What little things have you done

[stavros]

Use soap bars rather than shower gel or handwash in bottles.

You can get shampoo bars as well. I think Lush sell them.

 

[hash tag]

Lush also take old plastic bottles back in return for a discount on new products

 

[davesgcr]

Local Tesco and even Marks take "soft plastic" for hopeful recycling. Do this thoroughly and it has reduced our normal waste by a reasonable amount. Hardly fill more than a third of the bin now .....

"Every little helps" - one hopes.

 

[hash tag]

Local Tesco and even Marks take "soft plastic" for hopeful recycling. Do this thoroughly and it has reduced our normal waste by a reasonable amount. Hardly fill more than a third of the bin now .....

"Every little helps" - one hopes.

Isnt a large part of this simply green washing?

 

[8ball]

Isnt a large part of this simply green washing?

With any corporate thing of this kind there tends to be a settlement between people concerned about the environment, bean counters and PR/marketing.

 

[hash tag]

Some supermarkets take back plastic bags, somewhere else, spectacles, somewhere else clothes. I'm not convinced these things all end up where we would like them to.

 

[StoneRoad]

Some supermarkets take back plastic bags, somewhere else, spectacles, somewhere else clothes. I'm not convinced these things all end up where we would like them to.

No, probably not all of them.
But some of these bits & bobs do end up recycled or reused in some way, rather than just dumped in "landfill" ...

 

[xenon]

Just burn rubbish for energy anyway. It’s never all going to be recycled without costing more in energy.

 

[gentlegreen]

Since I retired, I bathe even less often.
I also do a lot less laundry - though that doesn't count as I use my bath water.
I only flush once a day with water that I already used to rinse my alfalfa sprouts.
I'm currently embarking on growing more of my own food to see what is feasible in a small urban space.

-----

When I move to somewhere with more garden and workshop space, I plan to recycle all my grey water, poo and wee.
On the other hand, I may well have to use a car occaisionally for big shops and to to tow a boat to the launch point...
... but doubtless I will invest in an electric bike and trailer for shopping... and solar panels... and a solar shower as I will hopefully need to up my personal hygiene game as I socialise more.
I fully hope to wear electrically heated clothes in winter.

I will also aim to grow a lot of my own food which will save on single-use plastics - though that will mean I will need to raid communal bins for the containers I use. I will hopefully find ways to re-purpose quite a lot of other people's landfill...
Living several miles from the shops instead of 1/10 mile will provide incentive. I will also bulk-buy pulses and seeds - not least because things like tahini may be less easily available.

If it proves appropriate / feasible, I might get some exercise from small-scale market gardening.

 

[8ball]

Since I retired, I bathe even less often.
I also do a lot less laundry - though that doesn't count as I use my bath water.
I only flush once a day with water that I already used to rinse my alfalfa sprouts.
I'm currently embarking on growing more of my own food to see what is feasible in a small urban space.

-----

When I move to somewhere with more garden and workshop space, I plan to recycle all my grey water, poo and wee.
On the other hand, I may well have to use a car occaisionally for big shops and to to tow a boat to the launch point...
... but doubtless I will invest in an electric bike and trailer for shopping... and solar panels... and a solar shower as I will hopefully need to up my personal hygiene game as I socialise more.
I fully hope to wear electrically heated clothes in winter.

I will also aim to grow a lot of my own food which will save on single-use plastics - though that will mean I will need to raid communal bins for the containers I use. I will hopefully find ways to re-purpose quite a lot of other people's landfill...
Living several miles from the shops instead of 1/10 mile will provide incentive. I will also bulk-buy pulses and seeds - not least because things like tahini may be less easily available.

If it proves appropriate / feasible, I might get some exercise from small-scale market gardening.

This is surely too hardcore for the "little things" thread.
Careful with the exercise, though. Will mean breathing out extra CO2.

 

[nottsgirl]

Posted a picture on Facebook in celebration of Earth Day.

 

[furluxor]

Since I retired, I bathe even less often.

Still got a stretch to go to retirement (I'll never get that bus pass!) but I also started showering less often a few years ago. My brother's doctor said he was ruining his skin by showering daily. I have dry skin as well so I took the advice and switched to every second day with no ill results.
And back in the boating days...well, there's such a thing as strategic washing : ) Standing in a stock pot and using a cloth.

