Five Eco-crimes We Commit Every Day

Ask yourself this: how green am I really You might think you are doing your bit for the environment, but even if you shun bottled water, buy local produce and reuse your plastic bags, chances are that you have some habits that are far more environmentally damaging than you realise.
1. Coffee
Take coffee. The average cup of black filter coffee is in fact responsible for 125 grams of CO₂ emissions. Of this, two-thirds comes from production and most of the rest from brewing.
Choosing the instant coffee reduces that figure to around 80 grams. Yet that still means a six-a-day caffeine habit clocks up more than 175 kilograms of CO₂ , each year. That’s the equivalent of a flight across Europe--from London to Rome, say. Add milk, and the methane (甲烷) produced by dairy cows means you increase your coffee’s climate-changing emissions by more than a third.
It doesn’t end there, though. The environmental group WWF has calculated that it takes 200 litres of water to produce the coffee, milk, sugar and cup for just one cup of regular takeout hot coffee. So if everyone ditched their pre-work coffee fix that would do wonders for the planet.
2. Toilet paper
Then there’s toilet paper. Like coffee companies, toilet paper manufacturers have long provided options for environmentally conscious consumers. Top of the list is 100 per cent recycled paper, which avoids much of the energy use and emissions associated with harvesting and processing new wood. Every kilogram of recycled tissue saves some 30 litres of water and between 3 and 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Since 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity is responsible for around 500 grams of CO₂ , that means a saving of 1.5 to 2 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of tissue.
Recycled toilet tissue is most widely used in Europe and Latin America, but even there it still only accounts for 1 in 5 rolls. In the US it isn’t a common product. The average American gets through 23 toilet roils each year, adding up to more than 7 billion rolls for the country in total. Of these, just 1 in 50 are from 100 per cent recycled fibres. As Greenpeace pointed out earlier this year, this not only wastes energy and water, it also puts additional logging pressure on old-growth forest in North America, forests which play a vital role in supporting native biodiversity.
The reason toilet roll made from new wood is preferred is quite : its long fibres produce the softest paper. Every time paper is recycled, the fibres become shorter, for an increasingly rough bathroom experience. Recycled paper can’t compete on softness so some use of new wood by the toilet paper industry may be inevitable. Sourcing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved toilet tissue will help to ensure that any new wood fibres that are added to the mix have come from sustainable forestry projects that protect, rather than threaten, old-growth forest ecosystems.
3. Fast fashion
Next on the list of everyday crime is fast fashion. In 1990, global textile production stood at 40 million tonnes. By 2005 that figure had risen to around 60 nil] lion tonnes. This surge in manufacture and consumption has been helped by fast-moving fashion trends and sweatshop price tags. As a result, much of the clothing we buy ends up being discarded long before it has worn out. In the UK, where the average item is worn for less than a third of its useful lifespan, more than a million tonnes of clothing are thrown away each year. The bulk of it ends up buried in landfill sites.
Even the global economic cr appears to have had little impact on our love affair with fast fashion; UK clothing sales this summer were up 11 per cent on the same time last year. If we can’t entirely kick the habit, we can at least dispose of the evidence in a greener way.
At present, in the UK and US, only around a quarter of unwanted textiles are reused or recycled. Recycled textiles have many uses, from mattress (床垫) fillings to bags and shoes, but the truly green alternative is reuse. The energy required to collect, process and sell a reused item of clothing is only 2 per cent of the energy required to manufacture a new garment. Every kilogram of virgin cotton preserved by reusing second-hand clothing saves 65 kilowatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 32.5 kilograms of CO₂ .
