Five Things I'm Doing to Help the Environment.

With so many accusations flying around of late as to who is at fault for the destruction of the planet, I'd really rather just hear and read about the positive solutions people have to improve things and lighten the load. If we attribute so much power to governments and companies, who are really just groups of people as human as you or I, that they can put all this right, then why don't we attribute that same power to ourselves?

The arguments still rage about global warming and climate change, whether it's real or not, but it's an argument that's getting us nowhere. Recently someone said we'd be better off calling it global pollution and moving on and I had to agree. After all, there's no arguing the things that are before our very eyes and affecting our daily lives. So I wanted to share the first five things I can do or am doing which may actually help alleviate some of these problems rather than trying to put blame on someone else.

#1

Let's start out simple with the plastic bag. It's amazing how these things seem to work there way into our lives despite our best efforts.

Refuse

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The biggest way to make an impact is by taking your own fabric bags when you go shopping, so you don't accumulate them every shopping trip. Fabric bags can be thrown in with the regular laundry for cleaning if they get dirty, so you don't need to get worried about hygiene risks with your food shopping. If you have enough you can rotate them so you're only using clean ones for food. If you get light weight ones, you can fold them up in you handbag so they're always with you and you don't have to worry about forgetting them. You can also keep some in the boot of your car, ready to go.

Reuse

Despite having used fabric bags for years, I still seem to accumulate plastic ones. They come in from family members who haven't developed a habit of keeping bags with them. Having bags big enough to carry a fabric shopping bag cramps styles and even remembering to pick up the bag from the boot of the car is hard work! They'll also come from people giving gifts, or shops that automatically put your purchase in a bag despite you saying you have one. So what to do with these? I try to reuse what I can. There are those times when you're taking things to someone and you may not get the bag returned, so a plastic is one you don't mind going. Sometimes it still comes back to me as I get things like empty egg cartons returned or return gifts.

I use them as bin bags, but as I don't produce much waste these days I still find myself with an excess. Each week we prepare fruit at my daughter's gymnastics club and the scraps and leftovers get saved for chickens. It's usually a large amount (it's a big club) and carrier bags are easier than using lots of little produce bags, so I'll take them there to be reused. Sometimes it's my chickens the scraps come back to, so I then have to deal with a mucky, sticky bag afterwards. The easiest is to dry it and use it as a bin liner, rather than using a clean bag for that. Most dirtied plastic bags get used as bin liners here so the clean ones can be used in other ways.

Recycle

When all else fails and the bags overwhelm me, then they reluctantly get gathered together and taken to the soft plastics collection at the local supermarket. There is a risk that these may not get recycled and end up as landfill, but as we have places here in Australia which I know make new products from them, then it's not a big risk.

#2

I ditched most of the cleaning chemicals a long time ago. There's not much that water and elbow grease won't shift and if necessary a bit of vinegar. I do have the remnants of some chemical cleaners that I bought years ago, and they come out on occasions when the afore mentioned things don't work. One is Ajax scouring powder, which comes out for the oven occasionally; much more preferable than the toxic fumes of oven cleaners! It also gets used on our heat resistant, acrylic kitchen counter to polish scratches out. I have an “eco” toilet cleaner which cuts through the scum on the bathroom sinks, baths and showers. I should look into alternatives, now it's running low.

Not buying in cleaners reduces the amount of waste coming in, being produced and it means less toxic chemicals going into the environment.

#3

Rags! They're actually something I've seen used throughout my life. Worn out clothes were turned into rags for cleaning. It doesn't really work very well with synthetic fabrics, but cotton is perfect. My grandmother even used to use her old, giant knickers as rags when she'd worn holes in them. Not really something I'd stretch as far as, personally. So used, was I, to using rags for cleaning, it puzzled me when I discovered that some use paper kitchen towel for that purpose and would go through rolls of it each week. Convenience and hygiene are the reasons given, I believe. Just bin it and it's out of mind and someone else's problem. Yet I don't find it a particular inconvenience to throw dirty rags in the washing machine with the rest of the laundry. I've got to do that laundry anyway.

Aside from not having to constantly waste kitchen towel or cleaning wipes and spending out continually, it ticks a second box of keeping clothing out of landfill for a bit longer.

#4

Being mindful about clothing has made a huge difference to what is moving through my wardrobe. These days, so much clothing barely gets worn, then it's dumped. I now buy most of my clothing second hand and its amazing how much in the charity/thrift/op shops is new or barely worn. One of the things I now ask myself before buying anything is, “will I really wear it?” If it's not comfortable, there isn't anywhere I'm likely to be able to wear it or it looks nicer on the hanger than on me, then it doesn't matter how much I like it, or how much of a bargain it is, it doesn't come home with me. I would rather spend out more on something I know I'll use, than less on something which I won't and will ultimately end up being a waste of money and resources.

