Recent Comments

1. Ditch The Disposable Items - 03 Oct 2005

   Would like to agree with rubyfruit22, mooncups are great. I’ve been using mine for about 8 months and it’s superb!

2. Stop Taking Plastic Bags From Shops - 10 Oct 2005

   hmmm, bags, who would have thought so much could be said on the subject!:P My shopping habits are a little erratic. I am a student and I don’t have a car or a bike so I don’t do very much shopping at a time, just a bag or two… but it is always fairly impulse so I don’t always have a bag about my person… I do say ‘no’ to bags if I don’t need one and I quite enjoy the response, I’ve left many a shop assistant rhapsodising about recycling…

3. Put A Save-A-Flush Device In Your Cistern - 31 Oct 2005

   There was a pile of unwanted bricks outside the backdoor of my student abode… works perfectly :)

4. Switch off and unplug appliances and chargers - 31 Oct 2005

   hmmmmm. I am not convinced that it is necessary to turn off appliances at the wall if they do not use an adaptor or if there is no standby light. I unplug my charger and turn off the TV and microwave at the wall, but I leave the kettle and toaster plugged in and switched on because they don’t have standby lights. Please somebody tell me have I got the right/wrong idea?

5. Buy Nothing on Buy Nothing Day (In November) - 16 Nov 2005

   On Buy Nothing Day last year I helped out on a stall in the centre of Oxford. Some people played music to the Christmas shoppers, we handed out leaflets explaining what we were donig to passers-by and made cards with some children and gave away cups of tea to their parents. It was a really good atmosphere. Unfortunately I ruined it all by going to the pub in the evening and buying a round of drinks. Oops.

6. Resist Over-Consumption for Christmas - 22 Nov 2005

   This is such a wonderful idea. I went to the Buy Nothing Christmas website and was totally inspired. I particularly liked the idea of creating a calendar personalised for each family with photographs and all the important dates (birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc) Being a student, I don’t have lots of money to spend, but time is something I have a little more of so I am going to spend that making cards and presents for my family. I am going to suggest to my friends that instead of buying presents for each other, we all contribute to sharing a meal together.

7. Post Your Packaging Back - 27 Apr 2006

   I did this last term, but now I am lodging I don’t do any food shopping of my own (it’s great :D). The one thing that bothers me the most is packaging of fruit and veg. Most fruits and vegetables have natural packaging. It is just the squishable fruits like grapes and tomatoes that might need something to stop them rolling under something heavy. It bothers me too that fruit sold with more packaging is often cheaper, eg 4 lemons and a polystyrene tray and some cling film is cheaper than just 4 lemons.

8. Put A Save-A-Flush Device In Your Cistern - 21 Jul 2006

   The flat I have just moved into has an amazing dual flush thing which I was so happy to see I would have rented the flat on the strength of this one gadget – crazy sounding I know, but my partner and I have spent the past few months flat hunting in Leicester city centre and on all the new builds we saw, there is virtually no water-saving technology at all. For years people have been talking about grey water systems but planners just don’t factor them into their designs. Even more basic than that, in most cases there is no way of getting into the toilet cistern because it is built into the bathroom wall.

9. Share a Meal With Someone Outside Your Comfort Zone - 18 Sep 2006

   Having just moved to a new city, everyone is new so I guess it won’t be too hard to find someone outside my comfort zone to dine with, just a case of plucking up the courage, and then dealing with rejection!

10. Start A Generous blog or journal - 13 Oct 2006

    Usually I prefer doing actions where it is something physical and I have been in the past a little against the idea of ‘navel gazing’ but having done Peace SChool this summer I think I have learnt the importance of reflecting on my actions and reflecting before my actions to make them as effective as possible and to make sure I am doing them in the right spirit and with the right motivations.

11. Give Something Away - and declutter your life - 13 Oct 2006

    We’ve just started using freecycle. Managed to give someone loads of bubble wrap and other packaging that we had from wedding presents which we probably would have had to throw away as it was not all recyclable.

