An Eco Lens on my Kitchen
As described in my recent post, in Climate Museum UK, we deliver training sessions for museums and heritage on putting An Eco Lens on Things. In that post, I categorised some ways of thinking about the world and its heritage with an Eco Lens. Learning to look with different ‘Eco Lenses’ helps people see the world in a fluid and expanded way, opening up to many possibilities and interconnections.
In this post, I’m telling some object stories, to show how it is possible to put an Eco Lens on anything. You don’t need to work in an explicitly environment-themed museum or heritage site. You don’t need to work in a museum or heritage site, or even to visit a museum, if you want to use objects to get people thinking about our relationships with stuff, with each other and with the living planet. You can use the fluff in your pocket, the shoes on your feet, or the hedges in your street to spark a meaningful conversation. If you are a museums and heritage person, or a teacher or content creator, or simply want a thriving planet, consider how to connect with others around environmental issues by looking again at things around you. In these stories, I’m showing how you can use items to hand, by talking about four items in my kitchen.
I’ve been using this fancy soap daily for nearly two years! It’s French, based on olive oil and scented with lemon and geranium oils which are natural antibacterial and antifungal agents. I bought it much reduced but it was still more expensive, maybe £5, than the kind of supermarket soap you might buy in multi-packs. Still, I have saved a lot of money by this one lasting so long and it still has a few months of life in it. The price of olive oil has jumped enormously due to climate impacts and disease so I guess this soap is more expensive now.
It’s a perfect example of the adage that people who can afford better quality items save money in the long run. Some people argue that sustainability is only available to the well-off but, on the other hand, buying less stuff, and buying long-lasting or second-hand items is both sustainable and affordable. (I think that people should be able to afford good quality necessities, and for this we need distribution of wealth, a universal basic income, and harmful goods banned, taxed or a ban on advertising, with the most healthy and sustainable basics made more affordable. I suggest working towards these goals rather than arguing with people about whether sustainability is elitist or not.)
Soap is a good topic for talking about our relationships with stuff in the past and present. From about 4800 years ago to 150 years ago, soap was mostly used for washing clothes rather than bodies. People cleaned their bodies in different ways in different cultures, with steam, water, oil, herbs and rubbing or scraping. Traditionally soap was made by boiling animal or vegetable fats with ashes. Now most modern soaps are made with synthetic detergents based on palm, coconut or seed oils that use a lot of land to grow. (Land use change has affected almost a third of the world’s terrain since 1060, 2021 study.)
The increasing use of liquid rather than solid detergents has been enabled by the rising use of plastic packaging. That leads on to the big issue of plastic recycling. I use Ernie’s Zero Waste shop in Norwich to get my washing liquids, taking old plastic bottles to refill. These kinds of shop are struggling with under-use when they should be booming, and their goods can be cheaper. But, solid soap is more efficient when it makes sense to use it. People use on average 2.3 grams of liquid soap compared to 0.35 grams of hard soap to wash their hands so a solid bar will save money and is a greener option.
You might also find yourself talking about the hot topic of water pollution and sewage. Another area is how detergents affect the skin microbiome. But it’s time to wash our hands of this subject for now.
This is a plastic wall thermometer. I bought it from Oxfam for £1.99 because I wanted to see how my bathroom temperature varies compared to the rest of the house, and whether I can increase the temperature with a few insulation tweaks. I’ve been stuffing up some draughty pipe openings, and caulked a bit of rotting rubber in my bathroom window. Insulation is one of the most important things you can do in your house to save energy, which has rocketed in cost in the past 2 years. However, some of the up-front costs of insulation work represent an investment that many can’t afford.
Another obvious topic stimulated by the thermometer is how our climate is changing. Our bodies are noticing warmer, and sometimes colder weather, for more prolonged periods or at unusual times of the year. Each month of 2024 records have been set for the highest global surface temperatures and extreme heat in certain parts of the world.
