Have you ver wondered about Tetra Pak cartons? They are becoming more and more common on our shop shelves - just how green a solution are they?

The environmental downsides to plastic bottles are mostly well known: they are expensive to recycle, recycling rates are low, there are limited options for the use of recycled plastic material, and plastic litter can wreak havoc with the environment. So, any person or business who are environmentally conscious, of course, would try to reduce and eliminate their plastic use.

Because of these considerations there has been an increase in metal and cardboard being used for drinks and liquid containers.

The rise in popularity of cardboard cartons, however, which are really complex composites of plastic-lined cardboard and aluminium, is a deeply imperfect solution.

Reducing plastic waste is only part of the problem: if plastic is replaced by containers that are not easy to recycle either then the replacements may not lead to an...

ESG is currently a buzzword that people are either very familiar with or have simply heard about.

The fact is, that ESG is going to become an integral part of how we all do business, particularly on how we report on the sustainable practices of our company in a transparent way.

(For more on ESG - check out our October 2022 blog)

KALDEWEI is a company that we came across early last year and we were delighted to be able to interview one of their international project managers Paul MacSherry on the business itself and LUXSTAINABILTY®.

They also shared their recently published ESG sustainability report which we view as best practice standard and a shining example of how businesses should be reporting on all aspects of their business’ operations including Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

It touches on all 17 UN SD Goals and is presented in a clear and transparent way.

But who are KALDEWEI and who are their clients?

KALDEWEI is a 104 year old German family owned business, manufacturing...

The linear economy or “take-make-use-waste” model is being exposed for its severe negative consequences environmentally. 

Society is realising that our systems are no longer serving us. On our current trajectory worldwide, waste generation will have increased by 70% by 2050 – that’s 3.4 billion metric tons! (Global waste generation - statistics & facts | Statista). 

The message of reduce, reuse, repair, repurpose and then recycle is slow to take real effect in counteracting this waste problem.  In the Hospitality industry we need to rethink: not what we offer but how we offer it –and the consequential waste from our decisions.  

The Hotel Yard 

One missed opportunity is when renovations are taking place at a Hospitality property.  Furniture, which is still perfectly useable is being thrown in the skip in large quantities. There is an alternative. Fifty Shades Greener has collaborated with Otolo, a global online...

For the year of 2024, the team here at Fifty Shades Greener have decided to focus our energy and efforts into spotlighting small, community driven sustainability projects from anywhere in the world that are operating on a grass roots level.

The world of sustainability itself can often be perceived as a minefield. From the enormity of the climate crisis, CSRD regulations and measuring carbon emissions, the efforts being made on the field by individuals or groups can often get overshadowed.

However, we always say at FSG, that small actions do count, especially when being carried out by many. This blog series will endeavor to highlight those people or communities who are driving REAL action.

We hope their stories inspire you, and more importantly that they spark hope.

Our eighth story features Pedro Fernández professor at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid in the Department of Hydraulic, Energy and Environmental Studies.

Pedro is the founder of Blue KmC² Living...

We are delighted to present the fourth volume in our "Year of Hope" 2024 blog series.

At FSG, we have decided to focus our energy and efforts into spotlighting small, community driven sustainability projects from anywhere in the world that are operating on a grass roots level.

The world of sustainability itself can often be perceived as a minefield. From the enormity of the climate crisis, CSRD regulations and measuring carbon emissions, the efforts being made on the field by individuals or groups can often get overshadowed.

However, we always say at FSG, that small actions do count, especially when being carried out by many. This blog series will endeavor to highlight those people or communities who are driving REAL action.

We hope their stories inspire you, and more importantly that they spark hope.

Our fourth Story of Hope - is shining a spotlight on Understory - an environmental education and zero-waste organisation founded by Alex Konieczka.

"Understory was founded to...

For the year of 2024, the team here at Fifty Shades Greener have decided to focus our energy and efforts into spotlighting small, community driven sustainability projects from anywhere in the world that are operating on a grass roots level.

The world of sustainability itself can often be perceived as a minefield. From the enormity of the climate crisis, CSRD regulations and measuring carbon emissions, the efforts being made on the field by individuals or groups can often get overshadowed.

However, we always say at FSG, that small actions do count, especially when being carried out by many. This blog series will endeavor to highlight those people or communities who are driving REAL action.

We hope their stories inspire you, and more importantly that they spark hope.

Our second story of hope for 2024 looks at The Compost Kitchen, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This company, was developed by Himkaar Singh, with the purpose of repairing South Africa's soil using compost...

As defined by the European Parliament;

“The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended.”

The drive towards a circular economy has recently seen a huge push as it is in line with governments reaching their net zero targets. We are hearing it more and more in sound bites and headlines as for the most part, globally, there is an acknowledgement that our current linear economy is simply not sustainable.

So, how is the shift for European society going from our current throwaway culture?

Digging a little deeper into waste management plans and objectives, the Netherlands popped up several times so I decided to have a look into their overall ambitions and targets. For example, their government strategy has very clearly outlined that by 2050 the transition to the circular economy...

To begin 2024, the FSG team decided to focus our energy and efforts into spotlighting small, community driven sustainability projects from anywhere in the world that are operating on a grass roots level. 

The world of sustainability itself can often be perceived as a minefield. From the enormity of the climate crisis, CSRD regulations and measuring carbon emissions, the efforts being made on the field by individuals or groups can often get overshadowed. 

However, we always say at FSG, that small actions do count, especially when being carried out by many. This blog series will endeavor to highlight those people or communities who are driving REAL action.  

We hope their stories inspire you, and more importantly that they spark hope. 

Our first story of hope comes from the Recycle Bike Hub, based in Winchester in the UK. 

On first hearing about what this group of volunteers do and have achieved to date, we knew we wanted to spotlight them for our first ...

Have you ever put an item into the wrong bin? Food in landfill, landfill in recycling. Did your brain tell you for a second this is wrong and you still did it?

I know I have, and I am ashamed to admit it but hey, it’s the truth. I worked in the Hospitality Industry and this is a hard paced, busy, exhausting industry. There have been occasions in the past when, even though I realised the item was in the wrong bin, my body just didn't follow my brain's commands: Pick it up! This is wrong! You might contaminate the entire recycling bin! I swallowed my guilt by reasoning that I am "up the walls", in a hurry, it’s only a small thing. Have you ever been there? Has it happened to you?

The phrase “Out of sight, out of mind” seems appropriate in this case.

Recycling Waste

A while ago, I attended a workshop from Voice Ireland, a fantastic organisation that has spent the past few years going around the country, educating people on how to recycle...

This is difficult to determine, because there is more than one issue at stake.

In terms of Co2 emission at the production stage, Tetra Pak cartons are the winner, followed by plastic, then aluminium, and surprisingly then glass is the worst.

Glass is the highest producer of carbon emissions because of what energy is required to produce it BUT if you are reusing the glass bottles, their shelf life is much greater than the other materials, and so it could be considered a more sustainable product.

In terms of  plastic pollution and the ability to do closed loop recycling, glass and aluminium are the winners. And as you recycle them more times, their carbon emissions start to fall back down towards cartons and plastic. As per Ethical Consumer, it depends on how the item is going to be used and then disposed of.

Some are better in terms of their carbon emissions and others tie into the closed loop of reuse/recycling and affecting waste output.

Glass and Aluminium 

• They...