Eco Lass

Re-usable dish scourers or scrubbies

September 25, 2018 ecolasshome

By isn’t an eco life exciting, today I bring you re-usable dish cloths also known as scrubbies. Hold on to your seats you are in for a wild ride, well maybe not but it will be a wet one.

In a bid to reduce my one use items I looked at what I wash my dishes with. Now I do have a dishwasher that does most of the hard work for me but there are always pots and pans that are just not dishwasher safe/practical. Annoyingly for me that is mainly frying pans.

Before I started really looking into things with a view of how I can do it myself/thinking about the bigger picture I just bought something that looked like a solution. The eco egg one sponge, it costs £5.99 excluding delivery. The features of which are:

• Flexible silicone ripple scrubbers
• Silicone squeegee
• Nylon scraper
• Built-in soap pocket
• Long lasting
• Bacteria, stain and odour resistant
• Non-porous and hygienic
• Safe for non-stick coating cookware
• Sanitise in the dishwasher

In a nut shell I just don’t like it. Grease clings to it whilst washing so I feel the need to clean it as I clean my pan. The soap bit doesn’t really foam up or last long, I feel like I need to use more washing up liquid than normal. Yes it is flexible but not like a cloth, it is no good for washing a glass for example, there is just not enough surface contact. The only thing I do really like about it, is the hard grey scraper at the front, it does a great job of scraping hard baked on stuff without scratching the pan.

It is not a one use plastic but at the end of the day when I bin it, it isn’t going to biodegrade, it can be recycled but I have no idea if this type of item could be put in my curbside recycle bin. Nylon is plastic and silicon is technically rubber but a synthetic one and mixed with synthetic plastic polymer. I also thought about the damage the production of this item caused. The cost isn’t too bad as I do think it would last a very long time and if it worked well you could replace your disposable scourers and make your money back quite quick. But it doesn’t get an eco lass recommendation.

Most of the above pictured scourers are made from a type of plastic and come wrapped in plastic. They also can’t be used on non stick items and personally before the switch I would get through two to three a week easily and once used they went straight in the bin. As you can see I have this pack left over, I did keep them to see how I got on with my alternatives and I haven’t used one for a long time.

Of course I won’t be binning these I am hoping some one on my local pass it on site will take them off my hands. I feel it is ok to pass on plastic to some one who would be using plastic anyway, at least it stops them buying said items for a little bit and no point putting them straight in landfill.

So what am I using? Well my next stop was good old pinterest and of course an abundance of ideas were ready and waiting for me. I decided on making my own, this suits me personally as I am craft inclined and I often already have the necessary materials in the house but don’t worry if the thought of crochet makes you yawn or roll your eyes. You can easily buy hand made ones yourself online or find a crafty friend to help.

The other benefits of making them myself was getting to choose the colour, style and material. I also didn’t have to worry about the environmental cost of production, monetary cost, delivery or packaging (other than from the yarn itself). Winner winner chicken dinner.

So I chose to make some crochet scrubbies.

And as you can see I went for colour, I figured a white one was not going to look pretty after use and I believe in injecting fun into boring every day things. At first I used a pattern from one of my pinterest pins but that involved learning a new pattern and making it to a specific size but I am an avid fan of simple crochet I can do whilst watching TV.

Above is a one I have just started for a friend. In the end I made a simple C2C square with a double crochet border and sized it by preference. If you don’t crochet then that will sound like nonsense. I also class myself as a ‘hooker’, I have WIPs and I frog when I make a mistake. Enjoy googling those.

If you do crochet or knit and look up scrubbies you will see there is a wide variety of patterns, shapes and materials available so let me explain why I chose to use acrylic yarn. That’s right I am using a synthetic plastic yarn that doesn’t biodegrade, shock horror. My reasoning is as follows:

It is vegan so no animal products used means less impact from animal agriculture
It is hard wearing and easy to wash
It costs less than wool and I have a lot of it already in my wool stash
It is hypoallergenic
But the main reason is it is the most suitable for this project as the plastics make it more anti-bacterial and they scrub better

So although the material is not perfect I still believe it is better than throwing away all those scourers and as I have said before I am aiming for reduced impact not zero waste. My intention when it comes to acrylic yarn is to only buy second hand or use my existing stash, so at least I am not fueling demand and increased production but that in itself is not a sustainable long term plan. I suppose I can always buy a jumper from a charity shop and unpick it.

