Sainsbury's Mike Coupe on Packaging Waste

This is an interesting piece giving a giant retailer's perspective on the packaging waste conundrum. Coupe points out that Sainsbury sells some 250M items per week and has supply chains embedded across at least 60 countries. Many suppliers have invested significantly in packaging systems that cannot be altered on a whim. He also castigates successive governments for policy failures leaving us with a patchwork of waste management schemes because local authorities have different approaches. This is just one more stupidity associated with the laisser faire approach that has been the norm from Westminster.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Growing

Read this and weep! The world now produces over 320 million tonnes of plastic every year. Much of it is stuff we use once and chuck away - bottles, bags, ties, wrapping, meat trays, one-time knives and forks - you name it. And a huge proportion of it ends up in the sea.

This paper looks at just one particular accumulation zone but I wouldn't mind betting that the results are applicable to other build-up areas. The authors show that this zone - the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - is growing exponentially.

So, don't put the fruit and veg you buy in the supermarket in their helpful little plastic bags - they survive just as well loose. Don't just chuck away your yogurt pots - they make good seed pots.

Remember the old mantra:- REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE

A Good Life vs Sustainability

There are many siren calls for the western world to use fewer resources and for action to increase the access of the "third world" to the benefits that the west enjoys.

Now there is some interesting research suggesting that the two are probably just not compatible unless massive changes in our notion of growth and well-being are adopted. This is something that seems to me highly unlikely.

Rather than summarise the paper I suggest that you read it all here.

Who Was Edward Jeal?

As a little break from my family history research I have also been gathering snippets of information about our house so that I may eventually write a brief history. It's only been around for about 130 years so "brief" is the appropriate word.

The first occupants appear to have been Edward and Adelaide Jeal who may be found there in the 1891 census (RG12/574/80/10). The house doesn't appear in the 1881 census. Edward is listed as a carpenter, born about 1863 or 1864 in Croydon. The 1901 and 1911 census entries (RG13/620/70/9; RG14/3169/35/2/13/64) are in agreement. Edward and Adelaide were still there in 1939 when the National Register was compiled giving his birth date as 15 April 1863 (RG101/1955C/023/1).

There is a problem, however - I can't find any birth record for an Edward Jeal (or Geal or any of a number of other possible alternatives) that matches.

I had seen it suggested that he could actually be the Edward Jeal registered as being born in Reigate in 1866 (GRO ref 1866 Sep Reigate 2A 148) so I decided to try to chase this Edward down. In the baptism register of Reigate St Mary there is a record of Easton Edward Jeal being baptised on 28 October 1866. Could this be the same one? What I did note is that no father's name is given, just that of the mother - Elizabeth Jeal. And when I searched at the GRO website no mother's maiden name is given in the indexation information. So it looks as though this Edward was illegitimate.

I then found a marriage record for Elizabeth Jeall and Thomas Bashford in Reigate St Mary dated 19 January 1867. I rather suspected that this was the same Elizabeth.

In the 1871 census (RG10/830/28/3) Elizabeth and Thomas appear with three children - Edward (4), Matilda (2), James (1m). I could find GRO indices for the births of Matilda and James, but not Edward making me think that Edward Bashford and Edward Jeal are one and the same.

Looking forward in the censuses Edward Bashford gains an extra initial E in the 1891 (RG12/1361/68/15) and 1901 (RG13/893/59/5) censuses. It's not until the 1911 census (RG14/4293/73/1/7/26) that he is listed with his wife in the same schedule. She's Agnes. Back to the GRO indices and low and behold we have Edward Easton Bashford marrying one of Rosanna Sophia Funnell or Mary Agnes Glyde (1894 Mar Ticehurst 2B 173).

The case of the Reigate Edward is duly closed.

But what of "my" Edward Jeal? In the record of his marriage to Adelaide Mott at Wonersh St John the Baptist on 29 August 1888 his father is supposedly John Jeal, a carpenter.

There is a carpenter John Jeal resident in Croydon in 1871 (RG10/845/40/1) with a son Edward also present. However, this Edward  was only 2 at the time (birth registration GRO index 1869 Jan Croydon 2A 214). Furthermore I found him still in Croydon with his widowed mother in 1891 (RG12/592/55/33) when "my" Edward was in Wonersh.

So, who is Edward? The hunt goes on.