We all like to do our bit, don't we? And after all, these days it's easier than ever. I am of course talking about the environment, about not wasting our valuable resources and recycling wherever possible.
Here at the finca in Franceses, we certainly aim to be environmentally friendly (more of that later) but I am also very heartened to see how recycling in the Canary Islands has grown over the years.
When we first moved to the Canaries in 2002, there was very little re-cycling going on. In fact, the only containers for recycling were for glass with the occasional container for small cans and plastic bottles. And the trouble with depositing the plastic bottles was the size of the aperture which was only big enough to take a small bottle, so anything over a 75cl size wouldn't fit in!
Nowadays, things have come on in leaps and bounds and there are collection points all over La Palma for the recycling of paper and cardboard, another for glass and a third for plastics, tins, cans and cartons/tetrabricks (milk, juice and wine containers).
I admit though that there is still some education to be done. For example, a friend of ours had to continually tell his aged mother-in-law not to throw the empty sardine cans on the land around their house. 'But it's good for the cactus,' she used to grumble and continued doing it unconvinced by these new fangled ways. And of course in her day, everything
was good for the cactus because living deep in rural La Palma, there were no shops and all the food was the out of the ground or farmyard variety.
The other great leap is in the use of, or lack of, plastic carrier bags in the supermarkets. Ohhhh at last!!! Common sense reigns. So now if you go into a supermarket, you won't be given a whole pile of plastic bags, often with just one item of shopping rattling around in its own bag, but will either have to buy a reusable bag for 60 cents or a euro depending on the sturdiness - or be charged per plastic bag.
So, how do we help
you to be eco-friendly at our accommodation in the north of La Palma? We use energy saving light bulbs. Well, we collect rainwater and fresh spring water into our 12,000 litre water tank. All the washing including bed linen and towels are line-dried (they have to be - we haven't got a tumble drier!) We compost kitchen waste and grow some of our own vegetables.
And as you'd expect, we have dedicated containers here for paper and cardboard, glass bottles and jars and
one for tins, cartons and plastics and we take these to the recycling points for you.
And what if your chosen holiday accommodation doesn't have eco-friendly measures? Of course, we can all be careful with our water and electricity usage and there's absolutely nothing to stop you being the master of your own collection for recycling. You'll find collection points all over the island. So let's all have a thought for our environment and for keeping La Palma green. Oh and of course ...
try not to throw sardine cans into the cactus.