So do they work? Oh yes they do, I love them. I can make a lot of them from one ball of yarn, they take me about an hour to make one but that is only because I tend to get distracted whilst making them (by using my hands to put chocolate in my mouth).

They are very tactile and can be squished into glasses, the grease doesn’t cling to them, they don’t tend to get that dodgy smell my old scourers did and I can bung them in the washing machine. Just like any other cleaning cloth I make sure to give them a good rinse with hot water after use and I hang them to dry, I tend to get a few days out of them before I feel the need for a fresh one (but like I said previously I don’t do loads of washing up).

Now these are only two options I have tried, there are many others out there so please leave me comments with what you have tried and what does and doesn’t work for you. Sharing is caring.

Eco Swaps

Forgive me eco followers…

September 14, 2018 ecolasshome

for I have sinned. One week ago today I passed my driving test! To say I am happy would be a major understatement.

Do I feel guilty? Just a bit. One more car on the road, less walking and less public transport use is just not good for the environment. But I have put it off for 34 years so I feel I have paid my dues and I was becoming increasingly annoyed at the un-reliability of public transport and the cost. If the government really want us to see public transport as the easier and cheaper option they have a lot of work to do on the transport infrastructure of this country.

So you might be thinking I will be getting a nice electric car or maybe a hybrid, I wish. Unfortunately my budget only stretches to a ten year old one litre Suzuki Alto with £20 per year tax. It certainly isn’t a gas guzzler and was classed as one of the more emission friendly cars at the time it was made. But by modern and my increasingly ecolass standards it is not the most eco friendly option.

blue sedan on snow at daytime — Photo by Oziel Gu00f3mez on Pexels.com

I did have a look to see what was available and I found some smart forfour Cars close to my budget which, with some basic research seemed the only eco-ish option I have at the moment. But the only one actually available was just not suitable in the end.

Why a smart car I hear you cry? I know many people just don’t like them, I personally think the fortwo ones are cute but I need a five door to get my daughter in and out of the back easily and we are a family of three, although seeing my six foot two inch husband squeezing in the passenger seat of my Alto is amusing. The smart forfour is more practical but the older ones close to my budget are just ugly.

Like I said doing some very basic research I was pleased to find out a bit more about the eco benefits of a smart car. Most of my information came from an article written on treehugger.com, from 2011. Now I used an old article so I knew that the information applied to their older models. You can get plenty of information on the new models from the smart website, including their electric cars.

What I love is that smart are thinking about the materials and methods used in construction, as well as the end of the cars life. They are not just thinking fuel consumption. Two main points for me is that 85% of the car can be recycled and the paint is sprayed without solvent.

Once I have been driving a while (and saved up), I am really hoping my options become a lot more eco. If any car dealers would like me to test their brand spanking new eco vehicles I would be more than happy to do a review, just let me know (shy bairns and all that).

One thing I can control is my driving. It is important to try and drive in an eco friendly manner, the main suggestions below all reduce fuel consumption:

accelerate gently
break slowly
higher gears are better for cruising
don’t get weighed down, clear out the car
plan your journey so you don’t get lost

But as I have said in a previous blog get walking! You do not need the car for every journey, get some fresh air, I shouldn’t need to preach the benefits of out doors exercise but it is good for mind and body. I am more than aware that the already over weight me is really going to need to keep this at the forefront of my mind, as prior to driving I averaged ten thousand steps a day and it was the only regular exercise I got, but driving does now allow me more time to complete dedicated exercise.

Now another way I am hoping to counter act some of my eco guilt, is to make worth while journeys. Driving means I can access shops easier that I know sell eco products or I can visit some of the vegan cafes popping up all around Newcastle. I also want to attend some local beach cleanups and with less travel time I have been able to volunteer to help with reading at my daughter’s school.

Looking at my usual criteria deciding to drive was easy, it is way more convenient, the cost is around £40 per month more but worth it, I will try to make it as eco as possible and hey I might be able to get a dog, now I can get home so much earlier (blatantly my main goal all along).

Please leave me some comments on driving! Especially if you have an electric or hybrid car, I would love to know the pros and cons from some one who owns one.

Recycle

Household Batteries: how and where to recycle them

September 3, 2018 ecolasshome

We all have them, some way more than others, batteries.