In the UK, small talk often begins with the weather. An elderly neighbour said to me on a warm day “If this is global warming I want more of it”. It wasn’t the right moment to challenge him, but if I see him in a community space I might use our cups of tea as objects to start a conversation and ask him if he remembers different weather patterns in the past. Or if I’m talking with somebody under 35, I might say that they won’t have experienced average or below average global temperatures in their lifetime. Rather than letting the conversations stall or get into difficulties, I suggest something people can do to take action and save money, or I ask them questions about their own concerns or desires.
This is the kind of thing that might make some people cringe, as it shows me as a certain type of person. Yes, I have a preserving jar and I make my own weird drinks. But this is not weirder than having a soda stream machine, and it’s much cheaper and healthier. This is my water kefir (or tibicos) factory, with which I make four bottles a week of beautifully sparkling, fruity, herby drink that restores my gut microbiome. The kefir grains reproduce in the jar, generating enough to pass on, so I acquired mine from a local friend, Matt. It’s a social drink in that way, building connections between people, as well as growing the community of very small beings in your gut!
Gut health has been found to be fundamental to immunity and wellbeing. Ultra Processed Food (UPF) and other factors such as stress, lack of sleep, a sedentary lifestyle, alcohol, microplastics and antibiotic drugs are all factors that diminish our microbiome. This increases the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, cardiovascular disease, allergies and skin conditions and more. (Arguably, UPF is not food but industrially-produced edible substances that are slowly toxic to humans.)
Why is this an environmental issue? Our food system is a major cause of environmental harm, contributing significantly to global warming, air pollution, soil erosion, biodiversity loss and animal harm. Increasing local provision of a more plant-based diet is key to improving environmental health and human well-being. Sugary and fizzy drinks, and alcohol, are massive industries that generate profit and cause environmental harm at every stage — land use for sugars, water consumption, packaging production, transportation and waste. In the UK alone, we get through two billion plastic bottles and two billion cans every year. These drinks provide us with empty calories and diminished health, and cost a lot of money.
Water kefir is a brilliant alternative because it’s fizzy — in a way that isn’t harshly carbonated. The cost is an up-front investment of a glass preserving jar and two bottles (with a clip and seal) and you can get these very cheaply from discount shops. Ask around for spare grains, and if nobody has any, you can order a starter pack online for about £5. Enjoy!
My last object is actually two, a contemporary Colman’s Mustard jar and an old Colman’s mustard pot for the table. The yellow colour reflects the type of mustard grown here, compared to the brown types you get in France or Germany. The mustard for Colmans was grown in the Fens, not in Norfolk, and brought to Norwich for processing. The crop nearly died out after Unilever bought the brand in 1995 due to reduced yields, but a cooperative of local farmers saved it and still sells to Colmans.
Most people ‘back then’ bought mustard powder in cans, and mixed it with water and vinegar as a daily table condiment, in little pots like this green earthenware one. Now it’s mostly available ready-mixed in glass jars. I live in Norwich, where Colman’s Mustard was manufactured. Jeremiah James Colman took on the family business and moved it in 1856 to Carrow in the South of Norwich. He grew the business, investing hugely in housing, schools, healthcare and civic philanthropy to ensure the well-being of workers and the wider community.
The factory zone is long closed, along with the many shoe factories and breweries also closed since the 1970s-80s, and is awaiting redevelopment. I’m part of a collective of social & environmental organisations planning to take on Carrow House, the historic home and gardens Colman built, as a shared space for collaboration, creativity and social good.
So far this story is tangentially environmental — for example, the change in packaging, and the takeover by a large conglomerate. The key story is that mustard is very sensitive to climate impacts. Drought and heat severely depleted the brown seed crop in Canada and France in 2021, leading to a mustard shortage. The Fens farmers are now experimenting with frost-resistant varieties to grow more in winter, avoiding summer extremes. This means you might see more yellow mustard than brown in UK supermarkets for a while.
So, overall, I find that objects stimulate three kinds of conversation or approaches to environmental topics:
- As clues to our past, and how human civilisation has arrived at this critical moment.
- As a stimulus for expression in the present, for example, reminding us of values or connecting us to other lives.
- As a compass to the future, suggesting ways that we might live and innovate for a more regenerative culture.
Why don’t you try an object-led conversation using anything around you, about environmental issues? Let me know how it goes by commenting on this post.