4. Laundry
Fast fashion has created textile mountains in many homes, yet the environmental cost of this excessive consumption has an even less conspicuous twin: the energy used to launder it all. Cleanliness has become a touchstone of domestic life since advertisers convinced us that our shirts must always be "whiter than white", our sheets should forever smell of spring flowers, and that to be dressed in freshly laundered clothes at all times is a badge of success. We live in a "wear once and wash" culture. In fact, only about 7.5 per cent of the average laundry load in the UK is thought to be heavily soiled. Much of the rest is made up of items that are stuffed into the washing machine simply because they are on the floor instead of in the wardrobe. This habit is shockingly wasteful in terms of water, detergents (洗涤剂) and energy.
One study found that over 80 per cent of the CO₂ emissions produced during the life cycle of a single blouse arose from cleaning and drying it. The percentage can be even higher for items made of cotton, as they tend to require far more energy-hungry drying.
It is easy to see how these emissions stack up. A full load in a washing machine uses around 1.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cycle and tumble drying clocks up a further 3.5 kilowatt-hours, resulting in over 2 kilograms of CO₂ emissions per wash. With four or five loads per household per week, the total annual emissions from each home can easily pass the half-toune mark. That’s a significant proportion of the 10-tonne annual emissions of the average European. Line drying, washing at lower temperatures and ensuring full rather than partial loads will all help to reduce laundry emissions. For the largest cuts, simply washing less frequently is the way to go.
5. Food wastage
Of all the facets of overcousnmption that plague both human society and the global environment, food wastage is the most shocking. US households throw away around 30 per cent of their food, worth $48 billion every year. Similar levels of wastage are seen in Europe. In the UK, some 6.7 million tonnes of food is binned annually. Most of this joins the layers of unwanted clothing in landfill sites, where it decays, emitting the powerful greenhouse gas methane. Potatoes top the pile, with 859,000 tounes going uneaten each year. Bread and apples are not far behind. Meat and fish are next, accounting for over 160,000 tounes. A staggering 4.8 billion gs go the same way, as do 480 million yogurts. The annual cost to UK consumers of all this waste is ￡10 billion and the cost to the environment is the equivalent of an extra 15 million tonnes of CO₂ .

Five Eco-crimes We Commit Every Day1. Coffee2. Toilet paper3. Fast fashion4. Laundry5. Food wastageDuring the life cycle of cotton clothes, they emit more greenhouse gas because they need far more （）

Ask yourself this: how green am I really You might think you are doing your bit for the environment, but even if you shun bottled water, buy local produce and reuse your plastic bags, chances are that you have some habits that are far more environmentally damaging than you realise.
1. Coffee
Take coffee. The average cup of black filter coffee is in fact responsible for 125 grams of CO₂ emissions. Of this, two-thirds comes from production and most of the rest from brewing.
Choosing the instant coffee reduces that figure to around 80 grams. Yet that still means a six-a-day caffeine habit clocks up more than 175 kilograms of CO₂ , each year. That’s the equivalent of a flight across Europe--from London to Rome, say. Add milk, and the methane (甲烷) produced by dairy cows means you increase your coffee’s climate-changing emissions by more than a third.
It doesn’t end there, though. The environmental group WWF has calculated that it takes 200 litres of water to produce the coffee, milk, sugar and cup for just one cup of regular takeout hot coffee. So if everyone ditched their pre-work coffee fix that would do wonders for the planet.
2. Toilet paper
Then there’s toilet paper. Like coffee companies, toilet paper manufacturers have long provided options for environmentally conscious consumers. Top of the list is 100 per cent recycled paper, which avoids much of the energy use and emissions associated with harvesting and processing new wood. Every kilogram of recycled tissue saves some 30 litres of water and between 3 and 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Since 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity is responsible for around 500 grams of CO₂ , that means a saving of 1.5 to 2 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of tissue.
Recycled toilet tissue is most widely used in Europe and Latin America, but even there it still only accounts for 1 in 5 rolls. In the US it isn’t a common product. The average American gets through 23 toilet roils each year, adding up to more than 7 billion rolls for the country in total. Of these, just 1 in 50 are from 100 per cent recycled fibres. As Greenpeace pointed out earlier this year, this not only wastes energy and water, it also puts additional logging pressure on old-growth forest in North America, forests which play a vital role in supporting native biodiversity.
