What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

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RegisterMe
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What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sat, 10. Aug 19, 21:35

Partly for fun, partly serious, and partly because I thought it might be interesting, let's see what we can come up with. I'm not talking about putting solar PV on your roof, not eating meat, buying a Tesla or never flying, I'm talking about the little things that you might do, that other people might not have thought of, but that could, in aggregate, make a positive difference.

Here's mine.

Rather than throw that plastic brush you use to do the dishes away, when it gets manky, put it in the dishwasher. It will come out like new.

Result? You don't need to buy a new one. I think I've done it for mine half a dozen times now. Multiplied by a billion or so that's a lot less plastic brushes being made, bought and thrown away.......
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Alan Phipps » Sat, 10. Aug 19, 22:40

I have reduced the volume of rubbish that goes to landfill from our household by more than 50% by putting everything that will not recycle or compost but will burn cleanly into bags that I take to the Council recycling centre every so often. They go in the energy recovery skip there and are burned in a special power facility to help generate grid electricity.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sat, 10. Aug 19, 23:18

Yeah I'd like to do that but I don't have a car (possibly a net positive?). I do compost pretty much everything that won't recycle, recycle the remainder, and only throw away as rubbish what's left.

It took fifteen years of garden and kitchen waste to get half of my compost bin out as "compost" though :roll: . Still, if I hadn't done that it would have just have had to be thrown away as rubbish.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Gavrushka » Sat, 10. Aug 19, 23:28

I only buy produce in recyclable packaging (wherever there's a choice) and would love to start a petition on the government's website demanding that non-recyclable packaging has a health warning, much like on cigarettes, stating: Profits Before the Environment. Packaging not recyclable.

One of the biggest household savings is on hot water usage. I'd be forever running hot water to wash a cup or mug, but now I use cold (minimum I can get away with.) If it does need hot, I make sure to do such items all at once.

And I shower rather than take a bath now.

Outside I have nine composting bins. It's amazing what you can compost besides grass: - cardboard, paper, vegetable peelings, and even the dead bodies of irksome neighbours.
“Man, my poor head is battered,” Ed said.

“That explains its unusual shape,” Styanar said, grinning openly now. “Although it does little to illuminate just why your jowls are so flaccid or why you have quite so many chins.”

“I…” Had she just called him fat? “I am just a different species, that’s all.”

“Well nature sure does have a sense of humour then,” Styanar said. “Shall we go inside? It’d not be a good idea for me to be spotted by others.”

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:07

I'm lucky to have a garden, and lucky that it's big enough to contain one compost bin. But nine :o .
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Gavrushka » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:13

RegisterMe wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:07
I'm lucky to have a garden, and lucky that it's big enough to contain one compost bin. But nine :o .
Ah it's the proliferation of irksome neighbours rather than a vast acreage.
“Man, my poor head is battered,” Ed said.

“That explains its unusual shape,” Styanar said, grinning openly now. “Although it does little to illuminate just why your jowls are so flaccid or why you have quite so many chins.”

“I…” Had she just called him fat? “I am just a different species, that’s all.”

“Well nature sure does have a sense of humour then,” Styanar said. “Shall we go inside? It’d not be a good idea for me to be spotted by others.”

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:32

Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:13
RegisterMe wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 00:07
I'm lucky to have a garden, and lucky that it's big enough to contain one compost bin. But nine :o .
Ah it's the proliferation of irksome neighbours rather than a vast acreage.
You recycled your neighbours? Gotcha.
I can't breathe.

- George Floyd, 25th May 2020

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by berth » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 01:36

Buy local where possible.

That said, the other day at the supermarket I bought onions from Egypt because the only others available were from Australia :o :o Food miles mitigation ftw :shock:

Here (Guernsey) lots of people sell veg they've grown on the roadside so, other than driving around to get it, that's a big plus I think.

So, yeah, we try to buy local as much as possible but sometimes you need certain things and sometimes far away is the closest point of origin.

From there we go to eating whatever is in season. About now is good for anything involving tomatoes for instance. Later in the year just don't bother 'cos they'll be crap anyway. Cook something else. Green beans, great, but I won't buy them from Kenya.

Other than that, turning off unneeded lights, changing bulbs to low energy/LED variants, don't leave stuff on standby yadda yadda.

As for recycling neighbours, Soylent Green!!

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by pjknibbs » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 06:46

If you have a car, drive as economically as you can--e.g. don't go above 70 on the motorway, be sure to slow down by lifting off the accelerator rather than braking where possible, etc. Similarly, turn your thermostat down by a degree or two in winter--heat flow to the outside will be faster if the temperature difference is greater, no matter how much insulation you have.

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Olterin » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 09:08

Don't water your plants in the middle of a hot summer day, water them in the mornings and evenings (if it can at all be helped). It's almost literally painful to look at "green grass lawns" that get watered throughout the day during the scorching heat. :o
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by red assassin » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 11:36

One simple thing: vote for candidates who believe in taking climate change seriously. Tell others to vote for them too.
A second, if you can: donate to climate lobbying charities.