Now I am not doing anything revolutionary with batteries but there is some basic action everyone can take which is at the very least to recycle them.

I do try to avoid buying products that require batteries for multiple reasons:

We never have the right type of battery in the house.
I forget to buy them when at the pound shop and buying them anywhere else seems expensive.
A lot of what I call plastic tat tends to come with batteries. The kind of things your children want to buy but you know will break within 5 minutes.
They never last very long, especially if you buy the cheap ones.
I know they are a one use product.

Now I know you can buy re-chargeable batteries but that requires having a charger for the right sized batteries and having time to charge them. You can guarantee you only remember to charge the batteries at the exact moment you need to use the little buggers.

Re-chargeable batteries are in the short-term better for the environment and your pocket. But they do not last forever and will eventually need replacing, you also need to consider the environmental impact and cost of the electricity used to re-charge them. However if you live in a home that is low-carbon, so for example your electricity is provided by solar power then they most certainly are the better option.

Again this is about the balance of convenience, cost and the eco benefit.

Regardless of the type of battery you use, you should be correctly disposing of them. It has become a lot easier over the last few years to re-cycle batteries but some people may not be aware of all their options.

You will have noticed a lot of shops now have on display a large tub for customers to deposit used batteries. My understanding of this was that this was due to a change in UK law a few years ago putting responsibilities on those who manufacture or sell products that include batteries to help facilitate their disposal/recycling. I have no idea how I know this, so I thought I would actually look into it a bit more. I found the following information on the .gov website. Heads up it is long-winded.

A much more useful explanation is this BBC article from 2010. By and large I was correct but it was an EU lead change.

I went through a phase of putting our used batteries in my ruck sack (I am no longer a hand bag kind of gal) with the plan of popping them into a battery recycling tub when out and about. However this resulted in a very heavy bag as I kept forgetting about them. My place of work actually has one of the recycle boxes but I have also used the ones at Aldi and Primark.

However my current plan of action came from my daughter. She comes home with a lot of random crap from school but one day she came home with a small cardboard box that appears to encourage children to treasure hunt for batteries around the house and deposit them in said card board box. I took this as an opportunity to explain, as best you can to a five-year old, that it is for USED batteries so please put the ones out of the TV remote back in before your Dad cries.

I do now make a point of giving her any used batteries so she can be the one to put them in the box, I like her to feel that her actions are part of the solution and she can make her own contribution to recycling. The box is quite handy and is kept next to our kitchen compost caddy but it slightly annoys me with the restrictive list of what batteries can be included in that particular box. We are using it for all batteries that fit and then I am taking them to a box I know also recycles my hearing aid batteries (the small round ones you can see in the pic below).

I would say this picture represents about 3 months worth of batteries, and most of those are because we have a battery operated door bell left from the previous owners that seems to eat batteries at an alarming rate. I think this is mainly because it is a very loud portable one and you have a choice of over 10 tunes including happy birthday and Auld Lang Syne.

You should also look up the recycling list of your local council, mine is North Tyneside and their website has a section dedicated to What Goes In My Bins? which I think sounds like a game from Celebrity Juice. Please look yours up, you will be surprised by what can be included, although I know from experience that they way recycling is handled differs wildly across each local authority. I have had the pleasure or in one case the displeasure of living in Newcastle, Gateshead and now North Tyneside and the latter are definitely the better in my opinion.

North Tyneside state household batteries can be put in the caddy from your recycling bin, but please put them in a small plastic bag on the top of the glass. Now I can understand why they ask this as it makes it easier for the bin men to spot and separate from the other recycling but a plastic bag! Erm no, so I think once my box is full I will have a nice eco-friendly walk to my local Aldi and pop them in there, I can use it as a little eco lesson for my daughter to boot.

Now for other batteries, the odd shape ones, the ones stuck in the annoying toy etc. there is hope for those too. The best thing to do is to look up the manufacturer’s website as they should provide information on how to dispose of batteries in their products. I noticed the Primark in town has information next to their battery box telling you where you can recycle some of the larger/irregular batteries. It mainly listed local skips.

Don’t underestimate your local skip (also known as the Household Waste Recycling Centre), again you would be surprised by the kind of things they can recycle, it is always a good idea to separate your junk before you take a trip to the skip. There is no need for it to all end up in general waste.

Check out this information, again from the North Tyneside Council Website. This place in North Shields is open every day except Christmas Day and from 8am to 8pm. You can’t grumble at those opening hours!

