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Did you know one new cotton shirt uses more CO2 to make than driving across Jersey and back?
Such surprising facts feature in a new campaign by Acorn to raise awareness about the environmental benefits of reusing items and minimising waste.
To mark World Earth Day - which falls on 22 April this year - banners and boards have been installed around Trinity-based Reuse Centre.
The signs aim to encourage buying second-hand by highlighting how it helps reduce one’s environmental footprint.
Some of the environmental benefits highlighted include the amount of CO2 saved in buying a second-hand sofa – the same amount as it takes to drive around the island five times.
Acorn General Manager, Steve Pearce, said that while the charity’s primary objective was to support people with a disability or long-term health condition with work and training opportunities, it also had an environmental objective – “to assist in the protection and preservation of the environment and promote the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle waste”.
“Buying second-hand household goods and clothes is a great way to reduce your personal environmental impact,” he said.
The campaign has been supported by Geomarine, which is exploring ways to increase the amount of reused and recycled materials in local civil engineering projects.
“Using recycled aggregate has become standard practice. We have also completed several piling contracts using pipe recycled from the offshore oil industry,” Managing Director, Phil Horsley, said.
“Partnering with Acorn allows us the opportunity to look at different ways of thinking about our eco-credentials and how we can bring about positive effects for the environment. We have always been impressed with Acorn’s philosophy of nurturing people and improving the environment, and we are looking forward to developingthe relationship.”
The environmental messages, which have been created by AI Studio, also include interpretation of how many items the charity saves from the waste stream.
For example, the 10,000 clothing bags the charity sorts every year represent the same height as Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa at 5,895 metres.
“Everyday items all have a carbon footprint but we set out to interpret what that means and open the conversation as the island heads towards being carbon neutral by 2030,” Steve said.
“You can look at the Impact Calculator on the Reuse Network website (reuse-network.org.uk) and see that an average settee might have a 52kg CO2 saving but it’s difficult to know what that actually means. When you put it alongside the carbon footprint equivalent of a flight or a car journey, it starts to make sense.”
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