Grapes are a vines babies

A thought occurred to me yesterday while I was working with my operations team on a reasonably complex data issue. We were waiting for the results of a program to come back and I was nibbling at the grapes in the company fruit bowl. For those of you that don't have office based lives, the latest must have accessory is company provided fruit. Fresh fruit is delivered to the office every other day, and staff get to munch for free. It's a HR thing aimed at us all leading healthier lives. I'm all for it.

So I'm sitting there eating grapes, big fat juicy seedless grapes, the best sort. I felt a bit guilty that they'd come in from Kenya via Air freight, not so environmentally friendly, and I felt my carbon footprint flex ever so slightly.

I'm eating grapes and suddenly the thought occurs to me, that these grapes are the vines babies. Grapes are the equivalent of eggs surely. The plant-world equivalent of an unborn foetus.

I'm not a vegetarian. I eat meat and dairy, so really this shouldn't matter should it. Milk is not the innocent white-coloured water we pour over cereals, but the fluid used by a mother cow to feed baby calves. Eggs are unborn chicks.

If vegetarians don't eat meat and vegans don't eat meat or dairy. What do you call someone who doesn't eat meat, dairy or fruit and vegetables??

Answers on a postcard...

Compostable Plastic vs Recycling

Composting is a form of recycling. Plant based packaging materials (environmental packaging) are recycled into compost which can then be used to grow more plants. Similarly recycling plastics is a resource efficient process where energy can be adequately recovered- there is no need to adopt an either or approach!

As the realisation dawns that we cannot keep consuming without due consideration, it would seem prudent to explore as many options and strategies for reducing our environmental impact as possible. There is no one solution or silver bullet. Different forms of recycling may be appropriate for different situations. For example where collection of plastics is possible and the technology and machinery exists within short distances to reprocess it, this may present an appropriate option.

There are around 50 grades of plastic and currently the UK has facilities to reprocess two of them- HDPE (milk bottles) and PET (fizzy drinks bottles). Often recycling schemes may accommodate the collection of just these two types of bottles to avoid contamination from different grades of plastic leaving a vast array of oil based packaging that does not even have the opportunity of being recycled.

Similarly recycling of paper and card has proved an effective and efficient way of recovering energy. However paper used in food packaging can often be unsuitable for these schemes as the paper will firstly be lined with a plastic and secondly may contain food residue that might contaminate the recycled batch of paper.

Compostable packaging can provide an effective solution and since they are all compostable, the paper, bioplastic and bagasse products can all be recycled together. Furthermore the food residues do not have to be separated either as they are compostable too and will not contaminate the end recyclate. This can prove particularly useful in acting as a tool for the diversion of biodegradable waste away from landfill.