How can I be more environmentally friendly

[Diorinthecountryy]

Looking for tips/ideas on how I can be more environmentally friendly within my home.

Thanks very much wise ones who live in my phone

dont have 4 dcs 🤣
recylce
dont fly long haul🤷‍♀️
wash less, body and clothes
walk as much as possible
reuse shopping bags
buy second hand, give away, resell

Become a vegetarian, eat as locally as possible, maintain a biodiverse garden, grow some of your own food, recycle, don’t use clingfilm, buy from markets, shops where you bring your own containers to fill, insulate to cut down on power usage, buy secondhand where possible.

It depends on how environmentally friendly you currently are.

In the main, probably stop buying stuff. And buy food as close to 'source' as you can.

Thanks very much for those great tips @Nofreshstarthere22 2 dc are more than enough for me 🤣 (will also keep daily shower and flights 🤣)

@Plentiful thank you. Would you recommend beeswax wraps and re usable kitchen roll?

If you have a garden, create a small wildlife pond. We've had ours for 3 years now and it's a proper 'waterhole' for hedgehogs, newts, frogs, sparrows and honey bees.

Beeswax wraps are a pain in the butt, just use Tupperware or put a plate over a bowl in the fridge. Reuseable kitchen roll is just a cleaning cloth isn't it?

Compost any food waste that's compostable

Basic premise is Reduce -> Reuse -> recycle.

Step 1 reduce everything you can reduce

• lower temperature heating and wash cycle
• buy less stuff
• do less washing - body and clothes

Step 2 - reuse what you can

• cloths instead of kitchen roll
• fabric bags instead of plastic
• Tupperware instead of cling film

Step 3 - if you've got to the point where you have reduced everything and reuse what can be reused then recycle everything that's left over.

Ideally you'd end up with nothing going in your landfill bill.

Use re fillable cleaning products. Eg tesco do them or smol.

Bar soap instead of shower gel

Bar shampoo instead of a bottle of shampoo.

Stop buying stuff.

Use transport powered by fossil fuels as little as possible.

Let your outdoor spaces grow wild and plant your own fruit & veg.

Reduce: meat, dairy, non local food. So less Avocados from Peru and more tomatoes from the garden!
Stop buying new clothes, cars, gadgets, make up, beauty products.
Use the car less.
Eco egg for washing
Only buy enough for what you need
Freeze anything that may go to waste
Save food scraps to make a stock.
Stop peeling your veg, just eat it all.
Only use video on calls when necessary (higher carbon footprint)
Switch energy/utilities providers to green suppliers

Reuse: I used to get through so much cling film. Now cheese gets locked in Tupperware, and leftovers don't always need covering especially if it isn't meat.
Jam jars instead of Tupperware
Only bother with reusable cups/bottles if you'll actually use them.

Jam jars instead of Tupperware

Yes I do this too, it's brilliant. Half lemons, half packs of green beans, pancake mix. A bonus being able to clearly see what's in the jars and also takes up less room in fridge/freezer

@Tatami love the idea of a wildlife pond. Will look into that.

@FatAgainItsLettuceTime would never have thought about the plate idea. I bought a compost bin the other week and have started filling it. Will start using microfiber cloths instead of kitchen roll. Dh just worked out that we spent £200 a year on kitchen roll. That's ridiculous.

@RoseMartha will switch to bar soap. I used some last year and it lasted for ages. I've read about bar shampoo and it's mixed reviews. Can you recommend any? Will switch to refill cleaning products.

@specialsauce cutting down on buying stuff is something we definitely need to do. I planted a few fruits and veg this year and thankfully they are doing great.

Don't bank at any of the usual high street banks. They all invest your money in fossil fuels. Move your cash and your pensions into to ethical banks.
Switch energy company to one which invests in green energy.

@Growingoutthegrey what's the egg for washing? Also I had no idea about video calls. Thanks for that long list much appreciated. To be fair we are good at using our reusable water bottles daily.

@specialsauce the jam jars sound great. I would imagine that they are good for keeping smells in also.

Go car free
Do not fly
100% genuine renewables
Vegetarian or vegan diet
Buy secondhand
Watch water usage

@Drews I had no idea about the banks, energy companies.

