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).

Making an effort to reduce food waste at the moment so random items are emerging from the freezer to be paired with whatever leftovers we have. This evening's meal is turkey chilli and cornbread.

As it's party season, have also been reminding everyone that supermarkets often do glass hire for parties, no plastic cups required!

As it's party season, have also been reminding everyone that supermarkets often do glass hire for parties, no plastic cups required!

I also found it tricky at the supermarket at the weekend. Fruit and veg is largely ok if you take something to put it in but there is so much packaging on other things.

"For now, we are comfortable continuing to carry products that have high quality, food grade silicone parts. We balance the toxicity information stated above with the knowledge that silicone is a high quality, relatively stable material, and leaching of chemicals from other plastics is of much greater concern." I think this was regards to the seals and gaskets they sell, not the actual bakeware but you do have a point re the plastic containers the paper cake cases come in. Honestly, they could so easily just make the container out of cardboard, or thicker paper even. The silicon doesn't biodegrade in our lifetime at least and awkward to find a recycling facility

I watched the Blue Planet programme last night and cried. Vowed I'd do something different but really struggling for ideas. Following thread with interest :)

Food packaging is my biggy. I'm buying meat more from farms, so less packaging, but so much supermarket stuff! All the plastic I'm saving elsewhere shrinks into insignificance next to my food packaging.

I asked them not to put my fish n chips in a poly tray last week.

Its really hard. My biggest win by far is going to be the solid shampoo and conditioner and soap rather than shower gel. That's three bottles every two weeks.

Three bottles every two weeks?

What size are the bottles, and how many people use them? I'm just wondering because it takes me about 6 months to get through a 500ml bottle of shower gel (and I have a shower pretty much every day, and live in an area with very hard water). Similarly a 400ml bottle of shampoo will last 3 or 4 months.

Do I just use less than average?

four of us using it and I have very very long thick hair and so get through a bottle of conditioner a week. They're not big though (the tube type rather than a massive bottle of something like tresseme).

Newts can I ask what bar shampoo your using. I have really long and very thick her and I can't seem to get the shampoo to my roots

Anyone managed to find a non plastic sellotape?
I'm wrapping my Christmas presents in brown paper and have cotton ribbon with Christmas patterns on.

But the sellotape bit is causing me problems!

Steaksauce This will take some practice I should imagine.

rogl I'm using Jason and the Argan Oil from lush but I haven't tried any of their others.

Made my own bread but realised my plastic fail as the yeast was in a plastic sachet.
Made my own granola but same with the nuts and dried fruit so emailed nutsinbulk.co.uk based in Ireland and they confirmed that they can use paper packaging or they recycle with plastic they receive from their suppliers.
Tried making my own crisps but burnt them but the banana oat biscuits for Toddler were a success so that's 8 plastic packets for the bin saved!

And thanks to PP who mentioned Splosh - looking into that now

Have also signed up for milk and more in glass bottles!

There's so much to think about but all the ideas here from like minded people does make me feel more positive. Keep 'em coming!

Splosh people! I've been looking at their website, I like the sound of it. Do you have to buy their starter packs, or can you buy single bottles at all? I can't see anywhere that tells you, just asking on the off chance, I'll email them if not.

The yeast is available in tins as well, but they have a plastic lid. They do need it though.

I've had problems with Splosh. Ordered washing up liquid. You by the bottles and the refills. When I reordered they had changed the bottle and product - so i needed a new plastic bottle! Hmmm what was the point of paying over the odds for this? Less plastic I think? . Then the refills were fucked up so I was getting diluted product by mistake.

And I don't think the product is all that - I won't be reordering the washing up liquid.

The spray cleaner is OK, but again I'm not convinced that the spray bottle will last much longer. The refills are great, but you start to lose the edge if the spray bottles etc don't last and last. As as I don't use a huge amount I'll probably just go back to Method, which I prefer. over 2 Splosh size refills in one large Method spray.

So great idea, and there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to buy ALL our cleaning products concentrated like this and just add the water content ourselves at home. But I do think Splosh have a way to go with the execution.

Vitalogy you have to buy a starter pack as you need their bottles to mix in the correct proportions. Of course they could just tell us the correct proportions so we could reuse bottles we would already have. But they don't.

I really really wanted to love them and I was prepared to pay more for a good environmentally friendly product, but ......

Still they are working on developing things so hopefully they will tackle these issues effectively.

re Splosh, each product has a different bottle - so you need to order the bottles in a starter pack (I think you get the refills too but it was a while ago I ordered my starter pack).

There is still packaging of course - the washing up stuff has 3 refills in one pouch. And once you have 4 empty pouches you can return them to Splosh for recycling, in one of the boxes they were delivered in.

I keep my bog standard spray bottles and dilute whatever cleaner I have left in them. When I run out I will buy someth8ng ultra concentrated and just dilute it random,y. It really doesn't matter as long as it cleans.

I've got a stinking cold so am using an handkerchief instead of loo roll to blow my nose.

I'm gifting lovely organic hand printed ethical hankies as gifts this Christmas - for the few people I give gifts too - or using them to wrap gifts.

www.4160tuesdays.com/4160tuesdaysscentshop/prod_2635367-All-four-scent-hankies.html

I'm going to keep some for myself too!

Hope you are on the mend soon struggling

Thanks Rebecca, those hankies are lovely!