Ideas for becoming more environmentally friendly

[FussyElmo]

Share your best ideas especially for single use plastics.

I have ordered beeswax wrap for sandwiches a bit expensive but if they last a year it will be the same as food bags.

Im in the process of moving to Koh cleaning products. Love it and seem to be finding excuses to clean.

I really need an alternative to plastic bottles. Good all week use reusable ones its the weekend when it goes to pot especially a sport filled weekend. This weekend we have a rugby festival so will need at least 15 drinks to take.

Also does anyone have a tried and tested recipe for flavoured water?

[loocyloo]

I use small plastic clip lock boxes for sandwiches and all other picnic type bits.

I have sports bottles for minded children and then as a family we have either big sports bottles or those Aladin water bottles. I try not to.buy plastic bottles but it's hard.

I looked at making my own beeswax wraps ... but got no further than that!

I'm thinking about moving away from plastic plates and cups for little minded children and try using china and glass for everyone ... but I have a stone floor ..... not sure I'm brave enough! X

[FussyElmo]

I use small plastic clip lock boxes for sandwiches and all other picnic type bits.

I have sports bottles for minded children and then as a family we have either big sports bottles or those Aladin water bottles. I try not to.buy plastic bottles but it's hard.

I looked at making my own beeswax wraps ... but got no further than that!

I'm thinking about moving away from plastic plates and cups for little minded children and try using china and glass for everyone ... but I have a stone floor ..... not sure I'm brave enough! X

Oooh making your own beeswax wrsp now theres an idea.

We use alot of the plastic clip lock boxes the top ofvmy freezer is testament to it :laughing:

We recycle alot my bin is always full it would just be nice to be able to reduce the single use plastic.

[FloraDora]

My oldest son uses these: Water in a Box (https://waterinabox.co.uk) instead of water bottles Fussy.

What a great thread to start.
I have always tried to be environmentally friendly.
I was appalled in the 1970’s by the throw away culture creeping in and vowed as a 16 year old to save the planet. ( I even did a speech at a youth council about it) .
So, my environmental conscious way of life started years ago with Not buying lots of stuff and a make do and mend where I can mantra.....helped by the fact that we were never very well off!
I have only had two sofas in my lifetime, I had one reupholstered though.
I have always reused and recycled/ upcycled soft furnishings and furniture when I have moved house. It helped that DH was a woodwork and metal work teacher and so could make things out of bits of wood and metal.
In Sound of music style, I did actually make my oldest a pair of outdoor play overalls from curtain material!
I still wear a 1984, second hand at the time, Burberry gabardine mac, I am on the 6th set of buttons though, I have revamped it as fashions change.
When my friends were buying throw away one season clothes I was buying one or two statement, well made pieces that lasted me for several years, often from second hand shops in posh areas.

I don’t replace items in the house unless they actually die.

DH and sons however are techno enthusiasts and our family have gone through loads of hi fi, radios and TV’s and music playing items....but they also never throw them away so we have boxes in our loft of historical computers, record players, cassette players, videos and DVD players, minidisc player, CD players, mobile phones and various iPods that will one day have to be recycled!
Apple, Spotify and Amazon prime are a much better way to listen to music...but we are also old school.

So I think this current awareness of less is more is wonderful.
Plus buying second hand and hoarding is now good.

Plastics is a big tricky thing to tackle and I am trying to do my best within an everyday affordable and accessible restraint.

DH came from Stoke on Trent so when our lads were born we were inundated with lovely children’s crockery which I always used. Very few broke and so they were all brought out again when I childminded. Since we always ate at a table there were few opportunities really for mugs and plates to have accidents, so go for it loocyloo.

One child accidentally knocked a glass off our table and it broke on the tiled floor, they and the other mindees were horrified and I think they became better at being aware and careful. The problem with plastic cups is because they don’t break, the same care isn’t often given and they are easily abandoned.
My mum was of the make your own embroidered tablecloth and napkin 1940’s era, so we still use her handmade table covers and napkins plus ones I make every so often...the LO’s used to love feeling the embroidery at the table.
I did use a plastic craft cloth....but I still use the same one now.