#5

Moving on with the subject of second hand, I recently joined a Buy Nothing group on Facebook. Each group covers a certain geographical area in order to keep things local. If you don't have one in your area, then you can start one. The idea is that if you have something you don't need you can offer it up for someone else to use and if you need a particular something, before you go out and buy it you can check if anyone local has one they no longer want.

The world is actually resource rich and the things we need are often the things others have and don't need. Unfortunately, we're not very good at allocating things where they would have more use, so things end up going to landfill which could potentially make someone else's life a whole lot easier. Groups like these, where we can connect with one another, are a huge step towards correcting that issue. If resources were better allocated, then we wouldn't need to produce nearly as much as we currently do.

~○♤○~

We have the power to start making the changes we think will help our planet's ecosystem. What things do you think need to change and what might you be able to do to make that change. Thank you @pennsif for taking the lead and inviting us to do our own Five 4 the Planet.

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Don't know about all this environmental hullaballoo. What have 'future generations' ever done for us??

🤣 Absolutely nothing. My future generations are just hard work!

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Not sure on young people, but I get sick of getting lectures from old people, saying I owe them everything..By the time I'm old, there will be no fantastic super/life fund payout, no free medicare, there will be no inheritance as they spent it or govt. taken 55% in a new inheritance tax...etc..

Young people seem to just stare at me and make me feel guilty as if to say "what do you mean the system you allowed doesn't care about my personal happiness and success?"

There seems to be this mentality that there's a big treasure trove of funds waiting to be collected by those who invested during their working years.
A: You didn't invest, you were robbed.
B: Its all gone, there's nothing left but a mountain of debt.
C: Being paid for gracing us with your presence from now on will require that new people be robbed.

Oh yes, that pyramid scheme which is about to collapse because we can't keep expanding the population the way we used to in order to pay for all the retirees.

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It's ok, there is always a state lotto system....just enough hope to keep ya marching/working.

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Very good post! BuyNothing is awesome!

Vinegar and baking soda will remove soap scum in the tub like nobody's business! My home helper was astounded!

Thank you for the tip! Do you mix them together first?

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You mix them together at the instant you use them, as you want the chemical reaction to do the work. If done ahead, they neutralize each other.

Some good simple tips :)

Excellent article, I am with you all the way. From the cloth bags to cleaning with vinegar, baking soda. Refinishing old furniture, rather than replacing is also good to do. We use a mix of vinegar, dish detergent and water as natural weed killer, it works great. A mix of eggs and milk will keep the deer away from your flowers and veggies and doesn't put nasty chemicals into the environment. Re-use, recycle, repurpose, that's been my motto for years. Nice job! @minismallholding

Thank you.
I've never heard of milk and eggs to deter dear. Not that we have any around here.

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I really love this! The good thing about living in Germany is some of this stuff is already mandatory. It’s hard to buy cleaning chemicals and if you want a plastic bag, your going to have to pay a minimum of 15 cents per. My degree is in conservation biology and I can tell you a lot of the „green“ initiatives are just garbage. But all of these that you are doing are great steps that everyone can accomplish! I read this last night and had a discussion with my wife about it and the truth is we need to be better! Thanks for sharing these great tips!

When we were still in England, I noticed a lot of influence seemed to be coming from Germany on the side of removing the toxic stuff from household things, including foods. By the time we moved here, we were so used to naturally coloured foods that I thought I was looking at toilet cleaners when I walked into the cordial aisle at the supermarket! 😆

South Australia was actually the first state to introduce a ban on single use bags, shortly after we arrived. You now have to pay a minimum of 10c if you want one at the supermarket. Unfortunately, it isn't a huge deterrent to most, but there is certainly a drive to reuse them more now that value had been added to them. This year SA has announced a ban on all single use plastics is on its way. Must be the German influence from the early settlers. 😉

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Excellent!

I have not come across the 'Buy Nothing' groups. They sound similar to the Freecycle groups here in the UK. They are great for getting unwanted items reused.

We have freecycle to, but it's more impersonal. The Buy Nothing groups foster more of a community vibe and you get to know the other members. I think they also restrict the areas a bit more, so it's more local to you.

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Found Buy Nothing now - seems to be quite a few groups in the UK...

@minismallholding what a great post! We are always looking for ways to lessen our own footprint here as well. In addition to @cassidydawn making sure we always turn the lights off when not being used, we also avoid using disposable products like water bottles and purchase tree-free toilet paper. We compost all of our food scraps and we do our best to vote with our dollars by purchasing sustainable/non-gmo/organic/local products whenever possible.