What do you do to help save the planet?

[RiverMeadow]

Looking for more ways to help so any ideas would be much appreciated!

Re: cotton clothes, do you know how much water is needed to grow cotton? There's a very insightful stacy doyley documentary on it.

These are the things I do:

Buy and sell second hand.
Use soap bars
Try to buy biodegradable where I can
Walk not drive where I can
Grow my own veg
Buy organic

I definitely don't do enough

No kids.

Anything less is just pissing in the wind.

I just had this conversation and it struck me that I /we do lots ourselves at home. But the two things I could do more of are

1. Raise my voice. Lobby. Write to companies. Let my supermarket know why I am boycotting their plastic wrapped bananas, maybe even on Twitter (ugh). Also to politicians. They need to know that we care.

1. Be an educator. Not just for my kids but in my community. Volunteer with eco stuff at school. Run litter picks or join a community group.

Cloth nappies. Vegan. Electric car (very lucky I have one of these). Don't fly (ever). Buy all of my son's clothes and toys from secondhand pages (scandi ones are amazing!). Grow my own veg. Won't have anymore children.

Also moon cup! Amazing things.

Renovated our house to passive levels.

(Not lecturing but if this isn't top of your list you're not taking sustainability seriously.)

I'm not having children which is the biggest one you can do.
I use bar soap to avoid plastic bottles.
Recycle.
Have a green energy provider (Pure Planet - PM if you want a referral code for a voucher).
Use washable period pants.
Use Eurostar rather than fly if possible.
Plant bee friendly things in the garden and have hedges for the birds to nest in.
Buy the majority of my clothes and furniture second hand.
Reusable shopping bags.
Low emission car.
LED bulbs.
Rent out a room in my house to increase housing stock.

Probably other things I have forgotten but being childfree is the most effective.

I don't eat beef

Line dry, eat quorn, charity shop, adopted a child, got a rescue cat, grow veg, never waste food etc. That said I think it will make bugger all difference. Don't think there is anything we can do, that will resolve things, but I do think the earth will sort us out . We will destroy our habitats, our numbers will naturally reduce and something else will come along and fill the gaps.

Exactly janet. It does bugger all indeed.

I do what I can

I have found a refill store
Dd2 and I have switched to shampoo bars

I use reusable pads and a cup and period pants

I have steel straws

Theres probably alot more I can do but I do what I can when I can.

I also have 4 compost heaps. I keep one smallish garden wild with a pond. Cut the grass minimally. Have allowed living hedges to grow round the gardens that have no ancient walls round them. It's a big old garden !

Thank you for all the replies.

Where do you get your bath/shower gel refills from? Especially for the kids if possible.

Stopped using plastic bottles, and limited plastic where possible, I also added wonky grocery's to my shopping list, it's quite sad to think how much food is thrown away because it doesn't look perfect

@RiverMeadow my local refill shop, but if u don't live near one splosh sells shower gel refills and more online.

it's quite sad to think how much food is thrown away......

The understatement of the year It's effing despicable, and the supermarkets should be fined trillions (or at least made to pay for the produce to be taken to food banks etc. ) for doing that to the producers.

We're lucky because we know all our organic food growers (they're all fairly local) and we get it the day after it's picked! ( I love my garden but the stress of growing veg. is too much for me! ) I also love supporting the farmers.

@firstimemamma Thank you!

One return flight a year max - I have family abroad. Bar soap. No kids. No pets. Cycle to work and walk when I can. Eco version of car when I can’t. Shop local and British. Eat in season. Have an allotment. Line dry. Only buy loose veg and fruit. Recycle the arse off anything that comes in the house. Buy when I need, not when I want.

Tumble driers are only bad if they vent outside. Condensing tumble driers use minimal energy and the heat is contained within the building reducing the need for other heating.

We don't go on holiday, we don't make lots of twatty car journeys. Save up the errands to do on one trip. Had fewer children. (2)

I:

• Reuse plastic bags as much as possible then take them to the bag recycling point at my local Tesco once they're battered. Also take toilet roll/bread/vegetable packaging here too as often that says it can be recycled with the bags at larger supermarkets

• Try to collect crisp/sweet packet, toothpaste tubes and old toothbrushes - amongst other things - to take to my local Terracycle collection point. Find this a bit hard though as I've not got much space to store it while collecting so could do better on this one;

• Don't buy things that will be used only once/very little. Have been particularly conscious of this when buying Christmas gifts this year;

• Make sure to buy recyclable cards and wrapping paper (no glitter or foil) so it can go in the recycling. Also reuse undamaged wrapping paper;

• Refill squeezy sauce bottles from glass jars rather than buying more plastic. Also refill shower gel bottles from a 5l container to save buying more plastic bottles;

• PG Tips teabags as they are plastic free;

• Think twice about anything getting thrown out - could it be recycled anywhere (eg electronics can be recycled at Curry's and textiles can often be taken to the recycling part of a local dump, and to some local H&Ms) or be used for another purpose?;

• Try to use up all food with as little waste as possible;

• Use a menstrual cup, which I actually LOVE and wish I had been using years earlier.

Along with the things mentioned below (refill shop for groceries & household stuff, limited flying, no car), I've been trying to cut down on the number of things we have delivered by van as I was worried about the emissions caused by diesel vans. I found this site : www.broughtbybike.com recently, which lists companies who deliver by bike/cargo bike instead of van.

Buy reusable kitchen roll, buy bio d ( uk company) cleaning stuff, eco bleach powdered, use local health food shop.
Buy fewer clothes.
Buy recyclable coffee pods, use eco cycle on dishwasher, ( cold wash on washing machine no use here) drive less.