I have reusable glass water bottles, brought from tkmax along with metal ones, again I had no issues of breakages as they knew you couldn’t just leave them anywhere. I had bunnykins lidded cups for those that weren’t ready for water bottles.
Plastic bottles smell so never been happy with them.

We refill a glass bottle and keep it in the fridge for lunch and dinner water....it helps that the water where I now live tastes so lovely I have no need to buy bottled water, but in the west Midlands it was a different story.

I have recently joined the WI in my move and they are promoting this theme big time with ideas.
So I now knit and crochet ( my new skill) dish cloths and make up pads with yarn that, when they come to the end of their life, they can go in the compost bin.

I have swapped shower gel, shampoo and conditioner and shower scrubbies for bars of soap that I pop in sisal bags, it lathers up well and you can hang your bag on the shower. Does anyone remember Avon soap on a rope? - they should make a come back!

I now live near a hospitality company that provides everything for hotels and guest houses and so am able to buy cleaning products easily in 5 litre containers that I use to refill my old bottles. I know I could go down the bicarbonate of soda route really but I think buying in bulk reduces the amount of plastic going into landfill, so small steps in this area.

I have my milk delivered by a milk man with an electric van who is very local and, because, really, I don’t have a lot of choice now I live rurally I buy local all the time. I have a farm box of in season veg delivered or I collect, I shop in the local butchers who sells meat reared locally. We make our own food where we can, bread particularly.
I have always , as you know had a veg patch and since we have moved we have become more conscious and try to grow our own with fruit bushes and trees and larger vegetable areas. Last year I grew courgettes and purple sprouting broccoli in the flower beds too. I have made cotton bags out of DH’s old work shirts and use these in the grocers or supermarket so I don’t use plastic bags there - though our local green grocer uses paper bags anyway.

I compost or digest where I can, teabags, coffee granules, food, peelings etc...

As you all know I have always been an advocate of natural materials for children to play with, but I also used to love our local toy library so plastic toys were used again and again by different children.

We have never run a second car, we both have bikes and happily use public transport. I have largely holidayed in Europe, so I have rarely flown, so my carbon footprint is low...we would love an electric car but currently they are still out of our allocated car price range.

When you list what you do it is surprising how many things everybody naturally does these days to help.

But every little helps....small changes are the start.

[Maza]

My bug bear at the minute is the amount of shower gel/shampoo/conditioner bottles that my household alone uses. I will look into some of your suggestions Floradora.

At Christmas, DD made her own wrapping paper, and it was honestly some of our favourite. OK, so she still used paper (A3 and bigger), but it way good way of recycling her art work. When we added ribbons (which are used year after year) they looked lovely.

At work I'm desperately trying to stop people laminating everything in sight.

DD was mortified the other month when she was looking at a National Geographic magazine - one of the free gifts was a ruler - plastic! Of all the magazines who should know better!

[Dragonfly]

I use paper sandwich bags from waitrose..shampoo bars are good if you don’t need a conditioner as they look like a bar of soap so no bottle.

It’s good we are all so conscious about reusing and being more eco friendly

[FussyElmo]

The beeswax wrap has arrived. My children think i have finally lost the plot. The conversation went like this.

"What's this mum?"
"Its to wrap your sandwiches in"
"Why?"
"Its more enviromental friendly"
"How?"
"You reuse it"
"Really how?"
"I clean it and reuse it"
"What happens if i put it in the bin?"
"You will retrieve it"
"What if i dont?"
"You will"
"But if i dont?"
"Then i revoke your xbox phone privileges"
"Urghh you always say/do that"
"Bring me beeswax wrap home and all will be good in the world"

[FussyElmo]

FLORA - do you watch the great British sewing bee. They have done recycling challenges.

One was to reinvent a festival tent
One was to reinvent all the scraps of fabric used in the series so far.
One was to reuse fabric from curtains/blinds etc

Its really showed the throwaway society we have become.