The following table shows the materials that they accept and if they’re recycled, sent for re-use or disposal.

Re – used	Recycled	Waste disposal
Textiles	Cardboard / paper	Other residual waste
Mobile phones	Glass
Spectacles	Cans
Books	Mixed plastics and bags
CDs	Green waste
Bicycles	Scrap metals
Bras	Batteries (dry or/ wet cell)
Shoes	Fluorescent tubes
Furniture	Rubble
Gas bottles	Waste oils (engine / used cooking)
	Wood
	Small and large domestic appliances
	TVs and monitors
	Fridges and freezers
	Tyres
	Gypsum/plasterboard

So why not make this a small goal, a little step in your eco journey. This is a good one to get sorted before Christmas too!

Crafts, Eco Swaps, Home made

Hankies

August 27, 2018 ecolasshome

Wow really? Yep even more nostalgic than a milk bottle a good old fashioned handkerchief. These are not new ideas I am spouting here just sensible ones that were common place before the convenience of products such as paper, one use, tissues.

blur box clean contemporary — Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com

Now my memory of a hankie was getting them for Christmas off a relative. They were usually white with a pink trim and my initials embroidered in the corner. I hated them. However for the benefit of the environment I decided to give them another go.

Now you might think a paper tissue isn’t that big a deal in comparison to a plastic bottle and you would possibly be right. But it is still a wasteful, one use product that can be easily replaced with an eco version. You also need to think of the environmental impact of their production, making anything requires energy and getting it to the shops requires transportation and they can’t be recycled once used. The cardboard carton can be recycled and you can buy tissues made from recycled paper but those are end solutions dealing with a waste product. We need to think about reducing demand What can be even more annoying is if you bulk buy your tissues they often come in a plastic wrapper keeping all the boxes together.

I use a lot of tissues so I knew this might be a challenge for me. I have a hearing and pressure problem which seems to also mean a frequent runny nose. Now before this turns into WebMD, yes I have had it checked out by my Doctor and no it isn’t allergies or hay fever.

The solution? Hankies. So I took to my favourite app Pinterest, I live on this app. It is so easy to create boards about anything and pin pictures, web pages, blogs articles etc and save them for later. I find it both practical and inspirational. There are a lot of clever people out there and Pinterest helps me keep their ideas organised.

Now the results were extensive, I saved around 10 and had a good read. And this is what I learned. There are many ways to make a hankie both for show and actual use, they can be very fancy or very plain. They are easy to make yourself but also easy to buy. Prices vary wildly.

The hard part here is material. If you really want to start getting your head around eco choices or eco alternatives you need to look at what it is made from, where it comes from and how it is packaged.

If you regularly buy from the internet you will know that many cheap items come from China. And if you are willing to wait a while and often receive your product with a customs checked tag then you probably order from there a lot. I used to.

But if you are trying to replace something for eco reasons then don’t counter act your effort with emissions caused by transport. Look closer to home, help out the UK economy and believe in the good old Royal Mail.

Most of you probably know some one who can sew, it might be worth asking if it is something they could make for you. However be kind and bear in mind the time it will take them and the cost of the materials, re-pay the favor or pay a fair price. It would probably be best for you to source the material then you get to choose what it is made of and the print. You never know you may inspire them to start a cottage industry such as Hilda’s Hankies.

Another reason to make them yourself or buy local is the packaging. A while ago I ordered some 100% organic cotton face clothes off the internet and was really annoyed to receive them wrapped in a plastic envelope. If you do order them see if the seller provides packaging information, if not, contact them and ask if you could receive your order in something kinder to the environment such as brown paper which can at least be re-cycled. Also they are quite often the kind of thing you would find at a local craft fair.

It was a no brainer for me to try to make them myself, although my sewing skills are limited I figured a hankie is about my level. I also keep a stash of material in the house that I have picked up over the years. Unfortunately most of it is without labels so I am guessing at the make up of the material itself. But I was in luck with a couple of sets of fat quarters I bought from Aldi because I liked the prints, they had the label attached and said 100% cotton.

In an ideal world I would have chosen 100% organic, fair trade cotton and looking into the eco cost of printing the pretty patterns onto my material, my mind was blown regarding how complicated and harmful that side can be. So I think plain not dyed would also be the most eco option. Getting the ideal eco material is most likely going to cost more, but like anything you pay for quality.

