SaveThePlanetTrackWorld

cinnamon girl - Yes I take my own bags. Everything goes into the basket, gets weighed at the counter (I'm lucky enough to have a proper greengrocer locally) then straight into my bag. Several of our local independent food shops have biodegradable shopping bags anyway.
In the next week I'm going to start making fabric shopping bags. Will see if I can make enough to give some away on this forum.

Obviously buying sprouts is not ideal as they roll about the basket. 🙂

We also have a milkman which helps keep plastic out of landfill.
If I put anything in the microwave it goes in a tupperware, with the lid laid loosely on top (with a gap), thus not using clingfilm.

If ironing I do the whole lot in one go. Putting it on for 1 shirt is not good 🙂

Could you let me know about your cleaning products please. Is it mainly lemons, bicarb and vinegar?

I just use ecover with hot water (bleach is a no no)

Jamz - I too am a member of all sorts of groups.
One of the best things you can do to encourage and help wildlife is have a pond (size doesn't matter). We also planted another hedge in our garden over a year ago, which will eventually replace the fencing.

I've given up driving and instead of the coffee cup dilemma I simply drink in the pub, ya bunch o' pooftees.

Also no kids.
People who are selfish enough to choose to have more than two children should have the first ones recycled to keep the numbers down.

[b]Bunnyhop[/b] you're very lucky to have a local greengrocer and you're doing a good job by not using plastic bags. Interested in your fabric bags, will they be folding ones that can fit inside a handbag?

What is your bleach substitute, ie what particular Ecover product? I need to stop using bleach but haven't yet researched that.

I've been making quite a few things, for example dishwasher powder consists of Borax substitute, soda crystals, citric acid and essential oil. Then washing powder also includes Borax substitute and soda crystals so it means that I'm not buying a million and one items. Fabric conditioner consists of white vinegar with essential oil, this keeps the machine clean with whiffs at bay. So shower spray also consists of white vinegar with antibacterial essential oils added.

White vinegar has so many uses - it can be used on garden paths, as a weed killer, for cleaning windows, cleaning loo etc.

Bathroom cleaner had soda crystals, bicarb, non-iodised salt with essential oil but it needed plenty of rinsing after use, similar to Jif.

Happy to pass on recipes. 🙂

Ooh very interesting.
For loo cleaning I use ecover loo cleaner.
For all kitchen work surfaces, very hot water and ecover all surface cleaner.
All hand soaps are ecover (bought in a big bottle and fill up the hand wash small bottles.
Soap is in paper.
Washing powder us ecover non bio with no additives.

I use bicarb with hot water for plug holes.

Yes, hopefully the fabric shopping bags will fold up and can be washed.
All our peelings, fruit and veg bits and pieces go into the compost heap.(not potato).

they are protected

The forbidden Badger steak is the most tempting of all

Cinnamon girl I've not made it yet but the raw ingredients will be stored in the larger recyclable bottles they come in. Mostly it's glass bottles of oils. I think it requires heating. The instructions are in the link I sent you. It's a project for me next rainy day off.

Being as the Pentagon and it's global operations are the number 1 consumer of fossil fuels on the planet, reckon I'll stick it to the military industrial complex good n proper.

Edit: Lush are all about the eco, and their soaps come wrapped in paper!

Bottled drinks pee me right off and government should go at the supermarkets for pushing them in particular the lunchtime meal deals and fast food outlets with fruitshoots and fizzy pop bottle instead of a can. We need to stop drinking bottled beer too and embrace can beer

Why? Bottles can be reused, the legislation is on its way up here to make a German deposit type system for plastic, I imagine glass will quickly follow. Reuse > recycling.

Airtragic - I think he missed out the word 'single' from that stat. In which case it is most probably correct.

People with recipies - yes please, sick of refills being more expensive than pump tops.

Probably going to meadow my garden, its a tip at the moment anyway so nothing to lose. Also have a ton of crap to get rid of if anyone is looking for hideously out of date IT equipment.

Oh, and going to stop using disposable cups, never realised there was such an issue given the council make such a point of telling us we can recycle plastic backed paper. And yes, aware of my own crapness as I should know better.

Great thread.

I try to recycle as much as possible, and avoid excess packaging (I need to do more on this). Try to encourage everyone around me to recycle.

I have reduced my meat intake by about 90% (helped by living in India for a year), and am trying to be totally veggie for this month.

Have a reusable coffee cup.

I work for RypeOffice (www.RypeOffice.com) who design and install office spaces using reconditioned furniture - higher quality for lower cost - winner!