The reason toilet roll made from new wood is preferred is quite : its long fibres produce the softest paper. Every time paper is recycled, the fibres become shorter, for an increasingly rough bathroom experience. Recycled paper can’t compete on softness so some use of new wood by the toilet paper industry may be inevitable. Sourcing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved toilet tissue will help to ensure that any new wood fibres that are added to the mix have come from sustainable forestry projects that protect, rather than threaten, old-growth forest ecosystems.
3. Fast fashion
Next on the list of everyday crime is fast fashion. In 1990, global textile production stood at 40 million tonnes. By 2005 that figure had risen to around 60 nil] lion tonnes. This surge in manufacture and consumption has been helped by fast-moving fashion trends and sweatshop price tags. As a result, much of the clothing we buy ends up being discarded long before it has worn out. In the UK, where the average item is worn for less than a third of its useful lifespan, more than a million tonnes of clothing are thrown away each year. The bulk of it ends up buried in landfill sites.
Even the global economic cr appears to have had little impact on our love affair with fast fashion; UK clothing sales this summer were up 11 per cent on the same time last year. If we can’t entirely kick the habit, we can at least dispose of the evidence in a greener way.
At present, in the UK and US, only around a quarter of unwanted textiles are reused or recycled. Recycled textiles have many uses, from mattress (床垫) fillings to bags and shoes, but the truly green alternative is reuse. The energy required to collect, process and sell a reused item of clothing is only 2 per cent of the energy required to manufacture a new garment. Every kilogram of virgin cotton preserved by reusing second-hand clothing saves 65 kilowatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 32.5 kilograms of CO₂ .
4. Laundry
Fast fashion has created textile mountains in many homes, yet the environmental cost of this excessive consumption has an even less conspicuous twin: the energy used to launder it all. Cleanliness has become a touchstone of domestic life since advertisers convinced us that our shirts must always be "whiter than white", our sheets should forever smell of spring flowers, and that to be dressed in freshly laundered clothes at all times is a badge of success. We live in a "wear once and wash" culture. In fact, only about 7.5 per cent of the average laundry load in the UK is thought to be heavily soiled. Much of the rest is made up of items that are stuffed into the washing machine simply because they are on the floor instead of in the wardrobe. This habit is shockingly wasteful in terms of water, detergents (洗涤剂) and energy.
One study found that over 80 per cent of the CO₂ emissions produced during the life cycle of a single blouse arose from cleaning and drying it. The percentage can be even higher for items made of cotton, as they tend to require far more energy-hungry drying.
It is easy to see how these emissions stack up. A full load in a washing machine uses around 1.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cycle and tumble drying clocks up a further 3.5 kilowatt-hours, resulting in over 2 kilograms of CO₂ emissions per wash. With four or five loads per household per week, the total annual emissions from each home can easily pass the half-toune mark. That’s a significant proportion of the 10-tonne annual emissions of the average European. Line drying, washing at lower temperatures and ensuring full rather than partial loads will all help to reduce laundry emissions. For the largest cuts, simply washing less frequently is the way to go.
5. Food wastage
Of all the facets of overcousnmption that plague both human society and the global environment, food wastage is the most shocking. US households throw away around 30 per cent of their food, worth $48 billion every year. Similar levels of wastage are seen in Europe. In the UK, some 6.7 million tonnes of food is binned annually. Most of this joins the layers of unwanted clothing in landfill sites, where it decays, emitting the powerful greenhouse gas methane. Potatoes top the pile, with 859,000 tounes going uneaten each year. Bread and apples are not far behind. Meat and fish are next, accounting for over 160,000 tounes. A staggering 4.8 billion gs go the same way, as do 480 million yogurts. The annual cost to UK consumers of all this waste is ￡10 billion and the cost to the environment is the equivalent of an extra 15 million tonnes of CO₂ .