When I started this journey I set myself some criteria, I am not aiming to be zero waste, I am aiming to be low impact. Make changes where I can and be in it for the long game. I knew a sudden and expensive culture shock was not going to make this easy and like a diet I would be much less likely to stick to it. My journey needs to be sustainable too.

So my criteria is set out like the table I used for my milk bottles blog. I look at the cost, convenience, eco impact and other benefits. I also decided that if making something and I already have the materials/ingredients available then I don’t see the point in wasting them to buy new eco versions. Throwing out all of my material doesn’t make sense, the production has already happened, binning it doesn’t reduce the demand and I won’t send something to landfill until it has been thoroughly used.

You can’t use any material however, for the practical purpose that it needs to be kind to your nose, easy to wash and durable. Cotton is a natural product, totally biodegradable and can also be put into your home compost system. I have a home compost bin but when I had a good think I realized the thread I have in is most likely acrylic (a type of plastic), the thought of having to pull the thread out of one every time I wanted to bin/compost was not appealing. The solution came when researching wax wraps (separate blog to follow). I noticed some people were not sewing there’s but using pinking shears to cut out the material. Now for those of you who don’t sew your material would fray at the edges if not sewed or edged.

Pinking shears are a type of scissors that instead of a straight edge they have crocodile teeth and create a zig zag pattern, which prevents fraying. Light bulb moment. This would be perfect for my hankies, I picked up a pair whilst at Hobby Craft buying my milk crate, this is the product link. They cost £6 but I know they are going to be great for a lot of projects.

Before you start you need to wash and iron your material, this makes it a lot easier to work with. I wanted to waste as little material as possible so looking at my fat quarters I decided one of them split into 4 would be about the right size. I used tailors chalk and a ruler to measure and mark where to cut. I then cut round all the edges to stop them from fraying. And that was it, job done and I actually think they look very simple and pretty.

I made a smaller version for my daughter out of some left over material I had from my wax wraps. Left over material from other projects would make great hankies.

I put my scraps straight into my compost bin. They will take 5-6 months to break down.

Now as it happens whilst in the process of making these I got a stinker of a cold (obviously psychological) and it became quickly apparent that these hankies were great for keeping in my bag for every day use but were not fit for purpose for a full-blown case of the sniffles.

I remember as a kid my Mam cutting up old sheets to make super soft hankies for when your cold had your nose looking like Rudolph, so I dug around my supplies and found an old jersey cotton sheet from my daughters cot bed. Jersey cotton is basically cotton with elastic in it and most elastic is made from rubber which is a natural product but again I don’t know if that is the case with the sheet so I wouldn’t risk it in my compost. I brushed it against my face, it was so soft and I knew straight away it would do the job.

I didn’t have the patience to measure it and cut it up pretty and due to the elastic in it there is no risk of fraying. So I took my fabric scissors to it and roughly chopped up the sheet into tissues sized pieces. I ended up with a nice pile. I used these a lot over the next few days, and all I did was chuck them in with my normal washing and as they were small they didn’t take long to dry. The best bit is my nose didn’t get sore like it normally would with paper tissue.

They are now washed and put away ready for the next unfortunate family member who gets the serious sniffles. These are now affectionately referred to in our house as snot rags, I felt the need to differentiate between the two types and my daughter thought it hilarious when I referred to them as snot rags so the name has stuck.

So in conclusion have I stopped using paper tissues? In a word no. I feel like this is a bad habit I need to shake. They are convenient and sometimes it feels easier and less yacky to use it and bin it. However I have definitely reduced the amount I use, quite significantly. Especially for out and about because I keep the cotton hankies in my bag. I didn’t need to buy any extra tissues when I had my cold and they no longer need to be added to the shop every week.

Now for my first give away! I obviously want people to adopt these ideas but I think that often requires people getting the chance to try it out for themselves without too much commitment or cost. So to the first person to like and comment on this post, I will send them a set of four cotton hankies. UK addresses only I am afraid. And you even get to choose your print from the two pics below. So comment with your choice. I will contact seperately for your address.

Don’t forget click follow on here to make sure you don’t miss out on any future blogs.

Eco Swaps

Glass Milk Bottles

August 20, 2018 ecolasshome

So for my first specific post I thought I would start with an easy and obvious one, glass milk bottles.