Maza - my bathroom looks like superdrug that i need tl reconsider too.

Loocyloo- I gave the mindees proper plates today they were so careful with them so will continue.

Dragonfly - I looked at the paper bags and am thinking i need to introduce these too.

[Dragonfly]

I use china plates for mindees and China children size mugs from about 2 3/4 yrs ( depending on child’s ability)

[Maza]

Just wondering how everyone is getting on with the beeswax wrappers?

I just read an article suggesting that we use loose leaf tea instead of teabags. Anyone do that? My dad only ever drank loose leaf tea but I wouldn't know where to begin, embarrassingly.

[loocyloo]

I still haven't moved to beeswax wrappers. A friend has, but they just look a bit 'sticky' to me!

I've just bought some metal straws.

[Maza]

I still haven't moved to beeswax wrappers. A friend has, but they just look a bit 'sticky' to me!

I've just bought some metal straws.

I was looking at them on amazon and they are so pretty! I was very nearly tempted.

We popped to our local pub yesterday whilst we had a flat viewing going on. I was very pleased to see that they have moved on to environmentally friendly straws.

[FussyElmo]

We use beeswax paper for lunchboxes. I dont think they are as durable as they make out or my boys have decided to test their duability a bit too much. I am going to make some though.

Im looking forward to the new programme tomorrow with hugh fearnley whittingstall hopefully will give some ideas oit how to ditch more single use plastic.

I saw a petition trying to get mcdonalds to reintroduce plastic because people prefer them to paper - madness.

[mama2three]

We use beeswax paper for lunchboxes. I dont think they are as durable as they make out or my boys have decided to test their duability a bit too much. I am going to make some though.

Im looking forward to the new programme tomorrow with hugh fearnley whittingstall hopefully will give some ideas oit how to ditch more single use plastic.

I saw a petition trying to get mcdonalds to reintroduce plastic because people prefer them to paper - madness.

The Mac Donald’s petition has over 30000 signatures! My dis went to Mac Donald’s with his friends last weekend and year 7 boys from another school had been to kfc , grabbed handfuls of plastic straws each and we’re giving them out outside Mac Donald’s! I would have thought that at 12 the lads had been of the more environmentally aware generation but apparently not🙄

[Childminder in Kent]

Does anyone have any ideas regarding disposable gloves? I used reusable nappies with my children but all my minded children are in disposable nappies. Obviously need to wear disposable gloves but I was looking for a cost effective alternative - if there is one!
At a previous inspection it was mentioned that i should think about wearing a disposable apron for each nappy change too.

[moggy]

Does anyone have any ideas regarding disposable gloves? I used reusable nappies with my children but all my minded children are in disposable nappies. Obviously need to wear disposable gloves but I was looking for a cost effective alternative - if there is one!
At a previous inspection it was mentioned that i should think about wearing a disposable apron for each nappy change too.

I've never used gloves for nappy changes, it is not a requirement, it is a personal choice. A good hand wash before and after is all that's needed.

[FussyElmo]

Does anyone have any ideas regarding disposable gloves? I used reusable nappies with my children but all my minded children are in disposable nappies. Obviously need to wear disposable gloves but I was looking for a cost effective alternative - if there is one!
At a previous inspection it was mentioned that i should think about wearing a disposable apron for each nappy change too.

I dont use them never have. It has to be a very severe upset stomach or blood for me to reach for gloves

[Childminder in Kent]

I've never used gloves for nappy changes, it is not a requirement, it is a personal choice. A good hand wash before and after is all that's needed.


I've obviously always had picky inspectors then. I've been asked every time. And as i said once, was told that I should be using disposable plastic aprons too!

[loocyloo]

I only use gloves for very messy explosive clean ups!

Otherwise it's just washing hands here.

[FloraDora]

I think in this day of environmentally friendly habits you could argue your case very well for not using gloves and an apron for a fairly straightforward change. Show you have made that decision, show that you clean your hands immediately after and before preparing food etc..use it as a discussion point with an inspector, that you have made a well thought through and thought out decision would be my thoughts.