Was very excited to read about Splosh, but quite a few reviews suggest that the products don't clean as well as the likes of Ecover which is a shame. How can I find out where to get local refills for Ecover (their site isn't much help)?

Duane.

How can I find out where to get local refills for Ecover (their site isn't much help)?

[b]Bunnyhop[/b] always good to hear what others are doing. Have you thought about making fabric bags for storing bread and potatoes, I believe this was done years ago. Please keep me posted with your fabric bag-making.

[b]squirrelking[/b] I'll be starting a new thread with recipes that I've followed and have worked together with pics and supplies info, hopefully will get it done late this afternoon.

[b]Duane[/b] wow, you're doing really well. Had a look at the website you mentioned and very impressed especially as organisations are taking this seriously.

As promised:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cleaning-pr0n-recipes-for-a-clean-and-optionally-fragrant-home

We are unlikely to get a goverment that makes decent decisions so its important to drive this stuff from the demand side. Everyones lifestyle is different so just do what you can to to tread lightly. I think I’m pretty efficient already but I’m aiming for less than 15,000 units of energy in the home and a bit less meat and what I do have will be good quality.

I was put straight on the plastic issue by someone on here last year so have a bit of run at that one already and produce little waste.
The difficulty now is convincing the rest of my family, I don't think it needs to be a big deal just buy mushroom loose rather than in a tub, Have reusable water bottle etc.

Re coffee cups, I used one of those Lifeventure screwtop cup/flasks most of last year all the coffee shops are happy to fill them.

cg - pretty everyone who hears about RypeOffice is interested, its just tricky educating people about what we do!

I also forgot to add - I donate a bit each month to CoolEarth (www.coolearth.org) - who are widely regarded as the most effective climate change mitigation charity out there. Worth checking out!

Fed up with people thinking about themselves and convenience. Is it really too hard to buy a carrot, peel it and chop. Instead of stuff that's been pre-chopped in some outsized plastic carton.
Our bakery still puts the loaf into tissue, twisting the ends.

Grow your own is good.
See too many people buying food out of season.

Duane - the ecover refill products I buy are from our local independent health food shop.

I bought some bamboo toothbrushes recently, as they seemed like a good idea. Bought a pack of 12 to try and reduce postage and packaging. They arrived individually wrapped in plastic, and the plastic wrapping looks like about twice the amount the equivalent plastic toothbrushes would have used 🙄

I cycle everywhere I can and use trains (no car).
And I promise I won't throw my carbon bike in the sea.

You can probably thank GxP guidlines for that wrapping Mowgli.

Possibly.

Not sure about toothbrush regs.

What vickypea said on the previous page. Single-use plastic has really started to upset me.

We'll be trying desperately to cut down on its use in our house, and be more diligent in recycling as much as we possibly can.

Trying not to buy anymore single use plastic bottles eg water, shakes, squash etc.

, and be more diligent in recycling as much as we possibly can.

Not 100% sure but with the current problem of lack of facilities to recycle certain plastics.. the diligently recycled plastic will get landfilled anyway...

Landfilling isn't really the main issue, the total landmass it takes up is tiny. It ending up in the ocean is the big ****ing rampaging elephant in the room.

Landfilling isn't really the main issue, the total landmass it takes up is tiny. It ending up in the ocean is the big **** rampaging elephant in the room.

Agreed. What's the actual route from household to sea though? Other than bits getting carried off by the wind, presumably there must be some large scale dumping going on somewhere?

Microplastics getting washed out to sea and dumping/littering. A lot of the world is ignorant to it (poorly educated) and too poor to care, stunning beaches ruined by plastic waste in the Philippines was quite eye opening to me. However, senseible plastic disposal isn't as high up the list of importance as things like basic ****ing healthcare. Quite understandably, recycling and a clean environment is a pretty privileged western thing to have. When the world becomes more equitable things will change, but westerners would prefer to blame environmental issues on evil Chinese people etc because.... they eat dogs etc... and theres obvs too many of the ****in commies etc.

Saw on BBC breakfast that the microplastics are no longer going to be in bathroom products. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42621388

Microplastics getting washed out to sea and dumping/littering.

I still don't really understand why so many people get worried about microplastics that may cause harm when there's tonnes of very visible far easier to deal with not-yet-microplastics on most beaches these days. 🙁

How are your endeavours going? Any top tips?