My parents went back to using their local milk man a years ago and I will be honest I viewed it as quaint and maybe a bit retro. It made sense, they no longer had me or my brother at home and so did not need huge flagons of milk on hand. But I know my Mam was also conscious of the plastic waste. I think they wouldn’t deny though that they enjoy knowing their local milk man and when he knocks on a Thursday evening they jump up with money in hand and get ready for a nice chat. And there is something about the dairy orange juice, just tastes yummy.

However it is something I have only just got round to sorting out myself, I have been focused for the last couple of years on moving house and now we are in, what is hopefully our forever family home, I want to put down roots. I want to be part of my community and support local businesses.

How I got started- First I went out to the locals on my Facebook page asking if anyone knew who my local milk man might be and how I could contact him. The reactions varied, some people thought it was funny (partly because I live next door to a Premier Shop) and others didn’t understand why I wanted to do this. I explained I was wanting to switch to glass bottles to reduce our one use plastic, most interest ended there.

I suspect my blog and other parts of my ‘eco journey’ will elicit a similar response but awareness is half the battle. Creating the blog though is a way of people accessing it if THEY want, I have learnt many times that preaching something often results in resistance rather than compliance. People need to want to do it for themselves, some times doing it for the rest of the world is not enough.

A fellow friend on a similar journey told me about the website Find Me A Milk Man, and hey presto after entering my post code a slightly confusing list of dairies and suppliers appeared. I suppose expecting it to say Bob from down the road with his telephone number was a bit un-realistic.

Rather than ringing round the list of telephone numbers provided, instead I went on the website of the top search result and based on their location and website information I e-mailed with a general enquiry. I asked do you cover my area? Do you provide Skimmed milk in glass bottles and if so how much is it?

How I got on- I got a response 3 days later with everything I needed:
– Name of my milk man (I am sure there are milk ladies too)
– Days of the week he delivers to my area and the time
– A list of products available and prices (eggs and orange juice included)
– Information on payment options and time scales (including bacs online woo hoo)

I replied with my full address and order. On Friday, as promised we woke up to 3 glass bottles of cool skimmed milk. It was nice seeing how excited my daughter was to open the door and see if the milk man had been. I think she enjoyed her cereal a bit more than usual.

We have opted for the bacs online option, as much as I would love the social interaction my parents get from the milkman calling for the money, for us it is just not practical. We both work and it is unlikely we would be in when they called and it is very rare we have actual cash in the house.

I mentioned it to a friend of mine and she signed up too starting on the same day. Unfortunately they did get her order slightly wrong and neither of us have had the actual bank account details for the bacs payment. I intend to chase them up for the information if not received with my next order. She was panicking slightly, as she doesn’t like owing money, she prefers to pay upfront. I laughed, I suspect the worst they might do if we don’t pay is egg the house?

Helpfully the use by date is printed into the foil lid (which can be put in your normal recycling).

My husband pointed out we should probably get a milk crate to stop the empties rolling away etc. I saw that as the go ahead to google milk crates and had my heart set on a £30 vintage metal one. That was immediately shot down, I decided instead to purchase a wood one from Hobby Craft for £7.00 product link. It is described as a wooden bottle holder. I wanted this rather than a crate as I like the handle for carrying the full bottles into the house. So of course this is now my next craft project. It needs a couple of holes drilled in the bottom for rain water and the plan is to paint it in outdoor paint to weather proof it a bit.

So there we are, reasonably simple to do. I am sure each person’s experience with this will differ based on where they live but so far so good for us. Int Milk Brilliant! Click for some 90s nostalgia

I am going to attempt to do a review for each new thing I try based on my own personal criteria, I will write a separate post with more detail on this but below is the one for glass milk bottles.

Leave me a comment, I would love to hear how you found your milkman!

Quick wins

Eco quick wins

August 19, 2018 ecolasshome

Placeholder Image So you are probably at the stage where you already do the basics like recycling and carrying your own water bottle, right? If not don’t worry. This is not a problem that will be solved overnight and it certainly won’t be won by Bob in Birmingham and his Bamboo toothbrush.

Let us start slow and build, don’t stress about it or you won’t stick with it, treat your eco journey like a diet. It needs to be sustainable. Take these baby steps and start by changing the way you look at your world and the things in it, you will start to see easy solutions yourself in every day situations.

