what are you doing to live greener?

[michelle_j_r]

after thinking and puzzling it out for so long, Eilleen's inspiration has finally taken hold and i have been toiler paper free for nearly a week. And it is actually rather anticlimactic! Using toilet paper is probably harder than NOT using toilet paper!

Once i accidently dropped a cloth wipe into the toilet bowl cos i forgot it was not paper... but other than that it is has all been rather boringly easy. I think i might have issues washing cloth wipes that had wiped other people's bums! LOL! But mine and the kids are all good. :blushing

What changes are you making?

[Savannah]

Talk me through this one Michelle. We are firmly attached to toilet paper at the moment.

I loved the style of toilets they had in Thailand. So easy and minimal need for wiping.

We are installing a water tank at the moment (just waiting for it to arrive), riding and walking where we can, growing our own fruit and vegetables, getting chickens and trying to minimise electrical use.

There is a book I am looking at getting. Something about turning off electricity and liking it. I saw it in an Earth Garden mag.

[melchpeppi]

I dont know where to start :(. Its embarassing to admit but we have the best intentions - but I fear we do nothing :(.

We use cloth nappies, wipes, hankies, buy green products for cleaning (or just use vinegar/bicarb), turn lights off etc. I know that there is more we could be doing...

[Stardust]

Me too. There's so much I want to do, but need the money for that. At present we compost, recycle, vegie patch is going well, looking at getting chooks, buy organic F and V and freerange meat. Umm....vinegar/bicarb for cleaning and washing, cloth nappies, long term breast feed, always nagging to turn lights off! But...not as much as we could I don't think.

[Ethereal]

Ugh, we're as far along our list as Mel and are aiming further too.

Living in the bus there are smaller needs but how much it is countered by diesel use I'm not sure.

Chooks, water tank, garden etc etc are planned for our shoe box next year.

[michelle_j_r]

Talk me through this one Michelle. We are firmly attached to toilet paper at the moment. i just use damp cloth wipes the same as what the kids use with cloth nappies. Flanelette on one side, terry towelling on the other.
The laundry is right outside the bathroom here so i just pop it straight in the machine. It actually wipes a lot nicer than toilet paper! :)

[skn]

We save shower water for the laundry (and then use the tank water for rinsing), have a worm farm for most food scraps, turn off lights and appliances that aren't being used, I've started walking to the shop late afternoon if I need anything, op-shopping :trippy, refuse/reuse/recylcle when possible, use bi-cab/vinegar for cleaning, cloth nappies (most of the time)...I think we could be doing a lot more...

my next thing (hopefully) will be to grow some veggies.

Eilleen's blog is very inspiring!

[Eilleen]

oh my goodness, thank you for the props re: my blog. Though to be honest, its you guys who are inspiring. It was you guys who first exposed me to a completely different world. Prior to that, I never really thought about the environment much.

Um... well I very rarely buy anything new or disposable. I also menu plan and as a result I've totally cut down the amount of food waste/excess that I used to have.

[mama_bel]

We have our own water supply, and no sewerage so deal with our own waste. That's just by default 'cos of where we live though. :) We're on mains power, but if we had the money we'd get off the grid.

We grow food - sometimes with more success than others and have 100s of food producing trees plus wild food and bushtucker. We also have chickens for eggs and meat (and entertainment). And ducks for eggs, and possibly meat (reformed vegetarian here, t'is tricky). And a house cow for milk, which then becomes soft cheese, yoghurt, etc. There's heaps more we could grow, but I find I'm not putting the time in to get as much productivity from the gardens as I have in the past. We'll get back there. We're planning another 100 or so trees in the ground this wet season and some more bamboo etc too.

We recycle what we can and have rubbish collection every six weeks. All food scraps go to the animals or compost.

We try to buy local, organic, etc etc. Only eat wild-caught local fish or homegrown chicken, no other meat. I hope this makes a difference. I buy heaps in bulk so have very little packaging and waste compared to when one has to buy weekly from the supermarket. Cooking from scratch helps too, as does growing our own - no egg cartons, milk bottles, butter wrappers/containers, juice bottles, jam jars, bickie packets, etc etc. When we travel and on similar occasions I'm shocked at how fast we can produce a bag of garbage!

