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.

We are totally off-grid. Solar for electricity, although this does have to be supplemented occasionally by a generator during the winter. Heating is by wood. Cooking is wood or bottled gas.

The downside is can’t generate enough power to charge an electric car and the nearest public charger is nearly ten miles away. We also need a 4x4 that will work off-road and that isn’t even an option for EVs yet, as far as I know.

Public transport is practically non-existent.

We recycle virtually everything and a good proportion of our clothes are secondhand as are other things we buy.

I do as much as I can...I think.

• electric car
• solar panels
• very good insulation and triple-glazed windows
• recycling of everything possible
• no children
• fruit/vegetable garden
• eat seasonal food (mostly...still working on this)
• as little foodwaste as possible and a green bin/compost
• don't use any disposable wipes etc
• no fast fashion etc, wear my clothes for ages, don't bother to keep up with trends
• use public transport very often (am lucky that it's good here).

Maybe I can do more. I have pets and I know that isn't great either (carbon footprint).

It's hard though isn't it. I agree that big corporations are so much worse. I just hope my actions help a tiny bit.

STOP. HAVING. CHILDREN. @onefinemess

You're calling other people delusional yet you somehow think it's realistic for people to give up on having children. Continuing their family. Something so important for many people.

This is the height of decision. It if FINE. TO. HAVE. CHILDREN. as long as it's not an excessive number and you do your best.

Caring about the environment doesn't mean give up on your own aspirations (meanwhile having to watch other people do those same things). You don't have to martyr yourself. Balance. Just stick to 1 or 2.

My quote was 40,000 people a year die from particulate emission linked diseases I didn't link all of those to diesel cars, but it's undeniable that old diesels will have vastly more PM2.5 and PM10 than an electric vehicle.

The particulate study alluded to upthread referring to brake and tyre emissions has been misrepresented by the group that commissioned the study and even more so by the media. The study collected roadside data over a period of time, what it found was that the PM in the air could be orders of magnitude higher than the tail pipe PM emissions from the most modern EU6 diesels. Dig deep and the report explains that the PM suspended in the air after a dry spell is cumulative from all the vehicles (not just cars) that have passed that point over a period of time. The press release stated that PM suspended in the air, including tyre and brake dust, could be up to 1000 times the tail pipe emissions of a single car. The media spun this to "tyre and brake emissions are 1000 time tail pipe".

As @user4750 said it's complicated, particularly when the science is so badly reported in the press.

Don't get me started on Cows and water.

I really want to see bigger change like banning disposable plastics in many cases, restrictions on fast fashion, ULEZ to cover all/most cars and not penalise 0.1% of older cars, tight restrictions on when driveways and fake grass are allowed, sustainable farming practices to be the norm etc.

Also, without children there's little reason to care about sustainability for the future. I'd be flying out and doing all sorts, not caring about any of that. The answer is have fewer children, not give up your aspirations and live a miserable life. Futile and recipe for depression.

Imagine the resentment you'd feel about giving up on having children and having to watch everyone else still do it, and not only that, still damage the environment. That's not a healthy way to do things. It's too much for many people. Giving up a car or small conveniences is one thing... just not comparable.

And start/stop technology has been available for well over twenty years and should have been compulsory a long time ago.

Money. It's that's simple.

I have to work long hours across the week to maintain a basic existence. I don't have the time or mental headspace to devote it to anything outside of that.

It seems a bit silly to say you're doing your bit if you have solar panels etc if you have children and/or pets ...

ULEZ to cover all/most cars and not penalise 0.1% of older cars, tight restrictions on when drivewaysand fake grassare allowed,
Care to elaborate on these?

My quote was 40,000 people a year die from particulate emission linked diseases I didn't link all of those to diesel cars,
You are still misrepresenting the science. The 40K figure is a combined estimate for excess deaths from NoX and particulate emissions. It does not solely refer to particulate emissions and no amount of misrepresentation by you or other posters will change that.

Time and money are our biggest barrier. If I didn't work I would spend a lot more of my time making our lives more sustainable - grow more of my own veg, have chickens and cook better meals with higher quality produce. I also wouldn't need to commute. Public transport is nonexistent near us so I spend a lot of time in the car.

