A look at the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 & some of the lessons we could learn

If we call ourselves the cleverest being on earth it would follow that we would learn by our experiences and change our behaviour accordingly, no?

Looking back to 1927 and the Great flood of Mississippi, 700,000 people were left homeless as the river rose and breached its banks with devastating results. Flooding was recorded to be as much as 30 feet in places (9 metres). This is an even scarier prospect once we remember that Alligators are prevalent in this area.

It must have been terrifying for all families involved and an experience that people wanted to avoid at all costs, yet studies show that global flooding is sadly becoming a more likely occurrence as sea levels rise.

Single-use plastic is one of the most important ecological nightmares that faces our planet today so will we, together, act as one and start to learn the lessons life teaches us? We have all the knowledge, intelligence and structures in place to be able to do so.

Obvious changes like reusable water bottles are easy fixes. As a tap water drinker all my life, I find it amazing that companies have been able to create such a huge market for single-use plastic water bottles, whilst charging a king's ransom in the process! Madness.

There are so many other areas too. Although the bag for life scheme in supermarkets has significantly cut single-use plastic bag use, we still need to find a credible solution for plastic film-wrapped vegetables, which seems so wasteful. We see so many products packaged individually but left open on shelves it seems excessive. Recently the British Grower's Association stated 95% of one major chains vegetables were in some form of packaging! On average the number stands at a major 84%, which is obviously far too high.

Rather than name brands we want to raise awareness. The people who run these companies are in the same predicament but we need to collectively realise that this issue should be high on our agenda.

So let's start to #makethechange by making simple steps. Whilst companies tackle the big issues we can all make simple steps. Firstly, buy a decent reusable water bottle and stop using bottled water, buy a reusable coffee beaker and stop throwing away single-use plastic coffee cups every time you get a takeaway coffee. When you are in a supermarket use your voice to choose outlets that are showing moves towards stopping the wasteful use of plastic.

We found a food container with a silicone lid recently and have now pretty much stopped using clingfilm, a simple but effective revelation!

Join us and make the change, at FOSH we specialise in quality reusable water bottles and beakers, to find out more about us click here.