Pleased to report that my recycling is still reducing thanks to making my own cleaning products. Link here if anyone missed it:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cleaning-pr0n-recipes-for-a-clean-and-optionally-fragrant-home
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My favourite Scottish blogger has just written this which is quite an eye- opener and well worth a read.

http://moralfibres.co.uk/11-surprising-items-that-contain-plastic/

I've switched to loose leaf tea due to finding out tea bags have plastic in. Wondered why they never rotted in my compost properly. As my compost goes back on my veg patch and borders it seems worthwhile. I was surprised how little choice there is for loose tea in shops though. Asda had Yorkshire tea only and is prefer to buy something fair trade. My local health/ethical food shop only had one choice which came in a tiny pack half the size of the same brand of tea bags for the same money. Any suggestions on where to buy loose tea at a good price?

Serious question (oh god here we go). Sitting on the throne this morning I was wondering if there is a more eco alternative to flushing paper down the loo?

Bidet?

The paper itself is pretty eco if it's recycled. Finding a use for recycled materials is actually pretty handy. Not sure about the processing at the other end. You could put it in a bucket and compost it I suppose.

[b]myti[/b] funny isn't it how this has only recently become public knowledge and your compost will thank you for switching.

I only drink loose tea and my family for decades have been using Sainsbury's Red Label which is "Fairly Traded". It's not as strong as, say, Yorkshire, but does have flavour and it's a lot cheaper.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/loose-tea/sainsburys-red-label-loose-tea-250g

Scroll down for explanation of "Fairly Traded"

[b]DavidB[/b] if only although I believe there's a loo that "sprays" your bottom with water.

I’ll be retiring soon 😆
http://www.dupontteijinfilms.com/
Speaking to our scientist the biggest issue for us using recycled plastics is EU regulations governing what can be used in foodstuff packaging(lots of other regs apparently)
Traded in our diesel 4x4 for a smaller petrol car.
Been biking to work for 40yrs so can’t change that.
MrsT has health problems so as much as she would like to adopt lots of the suggestions above it’s not physically possible. Mobility problems, low immune system and skin problems all mean she has to be very careful on what products she uses and food she eats. Travelling to work is “only” 6mls, 15mins by car or 2 buses and 45mins, an option she cannot use due to above issues.
We use bus and train if and when possible.
Can only afford 1 flying holiday, our kids(grandkids)cannot afford holidays away from home so they are pretty “green”
I’m off the the dump now to recycle my paper and booze bottles......
Then I’m going to make some tubs to plant some bulbs using the wood from our house renovations....

How do bottles get into the sea someone asked? Don’t know about your area but the roadside debris around here is diabolical!!!! Thrown out of cars/lorries it hits the roadside, then washed/blown into ditches/burns/becks to then be washed into rivers that lead to our seashores.............

Already quite committed to a big reduction in our carbon footprint.

Have solar panels , Nissan Leaf Electric car and a Tesla Powerwall 2 battery which stores the energy from the panels for later use.

Apart from the environmental impact of using the EV car, it is proving to be an almost cost free running cost vs petrol or diesel.

The Tesla battery was bought and installed as we won't be buying another ICE car again.

My car spends most of its life sitting outside the house, I guess it averages about 5k/year.
My job, on the other hand, is a logistics driver moving cars around, and I do roughly 1500 miles a week! Still, it’s someone else’s car, and someone else’s fuel, so it doesn’t bother me... 😈
Did look into getting solar panels fitted, with a storage battery, but the shape of the roof meant so few panels could be fitted it wasn’t economically feasible to get it done.
Now, if Tesla solar tiles become available and I could get them fitted for free I’d jump at the chance, but I’m just scraping by financially, it’s impossible for me to pay for anything like that myself.

@DavidB - loo paper made without trees:

https://uk.whogivesacrap.org/

Currently feeling that I should be doing more especially with plastic bags, many are used for batch cooking and one alternative is the glass storage containers with plastic lids.  Cost is an issue although TX Maxx are selling them but also storage.  Should I use foil instead?

Home-made cleaning products are going well, have added loo cleaner and hard floor cleaner.  Next to make will be shower gel and hand sanitiser.

Small steps.

Car trips only when absolutely necessary.  Do most (90%) of grocery/bits and bobs shopping by bike.  This is also selfish as I generally ❤️  cycling and generally dislike driving.

Very impressive MalvernRider and really driving is not a pleasant chore these days.

one alternative is the glass storage containers with plastic lids

this would seem ideal:  https://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Coline%20Glass%20Food%20Container/Pr441898001

shame they're out of stock, I paid more than that for my (BPA free) plastic lunch boxes!

I think a lot is to do with cars.  Not so much vehicles themselves, but the way in which our distribution and life patterns are based around road traffic.  E.g. where you live, supermarkets as opposed to small shops, cold chain distribution etc.  Much of the "bad stuff" is associated with this IMO.