Don't buy many cleaning products - vinegar, bicarb, some Orange Power spray, some dishwashing liquid, laundry soap. Nothing too nasty or highly packaged though.

We do use toilet paper and some tissues and paper towel and use the car most days. There are other areas I know we can improve in time as well... Baby steps, this has been a long journey!

[melchpeppi]

Woweeeeee! Thats amazing!!! I wish we didnt have the waste we have. Its embarrassing really, every week we struggle to get the last bag of rubbish into the wheelie bin... I might make it my mission this week to find a bulk produce store locally... (hint hint, Im near Ipswich..)

My baby step for today was driving past a garage sale and stopping, because there was a chalk board there and it was perfectly fine! We had one on our Christmas list, and they are about six times at least what I paid for our new-old chalk board!!! I think I love it more than I would a brand new one :D. Is that weird!

[Stardust]

Nope. I love garage sales. And markets!

[skn]

Not weird picking up the old chalk board :)

You should see the stuff that people just throw out around here...not sell, but for the household garbage collection that happens every two years. We've picked up a perfect set of chairs and a study desk (prefect for my sewing stuff)! Bargain for us!

[Karena]

Oh Mel, I love recycled stuff, it has history and more character.

I feel that we have only just started on our journey of being more greener.

We use cloth nappies, Brock has only had 4 disposable nappies on his bottom. We also use cloth wipes and I only use cloth breast pads. WE have a veggie garden and starting to really get into composting.

[JAK]

I can't do most of what I want as I don't own the house. However, we grow some of our food and I try and buy local where I can.

I am inspired by Eilleens year of no buying new, so have been challenging myself to buy more used. I'm trying to find it used before going new.

This year I did a 'no toy' year. Ds is allowed to save for toys but I won't buy any toys for his birthday or christmas. Instead of toys he's putting money towards his cause - animal conservation.

[Stardust]

I just donated my first lot of stuff on freecycle today. I think I'm going to love it :)

[Ethereal]

You should see the stuff that people just throw out around here...not sell, but for the household garbage collection that happens every two years. We've picked up a perfect set of chairs and a study desk (prefect for my sewing stuff)! Bargain for us!

We find a lot of people purposely put out stuff on the roadside collection that is for, I guess a form of free-cycling. They know it's too good for the tip so wait for someone to re-home it. We love it!

[melchpeppi]

Oh I WISH we had roadside collections here - apparently its 'too messy' for our area pffffffffffft

So for those composting, who rents? And what do you do when you rent? Do you buy one of those topsy turvy style composters?

[Karena]

Mel, for our compost I have a bottomless bucket in a corner of a garden, every couple of months I turn the compost over and use what I need.

[mama_bel]

When we rented and composted we had a plastic bin with the base cut out. It had a clip-on lid to deter vermin. Also had to make sure mice and rats couldn't easily tunnel under the bottom edge so we used to pack dirt up against the sides a bit from memory.

That was 17 years ago, so a bit fuzzy! :p

[littlemissnaughty]

Compost and grow some vegies, buy from the farmer's markets as frequently as possible.
Solar hot water, DS#1 showers and pops the plug in for DS#2 and DD to have a bath, clothes that need soaking go in the bath after the kids. Bucket water to the garden when the garden needs it.

We will be building soon and making sure we have a great basix rating, top quality insulation, probably double glazing to the windows, good ventilation windows. Probably no carpets (so no vacuuming except for the beds) a good ole broom/enjo mop instead. Trying to work out if we can afford solar panels, or at least factoring in how long until we can recoup the money through savings, ceiling fans throughout. Keep the fridge and freezer reasonably full so that it runs most efficiently.
Front load washing machine. We plan to have a larger rainwater tank than necessary for the build too

I find a lot of the things we do to save money are greener too.

[mama_bel]

We have no roadside collection, but it sounds great! We do have a section at the waste transfer station (dump/tip!) where we can take or buy items. Usually we get building supplies for gardens and outbuildings from there. They might look a little 'recycled' but they're cheap!

[melchpeppi]

I love the idea of the bin with the bottom cut out of it - we already have one of those here!!! So, how do you aerate it? Do you just use your shovel? How often?

