Ways to help the environment

[celtic rose]

Luckily our local council run kerbside recycling (metal, plastics, glass and paper) but the take up in the area is appallingly low. Surplus clothes and bric-a-brac go to non medical (don't want to support vivisection) charity shops.

Also my bank accounts are with the co-operative bank who have an ethical policy.
Haven't changed my light bulbs over to energy savers yet but will do soon.
I do have to use a car but it is a diesel so at least it uses less fuel than a petrol engine.

[PinkFluffyCloud]

Perhaps, the 'Racing Post'? :p

Holyhead, only a short swim away. Bit cold today though :eek:

I tend to use the Ferry, generally!! :D

[Gorilla]

Hooray - i got a letter from the council yesterday saying they're going to give us a comprehensive recycling collection! i was pathetically quite excited! they're now going to collect glass, cans, cardboard, foil, batteries etc. as well as the newspapers they already collect :D

unfortunately they won't be taking drinks cartons, now that i make my own soya milk i don't use that many of them but my boyfriend still insists on buying UHT milk in cartons :( so we will still have to pay our recycling co-op for those and for a few other things like certain types of paper, but this will save me a lot of money, and hopefully get more people recycling :)

[snivelingchild]

I went to earth911.com to see for certain whether or not the curb-side pickup recycling recycles a certin type of plastic and was shocked to find out they only recyle #1 and #2 types of plastic, when I thought they processed through six. Well, I looked to see if there were any drop-off centers that would take other kinds so we could store them up and make trips every now and then. There's one in New Orleans which we could feasibly go to when visiting relatives, but under the plastics section, it just said general plastics. What does that mean? :confused:

[Spiral]

I went to earth911.com to see for certain whether or not the curb-side pickup recycling recycles a certin type of plastic and was shocked to find out they only recyle #1 and #2 types of plastic, when I thought they processed through six.

That's not just a problem in Baton Rouge, It happens in England too. My curb-side pickup recycling scheme only takes types 1 and 2 plastic as well. We take everything they won't take to our local recycling centre.


There's one in New Orleans which we could feasibly go to when visiting relatives, but under the plastics section, it just said general plastics. What does that mean? :confused:

I'd take it to mean all types of plastic. Is it possible to contact someone at the recycling centre to ask them?

[cedarblue]

when you say #1 and #2 plastics, does that mean the triangle with no.1 or 2 in the center :confused:

[snivelingchild]

when you say #1 and #2 plastics, does that mean the triangle with no.1 or 2 in the center :confused:
Yes.

Actually, yesterday I found out they do pick up all types of plastics. They changed it within the last year, so the website hasn't updated. So now there's no problem. *lucky*

[Gorilla]

My curb-side pickup recycling scheme only takes types 1 and 2 plastic as well. We take everything they won't take to our local recycling centre

hey *M* our recycling collection only takes certain kinds of plastic too. where do you take your other plastics? it's probably too far for me to go there though.

[Spiral]

Have PMed you with the details Gorilla :)

[Spiral]

hey *M* our recycling collection only takes certain kinds of plastic too. where do you take your other plastics? it's probably too far for me to go there though.

Gorilla, I had a leaflet about recycling from our local council a few days ago and it explained that only types 1 and 2 plastics are accepted at the recycling points because there are no facilities anywhere in the UK for recycling the other types of plastic, so all margarine tubs, yoghurt pots etc can't be recycled :(

[RockyRaccoon]

There's some great ideas in this thread. I'm always looking for ways I can improve.

We have a kerbside recycling scheme - In the green bags I put glass bottles and jars, food cans, aerosol cans, drink cans, plastic bottles, detergent bottles, plastic bags, newspaper, magazines, writing paper, catalogues, directories and junkmail. In the green wheelie bin I put cardboard and garden waste.

The council have recently disallowed green kitchen waste from the green wheelie bin to prevent a further outbreak of foot and mouth. They say kitchen waste is a danger because it may have come in contact with meat and since the waste is composted and sold on to the public it could be a foot-and-mouth risk. It doesn't matter that I don't use animal products. If they spot so much as a tea bag in there they won't collect. Always a solution though, I've started my own compost heap.

I take plastic carrier bags to either of two local shop which do not buy them, but reuse ones that customers bring in.

We cannot recycle envelopes so I use them instead of buying notepads.

I save dairy product/ice'cream' tubs and use them to store food in the fridge of freezer.

