What Ideas Do You Have Which Can Help the Environment ?
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My son came home from school and part of his homework was ideas of what he would do to help the environment in his local area ,nationally and worldwide and to be honest it really made me think .
I for 1 think for example that any houses built should for example have solar panels which then eventually will then affect the dependency on the energy companies will diminish. Do you have any ideas which you think would help the planet?
All cars should be banned from carrying full size spare tyres around, lighten the load with space saver spare tyres, use less fuel as a result and create less pollution. On a global scale it would make a massive difference.
Get all the councils to have the same recycling policies, get supermarkets and manufacturers to use less plastic, buy less plastic tat, make do and mend, reuse things where possible. I could go on!!
Please carry on . I totally agree that the local policies do go against each other . Where I live I can travel 5 miles, different council and a world of difference how they do there recycling and many other things.
- Use reusable containers or beeswax wrap instead of foil/cling film
- Use reusable bottle instead of single use plastic bottles - same with hot drinks use reusable mug instead of paper cups
- Use reusable bags instead of plastic bags
- Recycle correctly
- Try to reduce the amount of things you buy that come in plastic packaging
- Buy sustainably - food and clothing
- Reduce the amount of meat and dairy you consume
- If there‘s one near you, use a zero waste shop
- Donate old/unwanted clothes/belongings
- Use brown paper and paper tape (which can be recycled) instead of wrapping paper and cello tape - or wrap in fabric or similar and reuse
Will add any more that I think of 
lynneh yes of course. Meat and dairy production and consumption causes mass deforestation and greenhouses gas emissions. This is an interesting read, but there are many other articles and researches that explain it if you’re interested https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth
lornaae I will most defo read that. But IMO or the way of thinking via science in school was that it was the food chain of life. Also that cows need milked whether or not they spring or not due to the impact it does have on them and that to effect if we didn’t eat meat there would be a load of populated animals who could overly graze to the extent that it would be detrimental but those who farm know what needs to crop and harvest etc? But yes. I will now go read. But just of my own thinking. Plus thé fact of dietary requirements for goodnesses of nutrition too.
lornaae I guess it’s where I am uneducated and just out of Interest I did google to see if the guardian contradicted their own article.. which they didn’t. If you have this life style yourself how did it come about and how to you feel health wise out of Interest ? I also do tho consider those brought up on fArms and their lively hood and what have you. It’s quite hard really isn’t it.
lynneh I’ve found myself to be healthier since I cut out meat and reduced my dairy consumption. I cut meat out years ago as I became quite disgusted when I thought about what I was really eating. I thought I was going to find it difficult but haven’t found it hard at all and in fact I found that I ate much healthier and more things that I didn’t eat before
This might be a bit off topic but what about looking on youtube for videos on how people live *off grid* or maybe live zero waste
It can be an absolute pile of crap though.
We've just had an energy efficiency assessment done on the house and they said that we should have under floor heating.
Taking into account the minimum cost that they said (this is from a government body, mind), it would take 85 years for us to recover the outlay. And that's without the hassle of all the work that would have to be done.
when I moved into home I took a “random” thermostat off the wall! Turned out it was underfloor heating and the homes were constructed 1960s. But to the same effect had the block heaters. Don’t know what to think as now I’ve neither but central heating 
TheChimp we were told that when we had an energy efficiency assessment too. I got the impression they had to say something!
Grannyclock And don't get me started on the solar panels they recommended to heat water. It would have been around 150 years to cover that cost.
As you say, I think that they are just wanting to be seen as doing their jobs, but the advice is ridiculous imo
I never understand why they don't factor in the resources needed to become more energy efficient. It's like electric vehicles replacing petrol/diesel vehicles. It would be better to convince more people to start cycling or using ebikes and reduce their use of their old vehicle rather than make the huge investment in a full electric car. Also repairing old petrol and diesel cars is beneficial. The way the government seems to look at it is a car is only good for 7 years or so and then you replace it with something new anyway but why not just keep that vehicle for 15 years but use it far less relying on ebikes etc where possible to replace use of the car.
We need shops selling more local produce and ideally selling s/hand items as well as new. There should be tax breaks for selling more s/hand items and tax breaks for companies that repair and fix items.
Personally I'd have no VAT on repairs of items but much more sales tax on new items to start making repairing items much more common.
Going back to your heating situation, why don't we just focus more on thermal clothing to wear around the house so we don't have to heat the whole house. Seems incredibly wasteful to heat a whole house when you only need to provide heat to the individual people and they generate enough of their own heat if they are wearing clothes that efficiently store the body's own heat. The energy savings that could be made would be staggering and you get clothes now that have their own heat generating circuit as well. No reason such clothes couldn't be loose fitting and comfortable to wear around a house and each person can have their own individual heat setting. The same clothes would also work well when outside in the shed, in the garden etc you would literally be warm wherever you go at very little cost. A small lithium-ion battery pack somewhere could last 10s of hours. Just seems more logical to focus on heating clothes rather than whole buildings if you are trying to reduce or even reverse global warming.
lynneh every person on this planet requires a lifetime of food, medicine, education, clothing, housing, heating, water and loads of other stuff. We are running out of much of those things. Will giving up meat one day a week, using less plastic, recycling more, save the planet? No. But reducing population will.
