4 posts tagged “environment”

Going with my rather clichéd mantra "less is more" I got a tiny barbecue, yeah it is quite tiny, the reason's it is good are :

1. It's small and light so it's taken less resources to make and transport.
2. I can easily store it anyway because of it's size.
3. Less surface area to clean out.
4. It generates less heat, so the food is cooked more evenly. So we don't have the burnt charcoal meat that is still raw on the inside.
5. It's portable so I could have a barbecue in the park.

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The only thing I would say about it, is it looks like and reminds me out the buckets used to burn hell money.

If the supermarkets don't voluntary start charging us for the use of plastic bags, then the government is going step in and make in mandatory. I've noticed a few of the supermarkets only handing out plastic bags when you ask for them. I am bad because I always forget to bring my own cloth or refugee bag to the shops.

I always use the bag twice because I use them as bin liners and my lunch bag too. Even when I was a teenager, it didn't bother me to use a plastic shopping bag for my books. My school bag was big and bulky, often there were days when I only needed one or two books so I wasn't going to my big bulky bag. The other good thing about bringing a plastic bag to school was when it snowed you could use it has a sleigh to down the side of a hill.

I put the plug in the bath while I have a shower. That way I can collect the water to recycle for flushing the toilet. Some countries have a separate supply of water for flushing the toilet, but here we flush drinking quality water down the pan.

Anyway last week I neglected to turn the tap off fully, so it was trickling for a few hours. I had a whole bathtub full of water and a load of water must of gone down the overflow too. If I didn't have the plug in trying to collect the water I probably would of hear the trickling. What's worse was I did it again a few days ago ! doh

Usually I don't like to participate in mass memes , but this was something I was going to blog about anyway.

Here are the ways I have been trying to help lessen my impact on the environment.

1. Navy style showers. Rinse ...turn tap off, lather ... turn tap on again and rinse. Saves loads of water and time in the shower.
2. Drive sensibly, why accelerate furiously only to slam your brakes again. Just take your foot off the accelerator if you know you are going to stop. Gentle acceleration and gentle braking. I have a small fuel efficient car and always have the display on mpg, so I know how efficient I am driving.
3. Always use energy saving light bulbs and turn off the lights whenever I exit a room.
4. Cut consumerism, can't believe the amount of junk I've collected over the years and don't use know. I've cut my frivolous spending habits to only essential stuff, with an occasional toy once in a while.
5. Clean my car with collected rain water. Hey it's limescale free too ! Only good for watering the vegetable patch.
6. Buy in bulk, less trips to the supermarket and less packaging.
7. Cut TV, I've only viewed around 2 hours of TV in the last month.