I take clothes to the charity shop. If they are too worn I use cotton Tshirts as dusters and put pretty patterned and textured clothes in my daughter's art materials box. I use worn bed linen as dust sheets.

I never learnt to drive as I live in a city and everything is a cycle or walk or bus away.

I arranged for 'Track 2000' to collect unneeded furniture when I moved. They are a local charity who, among other things, recycle household items which are then passed on to underprivelliged families.

Toys, bric-a-brac, etc is taken to the charity shop.

I buy recycled toilet and kitchen rolls, and buy environmentally friendly, biodegradable products whenever possible.

I use energy efficient lightbulbs. I would have bought them but British Gas sent some through the post last year and the year before as part of an ennergy efficiency scheme.

That's all I can think of for now. There's probably more, like stuff I'm amazed that some people don't do but I just do as second nature.

[Gorilla]

Gorilla, I had a leaflet about recycling from our local council a few days ago and it explained that only types 1 and 2 plastics are accepted at the recycling points because there are no facilities anywhere in the UK for recycling the other types of plastic, so all margarine tubs, yoghurt pots etc can't be recycled :(

:( thanks for letting me know *M* i had a feeling that might be the case. so i guess i'll have to keep using margarine tubs for food storage, and yogurt pots for plants :)

it's a shame they don't do something about that, or try to make yogurt pots and margarine tubs etc. out of a more easily recycled material :confused:

on Saturday i was at a market in Brighton and Friends of the Earth had a stall there. the local council want to build an incinerator for all the waste generated here rather than encouraging recycling and composting, so FoE were asking people to write out short letters of complaint to the council. the funny thing was they had old bits of rubbish for people to write the letters on, to at least grab the council's attention. i wrote one and it looked like a lot of other people had too. :)

[laura1983]

I like to think im quite green as i already recycle and do the majority of other eco-friendly tips already mentioned in this thread.

But, my most exciting eco-friendly attribute is that im carbon neutral. I dont know if you guys already know about this scheme but i found out about it at glastonbury festival last year. It involves planting enough trees in selected areas around the world to balance out the carbon released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. We worked out our yearly carbon status and then paid for the correct amount of trees to balance this. My boyfriend's sandwich shop is also carbon neutral and everytime we fly we work out the required number of trees to be planted to balance out the flight also.

[foxytina_69]

what are some simple ways and things we can do to help save our environment? my sister is wanting to learn more about our environment and how we can help it, and i would love to hear everyones input on what they do to help.

i know recycling helps, natural cleaners... what are some other things?

[storms_of_fate]

don't litter, don't drive a vehicle that's not road worthy, if your local area has such facilities... you can switch your energy provider to ones that uses either green or renewable resources.

Catching public transport is not always a environmentally friendly way to travel, it all depends on what the city use to produce electricity and if the buses run on disel... how well are the vehicles maintained and finally over all usage.

[Astrocat]

is she vegan ?

also, Re:
don't litter, don't drive a vehicle that's not road worthy
Good suggestions, but it's better to think of stuff in terms of the positive aspects rather than the negative, and to think of it as doing things rather then not doing stuff, to encourage motivation and avoid feelign that you're restricting yourselves from doing stuff - ie

rather than "don't litter" think of it as "dispose of rubbish properly" , instead of "don;t drive an unroadworhy vehicle" think of it as "keep your vehicle well-maintained" - and similarly instead of "not eating or buying this that and the next thing" veganism can be thought of as "living in a way which is environmentally, ethically and healthfully sound"
and so forth

Switching off appliances and lights when not in use is a good idea - also avoiding the habit of leaving a TV on continuously "as background" - as many people do :P

Eating organic food and local food wherever possible is also good.

Using natural bath-products is not only much nicer, but also much less harmful to the environment than "conventional" products.

Walking or cycling where possible is obviously better for the environment than driving a car or getting a bus, and using organic fertiliser and pest control methods for a garden is infinitely better than drenching it in chemicals.

[foxytina_69]

no shes not. my sister isnt very healthy, meaning she is sick often, but she is makign changes to make herself better, but for the meantime, she feels that sometimes she just needs meat. and i know thats because her health isnt the best right now, but when we move, she will feel alot better and i wouldnt be surprized if she went vegan, as shes not against it, and she knows how much better it made me feel.

