What are your barriers to sustainable living? What would it take for you to ^get there^?

[greenspaceplace]

Inspired by yet another message from David Attenborough.

● Car - I can't afford one, DH gets to work in a company van (up to 10 men at a time) but he works all over so the emissions are still probably very high.
● Bicycle - Storage and cost was a problem before I moved out of my flat
● Public transport - great where I live and cheap.
○ Plastic packaging - I cant afford butcher, fruit and veg shop, zero waste shops are too much
● Grow fruit and veg (loads of community gardens and allotments to pick from, now I have a garden I have space, it was a barrier living in a flat), my grandparents had fruit trees so I got fruit from them
●Buy mostly second hand (easy its cheaper)
●Save water (easy with small children sharing a bath, use the bath water in the garden etc
● Passing on used clothes/ toys- Charity shops collect round here but you need to have more than 20 black bags worth. So it's easy when we have a massive sort through.
○Buying things that last- Tricky for us, we buy about 3 pairs of rubbish s hool shoes per child per year. I can't afford the upfront cost of a better pair and to be honest I thought £20 was expensive for school shoes
○Recycling- we didn't have Recycling bins in our flat, I've recently moved and have normal and Recycling bin. The council took all of the big recycling bins when they gave residents Recycling bins but people in flats didn't get one.
●Electric and gas usage, even before the cost of living we live in terrace and a flat so it was easy enough t o keep the house warm with little heating. We didn't have central heating in our flat and used to only use hot water bottles and blankets to stay warm when we first moved out. It was scary when we had a newborn and it was freezing though. I used to make a den in the kids bunk bed and sleep in bottom bunk altogether when it was really cold. We didn't have heating in there for 7 years! Now we have heating after we moved it's difficult to not use it, but we only have it on about half hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. old habits and all. We were ready for the Cost of living crisis at least.

I can't think of any more right now, but the main barrier for me is plastic packaging.
If supermarkets gave the option I would buy without.
If the local bakery self bread fir less than £6 a loaf I'd come in every day.
I used to go to the butcher and fruit and veg shop but when I moved (5 min walk from an aldi and lidl) I stopped going, the cost and convenience of a supermarket has to win.
I'm a sahm so I have time to mess about with charity shops, a vegetable garden etc.

I want to know what everyone else's barriers are, in a perfect world I'd live in the shire and my food would come from next door.

● checked off
○ not checked off

Meantime in China, they're making the same amount of concrete every three years that the USA alone used in the entire 20th Century.

Not quite. Over one three year period, not every three years.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2014/12/05/china-used-more-concrete-in-3-years-than-the-u-s-used-in-the-entire-20th-century-infographic/

Disposable nappies should be fully biodegradable as standard and not cost more than others. Same for baby wipes

@Moonmelodies okay thats one I missed, the feeling of what's the point when there are people pushing billions of shit out that you couldn't possibly compete with.

Lack of motivation in the face of a massive multifaceted problem is a massive barrier.

Growing fruit and veg (setting up initially at least) is more expensive than buying.

I need a car to get to work. Mine is in for a service today so I have a courtesy car. It’s electric and I don’t hate it (thought I would). However, the cost of this car is £32k (about £15k higher than my petrol car) and the range isn’t great (200-250 miles). My commute is around 50 miles round trip and we do a long distance drive to see DH family quite frequently.

At the moment it just isn’t practical or affordable.

@Poursomesugaronme88 oh yes, I used reusables but the upfront cost was shocking. I bought some over time, from amazon (bad) wrapped in plastic (bad) and had to supplement with disposables which I now only use for my youngest. Lack of motivation and drying space/ extra work is a barrier.
I'm embarrassed for quitting them but I can't face the workload

I agree with this, I would love to use better nappies, I have tried loads of the reusable ones and just couldn’t get them to work (no end of Mum guilt there). I would use the biodegradable ones but they are almost 3 times as expensive as supermarket own brand and I have 2 kids in nappies.

I try my hardest in other areas - we recycle as much as possible, even all the plastic packaging I take back to recycle at the supermarket. We only make about 1 bin bag of waste a fortnight. Then 1 bag of nappy waste per week.

And with 150 or so new airports planned to start withing the next ten years, Chinese concrete use may well increase again.

I just looked that concrete figure up and it's really interesting:

https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/china-us-cement#:~:text=Finally%2C%20a%20viral%20statistic%20that%20is%20close%20to%20being%20true.&text=This%20number%20is%20still%20close,US%20Geological%20Survey%20(USGS).

World cement production has more than doubled since 2000 - this isn't just a China issue...

My big not-sustainable things: flying - we do this generally no more than once a year, and I am not willing to cut that out completely when my neighbours zing off on holiday 10+ times. I desperately want there to be proper progressive taxation of travel/fuel, so that it's cheaper to get the train than to drive. I also like the Green proposal that each person should get one return flight (to anywhere) free of airport tax, but that after that it should be on an escalator - so for eg £0 for first flight, £100 for 2nd, £200 for 3rd, £400 for 4th etc. etc.

milk and cheese - we've cut down on this, but not much. I do make sure that I don't buy rubbish 'snack' cheese, and I don't let the kids drink milk as a drink. But I do drink milky coffee and tea...

