Marginal gains to save the planet

So not the big ticket items that many can’t afford like electric cars or solar . What small ideas have you got?

I’ll kick off with a few ideas we’ve done. I’m sure some of these ideas are debatable.

Plastic free kitchen and house scrubbers, ie coconut based, to stop micro plastics.

Clothes washing sheets that come mail order so no plastic bottles. They’re much more compact for starters and much easier to use.

15 litre washing up liquid and reuse the bottle. We are on the same bottle for the last three years.

Hard soap style shampoo. This is great, again no single use plastic. Hard soap as well.

Laundry powder comes in a cardboard box and is much better for your machine.

Don’t turn the heating on in June because you can’t be bothered looking for a jumper.

I don’t suppose putting Shell V-Power in the car to get a better mpg counts does it…

Most things I do to save money because I’m tight but also help the planet eg making a teapot with 2 bags rather than 3 individual cups with 3 bags; doing one big load of washing up in one go rather than doing a couple of plates.

I also tend to try and re-use things rather than throw them away – eg socks with holes in go as rags to clean shoes; old tshirts rags for the garage.

On bike related matters, I try to buy concentrated cleaning soap etc and dilute it at home with filtered water out of the water butt. I car share with a mate when going biking, mainly to save money on parking and petrol but it helps the planet too.

I’ve decided to kill my children. It ain’t easy being green 🙂

Hard soap and shampoo saves a lot of plastic yes.

Also, you can make your own deodorant with half a tsp of aluminium ammonium sulphate and a few drops of tea tree/whatever oil you want in a refillable roll-on bottle.  It is extremely effective, costs almost nothing and the refillable bottle lasts forever.  If you don’t fancy that, then Pit Rock also lasts almost indefinitely, only going down when you drop it and the crystal breaks.

Smol detergents come in cardboard, they also make cleaning sprays that are a tablet and you refill the spray bottle.

Don’t shower every day – you don’t need it, your skin biome adjusts and you smell less overall.

This is controversial, but I’m going to say don’t wear cotton t-shirts. Synthetic ones last many many years, far longer than the cotton ones I have, so overall probably better for the environment I reckon.  I can also wear them two or three times without smell unlike cotton which goes about 4hrs in hot weather.  I haven’t analysed this though.

Don’t wash towels after every use.

Buy local food – I hate the shopping experience at Asda but they are much better for locally sourced produce than the others we have.

Buy seasonal food and learn to make the right dishes to appreciate it.

Learn how to keep and use leftovers.

Next time you change your car do try and get an EV.  You can get decent cheaper ones now, and the used prices are plummeting so keep an eye on the market. But only if you need a new car.  They save a shitload of CO2 and if you need to change the car anyway you might as well.

Bikes: use chain wax – you’ll get through a fraction of the drivetrain components.  Also ride road when it’s shitty weather.

Learn how to tune your central heating – fit bigger rads if needed to allow you to run it cooler.  Also balance your rads to get the heat where you want it, and put reflective foil behind them. Consider IR panel heaters if you WFH in the winter.

Do little things to insulate your house. Check for cold spots, work out where the gaps are and block them. Put a curtain in front of your door with a portiere rack. Put a temporary curtain at the bottom of the stairs when it’s cold using a compression rod (this makes a staggering difference).  Use double curtains – a thin one you can leave closed in cold weather during the day and some heavy ones for the night. Make them fit into the recess to block draughts.  Check the gaps around your UPVC windows with a bit of paper – you can replace the hinges to get them to shut better (although this is a right faff to do) or you can replace the rubber strip. Same for doors.

Not really marginal gains, as these are huge savings; do less (it’s cheaper):

Our heating has been set to 17.5C for 2 winters now, it sounds cold but after we had the cavity walls insulated the house is just a nice even temperature.  It’s just the default to wear a jumper rather than take it off when getting home.

We’re down to 1 car, we could probably do without entirely 90% of the time but my OH refuses to cycle for reasons and we still use it for trips where trains don’t make sense.

I went veggie, which is cheaper, healthier, and a massive reduction in CO2.

That’s £thousands saved each year and probably halving my carbon footprint and I’ve not even actually “done” anything, just not done some normalized things (setting the temp at 21C, owning a car, eating meat) .

Kettle has sharpie marks showing capacity of the different teapots we use regularly

bath towels are smaller than standard to reduce wash and drying load

kitchen chemicals are all made up from dry sachets from Nisbets and we have decent quality spray bottles – I’m certain this saves us a million pounds a year and is so much less plastic waste https://www.nisbets.co.uk/jantex-green-kitchen-surface-sanitiser-sachets-pack-of-10/ft322

other kitchen chemicals also bought in bulk – dishwasher rinse aid is a 5l commercial thing, also citric acid, bleach & washing up liquid – of course has an up front cost and requires a lot of storage so may not suit everyone

encouraged the kids out of hoodies and into fleeces to reduce washing weight – I know I’m moving from cotton to plastic but we tend to get nice stuff and move it on via Vinted when outgrown

Vinted! Loads of bargains there and feels like doing the right thing.

