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).

I've given up bottled water years ago, and in September, bottled cola. I miss it so much, but it had crept up until we were using several bottles a week. I only realised when I collected them for a school project.

I have now hand-sewn 7 reuseable gift bags. Some are Christmas themed and others neutral so can be used for birthdays as well.
No new steps but I wanted to give the thread a bump.

www.thameswater.co.uk/savingwater

Here is the link to free water saving devices for thames water customers - other water companies will offer similar water saving freebies.

Now the proud owner of a soda stream! I'm very pleased to ditch the plastic fizzy water bottles and apparently the cartridges can be reused/recycled, just need to figure it all out now.

Mooncup to be ordered on payday! Might go for an organicup having done a bit of reading up, anyone any strong opinions?

oooh I'm excited for you re Mooncup Candy - I've not tried other brands, but I love mine so much! Just disappointed I never knew about them when they were first launched.

Gradually making changes in our house, using everything up and then replacing with more eco friendly products. We're on a tight budget but are finding being more conciliatory we are saving money. Tesco also do their own brand of washing detergent and fabric softener that is eco friendly and smells lovely. It's cheap to!

Failed today on impulse purchasing reduced stuff that I didn't need and extra Christmas decorations I don't need either. And I bought a plastic bag!

Turned the thermostat down to 17 though

Candy I haven't heard of the Organicup but couldn't get on with the Mooncup at all - I switched to a MeLuna Shorty and found it much more comfortable. I've also tried the Lunette, which I ordered as a spare/to try out, but prefer the MeLuna. It's difficult to recommend a particular one as what might be the perfect cup for one woman won't necessarily be any good for someone else, but there are good guides to choosing a menstrual cup here (with a link to a comparison chart) and here.

I got rid of secret santa in our office years ago, but we have a bunch of new young staff who have revived it this year.

I will be giving cheese :) Xmas is all about the cheese for me.

My little step today was making tea in a pot with a tea cosy rather than lots of mugs of tea throughout the morning - used less teabags as well as only one boil of the kettle (although I am noting the loose tea recommendation on here and wondering if I have a tea strainer anywhere that I can dig out - or will keep an eye out in the local charity shops for one)

PS Hope the moon cup works for you, Candy - I lurrrve mine, but haven't tried other brands...

I will switch back to using loose tea with metal tea bag and/or tea pot once I'm through with this lot of tea bags.

My teapot broke recently (I have it ready to string up to use as a bird house when we move shortly) so I will ask the DC to buy me one for Xmas.

Not today, but we moved and DC are now walking to school.

I refuse carrier bags if I can carry the odd bits from a supermarket. Veg, bread, eggs etc goes in my fabric bag. The only time I get a carrier bag is from the butcher, and that stops this week. I will sort a bag for raw meat.

I don’t buy take away coffee, always drink it in or take my own coffee mug.

My poo tubes came today... it will be interesting to see if they are as easy to insert into the cartridge as they say it is!

My washable breast pads also for delivered but they are with my neighbour and they are not home now!

From up thread

email

"The sending, sorting and filtering of spam email alone accounts for 33bn units of electricity each year"

I never used a nappy bin, are they really necessary.

Well we live in a flat and it keeps the smells in, saving us having to go downstairs and out the back to our bin constantly. (And yang more bin bags that way too).

So no, you could live without it but we find it very handy.

Got replies to my emails about plastic in teabags here.

Clipper says

"To clarify, only our square tea bags contain a small amount of plastic to help with the sealing.

Our String and tag tea bags do not contain plastic as they do not need to be sealed.

I would like to reassure you that we are aware of the plastic concern and are working hard to find a suitable alternative."

Twinings says

The material used in Twinings pyramid teabag range is fully biodegradable and compostable. The material is derived from maize starch. The starch is treated by an enzyme to create the compound poly-lactic acid which has a ‘plastic’ character which can be spun into filaments. These teabags do not contain any plastic.

However

Our standard teabags (Heat-seal) are used for Earl Grey and English Breakfast, to name a couple, and many of our infusions and green teas. These do not come in individual envelopes and are not available in a string and tag format. This paper is produced from a natural plant based cellulose material and contain no plastic in the fibres. However, these teabags are “heat sealed” tea bags, and so the paper also has a very thin film of polypropylene, a plastic, which enables the two layers of the tea bags to be sealed together.

The ‘String and tag with sachet’ tea bags are sealed by crimping the paper tightly down the centre, folding and using a cotton stitch at the top. The tea bag material used in these products is predominantly made up of a natural plant based cellulose material together with an added plastic based material (acrylic co-polymer emulsion) that helps to bond the cellulose fibres together to make the paper used for making the tea bags. They also have a very thin layer of the plastic polyethylene to help seal up the sachets.

So to summarise

Twinings pyramid tea bags contain no plastic nor do Clipper string and tag ones.

Waiting for a reply from Cafe Direct.

candy please report on the soda stream. DH is diabetic and drinks gallons of soda water with juice - he won't drink plain tap water! Constantly recycling plastic bottles and I wondered if a soda stream would be better?

today I picked up some plastic from the beach and refused a straw with my drink

dementedma We have a soda stream and it's great. We used to get through so many plastic bottles as DH and DS will only drink sparkling water (usually mixed with syrup, the equivalent of squash here), so it's really reduced the amount of plastic we send for recycling. We just need to exchange the gas cylinder every couple of months.

Got the second meal out of a mumsnet chicken tonight, and will be making stock with the bones tomorrow.

candy I've got an Organicup, no issues with it. Haven't tried the Mooncup. I do recommend reading those comparison site things as pp said.
I mentioned on an earlier post but I have a spare sealed brand new Organicup (the "given birth" size) in case you want that.

Thanks for this thread! I didn't know that teabags contained plastic. I don't use many teabags currently, but will cut them out completely now.