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).

Just heard on the news, the supermarkets Iceland and Co op are going to start a plastic bottle return scheme. Also Iceland are stopping the sale of plastic straws.

I've been looking at organic bamboo and cotton ones and they are so pricey, compared to standard. I really hope they last longer

Bamboo socks don't last at all, falling apart after couple of months.

@Biffybiffster I used an online tutorial but in French (am in France) because I'm such a sewing novice that I needed to show the saleswoman at the fabric shop.

Ah OK @Somme I'm sure I can find an English version. I'm a complete novice too, I hope mine turns out as well as yours

@legoninjago have you had any luck with organic cotton ones?

I've got 2 pairs of incredible bamboo socks. Been wearing them for 4 years now and they are still going strong. I have big feet so I buy men's socks. Can't remember the brand though.

I really would like to buy more bamboo clothing.

I've just changed to a Mooncup and am so happy about it. Tampons give me the heebie-jeebies. I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. I'm about to get annoyingly evangelical about it with all the school mums.

We use eco cleaning products, and have 4-litre refill bottles. We've been using them for about 7 years now, so haven't bought a new bottle of spray-cleaner, laundry liquid, toilet cleaner or dishwash liquid in that time. I figured the other day that it's at least 150 product bottles that we haven't purchased over that time.

@vwlphb where do you get your 4l cleaning products from? I've recently discovered a place I can refill with ecover. Big bottles would be good though as it's a 30 minute car journey so wouldn't want to have to go very often.

Kid's clothes- I read the stuff about organic cotton and how important it is. DD (5) needs new school tights. The organic cotton ones are £9.95 for one pair. We'd need at least 3 to keep up with washing.

I feel really torn. We cant really afford £30 on tights at the moment.

I am planning on learning how to darn though.

Bin day, I used the tip I read here about using a bread bag for the bathroom bin!

Tipped contents of other waste paper baskets into one bag as long as contents was dryish.

I do agree with the carrier bag charge and always used recyclables but the odd carrier was always reused for small bins, now I've been having to buy rolls of small bin bags so anything to reduce that is great

Today: have started unsubscribing from various emailing lists inspired by the poster who mentioned the amount of electricity used by email.

I've heard of people lining bins with newspapers, Candy - I think it makes sense for compost bins (we buy compostable bin bags but I'm not 100% convinced by how quickly they'll break down) but our kitchen bin would be too large to line with newspaper. Plus if you dump the whole lot in the dustbin when the bin is full, the newspaper will go to landfill rather than being recycled (although it would break down, so would still be a better alternative to a plastic bag).

I saw recently that you can buy reusable bin liners, although that would be an expensive option if you bought one for every bin in your house. And you would probably only want to use them for mainly dry waste; one of the advantages (the only advantage?) of using a plastic bag is that you can just close it and don't have to look at the contents of the bin again.

Online activity produces a huge amount of carbon dioxide. Two google searches apparently use the same amount of energy as boiling a kettle. And sending 65 emails has the same carbon footprint as driving a car one kilometre. (I may have just googled to check this information. )

Ooo I've just discovered this thread 😍
Trying very hard to be more ecoconscious in this house and even the teens are now getting into the spirit.
I was sick of buying plastic bottles of hand wash and shower gel so made my own: 1 bar of glycerine soap (I never use commercial stuff, usually handmade), grated down. For every ounce of soap, use one cup (American, think around 265 ml or so?) of water, bring water just to the boil, take off the heat or turn it down and stir in grated soap. Leave to cool, stirring every 15 mins or so. For best results use a hand blender to smooth out any lumps. Ta-da. You get well over one litre of handwash/shower gel (I store it in an old fruit juice bottle or milk carton) for each bar of soap. You can add a few drops of essential oil as well.
Also just ordered EcoEgg laundry egg thingy from a FB offer. Less than 3p a wash and lasts for 3 years with minimum packaging and no waste. I'm intrigued to see what it's like. Been using Method laundry liquid which is lovely but expensive and still packaged in conventional plastic bottles, albeit very concentrated.

Placemarking to join and be inspired by this thread :-) I've got very lazy lately and am looking forward to re-engaging my green credentials!

I have just been shocked at the packaging on the christmas cards that Ive never really paid attention to before. We don't send many but the DC still give out to classmates and DH and I both also send them to a couple of clients. I bought three boxes of cards from Tesco. The boxes are entirely plastic and all of the cards actually fit easily into one box and there is still room for another two packs at least. Meaning the packaging could actually have been a fifth of the size (and also could have been cardboard and recyclable.)

I've decided to do the following, as a starting point:

Make some washable makeup remover pads. I have lots of fabric lying around, so this should be easy enough

Buy a box of bamboo toothbrushes. The best deal Ive found seems to be on Amazon, though...

Switch to bar soap and shampoo (and conditioner, if I still need it)

Switch to an Eco egg for laundry

Get a reuseable coffee mug

We already use washable nappies and wipes, but I have to admit to occasionally sticking baby in disposables because I can't be bothered running downstairs to get a washable. I'll try to be better at bringing a supply upstairs!

That's really shocked me about the energy being used for the storage of emails and searches.
Good idea about lining waste food caddy with newspaper. Although I don't buy newspapers. I think the biodegradable liners disintegrate pretty fast, sometimes if mine hasn't been emptied for more than a week, the bottom gives way, I think it's made from potato strarch. On the bag it says to store bags in dry place up to 18 months.

That's interesting, Vitalogy. I've just had a look at our compostable bags and it says they're made out of 100% compostable "Folie" (usually film or sheet in English). It doesn't say anything about how long you can keep them for, just that they should be kept out of direct sunlight and below temperatures of 35°. They have various recycling/"compostable" symbols on the packaging and are in line with the relevant European standard, so I assume they're probably ok - but one of our neighbours once put a newspaper article into our letterbox about how these biodegradable liners aren't as good as they're made out to be (we put our compost into a large bin shared with all our neighbours) and I've been a bit unsure about them since then. Can't remember what it said in the article, though!

To empty a food caddy, take the whole thing to the compose and tip. Doesn't matter if the bag or papers break.

I put compostable liners in my wormery, and they didn't break down for ages and ages.

I'm shocked about the internet and emails... I'll unsubscribe instead of junking, but there is lots to do there...

refused t buy broccoli in Asda today as heads were individually shrink wrapped!

I'm getting mixed up with this thread and the consuming is society one, I've just put this over on there too. About spam emails, my Yahoo spam folder gets a few a day, I don't even like to click on them in case of virus. How can these be stopped I wonder. Gmail spam folder is pretty much empty though.

I went past a local green grocer today, some of the stuff was wrapped but a lot wasn't. Cheaper and looked fresher as well. They were using plastic bags for the small stuff though, not forced to used it of course.

Swapped all detergent today!

Question? Is it better to use up or chuck out things you’re going to change to eco version? Thinking especially detergent type stuff and things with microbeads where the reason I’m changing is damage to water course etc. are they any better in landfill than used?

Also, is there a way to make hand wash out of hard soap?