Live Circular #3

It's all about the bees, 'bout the bees

Welcome to the third edition of Live Circular, a weekly look at how living by circular principles can make us better consumers, save us money, and save the planet.

Just a short one this week to highlight the events on the sustainability calendar that can help you live more responsibly.

Coming this week

Today, Friday, 20 May, is World Bee Day (support nature)¹. If you don’t know about the importance of bees and other pollinators, and the significance of the threats they face, then click the link and find out more. There are many things you can do to support your local pollinators and encourage them into your garden, from planting certain flowering plants to building bee hotels.

If you’re participating in No Mow May (support nature), then wildflowers should be appearing on your lawns. Free pollinating plants with literally no effort!

Also this week, Sunday, 22 May is International Day for Biological Diversity (support nature), which again you’ll be supporting if you let your lawns grow wild. Learn more about the importance of biological diversity at the link above.

National Children’s Gardening Week (support nature) starts in the UK on Saturday, 28 May. This is a great time to get our little ones learning about the importance of pollinators, biological diversity and loads of other things relating to gardening and our outdoor spaces. Just don’t teach them about the mower until June.

Finally, there’s still time to get involved in The Big Plastic Count (use for longer, waste less) which runs until Sunday, 22 May. This event encourages us to take a look at how much single-use plastic our households use in the course of a normal week. The aim is not to shame people who use lots of plastic, but to get us all thinking about the staggering volume of products we buy just to throw away shortly after. Hopefully, putting a number to these products will encourage all of us to make some changes: seek out reusable options and add your voice to those asking for governments to phase-out single-use plastics.

Plastic Free July is just around the corner, so if you are galvanised to take action there will be plenty of opportunities for us all to learn some new tricks.

Check out the sustainability calendar for a listing of all sustainability-related holidays, events and observances:

Circular principles

The six circular principles are:

• Use for longer

• Waste less

• Support nature

• Keep it local

• Support responsible production

• Support your community

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Thank you for reading. I look forward to sharing this journey with you. Please consider subscribing; all subscriptions are free and I will only use this list to give you practical ways to be better consumers, save money, and save the planet.

To check out more of my writing, visit medium or my website notepaths.com

Live circular x

1. In case you’re wondering why I keep writing “support nature” in brackets, I’m highlighting which of the circular principles the holiday or event helps us to promote.