What are your tips for being more environmentally friendly? Tell Unilever for a chance to win a £300 voucher!NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Unilever have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters' tips are to make sure that your family is more environmentally friendly.

Here's what Unilever say, "At Unilever, we believe there has never been a better time to create a better future for our children; a world where everyone has enough food to eat and no child goes to bed hungry; where everybody can enjoy life today while protecting the planet for future generations.

"If we all work together to take small actions every day that make a real difference, we can build a world where everyone lives well and lives sustainably.

"We're committed to taking positive action on climate change within our business, but we also want to inspire our consumers to make those small changes that can make all the difference."

So, what positive habits have you got in to which help you be more environmentally friendly which you can pass on to other Mumsnetters? Maybe it's as simple as getting yourself and your DCs into the habit of switching off the lights as you leave the room? Are you a champion for only buying sustainably sourced products or managing down the food miles in your weekly shop? Perhaps you're now using reusable instead of disposable products, everything from batteries to razors to ink cartridges? Or maybe you've ditched the car in favour of cycling? Whatever your tips are, we'd love to hear them!

Everyone who posts their tips on the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

start small- we recycle, save water by showering and turn off electrical equipment when we leave the room.

We try to recycle as much as we can and even take some bits into school for them to use, the vegetable scraps etc get used for compost and we try to water by sharing a bath, the kids go first then me, then my husband, we add hot water as we go and try to teach the kids to turn the tapsoff, when brushing their teeth

We play a game at home. Everyone who can gather something that needs recycling will gain one point. The one with the most points will drop down to the bottom of the choirs list!

we've ditched the car for the school runs, we're all keeping fit and helping the environment by getting on our bikes!

Keep the heating on a low setting, switch lights , TV's appliances off when not using or not in the room. Recycling paper, bottles, cartons , plastic etc.

Recycle batteries , ink , use bags for life when shopping . Wash clothes on a lower temperature and do a full load not half loads , dry the clothes on airers not the tumble dryer. Have more showers than baths .

Oh dear. I'm not sure 'saving paper by using an e-ticket when flying' is going to be the best tip here. In our case that would have saved 2 sheets of paper in 10 years. Clearly I need to fly more...

12LuDo it's great that if you are going to use Tassimo, that you recycle the pods, but honestly nothing to do with Tassimo can ever really be listed as "environmentally-friendly". Even with recycling the pods, the systems are a really energy- and resource-hungry way to make coffee. Even the bloke who invented the coffee-pod machines doesn't himself own one, and he has publicly said he regrets inventing them.

Turning off things instead of putting them on standby

We always walk unless it's a far distance and far for us is anything above 15-20 mins. We recycle alot and reduce food wastage.

Try and recycle as much as you can. I rip the little plastic windows out of envelopes and put them in the bin so that the rest of the envelope can still go in the paper recycling, rather than throwing whole thing away :D

Saving energy = saving money as well as the planet, so a real win/win!

And remember- second-hand no longer has any stigma attached now!

We have to recycle really well now as the main bin collection only comes every three weeks which makes recycling so much more crucial. Another thing that we try and do is make sure everything is turned off at the mains every time we leave the house- make sure that the lights arent all left on like blackpool illuminations :)

We walk on all local journeys such as to the shops or local town instead of using the car. It saves money, is better for the environment and gets my DCs some daily exercise and fresh air :)

We keep a food planner to reduce food waste and having lived in Germany for 8 years we are very good at recycling, up cycling and freecycling! Nothing goes to waste - not even boiled potato water

I recycle as much as I can,I wash out tins after I've done the dishes
Use a slow cooker and I freeze my veg before It starts to go off rather than throw It out

We have a duvet (kept behind the settee) for downstairs when it gets cold to avoid using the heating.

We really try to minimise food waste at the moment. Last week's tip was to slice peel off potatoes, don't peel them. Thick peel slices enable mash on day 1 - potato skins on day 2. No waste!

We do lots of environmentally friendly things, I don't drive so if my husband is away I walk everywhere, we also recycle and try and be energy efficient!

However I genuinely believe the most important way to be the kindest to the environment is to educate the next generation of adults and therefore we don't just walk to school we talk about why we are walking to school, we discuss as a family what is happening to the environment and why it's important that we play our part!

My children know off by heart which material goes in which bin, they will turn off a light when they leave a room and they wear "pride to stride" stickers on their scooters!!

It's habits I hope they will take with them and not only pass on to their own children but make a difference for generations to come!!

Bascis, recycle all you can, no bags at supermarkets etc

WASTE LESS.

So if veg looking on last legs either make soup and freeze or cook and freeze.
Make shopping list and stick to it.
Plan meals.
Upcycle and recycle, dont throw away. Sell or give away

We recycle everything we can and take part in regular give and take days. Give and take days are great to recycle all our old, good condition items that we no longer need. We usually have a good clear out and take several binliners full and we come home with some items that are useful to us!

I have a composting bin at the bottom of the garden for any vegetable peelings, apple cores etc. so that we don't add them to landfill.

Hubby has bought a sharpener which does everything from knives and scissors to needles so we won't have to ditch anything for being blunt.

I've insured all my household appliances which means that if they break down, someone will come and fix them rather than having to discard the item and buy a new one due to high call out/repair costs. Same with my laptop. We do this so that we don't add to the ever growing pile of waste electrical items unnecessarily. Any new appliances we've had to buy, we've tried to get the most environmentally efficient that we can afford and last time I manged to get the item I wanted off Gumtree too so didn't have to buy new.

We try to keep mostly to very low temperature washes. It's not easy with very grubby children, but everything seems to come out clean!

Since we moved into this house 6 years ago we have only ever used the shower, we don't use the bath at all. The bath has a 6 line washing line to dry clothes naturally over it!

We also keep the central heating off for as long as possible - one year we made it to December! When we do turn it on, we keep it very low, about 17-18C and wear jumpers. We usually stop using it round the end of February!

We walk everywhere we can, and we turn re-cycling into a game. With prizes for who re-cycles the most in the week! We turn milk cartons into stationery pots and small watering cans, and turn old clothes into new ones by adding trims/bows!

i refuse shopping bags due to once seeing the amount that where in the Atlantic plastic vortex, so now i use a trolly dolly (reusable shopping bag), all the rooms have individual digital thermostats on the radiators to ensure they stay at a set temp for each room and last but not least, recycle as much as possible, saving plastic for arts projects but foremost teaching my kids the importance of environmental matters (hubby is an environmental management student!)

I have a Can o worms wormery & all tea bags, coffee grounds & most food waste goes into it. Switching off lights, recycling as much as possible, leaving the oven door open after cooking for heat & walking rather than transport are some of the things I do.

We recycle almost all rubbish. separating paper, tin, etc.