@wildfirewonder unfortunately I can't go car free as I live rural with no public transport. I tried to go vegetarian before but ended up unwell. I had no energy, could hardly breathe and went pure white. I wouldn't mind trying again though. I probably just need to read up on it more. I do like buying certain items second hand.

Buy less stuff in the first place, buy secondhand when you can if you really do need something.

David Attenborough answered this one quite recently. Just don't be wasteful.

Don't waste food, water or energy. If everyone did this it would make a huge difference.

On the 'freeze anything that might go to waste' line above. One of my favourite things we implemented is fruit bags in the freezer.

Every couple of days I look through the fruit bowl and anything that's on the turn and unlikely to get eaten that day gets chopped up and added to one of the freezer bags. I have 'stuff that will crumble', 'stuff to put in gin' and 'stuff that will smoothie'.

Now when I fancy a cooked pudding, I just get my 'stuff that will crumble' bag out, tip it into a baking dish, mix a bit of sugar and cinnamon or ginger through it and top with crumble mix, or pour it into a pie shell. Then into the oven and 30-40 minutes later, hot pudding.

Top tip, I double or quadruple the recipe when I make crumble topping, then spread the leftover on a baking tray, freeze it and when frozen bag it up. So I only have to make the mix 1 out of 3 or 4 crumbles. Just pour it over and cook from frozen. Do the same when you make cookies, roll them in to balls, freeze then bag. You can cook from frozen, just pop the cookie balls on a baking tray then into the oven for fresh hot cookies in about 10 minutes.

When DD fancies a smoothie, I tip fruit into blender, add yoghurt or fruit juice, blitz and fresh smoothie.

Gin gets citrus fruits, and as they're frozen they double as ice.

End up with some great combos, I love it when I have a good mix of plum, peach, nectarine and berries in a crumble.

@PJRules that makes total sense. Honestly I didn't know half the stuff on this thread.

@Fantina definitely need to stop buying stuff just for the sake of it.

@FatAgainItsLettuceTime oh I do love a crumble on a winters night. Will definitely be doing the freeze fruit tip.

Great thread!

Yeps be a vegan. That's probably the thing we could most usefully do.

And don't fly.

Buying locally produced food has such a tiny impact that it is only worth doing for other reasons tbh (like, the food tastes better or is cheaper - fair enough).

I'm trying to be really prepared.
So in the car there are sets of wooden cutlery left over from street food back along plus some salt sachets in case we get chips or something. Plus reusable coffee cups as my focus this year is not allowing any single use food containers.
Pack a food bag clip too.

Never leave the horse without a reusable bag. Put a thin fabric one in every handbag don't be caught short!

Buy big packs of things and decant. We do this with chocolate buttons and all sorts.

Get a decent set up Tupperware or the glass dishes with lids. Make sure you can store leftovers etc properly.

Beeswax wraps are money for old rope. Sistema sandwich boxes are great I've had mine 10 years!

Metal straws are brilliant.

Palm oil is banned in our house. The only palm oil free peanut butter is aldi own brand!!! It's great though

The hotter summers has been great for growing food. Our window sill herbs and tomatoes are doing really well!

Get a water butt and use only that for watering the garden.

Not sure about carbon footprint with all the postage but Vinted is great fun

Go and visit the ethical living board.

Some easy things no one thinks of: reduce cloud usage. Delete old emails (received and sent). Delete photos you don't want/need. Since digital photos its amazing how many crap photos are kept.

Microfibre cloths are terrible for the environment- they leave tiny bits of plastic in water.

Reduce. Reduce. Reduce.

I aim for a minimalist lifestyle and since doing that Ive really cut down on what I buy (good for the wallet too).

I batch cook loads including cakes and biscuits. Cakes and biscuits freeze well and can just be defrosted then eaten. I freeze cooked cookies to avoid putting the oven back on.

@Diorinthecountryy
I like the coconut faith in nature and garnier honey bar shampoos. I look out for the garnier one when its on special offer.

Body shop you can buy an aluminium pump bottle with shampoo in and take it back in to the shop to be refilled for their liquid shampoo. (Not the banana one though, they told me its too thick).