going greener - any energy saving or other eco friendly advice?

[bossykate]

hello everyone

i would be very grateful if anyone can help me with energy saving tips or other tips to save costs and help the environment at the same time.

thanks in advance for your help

Use carrier bags as nappy sacks. It is: roomier,free and environmental, and also a wake up call as to how much shopping you do!!!!

Janh, the milk bottles don't have the date printed on the lid, it is 'pressured' into the lid (what's the word???). You, know, like braille. You have to hold it up to the light to see the ridges. Not that they make it easy or anything!

Bozza, just had to say in response to your towel washing 2/3 times a week - our main contribution to the environment is obviously only washing our towels about once every 2 weeks. I thought I was being lazy, but no - green!

I think you should try and be green with your investments too - I hate to think I'm trying at home, meanwhile my bank is propping up the tobacco/oil etc industries. Mind you, DH's eco stakeholder pension lost a bundle this year...

i.e. the co-op bank - for those worried by the lack of branches you can do it all via the post office now. They even offered to send me pre-paid envelopes for paying in when I muttered about the difficulties queuing in the bank with 2 kids. I suppose the petrol saving will out-weigh the use of paper. Hopefully it will be re-cycled anyway!

Zebra. Thanks for the info. I suspect most people don't think about the PC (all those mumsnetters to keep it on all day to check their threads! )
Bummer about the desk top boxes though. We've just ordered a digibox from sky and I suppose the same applies.

Investments? What are those?

zebra, when you say standby for digiboxes, do you mean when the little red light is showing? So should we turn the whole caboodle off at the mains?

Lil, thank you, I did try feeling, and looking, for ridges but couldn't find anything...either it doesn't apply in Lancs or I have lost all sensation in fingers (and eyes!) Magnifying glass tomorrow I think. (Actually our milk lady comes every 2 weeks, I will ask her to show me next time she comes.)

BTW - everybody - you know this recycling stuff that was in Gordon's budget yesterday, about people either paying less council tax if they do recycle or being fined if they don't - who is going to police this? And how? I was trying to imagine it, reading the paper - will the binmen be issued with electronic counters? How big is "a bag"? Will someone else come round first with scales and a counter? Will they rip open our bags to see if what is in inside should have ben recycled? If so will they weigh each recyclable item or rearrange it into more bags and then weigh it? I am quietly boggling away here.

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robinw, we have 2 of those - mine and DH's - his is the older smaller version (ie not very small), mine is the newer one, lasts far longer, hardly ever have to wind it, they are brill.

Only problem is that DD2 insists on taking one or other into the bathroom with her (not the bath, just the bathroom - she literally cannot have a bath without R1) and they seem to be affected by the damp and wet hands and are never the same again!

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robin, I did look into solar panels some time ago, our main house roof is E/W but the bathroom roof is N/S so the S facing bit of that (about 12' long) would have been OK but it was going to be £20,000!!!!!! (And wouldn't have generated much electricity either.)

Where we are wind power is NOT an option, (terraced house surrounded by other terraces/semis), so I never bothered since. What kind of grants are available these days?

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I read somewhere that if you go green using solar energy it will take you 100 years to regain what you paid out.

I've missed the stuff about the budget and recycling - couple of days papers lying unread around the house - but our local council has just changed its paper recycling scheme from designated blue bags for paper to 'use any old bag and put a blue sticker on it' which they provide (stickers). If you have loads of bgs, you only need to put a sticker on the top one.

My neighbours are always amazed at the amount of paper and card I put out but the council told me that whatever I put out will be taken - so all our boxes etc get piled up by the gatepost. I'm not sure where it all comes from to be honest.

I'd like a system like the one used in Melbourne (Australia). They had a box that all recyclables went in to together and was collected each week and sorted at a depot.

In addition, a couple of times a year, they had a major recycle - you could put out any junk you had as long as it didn't cover a space bigger than 1 metre x 1 metre x 2 metres. People would clear their garages and start putting stuff out about a week before the collection was due. In the couple of days before, people would drive/walk up and down examining what was being thrown out and help themselves. This recycling happened even in the areas where there was a high density of population and not just in thsoe areas which had the convenience of a 'nature strip' outside their property.

I've been amazed at how innovative people in Indonesia are at recycling. Households put their rubbish into a bin thing outside the house and collectors come and sort through it taking whatever is their speciality (a bit as SueW desribes, but this happens all the time). Eg, bottle tops/card/plastic/glass etc. They sell it on to a middle man who has a yard somewhere full of bottletops or whatever and he sells onto a processor who will turn it into something else. Virtualy all types of plastic are recycled so I wonder why that doesn't happen in the west? Everywhere you see shops that repair every kind of household device you can think of; washing machines, fridges, radios, cars, bikes, water heaters. Trash like Capri Sonne drinks sachets and the plastic refill bags in which washing powder and fabric softener are sold are washed and joined together to make gorgeous tote bags to be sold. Card & stiff paper waste is used to make books imprinted with braille. Household furniture is recycled, sofas being recovered, mattresses remade. When something really has reached the end of its life it is often fashioned into something else altogether. Metal and wood offcuts are made into ornaments for the house and garden, some of which I am sure are sold in places like Pier, as they look very similar! I admire the Indonesian innovation immensely, I have to say.

