Kate Livingstone: I’m doing my bit for the planet

Saving the planet may be a well worn cliché but, for the sake of my grandchildren, I try to do my bit.

I recycle where I can – my blue bin is overflowing which always surprises me for someone living alone, and nowadays my green bin has very little in it despite only being emptied every four weeks.

And what can I say about my black box! Honestly, I don’t put it out every fortnight so when I do put it on the kerbside I always want to leave a note saying “this is not a fortnight’s supply of wine bottles, it’s six weeks”. Someone I don’t think they would believe me.

I’ve even started using the food waste caddy and that is always a real eye-opener about how much food I waste. Sometimes I find myself eating out-of-date biscuits rather than put them in the bin ...

I also take unwanted items to the charity shop where I hope others can make use of them.

But it seems to become trickier all the time to continue doing as much as possible and we’re always being told that the climate change issue is not improving but getting worse.

Recent protests by Extinction Rebellion have made me question if glueing yourself to the Stock Exchange make a difference or are we better off looking at the sort of energy consumption we all have in our homes.

Now I see that McDonald’s is the latest company to use paper straws for customer drinks ... and the paying public doesn’t like it.

Seems the paper ones go soggy, much to the punters dismay.

But it seems that some people have come up with an alternative. They ask for a plastic coffee lid to be put on their soft drink so they can drink out of if that way.

I would have thought it possible to drink out of a paper cup without a lid, but perhaps that’s too much of a challenge for some!

You see that’s the problem. While there are lots of people who are doing all they can to live a ‘green’ life, there are probably just as many who don’t care.

While there are plenty of warnings about what will happen if we don’t act now to protect the resources we have, it’s obvious that lots more education is needed.

But I’ll continue to put out my wine bottles for recycling – no matter what the neighbours may think about me!