Save the planet!!! What small steps have you taken today?

[Mrscog]

Following on from a thread where we were all discussing how we wanted to reduce our impact on the earth I thought I would start this thread for us to share ideas/motivation etc.

This is a non-judgmental thread and is about whatever steps you want to take to reduce consumption. None of us are perfect and we've all got to start somewhere.

My small steps today -

1. Morning school run incorporated as part of DH's commute.
2. Afternoon school run due to be done on foot.
3. Didn't bother going to Aldi as to be honest I have enough food in to cobble some stuff together.
4. Just used microfibre cloth with water to wipe down kitchen rather than dousing with chemicals (hadn't chopped any raw meat etc so no need to be too clean).

DD2 and I made a wreath for our front door today. We took our secateurs for a walk down the cycle path near our house and cut some dogwood for the base, then used ivy and some bay and rosemary from our garden. No plastic, no glitter, no packaging, and after Christmas we'll cut it up and put it in the compost bin. And it looks lovely, we're feeling very pleased with ourselves!

I bet it looks lovely mumzuki. I have a shrub in my garden with berries on, not sure of the name , I was thinking of putting some on a plain one if I can get one. Making the whole thing would be even better though.

This thread is so brilliant. I stayed in a posh spa overnight and there was a message in the wardrobe to say "take the slippers home, they'll only go to waste in the rubbish bin" so I did. great ideas here!

Steak Not beeswax wrap, but I have some Wrappa vegan food wrap which is very similar from what I can tell. It's really easy to use and keep clean and has a very cute bee design too.

Fiddlesticks what washing programmes do you use? And how well do you sort your fabrics? Cotton programs use little water and clean the clothes by excessive agitation which sounds great but is hard on the clothes, especially if you mix heavy and light items e.g. towels and jeans in the same load as t shirts and underwear. Fabrics like polyester are more delicate again and need a less aggressive wash.

My old washer dryer (came with the property, over a decade old) used to rip apart clothes when I had it on a full spin so I always had to use the half spin option. We gave up after a few years and got a replacement that is using far less energy and water and is allowing us to do higher spins so clothes are easier to dry. We didn't have a choice the old one was really past it, clothes had to be put on two different cycles to wash and drain it was a PITA but I still felt guilty buying a new one

My cotton wash uses a lot of water and agitation. The synthetic uses less water as well as a gentler spin.

@Linzer it's the zero waste heroes group. I thought I'd dip my toe in to get some ideas but I'm just not ready for that yet! There was a post this past week about what to do with the pith from oranges...

Steaksauce Im thinking of having a go at making my own beeswax wraps out of some old material and some beeswax. If it goes tits up I'll buy one, but they're so expensive. Would be great for saving cheese though.

Thanks @picklemepopcorn - I just ordered an EcoEgg!

I have an eco ball already. I got the bamboo wipes and that funny sponge.

I'm on Journey to Zero Waste fb group, it's not militant at all, just people like us trying our best!

I have signed up for an organic meat and veg box scheme, its pricey but means we will only eat meat 4 times a week.

I have also found a bulk buy bring your own packaging shop which I am going to visit. We are not well off by any stretch but by giving up takeaways and hardcore meal planning, it should work out.

Thanks LinzerTorte, I’ll take a look (are Viennese cafes as good as they say?!)

The Viennese coffee houses are great, imposter - I just wish I had the chance to go to them more often! Takeaway coffee (or "coffee to go", as it's called here) has become a lot more popular in Vienna since I've lived here, though, and millions of cups get thrown away every year.

starwarsfanatic that makes a lot of sense. I am not not most domestically minded so I lump colours together. Do white towels with white shirts/underwear etc, same for colours and darks rather than separate by type of fabric too. I do wash at 30 on a short cycle with a now and again longer cycle but I'll need to start sorting the washing better. Thanks for the tip 🙂

What is the issue with tea bags? We are tea Jenny's in this house. We do have a teapot and loose tea but that's for fancy, and only if we have time to take a more leisurely lunch (rare). We don't use the good recycling bin. We live in the countryside and it attracts vermin. But we don't waste a lot of food.

There is a loclq milk man in our area (though I don't think the milk is specifically from his farm, but from various local dairy farmers). I'm in 2 minds about emailing for prices(no prices on the website but to email with your requirements, weird). We go through a minimum of 8 bottles of 4 pints a week, and there is just the 3 of us. It would be impossible to fit 36 glass pint bottles in our fridge, and since we already get the shopping delivered (I don't drive, DH works ridiculously long hours) it would just more pollution to have two seperate deliveries for milk and food when, if I need to stick with the plastic bottles, one delivery would suffice. But then it is local. Hmmm.

I've just unsubscribed from 14 mailing lists and deleted all my junk and trash emails

Fiddlesticks Most teabags contain a small amount of plastic. Teapigs don't, but they aren't exactly cheap, and IIRC Clipper teabags with a tag and string don't either.

For those demurring at the hassle of making tea in a pot as an alternative to bags, there are options, I suppose. In our case, we prefer light tea blends, like lady grey, so leaves into a tea strainer for a couple of minutes does the job very well. There are also those immersable stainless steel strainers if you prefer a brew (whittards ot twinnings shops sell them).

I have a free takeaway coffee but I only buy local food when possible to keep food miles low, when I shopped yesterday only one item was not grown in this country, I have no tumble dryer etc and use the heating minimally.

You can even buy reusable cotton/muslin teabags, although a metal strainer seems easier to me.

What an awesome thread this is! I've been reading through all the posts last night and this morning. It's so nice to find like-minded people.
I've been trying to reduce my environmental impact by making small changes since I got an allotment earlier this year and it made me change the way I think a lot about how we live.
I went to hear the environmental activist Rob Greenfield speak on Friday evening and he is very inspirational. More info here....
www.robgreenfield.tv
His motto is "be the change you want to see in the world" which really resonates with me.

And in regard to tea bags....
I currently split my tea bags open when I've used them. I put the contents in the compost and the bag in the bin so reducing the amount going to landfill by half.
Once I've run out of the tea bags I have I will move to ones which are fully compostable. I don't drink very much tea though so more expensive ones won't hit me as hard.
You can also brew loose tea in a cafetière for those of you considering loose tea.

I don't have a issue with making in a pot (although we be a bit more tricky at work), it's just getting hold of Yorkshire tea in loose form. I only drink Yorkshire tea. I don't think tea pigs are all that in terms of taste.

We've had a milkman since we moved here 18 months ago. We had bottles to start with, but as pp said we get 3 x 4 pints of milk a week and still top that up a bit. We don't have space for the bottles in the fridge. Our milkman only delivers on Mon, Weds, Fri. Any solutions?

Milk freezes if you have a suitable container to decant it into.

FiddlesticksRiddlesticks we also get through lots of milk and recently switched to a milk delivery service. It's run by a cooperative if local farms and they deliver 2 litre plastic bottles. If we wash them out and leave by the door they'll fetch used bottles to reuse. It's more expensive than supermarket milk but I suspect that's because it's a fair price.

I've also bought a tea infuser that sits in the mug, will investigate the Yorkshire loose tea situation as that's my go to brew too!