And (paper bag going over my head now...) how bad does it smell...

[lorzilee]

Mel, we have two rubbish bin composters here, and I will admit I've been a bit slack in the last couple of months while I have had morning sickness. Just looking at them has made me sick....

Anyway, I just make DH empty my little icecream bucket everynight when he is watering the veggie garden and haven't been near them. My mission now is to get this to continue after we welcome our baby......

It doesn't actually smell that bad, though. Just when pregnant! I've got a mental block about it now. Perhaps now is a good time to start and claim you can't got near them!

[mama_bel]

I used a garden fork to aerate - you know it's like a shovel but has a few prongs instead? And adding dry matter helps - lawn clippings, sawdust, leaves, straw, whatever you have...

[melchpeppi]

LOL!! Too true, I can use this pregnancy to my advantage hahahahaha!!! Ive got a fork here... Looks like there might not be any excuse now!

[Savannah]

We have a couple of compost heaps and a worm farm. Funny, I dont think of those as 'living green', they're just a normal part of our gardening.

I built the big ones out of packing crates. The smaller Dalek type ones using fencing ringlock and black plastic (from the tip shop) and the worm farm is a bought one.

We catch the water while waiting for the hot to come through the pipes in the shower. I use it to water plants or put it in the washing machine. I use the rinse water from the washing machine in the next load or out on the garden.

We don't use any harsh household cleaners. Everything has to be greywater safe and ok for sensitive skin.

We put out our small rubbish bin once a fortnight on average. I find most rubbish comes from packaged, processed foods and we avoid those as much as possible. And we recycle. Most of the paper goes into the garden and I keep the jars for storing foods or in the shed for nails, etc.

DD and I have decided to give the (toilet) cloths a go for a week and see how it works. I think it is mostly a mental thing for me that is holding me back.

[michelle_j_r]

i kept thinking about loo cloths for AGES! and it was not a mental 'yuck' thing so much as i thought it would be an effort to make the change. It wasn't. So i have no idea why i put it off so long.

Put the garbage out today and for the week we had two small shopping plastic bags worth of rubbish!! yay! and it will be less once i am here longer as i am still settling in and having to buy stuff to set up that has packaging.

[SeaStar]

We really have to get back on track with this too, after such a busy year, moving again we are slipping up a bit. Thanks for reminding and inspiring me!

[sweetchili]

i was just saying on the weekend i need to get back on track.
will be following this thread for ideas.

[Stardust]

How good is freecycle! I am hooked!
Is it worth having a worm farm as well as compost?We have a compost bin already, but a worm farm does appeal.

[Savannah]

I have compost bins because of the sheer volume of weeding and pruning I do - they're all full at the moment.

And the worm farm is good for the worm juice. Diluted and put on your plants, it is like liquid gold. It's also good for the kids to see the process.

[michelle_j_r]

i have just discovered that i can turn off my hot water system so for the last week i have put it on a timer and it only runs from 3 til 7pm of an evening, just enough to cover washing up after my afternoon prep mess (and often lunch plates), then bathtime for the boys, then my shower, and then dinner time wash up.

The other 20hours of the day it is off! And it stays insulated enough that of a morning the water is plenty hot enough to wash my face etc. Heaps hot, actually, so i imagine i could even have a quick shower if needed although that would then drain the hot water totally out of it and then need to be re-heated from scratch so not very efficient, but still do-able in case someone needed a morning bath for some reason (sick overnight etc).

But during the day i boil water on the gas stove for a cup of tea or to wash up breakfast bowls.

[skn]

i have just discovered that i can turn off my hot water system so for the last week i have put it on a timer and it only runs from 3 til 7pm of an evening, just enough to cover washing up after my afternoon prep mess (and often lunch plates), then bathtime for the boys, then my shower, and then dinner time wash up.



How do you do that?? I do ours manually, but often forget to turn it back on...eeek!! Had a few cold showers in winter!! And if I remember to turn it back on, I'll then forget to turn it back off for ages.

[michelle_j_r]

just plugged it into a timer like you get at gardening or hardware stores (or even the supermarket probably!). Ours is a little 55L one that plugs in and is not hardwired into the mains.

