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

Choose to live in a more sustainable location. You can't really be environmentally friendly if you have to get in a car for a everyvsingle journey.

Agree with a lot here but adding.

Buy in glass packaging - ketchup, salad cream etc as it is infinitely recyclable (and more expensive) but plastic degrades and will eventually end up in landfill. Same for paper or cardboard.

See if there is a refill shop near you, we have several and the milkman delivers the milk in a loop system so our plastic use is much reduced. Get bread machine do you have the space, it's cheaper and no plastic as the ingredients come in paper (flour, yeast, salt, sugar and butter).

It's a big one but driving an electric car will cut your bills (as per tell is more expensive than electricity) and your carbon footprint.

Use Ecosia for internet searches as it results in new trees being planted. Delete emails and unwanted files as it cuts cloud storage on massive servers that take up power.

Reducing and reusing is much better than recycling and the less plastic the better but also think about what you get delivered as that all takes up carbon and reducing carbon is probably what will help in the end.

Sunpat has no palm oil, neither does meridian or other 100% nuts ones, Asda does one.

There is a great app Earth Hero that will help you calculate your current relative emissions and it gives ideas to reduce them. I am currently 28% less than the British average but still 10% more than the global average so still some work to do. I will be reading this thread for more tips!

How long were you vegetarian for? Did you take a multivitamin? Did you get your bloods tested? I’m not sure about not being able to breathe or whether that could be connected to diet but the other symptoms sound like possible anaemia- so focus on ensuring lots of iron sources (pulses, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, green leafy veg, tofu, fortified breads and cereals) and cut out dairy which inhibits absorption, also don’t drink tea or coffee with meals as those hugely inhibit absorption.

Agree with a lot of what’s been said already. Embrace second hand. Refillable cleaning stuff (Splosh is good), bar soap and shampoo, no plastic shite from home bargains for Christmas/Easter/Halloweeen etc.

Don’t have any pets
Don’t buy cut flowers

On the shampoo bars - big brands have started doing these. The Alberto Balsam ones are about £3 and very good, as are the Garnier ones. They last much longer than a bottle too.

You don’t need to go vegetarian but try having less meat, for example put a tin of lentils in with mince to bulk out and use less meat. Buy local and unpackaged. I never buy Kitchen roll, just use cloths and wash them. Turn heating off or down, wash clothes less. I only have one bottle of method cleaning spray and a bottle of white vinegar, that cleans everything. Do you have a refill shop nearby? I refill my cleaning products, washing up liquid, toiletries and dried goods.

We aren't ready to be fully veggie but are mixing up our diet- culturally we eat fat more meet than we need nowadays so we've cut down to eating meat less that half the week. Though cheese can also be terrible for the environment so don't just replace it with cheese if you want to reduce carbon!

I've been pondering a microplastics filter for the washing machine but to be honest not totally what I'd do with what we catch- seems like less point if I put it in the bin anyway so need to work that one out.

I also need to get sorted with reusable face wipes too- that ones been on the list for a while.

We also get unbleached bamboo loo roll delivered (delivery aspect may well offset some of the benefits though), and but refillable/solid cleaning products where we can.

I have a soda stream, get through a couple of litres of sparkling a day so that's seven bottles a week save.

Got a milkman

Wash on 30, don't wash clothes when they don't need it.

Buy local meat from the butcher not sure on the environmental side it's more from an ethical perspective.

Reusable straws and water bottles.

Couldn't get on with beeswax wraps, we use Tupperware.

Have always been a shower family rather than baths.

Try and avoid palm oil which is difficult it's in practically everything.

Shampoo and conditioner bars

Refillable cleaning products

Not sure about the. Idea call thing, my carbon footprint would be a lot bigger commuting.

I walk or travel by bus instead of driving, plant vegetables in the garden, and avoid plastic bags. I only do want I can. Some advice above is too much for me to insist on, which will be pointless

Going vegan/vegetarian is not necessarily the answer. It’s not a black and white issue.
It’s true that meat production does on paper have a higher environmental impact than non meat production BUT you have to be very careful what you replace it with. For example if you’re eating lots of carbon heavy fruits, veggies and legumes which are imported from around the world your carbon footprint will be just as high as someone who is eating locally sourced and seasonal meat, fish and vegetables/fruit.

Use your bath/shower water to flush the toilet (plug in, bucket for pouring)
Use ild socks and knickers instead of kitchen roll
Make food from scratch

We also got a shower timer- ours is a 4 minute egg timer type high, I'll be honest, feels very quick!! But it has significantly reduced hot water use by the kids as they know they're supposed to beat the timer. I've been experimenting with having a sink wash on days when I'm working from home. Feels very old fashioned but there's a lot less water involved and I can stay clean and fresh without a shower for several days.