This is a war we all need to fight together one battle at a time. So I thought I would start with some Eco quick wins, things you may already know or may never have even thought about. They should be easy with no monetary cost. Sounds good right?

I am very likely to expand on these topics in future blogs. The list is not exhaustive, I am not an expert and I would very much welcome comments with other quick wins!

Your phone– I am not going to get too technical but if you have a smart phone go into your settings and put on power saving mode. That is it. My phone helpfully tells me what this will be applied to, just in case it turns off something I actually need. It extends the battery life of your phone and means less charging. A small electricity saving but handy too. Also use your phone for notes. Don’t scrabble around looking for a pen and paper, save it on your phone, no paper waste and the information is on hand for when you need it. It is also very easy to send the information on to some one else. Mine is full of shopping lists I forget to delete!
Litter picking– once a day, once a week or when ever you remember, just pick up a piece of litter. Earlier today I popped to the shop next door and on my way back I spotted a plastic bottle, picked it up and put it straight in my re-cycle bin. No effort required. Warning with this one though, be careful of what you pick up with your bare hands and always wash them or use hand sanitizer afterwards.
Thermostat– turn it down by 1 degree. You will barely notice it and not only is it eco, it will save you money. Energy Saving Trust link
Pass it on– finished with an item but it could be used by some one else? Then pass it on. Doesn’t matter to who or how but giving something a new life prevents it going to landfill longer and could really help some one else. You would be surprised by the value some one else sees in your rubbish. Freecycle link.
Walk– now this is an easy one for me because I can’t drive but my husband does. Think about your journeys, again it doesn’t have to be all the time but every now then when you are not in a rush and it isn’t too far just walk there. It keeps you fit and reduces your carbon footprint.
Water– switch off the tap. The main time I think this applies is whilst brushing your teeth, if you brush for the recommended 2 minutes you do not need the tap on for that full time. Another one is your re-usable water bottle. When you get in the house and you are thirsty, drink the water left in your bottle first rather than pouring what is left out and wasting it. Energy Saving Trust link

So those barely scratch the surface but they will hopefully get you thinking.

Uncategorized

The beginning of my eco journey…

August 18, 2018August 18, 2018 ecolasshome

As with any journey I want to start at the beginning and that for me is the why. Why did I want to go on an eco friendly journey? Well like a lot of people I have been inspired by this years Plastic Free July campaign but another recent sensational illustration of the impact of plastic on our seas, has also been at the forefront of my mind. The images from National Geographic’s Plastic or Planet? articles, are dramatic and have put the plastic reality into a quantifiable image for the average person. You don’t need to understand the science behind it to see that a bird wrapped in plastic is bad.

See the source image

I have always been dedicated to re-cycling and if you run your own home and want to be cost efficient then looking into saving energy and reducing waste is just common sense and is beneficial even if devoid of a moral/environmental motive. I have also been a member of the Green Team at my place of business looking at how to improve the building’s carbon footprint. I have attended a course funded by the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, which is probably the first time I really thought more about the need to reduce demand and the initial production rather than just dealing with the waste. I studied History at University and I often find myself applying the logic of cause and effect to many aspects of my life and this topic is no different. Some times you need to identify the cause instead of focusing on the effect. One of my favorite rants is ‘I wish people would be pro-active instead of re-active’. Or put another way ‘arse over tit’.

But overall it is for my daughter, becoming a parent gives you a different perspective on pretty much everything, well it did for me. I am a lot more conscious of my actions as they have a direct impact on the most important person in my world. I want her to have the best memories of her child hood, like I do. When some one asks her about her parents I want her to be able to tell them more than what we do for a living. She should know who we are and what we stand for. I want to expose her to as many ideas as possible so she can make an informed decision on her own life choices. But I mainly want her to be safe and happy, a world drowning in plastic and poisoned by chemicals does not a happy life make.

The reason for the blog is quite practical. A lot of my friends and mainly my own Mam have begun their own eco journeys and it is hard to share ideas, website links, product reviews etc. during a 2 hour play date, 30 minute catch up or family visit. I feel like my life often happens in sound bites, you never get the full story. Therefore I thought if I create a central place to at least record what I have been up to (my eco journey), I can easily share it with anyone interested.

I am not an expert and I will get things wrong but this isn’t about telling you how to do it, it is about showing you how I am trying to do it. And perhaps we can learn and travel together.