Today's #PoWNatureChallenge was to paint an endangered creature that The Wildlife Trusts help to protect. I chose the White-Tailed Bumblebee, which is abundant in my garden, amongst other types of bees. This bumblebee nests in disused burrows at ground level so it fitted with painting it on a stone, which is also at ground level. I've also discovered the odd toad or two in my garden, hiding under things in muddy patches. Maybe because the table water is high here, it attracts toads and frogs. Unfortunately, once uncovered, they don't stick around so it's hard to take a photo of them. So I based my bumblebee on one of my photos I took of bees. However, it was a challenge to paint on such a rough, bumpy surface, because my stone is also an amalgamation of little stones that have stuck together. Originally, it was perhaps part of a rockery. I have done street art in chalk on a rough wall but it was easier than painting the bee on a rough stone! But it was enjoyable! I collected several stones from my garden before choosing this stone, I've already painted a second stone, this time a butterfly, and will experiment on a few more stones later.
I talk about bees in an earlier post on this blog when discussing the use of bee killing pesticides that the government has allowed. I signed the petition asking the government not to use pesticides and kill bees. There are simpler and cheaper alternatives that are bee friendly:
A few hours ago, Clarence House released a video on Instagram about Prince Charles and his passion for the environment and his call for action against pollution, both back in 1970 and last year:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLe_PmTjqkk/?igshid=8mn3he97hqk3
So I thought I'd pick up on one point he talked about, which is plastic pollution. An article I read recently via Facebook talks about how to achieve a zero plastic waste future by harnessing alternative, environmentally-friendly materials and techniques to replace toxic, harmful, non-renewable sources for the products we make.
"Fossil-based materials literally surround us. The foam in your sofa, the glue holding your furniture together, the paint on your walls, the plastic in your laptop and water bottle, the threads in your clothes are all – more than likely – derived from oil, from life-forms that died millions of years ago."
“Not only are we replacing expensive toxic petrochemicals with lignin, which is renewable and biodegradable, but the products we’re making have natural anti-microbial and flame retardant properties,” she says. “In nature, lignin acts as a ‘glue’ holding cells together so why not use it to make adhesives.”
For these quotes and the full article, see:
This article explains the value of lignin - it is highly renewable because it is found in most plants and there's a lot of it e.g. you can renew the lignin used to make a new car by regrowing it in a Scandinavian forest within 1/10th of a second! Lignin can also be made into what is referred to as Lineo which creates a biodegradable plastic which would replace the need for the non-biodegradable plastic which is what we use today and have done for many decades. This Lineo can be used for a variety of products, ranging from supermarket plastic bags to car interiors or artificial grass football pitches! This article shows that this is not unrealistic because Sweden and the Netherlands already use a lignin-based product (asphalt) to surface their roads.
So the future looks promising in terms of ridding ourselves of plastic pollution which is damaging seas and oceans. Because plastic is not currently biodegradable, if people litter plastic boxes, bags, bottles, containers etc in natural spaces, throw them into the sea or other people's gardens, then it causes harm to wildlife, both in the sea and on land, as well as nature itself. The plastic we use now is a finite resource so, much as it is great to recycle it for bin collection, there are limitations to this system. For instance, there is a finite number of times you can recycle the same bit of plastic. Whereas, lignin is a natural rather than artificial carbon polymer so it doesn't need to go to landfill when it is no longer useable or reuseable. For further facts on recycling plastic in the UK, see this long and detailed explanation from the British Plastics Federation:
https://www.bpf.co.uk/Sustainability/Plastics_Recycling.aspx
However, it's not entirely as simple and ready-made as the Guardian article makes it appear. It depends on what you want to use the lignin for. It'll be easier for some products than others. For instance, the petrochemical industry needs the lignin to be chemically altered rather than used in its raw state, especially when it comes to making complex consumer products. Whereas, chemically altering lignin is not a particular concern for making other products, such as, glue or coatings. Furthermore, not all types of wood contain the same percentage of lignin - soft wood contains more lignin than hard wood. For these points and more, see this very detailed but highly complex scientific source of information about lignin:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/lignin
Therefore, it seems to me that more research needs to be done before lignin can completely replace oil-based products. But at least there is a way forward for a plastic-free ocean, reducing landfill, and eventually no longer using fossil fuel and oil-based commercial products. It'll also reduce rubbish and assist waste management.
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