12. Switch it off at the Plug. (Don't Stand By.) - 13 Oct 2006

    This is kind of a cheat thing – we don’t have a TV. But we have a microwave which we turn off at the wall and we need to sort out the office because if we go in there at night with the light off, there are lots of other little blinking lights already in there, either we have an alien invasion on out hands, or there are loadsa little lights on.

13. Dry clothes outdoors. - 15 Oct 2006

    I don’t own a tumble drier and unfortunately I live in a flat with no outside space big enough for a washing line so for half the week there are shirts hanging up all round the place and we have a big warm airing cupboard. I agree that clothes are lovely and fresh and clean feeling and smelling when they come in from off the washing line…sigh

14. Energy Efficient Cooking - 16 Nov 2006

    I have to admit feeling dubious about this, but I’ve just read everyone’s comments which are all very positive so I am determined to give it a try. Has anyone tried using this method with brown rice or wholewheat pasta?

15. Resist Over-Consumption for Christmas - 20 Nov 2006

    www.buynothingchristmas.org

16. Choose to have one meat-free day a week in your home - 11 Dec 2006

    My husband and I have just become vegetarian and it doesn’t make a huge difference to us because we didn’t eat much meat before, but I am aware that we are being troublsesome to our families when we visit them.

17. Make Your Own Greetings Cards - 11 Dec 2006

    This is fun and you can choose what message you want to send – often being on a tight budget at christmas means I am confined to buying tacky penguin/rudolph/santa cards when really I want to send something with a more important and peaceful message – by making my own cards I can do this and save money – I use a lot of recycled materials like hoarded wrapping paper.

18. Switch to Green Household Cleaners - 15 Dec 2006

    For cleaning tea stains and the like off the kitchen sink/around the plughole I use white vinegar which smells nasty because of the acidity, but is very effective and the smell doesn’t linger.

19. Ladies: Consider a mooncup! - 22 Jun 2007

    I was surprised about how I felt my cramps reduced, I wasn’t sure if it was just me, but apparently not :)

20. Ladies: Consider a mooncup! - 17 Aug 2007

    I’ve just managed to melt mine in a saucepan while I was sterilising it… I am so mad at myself! But I’ve just ordered another, couldn’t be without it. The reason I tended to boil it was because the sterilising fluids always seemed a bit harsh and potentially environmentally damaging. Does anybody have any suggestions about an eco-steriliser, or can someone reassure me that milton or its supermarket equivalents are biodegradable? xx

21. Switch To Good (Green Or Socially Resonsible) Energy - 14 Feb 2008

    We’ve just switched from the ‘juice’ tarrif on npower to ecotricity. In theory the juice tarrif was green, but the amount ecotricity spend on developing new windfarms is about way more than juice, and I think it is cheaper too :)

22. Post Your Packaging Back - 14 Feb 2008

    My circumstances have changed yet again and now we have very little packaging because all our veg comes in a big box (organic veg box scheme) and everything else needs the packaging it comes in (plastic bags for dreid lentils, tinned tomatoes etc). One thing I do post back is those offers of credit cards – they often come with a prepaid envelope so it costs the ‘we’re trying to get you into our debt’-company a few pennies.

23. DIY vegetables! - 14 Feb 2008

    we have a balcony and last summer I grew tomatoes, mange tout, nasturtiums, lettuce, rocket and cress and this year I have spinach and of course herbs. Trying to figure out how to compost…

24. Get Rid of Your Car - OK, ambitious, but... - 14 Feb 2008

    This one is a bit of a cheat for me. I have never learned to drive and so never bought a car. We have deliberately moved to a place where there is public transport (in fact it’s so close we can hear the station anouncements inside our flat). One day I would like to live somewhere less urban but I would also like to think the public transport would be as good. For this reason, the transition town movement is really encouraging to see.

25. Walking ... It's The Way To Go - 14 Feb 2008

    I was getting the bus to work, and paying to use the gym. How did I get into this mindset? So I ditched the gym membership (probably reducing my CO2 footprint) and stopped buying weekly tickets for unlimited bus travel (also reducing my CO2) and now I’m walking everywhere and about as fit as I was when using the gym.