Lucy Siegle

Enough plastic is thrown away every year to circle the world 4 times More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year 300 million tonnes of new plastic is produced every year An estimated 15-51 trillion pieces of plastic now litter the world's oceans 38.5 million plastic bottles are used every day in the UK A million plastic bottles are used per minute around the world 500 million plastic straws are used per year Without big action, at the current rate, pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the ocean by 2050. That is the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Plastic flows into our lives from every direction and most of it is not recycled. Instead it is incinerated or ends up in landfill, where it will sit for hundreds of years, or enters the world's seas where it fragments into tiny pieces to become microplastics - the environmental scourge of our times. Many of us had assumed that governments, brands and waste authorities were dealing with plastic on our behalf. But the impact of shows such as Blue Planet along with national beach cleans and high-profile campaigns have resulted in a collective wake-up call. If there were plans and strategies, they have not worked as we imagined. It would be easy to feel despondent but instead we need to turn our anger and emotion into action, starting by making a big dent in our own enormous consumption. Turning the tide on Plastic is here just in time. Journalist, broadcaster and eco lifestyle expert Lucy Siegle provides a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools we need to make decisive change. It is a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible guide to help us to take decisive and effective personal action. Because this matters. When it comes to single-use plastics, we are habitual users, reaching out for plastic water bottles, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws and carrier bags multiple times a day. If only 12 of us adopt Lucy's 'reduce, rethink, refill, refuse' approach, we could potentially ditch 3K-15K single items of plastic in a year. When we consider our power as influencers - whether at school, the hairdressers, at work or on the bus - we suddenly become part of something significant. So now is the time to speak up, take action and demand the change you want to see in the ocean, in the supermarket aisles and on the streets. It's time to turn the tide on plastic, and this book will show you how.

How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again

Turning the Tide on Plastic

Peels back the layers of the global wardrobe to reveal the naked truth about the big-names luxury 'it' brands we swear by and the cheap clothes we believe we can't live without.

Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?

To Die for

An expose on the fashion industry written by the Observer's 'Ethical Living' columnist, examining the inhumane and environmentally devastating story behind the clothes we so casually buy and wear.

To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?

100 Questions to Boost Your Climate and Nature IQ

Be the Ultimate Friend of the Earth

Embracing an eco-friendly lifestyle can be a daunting prospect for the average urban dweller. Synthetic surroundings are miles away from inspiring pastoral scenes, and the temptation to indulge in a spot of mindless consumerism lurks around every corner. To exacerbate matters, urban dwellers are generally pressed for space, probably cash and definitely time. This handbook aims to address these issues head on, dispel the myths and provide some viable solutions.

Green Living in the Urban Jungle

Fashion is many things. It is self-expression, big business, trend-setting, a lifestyle choice. But however you see fashion, it relies on one simple characteristic: the incredible speed with which clothes make their journey from the drawing board to the High Street hanger. Fashion is fast. Fast fashion influences the types of garments we have in our wardrobes. It also describes the complex, multi-national supply chain that links the shirt on your back to the crowded, creaking factories in the world’s slums where clothes are made by a workforce numbering in the tens of millions. The manufacturing pressures that come from our deep love of incredibly cheap, incredibly current fashions were shot to global attention in 2013 when the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, collapsed in a cascade of tumbling rubble, twisted metal and trapped bodies. Over 1,100 people died, mainly young women. We Are What We Wear is the story of what happened in Bangladesh and how fast fashion has grown to become the giant that it is today. The intimate accounts from the survivors of the collapse are mixed with an exploration of the history of fast fashion and of how the High Street both fuels and satisfies our every fashion wish. Award-winning reporter Jason Burke picks his way through the day of the collapse, while fashion and consumer expert Lucy Siegle looks at what has happened since – and what needs to happen next.

Lucy Siegle

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