading home after a long day at work but you can’t be bothered to cook. Then you remember that nearly 10 million tonnes of food gets wasted every year (in the UK, more worldwide). Some of that stuff must be going cheap, right? Right! With the Too Good to Go App you can get food from shops, cafes and restaurants at a bargain price before they give up on it and bin it.

Wearth

We humans sometimes need stuff. Occasionally your toothbrush ain’t so bristly anymore, you’d like to buy your loved one something sparkly and cool, or you just want some new smellies for the bathroom. But you want to avoid the plastic, or you want to make sure nasty emissions haven’t been involved in the production of said thing. HOW DO YOU KNOW? You need to buy from an ethical stuff website. We say go have a browse around Wearth.

Wonky

If you’ve read this far down you already know about waste food because we’ve kind of done all that bit already. But we couldn’t resist including the wonderfully named Wonky. More waste food being made into more things your tongue is going to like a lot. Everybody needs a bit of wonkiness in their life. Find it here. 

All these social enterprises have grown with the help of our mentors. Like one for your planet friendly business? Start here.

Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash