THE LAST STRAW?

As UK legislation comes in this month banning plastic straws and cotton buds, St Albans mum Caroline Thain looks at what’s happening in the city to combat plastic and greenhouse pollution

A while ago, I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed on a sunny day, after we had enjoyed a barbecue. Then it hit me. Right in the face. A post offering a baguette to anyone who could collect it because it was left over from a barbecue and they didn’t want it to go to waste. Really? How are you going to fetch it – in your massive 4x4?

Around the time there was also a half-used tube of children’s toothpaste up for grabs for one lucky receiver. They too must collect it. Her little one didn’t like the flavour but yours might. And what a shame to bin it because she simply cannot abide waste.

On a Hertfordshire parent page I spotted a wooden John Lewis jigsaw ‘with a few pieces missing but plenty of life left’ – and the secondhand price was about the same as the item still sells for new. It’s puzzling.

These are at the quirkier end of the spectrum of ‘preloved’ delights available. I found them amusing and I try to be ecologically aware, but I do think my old Muppet friend Kermit The Frog had a point – it’s not easy being green.

I have a load of cloth nappies that I am about to pass on to my lovely friend and I don’t feel quite right about handing them over. Somehow her beautiful new baby is too clean and perfect to wear my toddler’s old nappies. But what would I do with them otherwise?

Since baguette-gate, a wave of kindness has spread through the nation. It’s extremely fashionable to be kind. Caring is key. Compassion is everything. To other humans, to animals, to the environment…

Alongside BBC documentaries about sealife entangled in food packaging, images of tiny turtles speared with cotton buds flood social media. Activists say the earth is heating up at such a pace, we will surely all be dead by Friday. Or so it seems.