“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished,
refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted,
redesigned or removed from production.”
The
words of the late Pete Seeger, on an album released in 2008 and even more
relevant today than they were then.
Were
he still with us, no doubt Pete Seeger, a life long environmental
activist, would be at the forefront of
the environmental campaigns across the globe today.
His words may
sound harsh, but they are what we all need to hear. And the order is important – recycling is a
headline hitting concept, but it should never be the first resort.
We should be
looking to reduce our consumption of non renewable, unsustainable
materials such as single use plastics.
We do not use any single use plastics and only one silicon washer on the
lids of our cookware. And we are looking for alternatives for even that
component. Our packaging is all paper based and can be re-used, recycled or
composted.
Our pans are
seasoned with natural flax oil, so they can be re-seasoned and restored
again and again. In fact, they longer
you use them the better they get. And we
sell all the spares you need to make repairing them a simple
process. Do try not to burn the handles,
but it’s not the end of the pan, or the end of the world, if you do.
And so we come
to rebuilding and re-using. We
would love more people to own Netherton cookware, to use it daily, to cherish
it, to hand it on to the next generation.
And we recognise that the reason many people do not buy new pans is that
they “already have more pans than we need”.
So we have come
up with a plan.
But first a few
words about food banks – we are filled with admiration for the staff and
volunteers who run food banks around the country, but we are unhappy with the
necessity for them in 21st century Britain.
It is over 75
years since the Attlee government
basically enacted every recommendation made by eccentric patrician liberal
reformer Sir William Beveridge, who exceeded his simple brief – to survey the
country’s social insurance programmes – with a wide range of suggestions aimed
at eradicating what he called the five “giant evils”: want, disease, ignorance,
squalor and idleness.
Whatever Attlee thought of him, Beveridge was
no socialist. He thought taking the burden of healthcare and pension costs away
from corporations and individuals and giving them to the government would
increase the competitiveness of British industry while producing healthier,
wealthier, more motivated and more productive workers keen to buy British
goods.
Yet here we are, the fifth biggest economy in the world and
the evil of want is blighting the lives of thousands of people.
And we cannot blame it on the evil of idleness either – in
2017/2018 over 28% of referrals to food banks were for low income households,
ie people in paid employment, who couldn’t afford to put food on the table.
“I hope
the foodbank closes
The reasons that drive people to a foodbank are really complex.
Essentially, it tends to be because of low-pay work and issues with the
benefits system. We’ve already seen in Lambeth, which we are on the border of,
Universal Credit rolled out as a full service in December last year. In the
last six months we’ve seen the use of the foodbank rise by 150 per cent. Maybe
not all of that is a direct result of Universal Credit but the numbers have
gone up massively.
I don’t think foodbanks should be part of our norm. I hope the
foodbank closes because we have a benefits system that supports vulnerable
people when they need it.”
Rebekah Gibson is manager of Oasis Centre Waterloo foodbank
We cannot solve
the problem of people not having enough to eat on our own, nor can you. But we can all do our bit.
The issues are
vast and complex; people may not have the means to cook food, they may not be
able to afford to turn the cooker on; they may not have the knowledge and
skills to turn their donated food into an appealing meal; they may not have the
basic equipment, have you ever tried to open a can of soup without a tin
opener?
And this where
the #panamnesty plan comes in.
Bring us your
old pan and we will restore it to as close to new as possible and pass it on to
a food bank, who can give it a new home.
In exchange, we
will give you a discount on a new Netherton pan, that you can use and use and
eventually hand on the next generation.
“Food banks should not exist – not a single one – in an economically
developed nation seven decades after the construction of a welfare state. “
Agreed, but as long as they do …………….then we should all do
whatever we can to support them, from the donation of a single can of beans to
a full week’s shop, to volunteering and helping out, campaigning and sourcing
new supplies or taking part in the #panamnesty