Unless you're Jeff Bezos, individual action is effectively meaningless. Policy has to change worldwide.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by X2-Illuminatus » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 12:01

Policies will only change worldwide, if people change. And for people to change someone has to start doing it. So we're back to the individual. Besides, voting is an individual action, as well. ;)
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 12:57

red assassin wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 11:36
Unless you're Jeff Bezos, individual action is effectively meaningless.
That's pretty depressing :(.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by red assassin » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 13:59

RegisterMe wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 12:57
That's pretty depressing :(.
Yeah, well, if you want my real advice it's "don't have kids".
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Sun, 11. Aug 19, 14:06

Heh, I don't have any :).
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Bishop149 » Mon, 12. Aug 19, 15:11

red assassin wrote:
Sun, 11. Aug 19, 11:36
Unless you're Jeff Bezos, individual action is effectively meaningless.
This, sadly is largely true but listed in order of effectiveness here is probably the top three things your average individual could do.

1) Don't eat meat.
2) Don't drive a car.
3) Don't fly.

1) is trivial but nonetheless many people (including myself) are not willing to make that sacrifice, I do however try to cut it back.
2) is easy if you happen to live in a city with a well developed public transport system (as I do), but is admittedly tricky otherwise.
3) has less of an impact that you might think so don't feel too bad about it . . . just don't fly often. Flying for one holiday a year probably isn't gonna break the planet.

I also get my electricity from these people: https://www.ecotricity.co.uk so I hope I don't have to feel too guilty about that aspect, I'd prefer them to have some nuclear in their mix though. . . wind and solar aren't quite as environmentally friendly as they're cracked up to be.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by Chips » Mon, 12. Aug 19, 18:42

So many possibilities, but to keep it one per post :D


Think a fairly good one is to only boil water you need for drinks. Boiling 2 litres when you only want to use 200ml is, unsurprisingly, going to use a huge amount more energy - and it could save you up to £60 a year if you boil it 8 times a day (same applies to showers, have warm instead of hot - it makes a big difference).

Of course the biggest impact you could have is die (and don't have children). Zero emissions... but that's the "comedy" (note the quotes) option for biggest impact ;) However, saying it doesn't matter what we do - of course it does. Individuals may have little impact, but the cumulative impact of individuals can be significant. If everyone changes their practices then... it really can make a difference.

One thing is for sure, nothing will change if we don't "make it so" (as some baldy once said) - and as Registerme's thread is all about - suggestions as to the simplest things that have no discernible negative impact on your life can contribute.

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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by red assassin » Mon, 12. Aug 19, 22:02

Chips wrote:
Mon, 12. Aug 19, 18:42
However, saying it doesn't matter what we do - of course it does. Individuals may have little impact, but the cumulative impact of individuals can be significant. If everyone changes their practices then... it really can make a difference.
If everyone was willing to change their practices we wouldn't have this problem in the first place. The problem with individual action is that it's too late. We don't need to talk a few extra people into taking a few baby steps towards more sustainability, we need enforced changes at a governmental and corporate level and we need them now, and that's just to mitigate the worst of the damage. The problem with talking about individual action is that we get a nice fuzzy feeling of doing something and it's so utterly insignificant compared to the magnitude of the problem. You feel like it's going to be okay and it isn't. You want to help? Sign up for Extinction Rebellion.
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Mon, 12. Aug 19, 22:27

I don't dismiss the scale of the problem, but I am sure there are things we could all do, at no, or minimal cost, that, if replicated globally, would have a positive and material impact.

As an example, my dear old lady neighbour used hot water for decades to swizz down her cutlery before putting it in the dishwasher. It was only last year she realised she could do it just as well with cold.

Now times that by, I don't know, a billion?
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Re: What simple thing can you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

Post by RegisterMe » Mon, 12. Aug 19, 22:50

**** WARNING - very crude assumptions, very crude maths - WARNING ****

Let's assume that there are 1 billion dishwashers globally.
Let's assume that they are run, on average, once per week.
Let's assume that 25% of people swizz their cutlery down first before putting them in the dishwasher.
Let's assume that each such "swizz" uses a litre of water.
Let's assume that 50% of the people who do this use hot water.

That's 125 million litres of water being heated unnecessarily, a week.

Let's assume that the average temperature of "cold" tap water is 13 degrees Celsius.
Let's assume that the average temperature of "hot" tap water is 55 degrees Celsius.
Let's accept that it takes 4,200 Joules to raise one kg of water by 1 degree Celsius.

That's 176,400 Joules to raise one kg of water by 42 degrees (the assumed difference between cold and hot tap water).

That's 22,050,000,000,000 joules a week.

Or 1,146,600,000,000,000 joules a year.

Let's assume that one barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) equals 6,120,000,000 joules (found on some random website).

That equates to 187,353 BOE / year being used to heat water unnecessarily to swizz down plates, unnecessarily, before putting them in the dishwasher.

Now, to Red Assassin's point, that's a drop in the (oil) ocean, but it's still nearly two hundred thousand barrels of oil (equivalent) that we could either not be doing anything with, or doing something more productive with.
I can't breathe.

- George Floyd, 25th May 2020

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