I do my best at the moment. We have an electric car and have solar panels on our house. I cook from scratch 85% of the time - this includes making all our bread, pastry and sauces eg pesto . We buy very little ultra processed food which means that we don't have that much plastic packaging although we do recycle. We have insulated our house as much as possible and we hope to do more.

It does often feel like a pointless struggle but I think if we all make a conscious effort on an individual level then we might start to influence the direction of the companies that control us.

ULEZ expansion in London is pointless and only affects very old cars, meanwhile people are free to idle and drive their 4x4s for 5 minute journeys as they are ULEZ compliant.

Driveways are destroying habitats as people pace over the whole thing. It's also just plain ugly a lot of the time. Same applies to fake grass. Imagine how things would be if everyone did this to their house.

I can't not have a car as I work all over the county for the NHS but I have a lease car, I do not own my own. The local public transport is useless.

I can't ride a bike as I need knee replacements for osteoarthritis.

I eat a strictly vegetarian diet and I can easily grow all of my veg at home for the summer. Winter I buy frozen so there is zero food waste.

I avoid all plastic where possible and buy bees wax food wraps, eco toothbrushes and shampoo and conditioner bars wrapped in cardboard but some plastic things you can do nothing about such as the plastic wrapped around tofu etc. All these things are higher cost but I can afford it at the moment.

All my furniture is recycled.

I never bath only shower for 5 mins.

All my "junk" goes to charity shops. I don't buy much. I have a very small wardrobe and prefer clothes made in the UK. Again much more expensive so I have a capsule wardrobe.

Recycling - everythng is recycled. Food as its vegetarian goes into my compost heap. I only have a courtyard garen but I've got a full sized tree in it - essential for wildlife.

Electric and gas usage, absolutely minimal as I have a super insulated house. The builder in the 1990s had the foresight to put in sound proofing, double glazing and insulation so I don't need the heating on for most of winter.

My biggest eco saving is having only one child. My DS is not having any - he's 40 this year. No more consumers being born here.

And the biggest source of NOx is?

Diesel engines.

I should have the biggest single source of NOx in urban environments is diesel engines.

FFS NoX isn't the same as particulates - you misrepresented that study by claiming it attributed 40K deaths to particulate emissions.

Now rather than admitting you did that you are wriggling - why not just be honest and admit the 40K deaths estimate was not (as you incorrectly claimed) attributed to particulate emissions alone?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was my "what is the point?" moment. Quite apart from the human cost, wars chuck out vast amounts of CO2 and we also learned about the polluting and extravagant lifestyles of the fossil fuel billionaires.

I'll still keep my lifestyle reasonably clean but I'm under no illusions that I'm making a difference.

@Neededanewuserhandle of course PM and NOx are not the same but:

in 2019 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was responsible for more than 33,000 deaths annually in the UK, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for 5,750. Half of the UK’s deaths from PM2.5 could have been avoided if the UK had followed the latest recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Your splitting hairs. Fundamentally diesel combustion engines are bad for the environment and bad for human health. And the argument some seem to be making that old diesel is preferable to an EV is quite simply wrong.

This is quite a balanced account of the research - I prefer it to a political party resolution (which is where you copy and pasted from).

https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/news/does-air-pollution-kill-40000-people-each-year-uk/

It's a shame you aren't prepared to accept you misrepresented the research, but that's up to you.

Not in terms of GHGs, that figure relates to sulphur dioxide. The amount of sulphur in bunker fuel has dropped sevenfold under regulations enacted in 2020.

Transporting a tonne of goods by plane will generate 435 grams of CO2 per km. By truck 80 grams and by container ship 3 grams. Cars will be worse than trucks.

As for the two biggest things you can do personally- not flying and giving up meat and dairy

The biggest thing that you can do is sell your car. An omnivorous diet represents a mere fraction of the emissions of even an electric car.

@Neededanewuserhandle In haste I misquoted, but that is very different to misrepresentation.

The underlying fact is that old diesels are massively more polluting than EVs. Unless you want to take issue with that as well?

I send tweets to all the hypocritical supermarkets that stock items that are over-packed as heck. It annoys me so much. The likes of Waitrose and Marks drone on about sustainability yet they double and triple package things using the most packaging possible.

The Co-Op seem to wrap almost all of their produce. Why the hell does a Swede need to be vacuum-packed?