Can we have a thread about what we have done this week to help with the climate crisis?

[Everylittlehelpsalittle]

I read over and over and over again about how dire things are, can we have a space to celebrate what we are doing to help?

I'll start.
This month we made jam and chutney from blackberries across the road and apple crumble from across the road too. Froze enough for the winter hopefully.

Switched to loose leaf tea (pg tips have no plastic at all) and have started buying for Christmas from second hand shops only. So we should be on the way to having a waste-less Christmas 🎄

Oh and my sister has saved me all of her brown paper for wrapping paper.
We are making Halloween decorations out of the cardboard recycling.
Considering fruits trees and bulbs for Xmas presents for family members who aren't keen on second hand. Hopefully they will like the idea (ill be planting not just gifting them a job to do)

Nice idea for a thread!

I have set up our recycling in a way that means everyone does it. Our large recycling bag is now in our back yard close to our door, which makes it easy for me and DH to drop things in there after rinsing them out. It's made it into a game for the DC as they throw things from the back door.

Sounds simple, but we're a neurodivergent family and it's a big deal for us.

I have also continued to not fly or be a large corporation.

I have continued to use the same car (essential trips only of course) I’ve had for 10 years (it is 16 years old) avoiding the huge Co2 costs of a new one.

Tbh it’s not really because of the climate crisis, more the fear of the rising energy costs, but I’ve been hanging washing to dry inside rather than using the tumble dryer as the default option. We get terrible condensation at the back of the house as we have a large, original window which just runs with it on cold mornings, so at this time of year we run the dehumidifier over night. Getting washing dry at the same time is a little free bonus. I’ll be doing it over winter now.

We have eaten only veggie food this week, lunches and dinner. I need to change the way I buy tea bags and ground coffee.

Hoping for more ideas.

I am very tight with the heating thermostat . I use a bar soap in the shower and turn the water down when washing hair , soaping up .
Very rarely use tumble dryer . Leave dog hair in the garden during nesting season . Watch TV with the light off . And have a well insulated home .

Great idea for a thread. I've joined a sustainability committee at work. Have also moved my pension to the ethical fund (rather than the default)

DH and I have stopped doing our own clothes wash separately. It's something carried over from having lived alone for years before we met. Unbelievable I know!

Also found out that instead of using gallons of water to wash out empty peanut butter or marmite jars (to be recycling-ready), you can microwave them and wipe them out with a paper towel.

Oh and we didn't buy more car than was necessary .

composting food waste in ex's garden so it does not go to landfill and cause methane release.

we eat mainly veggie/vegan.

I opened curtains in sunny weather and use this to heat the flat.

I haven't washed all week

Nothing I wouldn’t normally do. We walk or bike to school, I grow my own food, we have grown our own pumpkins for Halloween extra large this year in fact.

Oh I guess I’ve brought more blankets and cosy sheets but that’s because we like them not to save the environment but I guess it will mean less heating.

Also chopped our own logs for the fire pit rather than buying in, in plastic bags. These trees where waste trees as well being cut down by the council so where destined for nothing.

The UK only accounts for 1% of global emissions so you could close down the entire country and it wouldn't make the slightest difference. Oh, and did you realise that all those windfarm, windmill power generators we are importing from China ( where are all those green jobs ? ) were manufactured using coal fired power stations !.

Am annoyed that MN quickly set up a whole section for coronavirus, but climate emergency? Nope ... I have asked!

Bikes and train do more miles per week in our household than the car.

@justnorthofsanity

I haven't washed all week

This summer our battery and solar panels were installed, we are currently running pretty much off grid and that includes an electric car
We are about to fully insulate the last remaining bit of loft space that was only partially done - we had to wait for the bees that had moved in to move on.
We have already insulated the rest of the loft and under the floors and have smart heating controls to minimise usage.
I've got really good at darning and mending - mostly invisible so even the teenager will still wear stuff but when that's not possible colourful and bright (everyone except teenager and DH wears those)

@Pyewackect
That's only true if you don't include all emissions to produce all the stuff we import from abroad - it also excludes the U.K.s share of international aviation and shipping emissions

I don't use the car unless I have to and walk/cycle/bus instead.

I do not have children

However I will not compromise on the heating - I am currently sitting next to a radiator on full blast inside a sleeping bag. I am a very cold person

Great thread.

I signed the Flight Free UK pledge for 2022 - flightfree.co.uk - after having previously done the 2021 & 2020 ones. (Although obviously most people ended up being flight-free in 2020…)

I am also vegan, but that didn’t start this week 😄

Oh I haven’t flown since 2010 either. Don’t have any plans to either tbh.

Meanwhile, China are revising their plans. They had planned for their emissions to rise for another ten years, peaking in 2030.

This is now seen as too ambitious and they are building huge numbers of new coal-fired power stations.

I have a relatively small carbon footprint. I don't drive, I don't use public transport very often (I walk to the office when I am there). I haven't been abroad since 2014 and we take the train when we holiday in the UK.

I WFH and use just one room for this. Heating hasn't been put on yet.

I recycle, I buy local (where possible) and I have minimised on plastic tat.

I hand down all my kids stuff, I accept hand me downs from other relatives.

Hoping to put off switching the heating on until November. Luckily the afternoon sun is warming the living room up at the moment so it's been working quite well.

Best change I've made is to buy a 5l bottle of shower gel, which I decant into 2 old 'normal' shower gel bottles. Just checked and I bought it last November, so it's lasted almost a whole year so far and is still going. So that has saved buying a lot of little shower gels in plastic bottles :)

Also booked the train instead of flying to travel to and from Scotland next month.