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Climate Change

How can I be greener?

21 replies

NameChangerDanger · 09/09/2019 14:34

Just that, really.

Things I’ve already done/ am in the process of doing:

-using re-useable baby wipes (Cheeky wipes)
-using a moon cup, cloth sanitary towels and cloth panty liners
-turning the washing machine down to 30 degrees and only washing things when actually dirty
-cancelling plans for a separate tumble dryer and reducing the use of the drying function on my washer/dryer
-switching to wax wraps in order to ditch clingfilm
-turning down the central heating
-switching to eco friendly toilet roll (Who Gives a Crap)
-buying quality clothing which lasts a long time
-giving away unwanted toys/ clothing/ anything else rather than throwing them away
-switching to an eco friendly energy supplier (Bulb)
-switching all our lights to LEDs
-using eco friendly cleaning products (Method)

Things I’d love to do but can’t make work right now:

-buying an electric car. We’ll do this as soon as we can from a financial perspective
-using reusable nappies. This was just a disaster when I tried. DD2 will be potty trained soon.
-using public transport/ car sharing to get to work. It just doesn’t exist around here.
-using a shampoo bar. I admit I haven’t tried, but giving up my Kerastase/Redken products is a scary prospect.

What else can I do? Thanks!

OP posts:
InDubiousBattle · 09/09/2019 14:49

Reduce or give up eating meat? Not travelling by plane? Cutting out unnecessary car journeys?

NameChangerDanger · 09/09/2019 14:57

Ah yes, I’m already vegetarian- forgot that one!

OP posts:
DaisyMay25 · 09/09/2019 14:59

I use lush solid shampoo! DH uses their solid deodorant, I'm looking at changing most bathing stuff to their non packaging stuff

DoctorAllcome · 09/09/2019 15:01

You are doing really well.

Buy fair trade and organic stuff/food
Cook from scratch (reduces packaging as convenience foods are heavy on packaging)
Recycle (You probably already do this but forgot to list it)
Bar hand and body soap
Cloth napkins (no paper towels)
Bamboo toothbrushes
Make garden bee friendly with various wild flowers and no use of pesticides.
Reduce beauty products (make up & hair products especially)
Make sure any exterior lights are solar powered
Install a rain butt to collect rain water to water any outside plants
No swiffer mops or disposable dusters- get ones you can wash and re-use.
No artificial fibres in clothing or rugs or furniture- these are sources of micro-plastics.

DoctorAllcome · 09/09/2019 15:02

Buy secondhand before new.

NameChangerDanger · 09/09/2019 15:07

Thanks very much, good ideas!

I’ll give Lush a go when I’m next in town.

I have planted lots of Asters this year and seen lots of bees Grin

OP posts:
BahHumbygge · 11/09/2019 15:06

Eat a non-agricultural, non-industrial, unprocessed real food diet, ie local simple seasonal vegetables and pastured meat (which sequesters carbon and nourishes the soil with dung, unlike grain and legume based agriculture which require huge fossil fuel and agro-chemical inputs and lead to rapid topsoil degradation). Food processing and packaging has a big footprint. Avoid supermarkets where possible, their whole business model is dependent on long food miles, out of season produce, plastic packaging and overprocessed, often sugary food.

Grow your own herbs and vegetables and get hens if you have space. Be creative if you need to, eg cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets.

Take your own tupperware to the butchers and cloth produce bags to the market.

Don’t fly, or limit to about once every 5 years. If you do fly, only fly economy and travel light... every extra unnecessary item taken on board requires extra fuel to lift the plane.

Limit driving to essential journeys. Look up local cycle routes and get on your bike, download the bus timetable, or put an audiobook on your phone to listen to while walking.

Buy second hand clothes, look after and mend the ones you have. Pass on unwanted clothes when they’re unsuitable. Don’t forget charity shops also take worn out/damaged clothes as rags that get sent to textile recycling plants.

Stop buying “stuff”… endless knickknacks for the house, plastic toys, read-once novels, electric waffle machines, Christmas bedlinen etc etc. Borrow stuff from the toy or book library instead.