 

[muscovyduck]

I've been on an anti-plastic hype and growing food. Feels good. The big challenge is when you're not trying to replace something plastic, but you're trying to replace something that comes packaged in plastic

 

[gentlegreen]

I ought to cook my beans from scratch to save on steel cans, but it would cramp my style - I suppose I could cook up a week's supply of chickpeas and put them in the freezer-ish thingy I 'm using. At the very least I should use up my stock of dried pulses since they refuse to sprout ...

 

[Aladdin]

Still got a stretch to go to retirement (I'll never get that bus pass!) but I also started showering less often a few years ago. My brother's doctor said he was ruining his skin by showering daily. I have dry skin as well so I took the advice and switched to every second day with no ill results.
And back in the boating days...well, there's such a thing as strategic washing : ) Standing in a stock pot and using a cloth.

I had to rush to hospital on Friday for a "quick blood test ".
I ended up walking about a third of a mile after parking the car in the rain (admittedly not very heavy rain but enough to soak in)
Bear in mind this was the very first walk outside of my back garden since March 2020.
And the rain jacket made me sweat.
It was only after I finished up in the hospital and walked back that I realised I must have been a bit whiffy. But on double checking myself I actually was not a bit smelly. Not at all.
I'd not showered since Monday.
Plain forgot ... just was too busy doing stuff and working and minding the octogenarians.

Oh well.
Single handedly saving the planet.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Ate a pasty cold.

I used to buy ginsters pasties back in the day and eat them cold. The thought of doing so now makes me feel slightly queasy.

 

[stavros]

I used to buy ginsters pasties back in the day and eat them cold. The thought of doing so now makes me feel slightly queasy.

Careful not to heat them too much.

 

[danny la rouge]

I didn’t go for a flight in my private jet again today.

 

[LDC]

I didn’t go for a flight in my private jet again today.

You still have your own?! I thought the ACG had communalised all their private jets?

 

[danny la rouge]

You still have your own?! I thought the ACG had communalised all their private jets?

I don’t have a private jet to go for flights in.

 

[WouldBe]

I didn’t go for a flight in my private jet again today.

Can't afford to fill it up.

 

[MickiQ]

I didn’t go for a flight in my private jet again today.

Funnily enough neither did I

 

[danny la rouge]

Funnily enough neither did I

 

[furluxor]

I have switched to biodegradable dental floss, which is not going swimmingly. The gaps between my teeth are so small that the floss broke and got stuck, which resulted in me running around the house trying to pry it out using sewing thread, toothpicks and well sharpened pencils. Succeeded at last but now I hold my breath every time I floss. The inevitable disaster is coming.

 

[8ball]

I have switched to biodegradable dental floss, which is not going swimmingly. The gaps between my teeth are so small that the floss broke and got stuck, which resulted in me running around the house trying to pry it out using sewing thread, toothpicks and well sharpened pencils. Succeeded at last but now I hold my breath every time I floss. The inevitable disaster is coming.

Don’t think it’s meant to biodegrade quite that fast.

 

[stavros]

Does anyone know what the approximate energy required is to pump a litre of water to a home? There'll be factors which means it varies - altitude, proximity to reservoir, perhaps different treatment techniques - but I'm not able to find a definitive answer on this.

 

[stavros]

I can't seem to find recycled bog roll anymore. Once upon a time the local Coop used to sell, as I'm sure did Oxfam. More recently I've had to get it from Tesco, but neither them nor Asda, both very big shops, seem to have any at the moment.

 

[StoneRoad]

I can't seem to find recycled bog roll anymore. Once upon a time the local Coop used to sell, as I'm sure did Oxfam. More recently I've had to get it from Tesco, but neither them nor Asda, both very big shops, seem to have any at the moment.

Our local co-op & sainsbury's both sold the stuff, at various times, but I haven't been in either shop since before covid [BC].

 

[stavros]

Maybe the situation in Ukraine has somehow affected supply lines. I've been forced to buy stuff that only offers 80% recycled packaging, as opposed to the actual paper itself.

 

[stavros]

Success! I found recycled bog roll in Waitrose.