Using reusable wipes but then flying to Australia.

[ecobore]

What's the point.

Maybe the saving from using those wipes got them to Australia!

I’ve always wondered why people say ‘reusable wipes’ rather than just cloth/washcloth/flannel/whatever!

I've tried using both cut up flannels and other cloths and purposely made reusable nappy wipes and the latter are better - they're the perfect size, don't fray at the edges, and are made of exactly the right kind of material. If I happened to have some existing glut of flannels I'd have used those instead, but I didn't.

I’m confused OP. I don’t fly but I eat meat. Do I have to start going to the Maldives on holiday?

Love this . I don't eat meat because I don't like it. Apparently this is wrong and pointless because I still eat dairy (I like it). And I don't have a car because I don't need one (city-dweller). But I've been on two international trips this year. Should I be buying meat anyway and throwing it in the bin?

I'm nearly 40, use reuseable wipes, have only flown 9 times in my life, have been veggie since a child, rarely buy new clothes.

But I drive my old diesel car everywhere, even though I live next to a train station, purely for my own convenience. Surely everyone does what they can and it all adds up?

But surely it is better to at least continue with the small changes. It's better than not doing it at all.

I fly 3 or 4 times a year, at least half of them are long haul, for holidays.

I know this isn't great for the economy but I also know that in all likelihood it's not going to change.

But it doesn't mean I can't make other small changes despite that - I always pay the carbon offset, I drive an electric car, We stopped using bottles of water, we use eco friendly alternatives for some things, etc.

Just little changes gradually. Surely it's better than doing nothing. It's not like I go around boasting about such changes either.

Is it better to be a frequent-travellling vegetarian or a meat eater who holidays in the garden?

You can actually calculate the exact answer to that question on the bbc news website. Plug in what you eat and how often and it gives you a carbon footprint in terms of car journeys or flights.

For example, if you ate one hamburger per day, in a year it would be the equivalent to taking eight return flights to Malaga.

www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714

If I don't fly to Australia does that mean I can use non-reusable wipes?

Because lots of people doing what they can makes a difference.

If you have one tire with a puncture do you just puncture the lot of them cause they are no use at that moment?

Not using disposable wipes and nappies saves thousands of them from being put into landfill where they will sit for centuries. This is a good thing to do, if you can.

No one is perfect. Making changes that you can afford and are achievable is what everyone should be doing. Alongside pushing/hoping for changes at a societal/government level. Why just give up completely?

Also as another said, cloth wipes are so, so much better to use on a baby than a wet wipe. They actually work, and you hardly need to use any!

Maybe they aren't using reusable wipes for the environment, maybe they just prefer them.

So basically doing what you can when you can to help the environment?

There is every point in that. Sounds sensible to me. YABU to think otherwise.

It depends how evangelical people are about the environment and how well informed they are on what difference they are making. I have a friend who lectures on social media all day every day about plastic bags and commercial flights, which contribute so relatively little to our environmental issues, but owns a Range Rover just for herself and is having a wedding 500 miles away from where she lives.

Every little helps, just don't pretend you're superior to someone who might use a plastic bag but doesn't drive, for example.

You can use reusable wipes but you can’t walk to Australia.

If you were going to, say, Paris, then you do have a travel choice, so that might be another issue.

@LisaSimpsonsbff

It is better to do something imperfectly than nothing perfectly.

Not always ... look at Chernobyl!

Anyway, I hatesthese threads where the OP farts and leaves.

I am so sick of the tired argument. For reasons that I can't be bothered going into my immediately family are spread across the globe. How dare you berate me for occasionally visiting them whilst also making exo friendly choices in my day to day life. Would you prefer me to be as wasteful as possible to be consistent with the fact that I take an international flight once every couple of years to visit my elderly mother?

Piss off.

Why are people in such denial over flying being so bad for the environment? I get that people need/want to but at least own it instead of rattling off excuses as a defensive mechanism.

FWIW I had a similar encounter with a woman lecturing me for throwing food in the general waste once (bloody once - I’d just washed my caddy!) when in the last two years she’s taken at least three long haul flights. Yes every little helps but don’t be surprised when people cock an eyebrow at the hypocrisy if you’re vocal about their habits.

I just checked my energy, I am with the Coop and all their electricity is from renewables.

Bulb seem like a really good option. In the past I have also been with Good Energy and Ecotricity.

Just need to sort my gas.

I suspect people think other people’s environmentally friendly behaviour cancels out their own non-environmentally friendly behaviour.

Like the people who don’t give to charity because they assume others will do so.

"Why are people in such denial over flying being so bad for the environment?"

I was wondering the same thing. (It is still more true of the climate impacts of having kids).

I'm pretty sure Mumsnet doesn't like seeing what it doesn't want to see. Posts that remain within a liberal capitalist paradigm are generally responded to - those that take a more critical stance to capitalist realism generally go whooshing over the collective head on here.

There are online tools you can use to calculate the impact of your flight. They will tell you how much Arctic ice you are melting. It will also tell you how what kinds of adjustments you'd have to make to offset it. See, for example:

shameplane.com

I don't know how many years of reusable toilet paper you'd have to have to undo the damage of a transatlantic flight, but I'm guessing it's more than a human lifetime's worth.

The idea that we can somehow buy our way out of climate change by making minor adjustments, and that doing very little is "enough" is laughable. No, it isn't OK to 'try your best' without making any actual, serious sacrifices. We need to decarbonise the economy, which is going to mean some kind of planned recession. It. Will. Hurt.

If they are constantly going on about it then you have a point.

If they don't, then why does this one action (using clothes as wipes) annoy you so much? It's pretty inoffensive in the scheme of things.

I'm pretty sure Mumsnet doesn't like seeing what it doesn't want to see. Posts that remain within a liberal capitalist paradigm are generally responded to - those that take a more critical stance to capitalist realism generally go whooshing over the collective head on her

I’ve seen the same thing with regards to racism / white privilege.

So does that mean anyone born in Australia has to suck it up and never set foot off the island?

@Mephisto Absobloodylutely. Class prejudice is also nowhere, and there isn't even a very advanced understanding of feminism. The Brexit threads are just helping after helping of nonsense from people who are so thoroughly indoctrinated in capitalist realism that they can't see the wood for the trees. (And I say that as a Remainer). This site is basically not a great advertisement for female critical thinking.

How would expect them to get to Australia? Walk?

You're clearly being ridiculous. It's better to make as many environmentally responsible decisions as you can. Claiming that it has to be all or nothing stops people from beginning to make changes.