Miosolo wrapping everything in so much packaging always seemed ridiculous to me!

Public transport is terrible by us - to get to a nearby town 10 miles away you have to take 2 buses one into the closest city 25 miles away to then take another bus out! It takes nearly 2 hours compared to a 25 min car journey.

We have no supermarket so it's a 50mile round trip or we get it delivered (I tend to do this).
I do shop at the butchers, buy fish and shellfish from fishmonger/from the boat and get veg from farmers honesty stands but its limited.

We do recycle, use bikes where we can and walk quite a bit.

We have a wood burner which on one side cuts our gas usage significantly flip side local particular matter (we do use 3 year seasoned hardwood and have a DEFRA rated wood burner). But we live in an area which regularly is in minus figures in Winter and despite insulation we still live in an old cottage so the heating would need to be on all day to cope. We also get power cuts with winter storms the worst being 7 days without power in -5 we would have been really screwed without our fire!

You know what? I feel that I'm already doing a fair amount.

• I recycle where possible.
• I have solar panels installed on my home. I've also upgraded my boiler and replaced my windows in the past year, so the 1970s house which was rated F on the EPC when we bought it 18 months ago should now be at least a B based on the recommendations.
• I walk my child to the village school, and use as many local services as possible (e.g my gym is in someone's house 5 mins walk around the corner)
• I put all garden scraps/food scraps in my compost bins
• I have a waterbutt in the garden to water the plants
• My husband only uses the shower, and I tend to share bath water with my child
• I use freecycle all the time - we've got a thriving freecycle community in our village
• I've been buying clothes for my child from Vinted and when she's outgrown them, they all go back on vinted or freecyle or given to friends as hand-me-downs - most of mine I tend to make as sewing is my hobby. Admittedly, much of the fabric is bought from Europe (i think) but it means I'm not reliant on fast-fashion/sweatshops
• We tend to holiday within our county. We've had one flight in the last 6 years.
• Plus in the last few elections I've actually voted for the green party (mainly as a protest vote as I'm in a Tory heartland but still...)

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I'm doing too badly.

What I would like to see more of, is perhaps a TV campaign that focuses on food that's in season - I know some people know this intrinsically but I genuinely don't. After all the hoo-ha over the tomato shortages, I think it would help if people knew that this month, the season produce is xxx and here are some recipes that you can do with that produce. That way it would be much better for the environment, and reduce food wastage

For example, there was that famous photo that Chris Packham took of some tinned pears that were picked in argentina, packed in Thailand and sold in Britain. That's the exact sort of practice that needs to be reviewed.

I loved our washables! I got a starter pile of Motherease Onesie from a wonderful lady off Freecycle who I still know, and as those wore out I added to them using my Council nappy vouchers (one per child). Had a little newborn set too, which I bought second hand, used by my 3, my friend's 3, and my sister's youngest, and then sold on.

Almost all the money I spent on nappies was for holiday disposables; I can't have spent more than £50 otherwise on nappies for 3 kids.

Agree, pots, compost (difficult without a car, you can't make use of the deals because you can't carry 150 litres of compost home.) seeds

I only have courgettes, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Crops that give big volume.
Fruit trees are cheap enough £6 in b and m! but you have to wait a few years for fruit.

although I still have tomatoes in my freezer from last year and apples store for months. I was eating apple from my grandads tree in February (peeled as the skin was a bit wrinkly by then)

Space, time and money is a huge barrier. But now I'm 'in' I use mostly pot noodle pots and yoghurt pots from family and friends and the ones I've bought from the shop have cracked, pot noodle pots have been going for years. But you have to drill the holes yourself

@Moonmelodies consumption based per capita emissions in China are almost identical to those of the UK at 7.04t and 6.94t respectively. USA are at a whopping 15.47t. Your making a deliberately false implication.

We can’t vote greens here in Scotland because they are all batshit-bonkers and have virtually nothing to do with the environment- sigh!

I used a train and bus for a journey that I usually do by car the other day (car in garage), and I wouldn’t do it again. The train guard was so outraged that I had deigned to try to take a pram on a train (‘there’s no room for that love - what were you thinking?’ Said loudly infront of the whole carriage to shame me) and the bus driver also made a hell of a song and dance. The bud didn’t come on the way back so we had to get a taxi to the train station. And the tickets were much more expensive than the petrol. Why would anyone bother???

I totally agree with that air passenger tax proposal though- getting far more expensive the more trips you take per year.

Public transport is dire around here. A 2 hourly bus service in the evenings and weekends, no buses at all after 11pm. Our local main line train station isn't on a main bus route, so you have to get a bus to the city bus station and then another bus (indirect that goes around the houses) to the train station. Buses don't serve our local out of town retail park at all - it's a good half mile walk to a bus stop!

