Greener Living, and what we can do to help

Without sounding like I am on a Daily Mail rant, Tesco's could start by banning shopping bags and cutting back on packaging materials! ;o)

Ant

hi Ant

No, you are not on a Daily Mail rant at all.  There was a programme on TV the other night stating just that - Jaye Raynor - Food programme ..... we use to much packaging on our food stuff. 

It is said to prolong the shelf life of the food but that remains to be seen.

I feel at times we are paying more for the packaging over the contents of the foodstuff we buy on a daily basis.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Good question!! As a family of 6 we try to do quite a lot - sometimes reluctantly by DH!!

We do masses of the normal recycling every other week. (put out less rubbish than most other houses with fewer people living in.)

We use an extra bin we pay for to have garden waste collected for our hawthorn hedge trimmings esp.

We use freecycle for things that still have life in them but are no longer of use to us.

Washable nappies to help reduce landfill.

We breastfeed for a long time avoiding the processing + packing of formula milk.

We love our worms who eat up lots of our kitchen waste make great compost + plant food.

Our herby animals litter is paper/wood based + goes into the compost bins with lots of garden greens.

We use hand me down/charity shop clothes.

I'm trying to persuade the rest that a veg patch would be good for us all, both the doing + the eating!!

I always try to combine things to do in a journey as we live rurally to keep fuel consumption down.

Reusable bags + batteries where possible - if not taking them to the recycling centre - we use this a lot.

We garden organically - no herbiesides at all. (just sore knees from weeding)

We home cook + bake rather than buying processed foods treats.

We have not been abroad since 2001 + not flown since 1999.

Only use sunflower/rape oil trying to avoid palm oil. (it is hidden in so many things that its hard to avoid)

As for what the goverment are doing I'm not convinced that putting wind farms in the middle of the country side is the way to go with pylons criss crossing the land to a more densly populated area. With all the service roads to each turbine + all the cement used to make sure that they are secure - I'd like to know how long that they each have to be working for before they have cancelled out the energy thats been used to make them. There are some smaller wind turbines in Alnwick which is brilliant but after a very short time working they now seem to have been turned off. 'shrug'

Why are we not putting electric + water solar panels on each new house being built it should not be made compulsary in all new houses - the bigger the demand the more reduced the cost of production. Same with the use of grey water re-use.

There is a lot of water in Britain so why not look into more hydro, there is lots up the NW Scot from an earlier era.

I'm not sure that there is an all round answer to it all but I do feel the more that each of us do individually the better chance we have of making the world a better place for future generations.

And breath   -   dismount the high horse   +   regain a normal Motherly position!!! LOL

Well Osprey hope you do not think I am taking the mick but after that lot Iwould certainly excuse your wobbily dyslexic spelling if I had noticed.Seriously I am full of admiration for your family and if all households followed a similar pattern there would be no problem.

In my book you deserve to be a GOOD EGG so moderators this is my nomination.

Reading that back I had a bit of a giggle!!!!

I really do do all that + its not till you write it down that you realise, I'm sure that many here are as enthousastic as we are. 'head in bag'!!

High horse + soap box aside, sorry if I sound a 'wee bit' fanatical!! LOL

Thanks, (I think,) for reading Sooty + for your support, (I'm humbled by your suggestion) I did wonder if folk might wonder if I had a 'compost bin' loose!!

Quite often my eldest 'A' asks 'why'. I tell him its for him, his brothers, their children + everyone else that lands on this planet. To try + ensure that they have as good a life as we experience today + I really hope that they are able to keep the enthousiasm going for this important take on life. (A has chossen for the last 3yrs to be 1 of the schools recycling 'monitors' - with no prompting from me - this makes me as proud as if he was taking in the library as an interest!!)

Hi Blackbird,

Shamefully I cannot match osprey's efforts (osprey - you are an inspiration to us all), but my OH and I try to do our best. We recycle glass, most plastics (our council will only certain types) plastic bags, paper, cardboard, foil.  If it cannot be recycled in my county, it gets taken elsewhere where it can!

Nothing electrical gets left on standby (TV) or switched/left on (lights) when not in use. Rather than filling the kettle up to the brink, we only fill it up for what we need. We reuse plastic bags and never take a new one to or from a supermarket. Though i do not live close to work, i limit all other car travel, if i cannot walk there, i'll get public transport instead.

I believe everyone can boost their green credentials even by making just one change - turning off lights when not in use, for example. Why not check out this link and make a change today....

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/green/

Claire

I was lucky enough to be able to become a car-free houshold five years ago. After living and working for five years in Banbury I realised that my big old Rover saloon was literally just gathering moss, as I walked to work and once there had the use of the RSPB fleet cars for business purposes. So in 2005 I sat down and worked out on paper that I could hire a car for 30/52 weekends in the year for the same cost of keeping a car on the driveway for week after week. And took what felt like a brave decision to get rid of it. As it happens the Council had an abandoned car 'amnesty' so I took advantage of that.

I have never really regretted it - I hire a car maybe only 15-20 times a year, for weekends and occasional holidays (though I've holidayed to places as far apart as Mull and Cornwall by public transport). I walk a lot, and instead of driving all over the place birdwatching I've spent the time getting to know the countryside around Banbury in fine detail. I've also rediscovered the joys of train and bus travel. When I do hire a car it's almost brand new, clean inside and out, fault-free and tailor made to the needs of the occasion, from a small economical run-about to a people carrier. And my bank balance looks amazing by comparison with my car-owning days!

I realise that very few people will be in my lucky position so please don't think I'm trying to be 'holier than thou'. I know there are a long list of reasons why many people can't take this step, from 'kids', and 'job' and 'where you live' - but sometimes it's worth thinking about whether you could make some really big changes to your lifestyle. I can recommend it.

Colin

Unknown said:

Without sounding like I am on a Daily Mail rant, Tesco's could start by banning shopping bags and cutting back on packaging materials! ;o)

Ant

I dont think this is a rant but a really valid point.

If they are going to give out shopping bags I have never understood why they do not use paper bags instead (companies such as Primark do).

Still encourage people to use reusable bags (I do myself) but if they have to buy a shopping bag scrap the plastic ones and introduce paper!

Correct me if I am wrong, but America have never used plastic bags, so I have always wondered why we do.

One a personal note, it's funny how your mind set changes as you get older. Years ago I wouldn't have care about wht impact I was having on the environment. Now I too only fill the kettle with just enough water, stop leaving things on standby, the house is fully fitted with energy saving lightbulbs etc etc.

Ant

I seem to remember some discussion of paper carrier bags vs plastic ones, and apparently there was some argument that there was more environmental impact by paper carriers than plastic.

Andy