[kokopelli]

Foxytina, didn't you start a thread about gardening books? Now I can't find it, but obviously growing your own fruit and vegetables is an excellent way to help the environment, and I wanted to tell you something I've realised saves loads of effort, MULCH!

If you lay old carpet or cardboard etc, on top of the patch where you want to grow stuff, and leave it there for a few weeks or months, the weeds will die back and if you leave it long enough, you'll probably be able to plant right into the patch with hardly any work. It's so much easier than digging!

And toads, slow-worms and other creatures love to live under the mulch, but so do slugs. However, it's easy to deal with them because you can just lift the sheets of cardboard or whatever, and pick them off, put them in a bucket and take them right away from your garden, and this will reduce the slug population in time.

Good luck, anyway! Gardening is my favourite thing to do!

[phillip888]

I suspect the reason Astrocat asked about your sisters consumption is the simple fact that cutting animal products out of your diet will save more resources and lower her impact on the environment than never driving or recyling/reusing. Animal farminfg is a resource heavy industry, and currently one of the largest producers of waste and polution.


Also you know, many people become much healthier because they go vegan.

Oh and BTW reusing is much more helpful than recycling.

[Astrocat]

I suspect the reason Astrocat asked about your sisters consumption is the simple fact that cutting animal products out of your diet will save more resources and lower her impact on the environment than never driving or recyling/reusing. Animal farming is a resource heavy industry, and currently one of the largest producers of waste and pollution.

Yup - if people want to help the environment through simple lifestyle changes, I feel that one of the first things to consider is whether they are vegan - for the above reasons.

Animal farming wastes vast amounts of water and food, creates masses of pollutive waste and generates lots of ozone-layer depleting gases such as methane.
It also uses masses of fossil-fuels to power the transporters, machinery, killing belts, etc.
The way animal feed is grown depletes the soil of nutrition and the whole process is very much unsustainable.

I would very much doubt that there is any one other lifestyle change (ie recycling everything possible) which would benefit the environment as much and in as many different ways, as a typical western omnivore becoming vegan.


Also you know, many people become much healthier because they go vegan.

Yup - I know that a lot of people make excuses to keep eating meat, but it seems bizarre to me that people will even do that when it is affecting their health negatively.

I don;t know the sister mentioned's situation and it is unfortunate that she is so ill... however i have seen so many people... so many of them... who have tried to convince themselves that they need to wait until they feel better before they will change their diet in a way that will make them feel a lot better.
Of course, they never got much better at any kind of pace on their omnivorous diets but they wouldn;t even try to change, just saying something vague about "needing" 'meat' because they don't feel well.

It strikes me as being very like the people who "need" to smoke because they feel upset by being ill, and it would be "too much" for them to stop smoking then supposedly... who wait until they feel "better" before they will even consider giving it up.... who end up prolonging their illness by many years through their refusal to improve their situation.

To me, a person who uses their own state of poor health as an excuse to continue causing others in great numbers to suffer lives full of substantially poorer health and misery, and death for their benefit, is unjustified in doing this, especially when decaying chemical-laced flesh is far from the healthiest thing for a person to be eating.

Especially if they claim not to be against the idea of avoiding causing others misery unnecessarily.

This may seem harsh, but it is no more harsh than many peoples' attitudes towards the easily exploitable, and I feel that it needed to be said.



Oh and BTW reusing is much more helpful than recycling.

Yup.
:D i totally agree

[Evilfluffbunny]

Using energy saving light bulbs

Composting your vegetable waste (I think tea bags can be composted too, but others say not to) :confused:

Sharing bathwater (I know a lot of people wouldn't like to do that though!)

Using natural toiletries where possible (like vegetable oil rather than expensive, bottled creams)

Re-using carrier bags, newspapers, bottles, enevlopes and things :)

[gibby]

HI

FREECYCLE is a free scheme that allows its memebers to advertise their unwanted stuff and other can go and collect what they want.
No money exchanges hands and its only legit stuff.

you will be amazed at the items you can get for free

further info

http://www.alternativesouls.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=95

though you all would like this n its world wide too

G

[DianeVegan]

The website is actually http://www.freecycle.org

Thanks!

[snivelingchild]

Wow, thanks! I have joined my local one and it is amazing!

[snivelingchild]

I just have to say agin how much I love this site. I already have dozens of things that I've offered that so many people want. I already am going to meet with someone to give them a CD. This is great! And there are so many great things people are giving away. EVERYONE should do this in their area.