I’d love to be an eco-warrior... if I knew how

We’re all familiar with the concept that ignorance of the law is no excuse – but what about crimes against the environment? Research by activists City to Sea has revealed that the plastic collected by householders isn’t being turned into more plastic for more recycling but is being turned into nasty polyester of the sort used for football strips, which, unlike football players, can’t be repurposed, and ends up as landfill. High street brands are increasingly turning to alternative materials and in some shops, 85 per cent of polyester is made from single-use bottles, which retailers then brand, misleadingly, as “sustainable”.

“This is about easing the consumer’s conscience,” says City to Sea’s policy manager, Steve Hynd. “They imagine a bottle washed up on a beach being turned into something useful, even though it isn’t the case.”

Oh dear. I feel terrible even though I have never once bought a football shirt. The trouble is as you dig deeper, it transpires there are any number of eco-infractions we risk committing; glass bottles can theoretically be recycled forever, but making them is four times more resource-heavy than manufacturing plastic bottles.

This is because glass requires the extraction of silica sand, soda ash and dolomite (see what I mean about digging deeper? ) from mines, which is associated with land degradation and toxic runoff draining into water sources. Re-using is far superior to recycling yet still we are urged to fill our green bags and bottle banks. Our bad. And forget that smug glow as you carry your tote to the supermarket; you’d need to reuse it 393 times to equal the environmental impact of using a plastic carrier three times.

It’s a wonder eco-warriors aren’t engaged in armed combat over the relative merits of organic food (no pesticides but often loads of air miles), electric cars (cleaner at the point of use but how to mitigate the planetary cost of mass production? What do we do with the old cars?) and don’t get me started on biodegradable dog poo bags – if they get sent to landfill rather than composted they produce methane.

We want to do the right thing; if someone will just explain how.