What are your Eco sins?

[Andthenthereweresome]

OK. What are your eco sins?
I’ll start

I use way too much cling film and kitchen roll. In my defence, your honour, I rarely fly and I drive a hybrid 😀
Oh and I grow my own veggies

I sometimes put stuff that could be recycled straight in the normal bin because ive reached the end of my tether with cleaning. I do have 3 young kids and a disabled mum to care for so i kinda dont feel too guilty. I do mostly recycle. But sometimes i just have to chuck a bunch of stuff away coz i cannot cope

Fly loads
Buy loads
Eat loads of meat
Not bothered about recycling
Shower or bath twice a day

For balance

Take own shopping bags
Fanatical about turning lights and a/c off when not in use
No children

I buy too much food and end up throwing some away every week
I use too much kitchen roll
I buy too much crap (although I do donate a lot to charity shops)

OTOH:
I don’t have kids
I’ve flown maybe six times in the last ten years
I recycle every piece of paper religiously
I use blankets, jumpers and hot water bottles rather than put the heating on (where it’s bearable)
I didn’t own a car till I was 51

I bought aircon

Same

The food waste gives me the ick so I don’t do it

I tumble dry everything as it saves ironing. I have air con throughout my house. I drive a big car. I refuse to use a stinking food recycling bin so I have a waste disposal unit. However, to offset these sins I am more ecologically sound than the majority as I haven’t procreated.

Drive a big diesel
Drive to Spain several times a year
Fly to Spain at least 7 times a year
Use the dishwasher daily
Kill house and garden plants
On the other hand I do help a hedgehog rescue

I refuse to wash any laundry (except silks and woollens) at less than 40 degrees. All towels and bedding and kitchen cloths etc get long 60 degree washes.

Other than that I'm pretty good. I save water for the garden, I recycle everything, I buy almost nothing, I wear clothes until they wear out, our car is 15 years old. One short haul trip per year, if that.

Diesel car that I don’t wash, don’t wash recycling, I water my garden, eat meat, got a dog, save all my emails and stuff in the cloud (data center) fly once a year, but I don’t have kids, I have solar and a heat pump so I figure I’m probably ok in the grand scheme of things

The Tumble Dryer.

Life is cruel that it effects the environment when my life is all about running about everywhere and not being at home enough to get clothes dry from the line (although I do try)

And lately cleaning wipes, which I hate myself for but my god they’re amazing!!

I am religious at recycling, don’t really fly, conserve water to the n’th degree, compost, reuse where possible, buy as few clothes and things as possible (though who knows if I wasn’t on mw!), use cosmetics etc fully up before buying more etc

I tried washable period pants and went back to sanitary towels.
I also sometimes chuck things away when I'm having a de-clutter, instead of going through the hassle of donating to charity shops. I know that's bad.

But usually recycle properly, garden, share a car with dh and very rarely fly.

I use a tumble dryer
coffee pods
flying a few times a year
I don't use that deodorant where you reuse the main bit. I have one its shit and expensive
I keep forgetting my reusable coffee cup

but I do rarely forget shopping bags

I refuse to use the food caddy the council provides. I love kitchen roll. I recycle downstairs but everything upstairs gets chucked in the general bin. I use my tumble dryer every single day.

I also have 2 electric cars and have solar panels with 6 batteries. I only eat meat but it all comes from a farm 2 miles down the road. I’m doing far better than vegetarians eating veg that have travelled thousands of miles.

So glad it’s not just me. Like many people I imagine, I get a sort of environmental fatigue so find myself sometimes binning stuff that should be recycled or using disposable things for convenience because it all seems like work and pointless in the scheme of things.

I do get a bit eye rolly at celebs who spend half their lives in jets and massively consuming claiming to be greener than me scrubbing out a cat food tin for the green bin.

I wonder if we’ve all got a sort of balance sheet going of our “crimes” and offsets.

I’ve got a coal fire (can’t afford central heating) but no kids. Wonder how the impacts balance out.

Only problem with that is when they don’t notice and people end up buying bags of compost with broken sharps things and random fabric in it. Which is dangerous and annoying.

I’ve stopped buying the council compost because of it.

I'd never buy council compost. That is where the stuff I don't want in my compost goes

Ooo freezing the food waste - ours would fill my freezer though.

Yeah that’s really shitty behaviour.

Aargh. Compost. Bane of my life 😬
I’ve got a fairly big garden, so lots of weeds, grass clippings etc.
Council won’t do garden waste bin for our village and closed the local composting site.
So I have to drive my garden waste to the council site 25 miles away. 9 times out of 10 the garden skip is full and I get told to put it to landfill.
Can you see how I lose heart …

Oh, loads. I drive. Fly. I have three kids. I have never used a reusable nappy. I buy endless amounts of pre packaged snacks. I don't grow anything or look after any bees and my cats kill mice and birds.

My "on the other hand" list is quite long and boring, but suffice to say I agree with the PP who said that even though I do all the little bits of stuff that you're "supposed" to do, I don't really believe that anything I do or don't do will make any difference.

I don't food recycle, I just put it in the bin, i recycle everything else but food .

?? We can put out recycling stuff in a box or plastic bag and it gets taken. There is no limit on this! We pay for green waste bin so I want to use this for garden stuff that's too woody for a compost bin!

I don't put all my food waste in the food bin....some things are just too much hassle to be unwrapping and emptying and cleaning out.... I'll recycle cardboard sleeves etc and do it for things that are already opened...but I'm not washing out stuff that's had raw meat that's gone off/out of date etc in my sink, potentially contaminating the whole areas with raw meat juice splashes....it's going in the general waste, I'm afraid 🥴.

We fly. A lot. My husband has been on 18 flights so far this year. 2 long haul for a holiday and the rest for work. We are going on another long haul holiday in a few weeks.

He’s diligent about recycling but when he’s away, I put no food waste in the food caddy as I can’t be bothered.

We tumble dry all year round.

We have a woodburner and it’s in almost constant use over the winter.

We have 2 cars and could easily manage with one.

Apart from that, I think we’re pretty good.