Use old containers, like buckets or cans, as planters.
This is a great way to cut down your plastics use (made from oil). Re-use plastic plant pots and food trays and stop them going to landfill or being burnt.
Why: Microplastics, from broken-down plastics, are harming us and animals
More information:
Make compost bin from old pallets
This is an excellent upcycling project!
If you are unsure how to go about it, this video is a nice 'how to' guide.
Share seeds, plants, or resources with friends or community groups
Make new plants for free: Collect seed, take cuttings and divide plants
Why: Your plants will grow well in the changing Lanarkshire climate.
Did you know, we have a seed sharing library in Lanarkshire? Learn more about the network here.
More information:
Go peat-free and keep peat in the ground
What can you do?
- Make your own free garden compost. It’s easy to do and you’ll be able to feed and mulch your garden beds
- Only buy peat-free compost
- Only buy peat-free plants
How it helps
Peatlands (peat bogs) store carbon dioxide (CO2) over thousands of years. Digging up the peat destroys the bog and releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. CO2 is causing climate change. Keeping peatlands wet and boggy keeps it trapped.
Scottish peatlands have rare and unusual wildlife. They are internationally important and they’re under threat in Lanarkshire. Peat is made from a plant called Sphagnum moss that grows 1mm a year. Some Scottish peat bogs are over 6,000 years old.
Peatlands hold water and prevent flooding.
More information:
Everyday chemicals
You might be surprised at how things we use every day are harming wildlife. Here are a few ways to make a difference:
Cut down on plastics
Plastics, e.g. bags, bottles, disposable food packaging, straws etc., pollute land and oceans for hundreds of years, entangle animals, and release microplastics into waterways.
Go wildlife-friendly: Use reusable (cloth bags, glass or metal containers), compostable or biodegradable alternatives.
Keep it clean
What you use to clean yourself and your home can harm wildlife when it goes down the plug. Making and using bleach, detergents, drain cleaners, disinfectants, shampoo, soaps/body wash and sunscreens washes toxins into the environment polluting rivers and seas.
Go wildlife-friendly:
- Choose eco-friendly, biodegradable cleaning products.
- Make DIY natural cleaners using ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.
- Use refillable cleaning product systems to reduce packaging waste.
Change your pet flea and tick treatment
Some tick and flea treatments are having unintended consequences for our wildlife. The chemicals in them have been shown to wipe out insects in rivers and ponds and reduce garden bird’s breeding success. Many contain chemicals that have been banned in farming.
Go wildlife-friendly:
If you are going to use a skin (topical) treatment, then:
- Don't allow your dog to swim in ponds, rivers, burns or the sea
- Don’t put out any pet hair out for nesting birds
- Keep your pet on a lead in wildlife sensitive areas e.g. nature reserves
- Leave it longer between treatments.
If you don’t use them or are going to stop using them:
- Keep an eye out for ticks and fleas
- Use a flea comb and tick hook to catch them
- Wash your dog regularly
- Wash pet bedding and vacuum regularly
Check your paints and preservatives
Harmful chemicals from oil-based paints, varnishes, and turpentine can leach into soil and waterways, poisoning wildlife.
Some paints release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when used or thrown out.
Go wildlife-friendly:
- Choose water-based, low-VOC, or VOC-free paints.
- Store and use paint so it lasts.
- Dispose of leftover paint and solvents at hazardous waste collection centres. Remember to follow the rules.
Get rid of your waste with care
If you are getting rid of anything with chemicals in them, check what can go into your bins or to your council recycling centre. Make sure you sort your waste correctly. Remember to return unused medicines to your local pharmacy.
More information
The Wildlife Trusts show you how to:
How tick and flea treatments are harming wildlife:
- Keep your pets flea and tick free in a wildlife–friendly way
- Store your paints well
- North Lanarkshire Council Bins and recycling
- South Lanarkshire Council Bins and recycling
- Could we be prescribed medicines that harm the environment less?
Why is peat so important
Peat is a highly fertile type of soil common to many of the most productive areas of land on the planet. Due to its high fertility, peat has historically been greatly prized by farmers as the foundation of productive farmland and by gardeners as a component of top-quality, shop-bought compost mixes.
Peatlands are areas of the UK where plant matter - such as sphagnum moss – has partially decomposed in slightly acidic water over millions of years to form peat soil across upland areas of bogland. It also occurs as a sublayer in lowland areas where it is stored beneath the marshland growing above.
Deep peat seams composed of decaying roots, leaves and branches also exist in the swampy forests of the tropics. Unfortunately, many of these areas have been drained to create vast oil palm plantations, contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Peat has a very high carbon content due to its origins as plant material and can be thought of as a midway point between living plants and fossil fuels like oil and coal. Peat that is 30cm deep holds the same amount of carbon across a hectare as the same area of rainforest, while deep peat can hold ten times as much carbon as woodland*.
Peatlands play an important role in climate regulation by sequestering and storing carbon, however this function has been compromised by decades of harmful land management practices in many areas. Carbon is locked away in peat by water, so drying it out either deliberately to drain marshes for conversion into farmland or because of climate change results in the carbon being released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Disturbing peatlands to extract the peat for use in the horticultural industry as a component of commercial composts has a similar effect.
Restoring degraded peatland plays an important role in slowing climate change. One approach to peatland restoration involves taking areas of deeper peatland out of food production and flooding it in a process called ‘rewetting’ that locks carbon back up in the wet soil. As an added benefit, this wetland supports biodiversity, becoming home to wildlife including wading birds and acting as a water store during periods of high rainfall, protecting nearby settlements from severe flooding.
Growing crops on rewetted, restored peatland – known as paludiculture, or ‘bog-farming’ - is a potential solution to using land for growing crops alongside benefitting wildlife and storing carbon. Commercial development is in its infancy and there remain a number of barriers to overcome regarding how to sow, grow and harvest paludicultural food crops suited to growing in boggy wetlands and developing a market for such products.
Areas of severely degraded, thinner peat soils or where peat has been removed altogether can be gradually improved through regenerative farming techniques to increase the soils' ability to store more carbon once again.
*UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
