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 just made my own cream cheese instead of buying a tub of Philadelphia.

I can't believe how quick and easy it was (and Nice!)

Does anyone have any solutions to pet food? We have a cat and guinea pigs whose food and bedding all comes in plastic wrap.

rebeccabunch I love your teapot bird feeder!

I'm sorting through spam and unsubscribing as the come in but I'm assuming it takes a while as I'm still getting emails from companies I've unsubscribe from.

For those who batch cook, what do you store your extra food in when putting in the freezer? I'm thinking soup, pasta sauce? I keep lasagne and cottage pie in the dish I'll be cooking it in the oven in later, but not sure what to put liquidy food in.

We are just using up what we have and then going to try for the environmentally alternative when we need to replace. DS is already panicking about having no straws so I might just bite the bullet and order the ones from Klean kanteen. I was going to until after Xmas as we just bought the water bottles which we all love but he goes through about ten straws a day so I think I need to buy them asap.

I use margarine/butter tubs, fiddlesticks. I've got at least a dozen that get filled, frozen, washed and reused over and over. Also some plastic tubs from take away good. They all stack nicely which is a bonus.

I bought glass casserole dishes with lids for storage, but I don't use them much as I still have take away and ice cream tubs on the go. If we ever run out of those...

Does anyone use the silicone wraps? They look like a square of clear rubber but stretch and cling so can be used instead of cling film to make a lid.

Fiddlesticks I freeze soup and pasta sauce in glass jars (we have loads as DH likes pickled gherkins, onions, etc. - he has quite strange tastes different tastes from me ). I switched from plastic to glass food storage a few months ago and also bought some rectangular glass containers (but with plastic lids) from Ikea, but use jars far more. I also find smaller sizes quite handy for storing leftovers.

Me neither noplastic .

I have signed this Greenpeace petition to get Coca Cola to phase out single usage plastic bottles. Ambitious I think but as a large company contributing to the problem would be great if they could find alternatives. Others may follow suit then.

Signed petition.

I use recycled ice cream tubs for freezing.
We get through massive jars of gherkins so will be stealing Linzer's idea.

I've discovered there is a food cooperative less than five miles from my house!
They sell local, organic produce, ethical cleaning products and cosmetics and bulk zero packaging dry foods.
Taking DS there on Saturday, very exciting!

I've got the rage at the moment as yesterday's Tesco delivery (with the no bags option selected) came with TEN single use bags. I messaged Tesco and asked wtf was going on and got the most ridiculous answer about having to use single bags to separate each packet of raw meat/fish because of contamination issues. Since when is this a thing with heat sealed packets?? I think I'm going to go back to using the local butcher anyway, the plastic packets themselves aren't exactly green so back to the butchers I go.

Surfers against sewage have a plan/toolkit for people to help their coastal town go plastic free. Even if you live in a landlocked area there is lots of support and after all rivers flow into the sea. If this resonates with you have a look into it. This is a bottom up approach.

The co op are pledging to reduce the amount of unrecycable packaging they use. I think we should all email them to show our support.

Ben bradshaw MP suggested we should take back to the supermarket all the unnecessary packaging, I wonder how many of us would need to do that to make a point? Perhaps january should be drop it back month, that would soon get some results.

My small step today was car sharing to a work event with 3 others.

This thread is so inspiring. Well done everyone

Someone was asking about dental floss earlier on in the thread. I've just come across this silk dental floss, which it says is 100% biodegradable and compostable (both the packaging and the floss itself). But it's sourced in China and put together in the USA, so air miles and all that...

Signed the petition

I bought a reusable coffee cup, so have to remember to take it with me.

I'm surprised the teapigs are compostable, aren't they some sort of fabric-y plastic?

I've emailed Tesco today, my local store have stopped selling Naty Nappies and haven't replaced with another biodegradable brand. They used to sell reusable nappies but have stopped that to, they also didn't stock any recycled toilet roll.
I've also asked what they do with their waste and damaged goods so once I get a response I will post on here

Having homemade vegan soup for dinner (made 3 days ago).

@rogl Our Tesco do a recycled one but it's awful. We've had our first delivery of Who Gives A Crap and I'm loving it. So soft and not a single bit of plastic in sight!

I find this dental floss when looking for something else:

ingreens.co.uk/product/dental-floss/

Just pledged to this kickstarter project for a battery free powered toothbrush that has biodegradable heads.

It has been bothering me for a while just how bad the use of my electric toothbrush was, but I had some gum recession starting a few years back and switching to an electric brush sorted it out, so was reluctant to switch back to normal brush in order to use bamboo brushes. Hopefully this will be the solution.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/goodwell/be-the-first-battery-free-powered-toothbrush?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=be%20toothbrush

Surfers against sewage also have a petition to back a bottle deposit scheme. I cant link on my phone.

From their website in the uk we use 38.5 million single use plastic bottles and 58 million cans everyday - such massive numbers, mind blowing.

I got the idea from a PP of saving envelopes for shopping lists. And it turns out that it's perfect for my 3 year old to scribble on (he loses interest very quickly).

My refillable water bottle has arrived.

To the PP who uses glass jars for freezing. Do you keep the same lids on? Do you need to let it thaw to open? Thank you. (A bit embarrassed to ask something so basic.)