Does anyone do any "Eco" friendly stuff?

[katymac]

I'm bored and I thought I'd see how many M/Ners were "eco" friendly

Basic stuff like recycling/saving water
Through to solar power and not using a car......then composting toilets and grey water recycling

Is anyone out there interested in this sort of thing?

We just basic recycling but then it is facilitated by the council here so is easy to do. They provide garden waste recycling, glass and paper. O and does ebay count as recycling..lol

Yes - as long as it's not new

I recycle stuff. And I am an obsessive miser when it comes to turning things off. I get teased by dh who thinks that given half a chance I would turn off the heating and sit in a bobble hat and duvet in the winter. He is not far wrong.

I also feel guilt if I buy overpackaged food in the supermarket or if I take the car for a trip shorter than 3 miles.

That woman on the telly who composts her own poo is completely nuts though. There are limits .

Absolutly - I couldn't do the compost your own poo thing - yuk

I agree about packaging - you buy a carton of eggs and they put it in a bag...why? - I just say no thanks(mind you I now buy my eggs from the farm and have to take my own box

Reusable nappies
Breastfed
Avoid supermarkets
Shop locally
Recycle all glass,tins,paper and textiles
Buy at least 50 % of stuff secondhand
Use Ecover products

Pretty painless doing the above.
Not a joyless puritan by any means.

(How do you recycle poo? What do you do with it then?)

We recycle paper, glass, plastic, tin... we've got containers full by the end of the week. It's amazing how much waste a family of 4 can create.

My personal worry is water. I saw a programme about people in India having to drink contaminated water which would eventually kill them. The only choice they had was whether to die quickly through dehydration or slowly through poisoning. I think about it every time I brush my teeth or have a bath & try to waste a minimum.

you compost it and put it on the garden.......[shudder]

I'd like to use cloth nappies on the babies I mind - but the parents (so far) have been really resistant to the idea - I worry that if I did it off my own bat I'd get blaimed for an nappy rash and thier clothes might not fit....I did it for 6 months with my DD - but stopped when she went into a harness for her hips (we only had one and it couldn't get wet/dirty as she had to wear it all the time)

I heat my water (in the winter) from my fire and wood is a "good" fuel

Recycling Poo: I assume you just put it in the hottest part of your compost heap.

Us...No car, no freezer, recycle every scrap....
Most the things other people have listd, and quite a few more.
Keep considering solar power but hard to justify on cost means -- don't mean to live here forever; so haven't radically altered the toilets yet, either.

Don't do the mooncup either, not quite ready for that...

However, I jet off to California every 18 months or so, which just about obliterates any Carbon savings I might make by other measures.

sanssouci: if you're really interested in water. You can bucket out the water from the bath and use it to flush the toilets. That saves good drinking water, too.

But human poo has meat in (unless donor is veggie) and can carry human viruses etc - not like general veg waste, horse manure etc. I would not want to eat anything grown in human-waste-compost ugh ugh.

We recycle loads and try and minimise the packaging we buy.
But now have a tumble drier, which I still feel guilty about ... and I feel guilty most about the fact that I love it!

i think they use a worm thing - but it can be done with reed beds too

Sansouci - you might want to consider Grey Water recycling & rainwater harvesting

It would cost about 1800 to 2500 to install (plus labour I think) and collects rain water and filters you bath & bathroom sink water along with you washing machine water then you can reuse it for watering the garden, flushing the loo and cleaning the car etc

I really want to do this and I'm saving up for that 9as well as a solar hot water system)

Jan,I was always told as a child that Egyptian potatoes are grown in poo lol!
(Very nice they are too!)

roisin, you know a tumble dryer is essential up here for at least half the year! And if you dried everything on racks in the house the walls would get mildew and everybody would go down with nasty bugs.

(Feel better now? )

Thanks Jan

washable nappies, mooncup, washable sanpro.

Don't fly (although not exactly through choice),

like walking- walk into town with ds3, bus with ds2 (driving only option with ds1)

err not great at recycling, although do manage papers and plastics.

My car is my sin - we live in the country and shops are miles away

I always walk to school - unless I'm short on time , when I park about 1/4 of a mile away and do the last bit

But I am lazy about journeys of between 1 and 3 miles - I should walk but get so tired (i have ME and a partial prolapse) and i know that's no excuse but.......

AND i have an enormous people carrier for the childminding - but our other car is very eco- ish (a Smart car) and also very economical

I'm about the same as Moondog, and I compost everything within reason, which doesn't include human poo, yuk.

Compost everything except poo (surely that's dangerous?) mooncup (!) recycle everything, washable nappies.

But have car and will hang on to it tenaciously as long as it's so expensive and difficult to use public transport (hate being treated like a criminal). But at least it's not a 4x4

Message withdrawn

Recyle everything I can

Eat as much organic stuff as possible

The water companies are looking into composting poo. They do it in holland for the flower fields. I believe that they steam sterilise it which should kill most of the bugs that survive the composting.

I have got venitian blinds on all the windows in my house due to dust mite allergies. We have double glazing but now I am feeling guilty about loosing the insulation of curtains. There is always something isn't there?

some of the water companies do compost solid sewer waste - I know bwcause it was on come outside. (and I have a friend who works for the environment agency).

I do the normal stuff - terry nappies, minimal cleaning products (soap usually for the laundry etc). Not enough though - feel constantly guilty.

Triceratops, what about shutters, dust mite free and if you don't go for slatted wood ones - very insulating. (and I think they look great)

We recyle paper, glass, plastic and cans. Our council doesn't provide pick up services from flats, so we walk it to the Co-op up the road.

I normally walk to work, but as am pregnant now, I use public transport - I'm MUCH rather walk!

We don't have a garden, and our flat is too small to allow space for compost.

Would like to use reusable nappies, but have no dryer or outdoor washing line/garden and this place is too small to dry nappies on top of all our other washing.

Use homemade cleansers only.