Does anyone have any really good how to be environmentally friendly tips?

[sparkleymummy]

Not the usual turn down your thermostat, don't leave things on standby and recycle ones but things others might not have thought of.

A friend today told me that when they are having mashed potatoes she cuts the potatoes into very small chunks so that they take a fraction of the time to cook and it saves gas. I'd never even thought of that.

Any others you might wish to share?

Save your boxes and give them to a local kindergarten to make things with.

Save your window envelopes and reuse them, or give them to a school or other large organisation to use for internal mail.

I'm thinking of ditching the microwave. I've no idea how energy efficient or inefficient they are, but I don't like the buggers. It's like having a little neutron bomb in your kitchen. I hate pressing the START button. I always feel like this might be my last moment on earth.

And really, why do we need microwaves? Microwave meals are shit. We use ours for defrosting, so I'm thinking something revolutionary here ...

Why not take the food out of the freezer in the morning and let it defrost naturally?

get hens, feed your left overs to them, then you reduce waste and you have your own fresh eggs - so you reduce food miles too... they are usually organic, free range hens who have a much better life than the average hen, you can share your eggs with family/friends/neighbours and reduce their food miles too.

if you can't have a hen then get a green cone or a wormery and then your food waste isn't going to landfill (nb don't let your hens know where the wormery is).

stop buying liquid soap in plastic bottles, buy suma soap and stick a beer bottle top in the bottom to stop it drying out and splitting (suma soap isn't wrapped so you can save on packaging, and you get to recycle beer bottle tops)....

don't drink beer or wine just neat Poitín brewed from the produce of your garden, then you can recycle bottles and reduce food miles.....

use a bit of damp newspaper to clean your windows - exercise, plus no toxic chemicals, reducing packaging etc - and you get to recycle newspaper.

install a woodburning stove and use waste wood/paper from the local recycling centre, use your own potash for your garden.