[skn]

Ahhhh, so it's a timer that reminds you and not something that turns it on/off automatically?

[michelle_j_r]

no, it's automatic! it has a rotating clock thingy that turns it on and off.

[skn]

Very cool!! I'm going to see if I can find one! Thanks for that!

[Blossomtime]

We have chooks grow our own vegies and fruit (well, a portion of them). We use earth friendly cleaning products and make our own where we can. We're trying to eliminate plastic bags entirely, but its a struggle some weeks. We make most food from scratch. We buy second hand where we can. We try to reuse/repurpose everything we can.

Each year we try to do something to renovate the house that will make it greener. Last year it was the vegie patch and fruit trees, re-wiring and re-plumbing and renovating the bathroom so we use less water and energy (it was really inefficient before). This year we have insulated the ceiling and installed solar panels, all for free! :D Next we're hoping to get a green loan to get solar hot water and floor insulation. We'll be working more on upping our food production and aiming to afford organic/local for whatever we can't grow. We're also trying to be much more concious about the packaging our food comes in. We won't buy something if the packaging is just ridiculous.

[jodiemiller]

Love the idea about the timer on the hot water system. Great one!

We have solar hot water now, so no need for a timer. We designed our whole house to conserve energy, so we have lots of compact flourescent and LED lights in the house. We also have a few lights on sensor, so that when you approach the stairs, the light automatically comes on for 30 seconds. Same with the hallway for the bathroom light. It means the light never gets left on by accident. The house is wired with Cbus, and it's kind of ironic that we keep the house on a constant circuit that actually saves us electricity in the long term. Can only do that building new though as a retro-fit is fairly expensive.

Stardust, unless you're ultra keen on keeping worms, I really don't think the extra effort is worth it. A compost bin or three is more than adequate and much less work! You can make 'compost juice' by soaking compost in a bucket of water, you can make weed tea, or comfrey tea or other fertilisers and conditioners without using worm juice. I like worms, but I don't necessarily think they're worth the effort if you can compost in a regular open bottomed bin.

Also, to speed up composting, you can roll a tube of chicken wire and put it down the centre of the conventional compost bin for aeration. Then you don't ever need to fork!

Much as we have tried to keep our footprint small, we're currently guilty of planning an overseas trip with the kids. Guilty as charged. I can't think of anything that contributes more carbon to the environment per individual than plane travel. I'm such a hypocrite.

[michelle_j_r]

Much as we have tried to keep our footprint small, we're currently guilty of planning an overseas trip with the kids. Guilty as charged. I can't think of anything that contributes more carbon to the environment per individual than plane travel. I'm such a hypocrite. i don't know... i think sometimes there are experiences that we need to offer our kids even if they might not be the best choices in other areas. World travel, seeing other cultures, looking beyond their backyard does just as much for global awareness as 'living green'. Plus, carbon schmarbon. Reduce your footprint, yeah, but the whole carbon thing is rather questionable anyway.

[Natenimiri]

where is freecycle????!!!!

[mama_bel]

http://freecycle.org/

[cass]

This week I decided do go 7days only buying basic foods. (bread, milk, fruit&vege, meats). Forcing myself to cook rather than get take aways, to make cakes and biscuits myself if I feel like one.

It has been a great change away from processed foods, but it also means alot less rubbish is going into my bin!!!

It is only a simple change, but 1 week at a time and it will be a habit.

[cass]

~~Deleted because I am not sure why that appeared there in this topic....oops~~

[michelle_j_r]

Okay....so lets start a study group...anyone else want to become an OB/Gyn? ??? how does that help us live greener?? :confused1

but yeah, buying more basic foods is what i do all the time now and i find it is actually really rewarding. And not limiting at all cos then i just make the fancy stuff myself so we don't miss out. Pumpkin scones with spiced sugar icing!!!! flashy! bloody tasty! and super cheap. :)

[cass]

??? how does that help us live greener?? :confused1


lol...yeh..that was definetly an accidental post...I have no idea why that appear there!! I edited the original post to prevent any more confusion!:laugh

The strange thing is that I did actual write a somewhat intelligent reply to this....it is probably posted in some other random topic!