We're fortunate to have 3 shops locally that offer re-fills of some sort (grains, Ecover & Bio-D liquids etc), plus two greengrocers and a butcher.  That's pretty unusual these days, though, unless you live in a city like we do.  We can offset the slightly higher purchase costs against the lack of driving we do.

We've made some modest changes recently, including: bulk buying liquid soap for refills around the house, soap bars for bath / shower, using a clingfilm replacement (beeswax-lined parchment) and going to 100% refills for washing liquids.   We've always been pretty eco-conscious, but have tended to the easier changes.

The biggest single use plastics in our household are things like yoghurt, houmous and milk.  We have always had doorstep milk deliveries, but at £0.92 a pint it's pretty expensive and so we get a big 4-6 pint plastic bottle every week too.  It's time to look at this again.

All my life I've used a milkman so never noticed the milk prices. However 92 pence per pint does sound a lot. Our milkman charges 73 pence per pint. Could you shop around for another milkman?

Organic milk 🙂

@zilog6128 - yes indeed, how do you find them?  I think in TX Maxx they were around £5 but can't remember the size.

@Ben_H - goodness, that's quite a selection of local shops!  Can I ask where you bought your liquid soap refills from, also very interested in how you find the beeswax lined parchment and presumably it doesn't actually touch food?  Thanks.

I see this has resurrected on the back i think of the dishwasher thread. reading with interest, and i already do some of this myself.

However, here's the evil scientist coming along to wee on your chips (not really). Coconut oil isn't that great due to the transportation; swap that out for one of the others olive / sunflower. Might not be as 'creamy' but it'll wash your hands the same.

His recipe is 190g water
Lye-KOH 90% pure 108g
Castor oil 100g
Coconut oil 100g
Olive oil 200g

Sunflower oil 100g

And do me a favour and get some litmus strips, don't just rely on the recipe. If your KOH is a bit lower in purity / higher in moisture, your oils will be part unsaponified which is no great shakes;  but if it is a bit higher in activity and/or the oils are a bit low in SAP Index then you could have unreacted KOH in your mix which is not at all good for skin and disastrous if you were to get in your eyes (very corrosive)  Get some litmus paper and check it's neutral to slightly acidic (skin is naturally around pH 5.5) and if your mix is slightly on the alkaline side, add in some vinegar dropwise to bring it down.

And I'll refrain at this point from making any comment that in an industrial setting all the Raw Materials will be qc'ed in advance, the process will be highly controlled based on the quality envelope of the RM's, and the end product has to be signed off by a qualified authorized person. Alternatively anyone with an idea and an internet connection can load up a recipe, send people off to Amazon / the supermarket to buy the ingredients and then spread it all over their skin.

Conceptually, I love what you're doing and support your right to do it; just make sure the execution is good please.

oh, and first one to say 'well you would say that, you work for the chemical companies' gets a big organic punch in the face 😉

The biggest single use plastics in our household are things like yoghurt, houmous and milk.

They're reasonably easy to recycle, no?

Our kerbside collection only takes plastic bottles (PET 1 and HDPE 2 only) so that's the milk bottles sorted, but [humble brag alert] I collect all the other plastics (Muller rice pots are type PP for example) in an old kitchen bin in the garage and get great satisfaction emptying it when full at the plastics container at the council tip. Word on the street is that our council will start taking all plastics at the kerbside collection this summer which will bring them in to the 20th century lol.

Used to get milk delivered, but the diesel transit van woke up my neighbours!

@cinnamon_girl
<div class="bbp-author-role"> Liquid soap refill</div>
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<div>Bees wax wrapper - one of many</div>

@theotherjonv - is your recipe for liquid soap as opposed to hand sanitizer?  I'm keen to go on a soap making course rather than attempt this myself, bit nervous about lye to be honest and would feel safer being supervised.  Do make my own foaming hand soap though, takes 2 minutes.  I shall save your recipe and am reassured by your credentials!

Completely get what you're saying and despite using some recipes from the internet I do select my sources carefully, the comments can be very helpful as well as offputting..  This is my go-to book, unable to post image:

https://wordery.com/fresh-clean-home-wendy-graham-9781911595106?cTrk=ODU3MDY1OTJ8NWFiMTJiYWNiMDc5NToxOjE6NWFiMTJiYTIyNjU5OTUuOTUzNTcyODI6ZDJlZmU0MTE%3D

www.moralfibres.co.uk/

I'll be washing up by hand rather than using a dish washer 🤲🏻

My Aldi tea bags break down in our compost heap, maybe they don't use plastic???

For me?  NO kids and no car no pets.  those are the biggest things you can do.  Once  year or two short haul flights is my main environmental sin - that an an energy inefficient flat ( but its much better than it was)