Stop buying consumables, like umpteen types of makeup, conditioner, nail polishes etc. The only toiletries I use are a bar of soap, a smudge of toothpaste, bicarb, face oil, mooncup and a small cosmetic bag worth of makeup.

Insulate your house as much as you can afford. It’ll be a better investment than bank savings accounts with current interest rates. Even just putting bubblewrap up on draughty window frames will be a big improvement

Stop at one or two children. Ditto pets, unless adopted.

Rewild your garden and make it insect friendly.

Use the internet mindfully… servers and data farms are a rapidly increasing source of electricity demand in the world. All those Bitcoins being mined, cat videos being watched on Facebook, haul videos being shown on Youtube, spam emails being sent, sporner photos being uploaded to MN etc. It all has to be stored somewhere and served to you and that requires billions of KWH of electricity to run the whole show. Unsubscribe from email lists, delete unwanted emails, watch youtube at a lower resolution (click on the cog icon), skip past the cat videos etc etc.

We can’t do this on our own, no amount of simple living and green consumerism like bamboo toothbrushes are going to make a dent on their own. Collectively lobby for systemic change at the same time as doing the personal level stuff.

faithinnature1 · 12/09/2019 20:59

Triodos bank for banking, divestment from fossil fuels in any investments

EcoEve83 · 15/10/2019 11:36

This is a really handy website for finding sustainable/zero-waste shops and community initiatives near you- www.zerowastenear.me

Everything from food shops to household product refills to reusable party kits (trying to reduce all those paper plates and plastic cups that get thrown away, they think of everything!) Smile

NotMeNoNo · 18/10/2019 13:35

Just buying/consuming less stuff is a big impact. Everything from cars right down to party bag toys has to be made, shipped, sold and ends up in landfill. Your electric car has huge embodied carbon in its manufacture.

I checked my carbon footprint and it was about equally split between travelling, home heating, food and consumption of other goods.

Also avoid anything that has travelled by plane/airfreight. This might mean a rather boring diet through the winter/spring!

Any eco friendly measure that involves buying something new should be viewed with suspicion!

EcoEve83 · 25/11/2019 16:10

It sound's like everyone is making loads of positive changes, that's incredible!

Here are the changes I've made so far, hope it helps:

-Switched single-use coffee cups to a 'Huski Home' coffee cup, saves £0.25 at the coffee shop now too!

-Switched plastic bottles to a re-usable metal water bottle

-Switched single-use makeup wipes to re-usable fabric ones, can be found in zero-waste shops and I've also seen loads of beautiful handmade ones on Etsy!

-I always carry a re-usable carrier bag, a metal straw and a metal spork (cool, I know Wink ) so I don't end up buying/picking up the plastic versions when out and about.

-I've started donating to 'MyTrees', a company that plants trees with Conservation International. I don't have a garden to plant trees of my own so this is a fab option for me, and I really feel like I'm doing my bit. Plus they have a weekly prize-draw to thank their donators, so win-win! Here's their website: bit.ly/My-Trees

Hope this helps, some small changes but I feel like I'm making a difference and have definitely reduced the amount of waste I make, which feels great! Smile

Ummmmcake · 07/12/2019 15:37

You can take a small mesh bag with you to the supermarket to buy loose vegetables and fruit. I have done it in both Tesco, Aldi and Asda. They don't mind.
When you need new

  • clothespins
  • any form of brush: nailbrush, toothbrush, clothes brush
  • make-up
make sure to get it made with tree or in tree encasing when it comes to make-up.

You can make your own dishwasher tablets using baking soda and vinegar. There are recipes on Pinterest. One of them also used washing soda, but I didn't have it and a mixture of just baking soda and vinegar has turned out to work well.

Washing nuts for the clothes wash (Do NOT add essential oil to get some smell of perfume in there. Oil will make your clothes dirty. So many people have said that washing nuts don't work and then I find out they put oil in their washing machine too. Of course, it won't work then).