This change, along with reducing washing cycles to 30, kept us ahead of the first lot of power price rises last year- our bills went down when the first increase came in 😱 that was an eye opener in terms of how wasteful we were being!!

Reduce your consumption. This applies to everything, not just food. Electricity, oil, goods. Instead of buying books, borrow them from the library. Do everything you can to use less electricity and gas/oil, turn your thermostat down and plugs and lights off. Don't use the tumble dryer.

Things we can all stop buying - fabric softener, dryer sheets, unstoppable crystals, Zoflora, laundry disinfectant, bathroom/kitchen cleaning sprays, harpic. Bleach is much better for the water system than toilet cleaner. A drop of fairy in a sink of warm water will clean everything else. Those sprays are bad for your lungs anyway.

Get involved in local issues! If in the UK, join your local Wildlife Trust. We've taken part in local volunteering; hedge laying, river surveys and local campaigns to raise funds to purchase land to be managed as new nature reserves.

Some of these suggestions are quite difficult though.

We run an energy efficient tumble dryer- it's more efficient than running a dehumidifier for hours ans hours each day which was the only way to get clothes dried without them smelly funky when it's raining. Before we got it I was regularly re-washing clean clothes multiple times to make them smell better, and sometimes even just giving up and binning things which were in good condition apart from the lingering and persistent smell of damp and mankiness. And yes, we do open windows etc, but the house is just terrible with retaining humidity. We do stick stuff on the line when we can, but it rains quite a lot here (west coast of scotland), and so for us the tumble drier our more eco friendly option. We were really geeky about the calcs, and as long as we don't run the drier more than 3 times in a day (which would be exceptionally rare), its the more efficient option.

The laundry disinfectant stuff is a similar debate- it's a chemical I don't want to be washing down the drain etc etc, but it does mean that washing bedding and towels at 30, so it's a massive saving on energy. It also seems to deal well with clothing that has picked up the persistent damp making smell where I've tried to dry them inside on a rack, so it also makes them rewearable rather than being the cycle of rewashing and rewashing and then binning.

I'm not sure with some of these what the greater evil is, but the suggestions here aren't all clear cut depending on each individual's circumstances.

The environmental impact of agriculture practices is very localised. Data based on US agriculture which includes irrigated deserts doesn't reflect the impacts in the UK.

Beef/ dairy and sheep farming use a lot of marginal land in the UK and enrich poor soils and encourage biodiversity and wildlife food chains. There's relatively little additional water used beyond the direct rainfall. Additional feeds tend to use non-human food grade waste. The land used tends to be unproductive for arable use, so wouldn't be sustainable for supporting a plant-based population.

Chicken and pork would be better to reduce than beef and lamb.

Have an interesting garden with layers of planting, pollenating flowers, a water source. Let wild flowers grow in the lawn.

Reduce, reuse, recycle in that priority order is the best way to manage consumption.
Avoid fashion. Sparingly, buy things you love that will last.

Give experiences rather than objects as treats/ gifts. Cut token gift giving.

Explore what's on your doorstep. I found it crazy in 2020 meeting people I knew that had never gone for a mile walk from home before and didn't realise the paths and cycleways within a mile from home as they're always busy off elsewhere and doing "big" days out.

Walk/ cycle/ scoot local errands if you're not in passing. Reduce journeys, and blend them together where practical.

@BogRollBOGOF
interesting what you say about British beef/dairy and sheep farming. I’ve read the same. That it actually enriches the land.l and is actively good for the environment.
And yes I think it’s clear that our land would not be able to support a nation of non-meat eaters. So many nuances in this debate!

@Canyousewcushions yeah of course i should have added it depends on your own circumstances. Someone with a damp house or 4 kids in school will need to use the tumble dryer sometimes. We have a pulley maid which is great because the washing hangs out of the way at the top of the room where the heat rises too, so our washing dries quite quickly

None of us are ever going to be perfect. All we can do is try.

wwf carbon footprint calculator might help you with this

Your biggest impacts are likely to be food, transport and home heating

you don't want to be vegetarian, but you can still eat less especially beef and cheese - I personally find one meat dinner a week keeps me ok.

Insulate your home , roof but also thick door and windows curtains , turn the heating down a little and get more jumpers, take shorter showers and wash clothes less frequently

You need a car , but try not to fly every year, try to reduce your car mileage - don't pop out every day to a shop or after work but plan one trip

Beef is fairly clear cut even if it's lovely outdoor reared British beef -

As a country we can support more people if they have less meat - look to the WW2 diet
Because either we grow the feed for the animals in the uk - in which case it's land that could have been growing human food , or we import food or we can't grow very many cows