1950 world population just over 2 and half billion.
2000 world population around 6 billion
2050 projected population nearly 10 billion. (Google for accurate figures).
So, nearly quadrupled in 100 years. I can't think of a more effective way to save the planet than to stop giving it evermore people to support.
Lynibis so what if your kids had the ability to cause a revolution? A contribution? You know I don’t agree or disagree with population as now there is a siTuAtion to try and curb the situation. But also there is a range of family life who do try and make it solve it self so to speak and not just rely.... it’s a just so manner to say don’t populate. But some people don’t rely on benefits to which we don’t know. And why should we??
The challenge of world population growth has already been solved according to Hans Rosling.
He's someone who really knew what he was talking about and could see the wood for the trees.
It's well worth watching his fascinating and informative lecture about world population growth on Youtube. It's truly eye opening stuff.
DON'T PANIC — Hans Rosling showing the facts about population
Hans Rosling was a Swedish physician, academic, public speaker, and a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute. He died in 2017.
All homes should have a compost heap and men should pee on it. This would save unnecessary trips to the landfill saving petrol and less water flushing the loo.
Follow the 3 R's - everyone can do that
Reduce - reduce waste, minimize unnecessary consumption.
Reuse - reuse items, re purpose items.
Recycle - recycle products so that they don't cause pollution
Back when I was a kid, I wanted a treadmill or indoor bike that could be used to generate electricity. Unfortunately, it was impossible to buy one, and I didn’t have the know how to make one
I buy 2nd hand clothes for my son and then sell them on again when finished with them. Save with a lot of other stuff we have. Means there is less going to landfill as items are being reused. Same with things like furniture, if it can be upcycled then upcycle it. My mum has a sofa that is 47 years old, she has had it upholstered twice in that time and it still looks like new.
Whilst I entirely agree with all the suggestions to recycle, consume less etc etc how many in higher income brackets will do so?
All the rich people with massive houses will not bother turning a light off, boiling/using less water and not buy so many clothes!!!! Unfortunately money talks and it doesn't say save me!
Also rich folk seem to have ever more kids (Rooneys, Olivers, Ramseys, Beckham, Rhys Mogg to name a few) and it isn't a case of whether they take benefits, of course they don't, but they probably use far more of the earth's resources than the rest of us and leave a far bigger carbon footprint.
We have cut down on the meat we eat but I think you have to be careful what you replace it with. There must be an environmental impact of the manufacture of vegan products that mimic meat and also the vitamins that need to be taken as supplements if you cut out all meat and eggs. Wasn’t there a concern about the way some milk substitutes were produced too? Unfortunately nothing is as simple as it first seems.
Plant based milks have a better (less) environmental impact than cows milk. This is an interesting read https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/plant-based/how-environmentally-friendly-is-vegan-milk/597897.article
Also, it is entirely plausible for a vegan diet not to need to be supplemented with vitamins etc. I think most vegan diets are healthier than non vegan diets.
lornaae I have just been reading up about it. Almond products seem to be the ones to avoid.
Grannyclock the article does explain how the perception is tainted against almonds/almond milk. It has lowest greenhouse gas emissions and its raw materials require the least land to grow. It does use a lot of water but not near the same amount as cows milk so is still environmentally better than cows milk.
Grannyclock there are lots of variables yes, however overall it is still better than cows milk
https://www.latestdeals.co.uk/chat/saving-planetis-really-best-way
This is a thread I posted a year ago if you are interested in many other comments of a similar nature.
I truly believe we are at a point of no return unless real draconian measures are taken. But judging how well covid restrictions went down I can't see the population welcoming any other type of restrictions on their freedoms, even to save their future generations.
Stop corporate greed. People will get told to use less air travel yet the amount of corporate jets flying 1 or 2 people or even a flock of falcons! https://www.aerotime.aero/23032-saudi-prince-takes-80-falcons-on-flight
I started using reusable/washable makeup cloths last week to try and cut down on the 5+ cotton balls I was using to remove my makeup at the end of the day. I also wear contact lenses and would just like to mention to anyone else who wears them who is reading this, if you take the film off the top of the plastic on contact lenses case the bottom (plastic) part IS recyclable. A huge way of making a difference if you wear contacts daily!
Reusable face cloths/make up pads are great and such an easy switch. They are reasonably priced too
lornaae 100% I'm really happy to be making a difference to our lovely environment.
- If you are overweight stop eating so much
- If you have too many clothes stop buying more
- If you don't already, shower with a friend or shower less
- Get a steamer and cook 3 things at once
- Turn everything off of standby
- Get a bike (helps with no. 1)
- Donate your body to medical science
- Have a compost heap in your garden and encourage insects
9 Walk less and save shoe leather (but that doesn't help with no.1)
10 Make sure you develop a sense of humour, you'll need it whilst saving the planet!
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