Daily contact lenses - eco disaster and other forgotten things …

[Lightisnotwhite]

I wear hard, gas permeable lenses. They last for years or until I lose one or decide I can’t see properly. Opticians are always trying to flog me daily ones.These are disposable ones that come in little plastic tubs. So that’s 2 a day plus the lenses being chucked out.

The traditional Poppies have plastic stalks and middies. Goodness knows how many we get through. I support the cause with cash but use a knitted one.

So many little things need updating to be eco friendly.

@Lightisnotwhite

Lots of things come in foil pouches now. I buy a Thai curry pack. Yes I have coconut milk in tins but the paste is the price of a pack and it goes off before I use it up. . Unfortunately smaller portions means more plastic.

Schools photocopying. So often it’s wrong size/ not colour/wrong orientation. I use all my hashed copies as notepaper but if I think to all the schools and colleges churning out wasted paper.

I actually freeze leftover coconut milk in little tubs. It works absolutely fine, separates slightly but comes back together when put in the pan. There are lots of recipes that only need half a can, and I got sick of leaving the rest in the fridge and chucking it away a week later!

@36degrees

Terracycle have stopped their cat food pouches programme, but the Co-op takes them in their soft plastics collection.

That's even easier. Will deal with the mountain today

One more thing...blister packs (that pills and tablets come in) can't be put in normal recycling but Superdrug have collection points for them.

I'm try to reduce my digital carbon footprint, which is easier said than done. But things like old emails, online photo back up etc - all take up server space and therefore energy. And for what? The 800 HD photos taken at someone's wedding, shared on WhatsApp and auto backed up by Google? Very cathartic to delete those.

I find it ironic that the worst offenders for this are the young, who as a group are (rightfully) concerned about climate change.

Yes, I have deleted several tens of thousands of old emails in the last few months with this in mind. I'm old school for photos and still back them up via laptop to external hard drive. Cloud storage is so cheap it's easy to get in the habit of keeping everything though.