Save ruined tights. If you cut them up they are good for removing make-up. They are actually better for removing nail polish than cotton pads are.

You can get coconut scrungies for the kitchen.

You can get reusable hoover bags.

EcoEve83 · 20/12/2019 12:54

Amongst other things, I've started donating to 'MyTrees' who plant and protect trees with charity Conservation International. They also enter their subscribers into a weekly prize draw to say thank you, so win-win! Feel like I'm doing my bit to help the environment :) Here's their website: bit.ly/My-Trees

LifeInTents · 18/01/2020 18:57

Splosh for laundry detergent/ dishwashing stuff in reusable/ compostable packaging

Teach your kids to be conscious of what they have and encourage experiences over gifts. Much easier if you start when they’re diddy

Inspire others. We’ve never done party bags and the kids always ask for money or vouchers or second hand items and now they’re friends have started to too!

Pick one thing that you know isn’t that great and work out a way to resolve it.

scalacolab · 21/02/2020 10:10

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20mum · 26/06/2020 16:28

Some jobs cannot be done from home but if even part of yours could, fight for the right. Don't fly. Why? U.K. is varied. Even close to home, there will be interest. But my big hope is that technology will democratise and improve experiences that have not changed for a century. Virtual reality and online tours, drone film, personal preference trips, there will be ways to visit every part of the world, as an immersive experience, without leaving home. See everything in a series of Attenborough, but even better, if you have control and you hear what the sound is, or linger in the particular coral reef you find most interesting. It should beat hands down anything you could view by a real life trip.

Why can't everyone in the world have a good look round the whole world's galleries and tourist traps, without tourists? Some modest pay for view would produce more income than the entrance fees could. Why can't the world view Carlos dAcosta dancing, as they have already begun to view some singers giving concerts by hologram or by streaming or by the upgraded immersive experience of using virtual reality headsets, which critics say made going to live concerts look like a really inferior option.

climatepragmatist · 20/10/2020 13:36

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TallGiraffe20 · 15/01/2021 16:45

We've done a few things over the years, and have stuck with them. We use Bulb for our electricity and gas, try to only buy our clothes from charity shops, cycle most places (we're lucky we live in London), turn the thermostat down as much as we can (lots of jumpers!).

Our most recent one has been to buy seasonal, organic food and from small farms. We've started using Tend Revolution recently which has been great. They allow us to get everything delivered from small farms and everything is seasonal and organic

alwayslucky · 02/03/2021 15:43

Sarah Bridle this morning on The Life Scientific (radio 4) has a suggestion she needs to get parliamentarians to legislate for: Add the climate cost information to food labels.
This is brilliant. Does anyone know a person influential enough to get heard? The point is, nowadays it is possible to set up a computer analysis of the climate damage, but not possible for a shopper to do it. The manufacturer must work out the calorific content, in just the same way, because the shopper cannot.
Eating less meat, especially beef, and trying to keep to organic, and local, may be as far as a consumer could get. But how can we know that this product has air miles; costly to the climate, while another similar product was shipped by sea; less harmful?

The scientist points out that even if the consumer doesn't read the label, the very fact it is there discourages producers from being the worst offenders.

Igglepigglesgrubbyblanket · 10/03/2021 08:18

One thing I do is keep an eye on what's going through parliament and email my mp about green stuff. I want her to know her constituency cares about this

alwayslucky · 12/03/2021 14:45

My m.p. cares about whatever improves his bank balance, and in a safe seat need not care about votes, since it makes no difference what anyone wants, or thinks.
Meanwhile, Radio 4 You and Yours today reports that those buying guaranteed 100 % renewable power are buying nothing of the kind.
Meanwhile, I wish the people such as the astonishing woman whose child died of air pollution could be in touch with those permitting bonfires including i gardens and allotments (including asking Monty Don and garden designers to stop it)
Meanwhile I wish those permitting tax funded tree planting would ban the inclusion of mass planted non native soil wrecking and biodiversity barren plantations designed for the purpose of quick felling for burning.

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