Check the gaps around your UPVC windows with a bit of paper – you can replace the hinges to get them to shut better (although this is a right faff to do) or you can replace the rubber strip. Same for doors.

How do you do that?

I’ve got one that doesn’t close properly, the hinge end of the window sits about 3-4mm out from the frame relative to the side with the lock. I assumed there’d be an adjuster (a bit like kitchen cabinets) but haven’t found anything.

I went veggie. Rest of the family already were because they don’t like eating things with faces. For me it was the massive use of resources required to feed animals.

We use re-fills on shower gel and soap.

Heating is down too (to save money!).

Refilling kettle to a least minimum line, or enough for two cups if better half is home, just after pouring boiled water in cup(s) to make a tea.

Made more of a difference when I was a caffeine monster typically having ~8 cups per day instead of ~4 these days, makes more difference during chilly winter period, but should mean less power needed to boil kettle next time compared to adding cold water just before turning kettle on.

Find and use a zero waste store where you can bulk buy stuff from washing up liquid/ shampoo to nuts, pasta rice etc

Refilling kettle to a least minimum line, or enough for two cups if better half is home, just after pouring boiled water in cup(s) to make a tea.

Made more of a difference when I was a caffeine monster typically having ~8 cups per day instead of ~4 these days, makes more difference during chilly winter period, but should mean less power needed to boil kettle next time compared to adding cold water just before turning kettle on.

Surely the same overall? It’s just taking heat from the central heating rather than the wall socket?

Although in our house the bigger gain would be that the OH is incapable of judging what 2 cups looks like so boils a full kettle 😂. In her defense it’s a kettle on the gas hob  so there’s no markings, but still.

“Surely the same overall? It’s just taking heat from the central heating rather than the wall socket?”

The ch is gas so far cheaper per kWh. So boiling water from room temp rather than cold tap temp will save a few pence.

Not sure if it matter to the plant or not.

Wonder what the saving is over a year being the kettle to boil from 18c rather than 10c?

Wonder what the saving is over a year being the kettle to boil from 18c rather than 10c?

Google say 7p to boil a full kettle.  So about 1.5p per mug? Assuming you could reduce that by 10%, 0.15p per cup, say 10 cups a day 3600/year. That’s about £5.50 saving a year.

Half that in gas for heating so £2.75, but the heating is only on for half the year, so £1.40?

Total saving about £4.00?

But………

Gas is much worse from a planet perspective than electricity, so it’s saving money but not the planet.

This is controversial, but I’m going to say don’t wear cotton t-shirts. Synthetic ones last many many years, far longer than the cotton ones I have,

I am currently wearing a cotton t shirt from the 1996 National MTB champs.  It’s indestructable!  Most of my cotton t’s are 10-15 years old.

Don’t wash towels after every use

Do people actually do this?

Most of my cotton t’s are 10-15 years old.

Conversely I have four; one is new and been worn a few times, the others have been worn a handful and are already looking like rags.  Two are are Fjallraven and not cheap, and one has a Cragghoppers logo on it.

I’ve got one that doesn’t close properly, the hinge end of the window sits about 3-4mm out from the frame relative to the side with the lock. I assumed there’d be an adjuster (a bit like kitchen cabinets) but haven’t found anything.

I’m not sure how this happens but it did to our upstairs windows. I think it was because we didn’t lubricate the slider bit so it put undue stress on the hinge pivots making them slack. I replaced and lubed the ones in my daughter’s room and I didn’t even need the replacement rubber strip. It’s not easy to do though, ideally you need two people – one to hold and one to screw the new hinge in; and you need a rope or strap to tie around your waist and the window so you don’t drop it out of the gap – it’s heavy.

The process to replace the hinge is to remove the screws that go into the casement top and bottom, then pull it into the room.  Then you can swap over and re-fit.  Then lube the new hinges with silicone spray.

Do people actually do this?

Apparently yes.

Separate energy use from all the other stuff like recycling/avoiding plastics etc.

Yes recycling is nice, but if you rinse that plastic butter tub with hot water from your gas combi boiler you have probably scored an own goal from a climate change perspective.

Substituting things like riding/walking the dog from home instead of driving to do those things (even if it’s in an electric car) is going to reduce energy use massively.

Don’t wash towels after every use.

Teenage me must have paid into the planet savings bank then. I’m not sure I washed a towel until it could walk itself to the washing machine.

