To be bothered by how much we consume as a society...

[Cakelesswonder]

Don't get me wrong I love a retail therapy session but today just felt utterly gluttonous in the amount of ads for Black Friday, the 'deals, I couldn't move for emails offering me 20% off lots of things I don't need. I'm not suggesting everyone knits their own yogurt and lives like Mormons but I really feel we don't have the resources on Earth to keep consuming, throwing and consuming like we do. Everything is disposable, straws, clothes, we buy water in bottles then throw them away polluting the oceans and planet for ourselves and future generations. I have no idea what the overall solution is but it really got to me today .

Fantastic thread.

I've picked up some great tips.
Fantastic idea about the reusable wrapping paper. I defiantly need to look into that.

I find if I buy second hand or try to fix something instead of buying new I get told im stingy etc. Some people just don't get it sadly.

What I’ve started doing is stopping to buy things for myself and will request it for Christmas instead. Eg I need new face moisturiser but am using dregs of body lotion instead to see me to Christmas. My slippers are falling apart and to save on heating bills, I’ll ask for a wool blanket.

I’ve also switched to soap instead of shower gel and am experimenting with shorter showers with cold water at the end.

My ILs are big on being green but do things like rinse all plates clean before they go in the dishwasher and print out address labels on stickers etc etc.

I’ve also got a slow cooker for cheaper meat but the pot is broken. I don’t want a new slow cooker - trying to work out how to fix it but no idea how to repair a crack which runs all the way through!

LaChette, I think the results have been visible in our faces for at least 15 years.

My mum told me this today, not sure if true. She said some of the moisturiser body spray products are a mix of glycerin and water? Glycerin for skin being available in glass bottles in the shops, so anyone using those could easily make their own, if that helps anyone.

It needs to inconvenience people more before things change.

Its up to manufacturers and distributors, they need to be inconvenienced.

A bit of me wonders if population will eventually be controlled by super bugs resistant to antibiotics.
Or if our pollution will cause more cancers that simply cannot be cured.

They keep saying oil will run out. Is that the point when economics will mean oil products will become more expensive and be the point when fishing plastics out the seas and oceans for reuse will be the way?

I find shopping too overwhelming these days due to the sheer amount of STUFF everywhere.

We try to do our bit. We use www.splosh.com for refillable laundry and cleaning products and I'm going to switch to shampoo bars and reusable sanpro soon too.

I do often think when I'm in a shop though, even if I don't buy it what happens to all that stuff? Does it get chucked eventually as surely shops don't sell out of everything?

Does anyone know of a more environmentally friendly alternative to sponges for washing? I like the abrasive ones to feel properly clean so natural sponge isn't great. And what about the recommendation to replace your toothbrush every 3 months?! There must be billions of toothbrushes in landfill.

There are lots of great things happening out there just sometimes you need to look for them. Repair cafes are amazing and free - a team of volunteer menders and fixers usually meet once a month and fix things for free. I had my hoover fixed and they only asked for a small donation.

Share sheds - to borrow items. The average electric drill has a total lifetime use of 16 mins!

Most of my kids books, clothes and my clothes are 2nd hand.

I have furnished my house from freecycle, gumtree, charity shops etc. The quality is so much better than argos cheap tat.

I try not to buy anything that I dont need. I refuse straws, take my own drinks and food, meal plan and try not to waste food. Wear a jumper rather than put on the heating etc and there is still loads more I could do but trying toto step it up all the time. So glad so many of us think the same

Misty, what about washable towel mitts?

It reached a point of ridiculousness when I was getting black Friday deals for games on my phone...

Agree with you entirely.

As well as plastic I would love to see a crackdown on bleach and wipes as cleaning products.

Misty You can get biodegradable toothbrushes. Bamboo ones for example.

It’s worth tweeting companies next time you’re horrified about packaging. Publicly shaming them is one of the best ways to get them to ditch plastic packaging for items that don’t need it - bananas have a natural protective jacket fgs

misty I use old face cloths and old socks which are beyond mending for washing plates. For bakeware I soak it in the used dishwater. If something is really bad (like when DH set fire to the oven!) I use bar keepers friend or baking powder.

Toothbrushes here are put through the dishwasher every month on a sanitize cycle. Current brushes are a year old and fine.

want2be yes, education for women is the most important thing, but because it encourages women to use contraception, we still need contraception to be freely available

@dementedma, I use a mix of vinegar and water in a glass spray bottle for cleaning. Bloody marvellous stuff vinegar

juan I had never though of the unintended consequences of the charitable work. My friend is begging them to focus on education. What did they do but sent leaflets to poor areas. She was furious because they don't realize that these people can't read.

The borrowing culture is alive and kicking here - especially when it comes to outfits for school shows or events. My social media is full of "does anyone have a pair of green trousers which Evie can borrow to be a tree" or "Looking for a necklace suitable for Cleopatra costume - anyone help?"

In my experience, people are more than happy to share, especially among parents.

I'm on a mission tomorrow actually - middle child has to "decorate a glove" for her art homework and has been told it has to be one which isn't woolly. I'm volunteering in a charity shop tomorrow and I'm sure I'll find something.... certainly not going out to buy something!

I've only recently discovered getting my shoes and slippers repaired. I spend a lot of money on them usually, and finding a decent cobbler has been a revelation.

My knackered old sheepskin slippers look and feel marvellous again!

yanbu. It's just me and DH and we try to recycle as much as we can. Even then it's shocking how much junks 2 people produce!

I dislike it too, not just the packaging but because so much of it is just so unnecessary. We don't need thirty towels, ten saucepans, fifty pairs of shoes, sixteen coats, to update our smart phones every time a new one comes out, to replace rather than repair, Kon Mari books telling us how to dispose of everything because we buy so much. There isn't any value in anything anymore. I remember my grandmother holding on to the plate her wedding cake was placed on, on her wedding day. It was passed down through the generations. Kon Marie would tell me to throw out that history because it no longer suited our lifestyle. We should keep and reuse.

littlehenry Gawd I hate that kon book. We are a household of five and we use towels that DH and I had from when we first moved to America about 10 years ago. We bought baby towels (3 in total) when I was pregnant with my first and the pile grew to about 8 through gifts, both new and used. We don't have much to tidy away because we don't buy much. Books come from the public library, toys are put back online for the next family once we are done with them and we repair our clothing rather than throwing it out.

We are efficient with our housing sharing our building with two other units which we rent out. I find it mind blowing that with the shortage of housing in England there isn't more effort into allowing extensions to make a home into more than one unit and encouraging terrace houses. We are in a row home and the gas bill is about $75 a month because we only lose heat from three sides not five.

I'm spending so much more on clothing these days but buying less. This year I need to replace my snow boots as my previous pair had broken eyelets for the laces which couldn't be fixed. They were ten years old. I'll probably spend $150 or so to get a good quality pair that will last more than 10 years if I look after them.

I read the Marie Kondo book 4 years ago so perhaps I'm remembering it wrong but I though the ethos was to have less. So if you already own too many plates, get rid of the ones that don't bring you joy. I don't recall her saying to actually bin things. But maybe that is because it it my natural instinct to rehome or recycle.
She also specifically said don't obtain new storage because your home will provide. My knickers and socks are happily folded into little cardboard boxes which emptied as I sorted through our stuff rather than purpose made drawer dividers.

DD has my single bedding purchased in 1980. My mother must have bought excellent quality.