Acording to this item item, giving up air travel would mean a big boost to the environment. Do you think people would be prepared to give up the convenience of flying to save the world?

Btw, if you have a large enough container (don't use the glass bottle) milk can be successfully successfully.

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Our gas suppliers owe us £200 so I thought this would be a good time to get that money back from then and swap supplier. I'm looking at changing to a green supplier and have looked at the Friends of the Earth link supplied by Katherine near the bottom of this thread. They list green suppliers in some sort of order with a price comparison but am not sure as to:
a) what the costs are compared to my current supplier (Npower)
b) whether any of them also supply gas (OK not all that green or renewable but its what I've got).
Does anyone have a green supplier they can recommend? We live in Yorkshire.

bozza, nothing could be easier! go to kelkoo linked to uswitch which allows you to compare prices for gas and electricity suppliers. you can choose green electricity suppliers, many of whom also do gas. they also show you the FOE green rating for each supplier. we have just switched to gas and green electricity from juice (part of npower). this has a pretty good green rating - not the best, but the others were all more expensive than our previous bills.

hth.

Thanks Bossykate. I will have a go and report back.

BTW I loved that first phrase "bozza, nothing could be easier" - how rarely is that addressed to me...

The govenment have just launched a scheme to encourage homeowners and communities to set up ways of creating their own green energy. You can get quite good grants for solar pannels, hydro and wind power although you so have to use a recommended supplier. This website has info on the grants.

hello everyone

although it is more than likely no-one is interested, i feel the need to report back on my going greener initiatives.

*switching to a green electricity supplier - done

*recycling plastics and cardboard - not collected from home, so a bit more effort required to drop them off at the centre - well we are collecting them, but contrary to my information, local waste management centre does not take plastics for recycling, so i'm left scratching my head a bit about what to do with this, if anyone knows a recycling centre in s. london that takes plastic, please let me know.

*start composting kitchen and garden waste - done, worms are munching away as i type.

*top up loft insulation - checked it out, loft insulation is about 7", i.e. below recommended level of 10", decided impact to environment of topping it up = minimal, stress and inconvenience to us > benefit to environment.

*use energy saving lightbulbs where possible - done

well in case anyone thinks that is far too smug, i must report some backsliding on previous efforts.

organic veg box - this has had to go! based on guidance from the supplier we changed our order to the smallest available choice, but were still not getting through it before it went off, so the worms were the main beneficiaries. i wonder how other people get on with these boxes? we avoid ready meals and takeaways as much as possible, but well, we don't eat that much root veg, which was mainly what we were getting. i did as much soup, mash etc making for the freezer as i could, but i just couldn't keep up!

all is not lost, however, i have changed the schedule of the weekly shop and order as much as possible from the organic supplier instead of the supermarket. this suits our household better than the box scheme.

the other thing is ever since i said we do not tumble dry on this board, i have had a strange compulsion to do just that! my resolve is definitely weakening on the tumble drying front, but i am resolutely holding back for now. i don't quite know where this has come from, i have been happily not tumble drying for years!

thanks for listening!

Bossykate, no, no, no, thank you for sharing

ok, www, i'll keep my efforts to myself from now on shall i? sniff, huff!

how did your move go?

look, typing it out here helps me think, ok?!

Bossykate IKWYM about typing it out here making it easier. Sometimes I've typed a big question and realised by the end of it that I do know the answer actually, it's bleedin' obvious! Move was OK, good mumsnet tip about removal men all taking sugar in their tea, they do indeed and I'd have never thought of it. So we're moved and happy although not all books unpacked due to lack of shelves. Err, that's probably more than anyone needed to know but, hey, thought I'd share too!

Glad to hear the move went well www and that you are clearly plugged back in to the net.
Bk, we gave up on organic boxes because none of us enjoyed eating kilos of mashed/braised/soupified kohl-rabi or celeriac (and yes I know it makes yummy coleslaw with carrots, but a full fridge-load?) We supermarket shop now and do our best to avoid pre-packed stuff. Our local Express Dairies delivers organic milk, which helps.
Well done you for taking such a variety of actions. We haul our recycling in our CAR over to the supermarket now, but our council claim they are about introduce a waste-sorting and kerbside collection scheme, hooray. We've also switched to Ecover products except for clothes washing, because it just wasn't shifting the stains.
Look, the sun is shining in London today. Banish tumble-dryer fantasies and get out that mangle!

Thought I would get this thread going again as it is a topic close to my heart at the moment. Having finally switched to a green electricity supplier I am now also:

Buying washable nappies for no.3
And am looking into washable sanitary wear (although hopefully won't need it for a while if BF)

However the most sensible idea I came across lately was to buy some string bags for shopping. We try to recylce all the plastic ones in bins etc but still have far too many - string bags seems a really good idea. You can get them from www.stringbags.co.uk - aparently since Eire introduced a tax on plastic bags their use has dropped by 90%!