Personally, I used to drive two hours per day to commute to work. I gave that up and started my own self employment, with a small office in our village, so I now walk to work every day, so that's a massive reduction in emissions for my daily "commute". That's at a big personal cost as I was on a high wage and my income is now a lot less - my client base is much reduced compared to having a city centre location.

It's a shame that there's no drive for "localism", i.e. living, working and shopping close to home. That would massively reduce congestion, pollution, etc. I know that's possible in major cities, London, etc., as there are actually amenities close to where people live, but in smaller cities, towns, villages, etc., most people have no choice but to travel into town and city centres. I think there's too much emphasis on "sustainable" transport which just encourages centralisation and we should do the opposite, to incentivise localism so people don't need to travel, green or not!

As for other things, I recycle, I don't buy crap I don't need, still wearing some clothes that are 10-20 years old, I sell loads of old stuff on ebay, i.e. our son's toys and clothes etc as he grew up.

Biodegradable nappies are basically a myth. Nothing can biodegrade in a landfill. So you'd have to compost those nappies and it's probably like those biodegradable bags that I used to buy, they sit in a compost bin for years not biodegrading. There are products marketed as Bio Degradable or degradable which is plastic that degrades, not good for anything. If the worms don't eat it, it's not good.

There was a really good documentary about green washing and how companies can claim something is biodegradable but it isn't really.
I'll Tey to find it. The do the same with 'organic'. There are factory farmed chickens that are labelled organic but not free range, not organic in the sense we think but technically its allowed to be labelled as such.
green washing where companies make it seem like something is eco but it isn't.

OP, may I suggest that if you have the space and the money, a second hand Panasonic bread maker will save you money and plastic waste. You can pick them up for around £40-50 if you hunt around (£200 ish new). You can get other brands for less but in my experience they don’t give such good results. Get one with a seed dispenser if possible. They have timers so you can wake up to fresh bread.

Bread Flour still comes in paper bags and a 800g homemade whole meal loaf (flour, yeast, butter, sugar, salt and water) costs about 60p for all the ingredients, about half what it costs in the supermarket so your machine will pay for itself quite quickly. The electric used is low as it’s on ‘rest’ for most of the time and for the 30 minutes cooking time it will help warm your kitchen and save on the heating.

Both time, and also the knowledge that so many large corporations and countries do so much bad that my tiny contributions don't actually mean anything.

I'm not proud of that, but it's exactly how I feel and what stops me going above and beyond, or doing anything too onerous.

Without a doubt, money is the barrier for our family.

I'd like to choose an electric car, insulate the house properly, install new double glazing, install solar panels, shop at zero waste stores, choose food with less packaging, take the train instead of drive... However we don't have the income to facilitate even the 'low' cost options. If, for example, vegetables cost less in plastic packaging, we go for that option as the food shop would cost (even more of) a fortune otherwise.

It makes me furious that the government recently heavily subsidised the airline industry instead of focusing on making bus and train travel more affordable. It's absurd that it's often cheaper to fly than get a train (e.g. London to Newcastle).

Car: I can't drive (medical) so I zip about in my powerchair a lot but also get lifts when I can
Public transport: I get the train frequently (bc no car) but the buses near me are terrible, infrequent and so expensive I may as well get a taxi.
Plastic packaging: I use more than I used to because I need a lot of ready made food/ convenience food (bc disability), and baby wipes etc. If it was easier to recycle curbside would be better.
Fruit and veg in Spanish supermarkets are all loose and you can bring a reusable mesh bag or get a biodegradable one, that would be easy to implement in the UK.
Food: can't grow my own. I do pay attention to food miles for fresh food, eg yesterday I bought British apples over grapes from India, no idea on the prepackaged stuff. I eat cheese and some yogurt, but use oatmilk. I eat fish (try to go for sustainable options like pollack) but not meat.
Clothes: 95% are from charity shops, made by family, or hand-me-downs from other family members. I occasionally buy sustainable pieces eg I have some dungarees from Lucy and yak.
Recycling: I produce a fair amount of waste (plastic bags, medicine packets) but recycle everything I can, including taking the collection of medicine packets to superdrug and the bag of soft plastic to the big supermarket.
Reusables: I use reusable period pads, but disposable wipes to clean when I don't feel well enough to shower (saves water?).

We only turn the heating on if a puffa jacket and blanket doesn’t do the job

Have 2 meat free days a week minimum

no internal UK flights and try to holiday overseas via train

Try to get most things - esp children’s toys / baby gear 2nd hand where possible

Not changing our grim kitchen as the units are still serviceable. Painting and changing handles is a DIY job on the list

Food waste is a sin in our house

Eggs / chicken has to be free range. It annoys me the way that none of the exciting chicken kebabs / herby chicken / ready meals etc that supermarkets sell are free range. Why not? M&S and Waitrose not doing this pisses me off more. If you can afford to shop there you can afford to pay a little regard to animal welfare. To me buying non-free range chicken is exactly like buying battery eggs. Totally inhumane.