If you think the frequency you wash your towels affects planet earth’s climate, I’ve got some carbon offset credits to sell you

Heating turned down, ride to work, tend not to use my 22 year old car very much, prefer powdered washing powder – gentle ones, avoid lots of chemicals for cleaning, recycle as much as we can.

99.9% of recreational cycling is done from home. No car.

I keep my bikes a long time, only ever sold one.

Bad side, hot tub and two gaming PC’s are energy monsters. Hot tub get’s turned down to pump only on a regular basis. Son’s a petrol head, as are his friends, and the needless driving they do completely outweighs the fact my car doesn’t move much.

Almost mid-year, and I have still not used a single disposable cup.

Most of my cotton t’s are 10-15 years old.

Most of mine are even older, though unfortunately I’ve had to buy some new ones because I’ve gone from XL to M over the last couple of years.

Conversely I have four; one is new and been worn a few times, the others have been worn a handful and are already looking like rags. Two are are Fjallraven and not cheap, and one has a Cragghoppers logo on it.

I don’t know how you’re managing that. I can’t even remember throwing at t shirt out unless it’s been ripped or otherwise badly damaged in some way. Though if you only manage 4 hours wear before they’re minging we obviously are very different, I usually have to wash clothes because they’re grubby rather than smelly and find synthetics start to pong quicker than cotton.

In general, just wash clothes less. It saves water, power and wear on the garment. For most people the washing process causes more wear than actually wearing the clothes.

Anyway, although I think it’s all worth doing, marginal gains through individual action won’t save the planet. It has to be a worldwide change in philosophy away from consumption and growth based economies and we’re a long way from there..

Use feet and bike for anything local. Be fussy about this.

Learn to use curtains. If it is dark or cold, close them. If it is warm and light open them. If it is hot and light, close them. YHMV.

Drive slower.

Heating is down too

I hope you mean it is OFF now though (assuming you are in the UK).

https://www.waterstones.com/book/green-living-made-easy/nancy-birtwhistle//9781529088380?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=531573&awc=3787_1718206979_40da742754c01b4756acea7257ad3a00&utm_source=531573&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=https%3A%2F%2Fshopforward.nl%2F

Visiting friends last week ,and they were mucho impressed by Nancy’s book.^^

They have sent us a copy in the post 🙂

Washing towels! Roughly 35 years ago I joked to my house mate (now wife!). ‘why do you need to wash towels, you are always clean when you use them? ‘

She’s never let me forget it.

Back on topic, driving slower someone said. It’s amazing what difference there is between 65 and 70+

These are all great tips to save small amounts of money but make zero difference to saving the planet. Removing all of the UK’s consumption would make 2% difference. We need global government action to even make a dent.

So how long should I endure a damp smelly towel in order to offset the output from this week’s new Chinese power station(s)?

Is two or three days ok?

I’ve just bought some plant based sellotape. I didn’t spend a couple of minutes wondering whether I’d spent all my life buying sticky tape made from meat, but it turns out it’s plastic-free. Haven’t opened it so no idea if it actually works.

Gribs – everything makes a difference . Team SKY used to win lots of races, because Dave Brailsford and his secret squirrels were making incremental gains with tiny changes.

what we haven’t mentioned is the outside space. Making ones own compost, reusing plant pots, leaving grass long, planting a small tree, bush or hedge. Not using power tools in the garden. Don’t power wash drive ways, have at least one waterbutt ( for watering, cleaning cars, windows etc. Grow and eat your own produce where possible. Dry clothes outside.

Insulate.

The cotton Ts are still serviceable, and I’d wear them if I have nothing else, but I do have synthetics which look great so I wear those instead.  The cotton ones pong in hot sweaty weather like 25C plus if I am walking or doing something. Not normally.

So how long should I endure a damp smelly towel

You don’t.  You dry yourself, then hang the towel up so it dries, then it won’t smell and you can use it again.  You don’t need to wash it between use but you do need to dry it (obviously).

If you think the frequency you wash your towels affects planet earth’s climate

It does, just a very tiny amount. However, there are a lot of people doing it, so…

Eat less dead animals. Its gross anyway.

I’ve got some carbon offset credits to sell you

Biggest scam going.
Buying shares in a nunnery or monastery doesn’t absolve you and free you up to have an affair…
Reduce, reuse, recycle, then plant a tree or 50.

I hope you mean it is OFF now though (assuming you are in the UK).

Eh? We had snow last week. It’s getting down to 2c at night and we’ve barely been in double-digit temperatures for about a week.

Vote with your wallet. Changing your bank is pretty much the single biggest action you can take as an individual. Stopping your wage, savings and pension contributions being used for harm is quick, easy and painless.

Don’t fly.

Don’t go on cruises.

Don’t have children.

Go veggie/vegan.

Don’t wash towels after every use
Do people actually do this?

Our elderly neighbour used to (well, tea towels anyway) But she was as mad as a fish