[emmy]

I just became a member, and it's great to see so many thinking the way we are!!! We just brought a dutch cargo bike, so we only use the car for long distance. It even has a rain canopy, so I can cycle when it drizzels! The kids love it, and no parking trouble, no fuel etc! Just a fun way of living greener. But not everyone understands...I do sometimes get some comments like, 'why do you put your kids in a bike, it's dangerous!' And these are people riding a big SUV, most of the time alone!!! I don't think the cargo bike is dangerous, and maybe pollution the earth with you big car is more dangerous? ;) Well anyway, we love the bike and most of the time we get happy comments :laugh

[boy wrangler]

Hi Emmy, you should head over to the introductions and tell us a bit more about yourself! I'm going to google that bike, sounds great!

[lucylu]

Stardust, unless you're ultra keen on keeping worms, I really don't think the extra effort is worth it. Agreed. We have worms, chickens and a bokashi bucket. Those 3 things take care of all our food scraps and weeds. The worms came before the chickens and we have limited space, so they were good for that, but we don't really 'need' them now. We also make compost/weed tea. Garden loves it.


Also, to speed up composting, you can roll a tube of chicken wire and put it down the centre of the conventional compost bin for aeration. Then you don't ever need to fork! :yes


Much as we have tried to keep our footprint small, we're currently guilty of planning an overseas trip with the kids. Guilty as charged. I can't think of anything that contributes more carbon to the environment per individual than plane travel. I'm such a hypocrite. Jodie what about offsetting some of this? And including the cost of the donation in your budget? Would that alleviate some guilt? http://www.carbonneutral.com.au/

[lucylu]

What an inspiring thread :) It's so wonderful being 'surrounded' by such thoughtful, caring people.

We have solar panels, solar HW, really good insulation. A few well placed trees keeps our house relatively cool in the hot summer. So do the tiles. Unfortunately the house is pretty cool in winter too! We didn't have a heater this year - a really cold year - and just wore beanies and rugged up. Luckily our neighbours have given us a pot belly! So next winter will be warmer. It's one that you can cook on, so looking forward to lots of soups and stews.

We buy organic, fair trade, local and in bulk as much as possible. We grow some of our own produce. We rarely buy new. We cook a lot from scratch and don't eat much meat (maybe one meal a week). We make gifts.

There are loads more things we could be doing...but it's a gradual switch and I find the less I stress about what I 'should' be doing, the more easily things change.

[mama_bel]

I read back over my post from a year ago, and nothing much has changed... We are buying beef now, from a nearby organic farm whose practices I admire. About half the family eat beef, the rest of us mostly veg.

I have intended to do a worm farm and/or compost but have never gotten around to it.

One new thing here is that dh did a bamboo workshop and has become a keen propagator and is planting things. Different things to what I enjoy, so it's great. Previously he'd help me a bit, but I did all the planning, buying, propagating and planting. He would dig holes, lug pots of plants, etc. He has visited some biodynamic farms and such and is looking at 'weeds' in a different way as well. He is also milking Lucy for me occasionally.

I am using the car way too much, but trying to balance that and the kids' desires to go places and do things is tricky. Hard part of living out of town. We've done some reno's, but nothing particularly green - changed a few lights and put a blind up...

Using the Thermomix uses heaps less power than the stovetop, and less washing up too.

I'm now baking sourdough and experimenting with other from-scratch cooking, preserving etc.

I run a whole fridge in the shed for the milk, which I can't seem to get around as some days I have up to 30L and it takes up a lot of space.

For financial reasons as well as environmental, a lot of the outside work we've done has been with recycled building materials. It frustrates dh to have to wait for the materials to come up, rather than going to the hardware, but it is costing us heaps less to finish projects so we're doing more in the long run.

DH is slashing (mowing with tractor) less as Lucy the house cow grazes the whole house paddock almost all the time. The chooks and ducks help too. And Lucy's 3 calves raised in the last year (1 of hers, 2 fostered) are taking care of the other paddocks with the horses now, so less slashing on the rest of the farm too. And more fertiliser. :)

Sometimes we have had to get our bin emptied more than 6-weekly because of rubbish from reno's and stuff, but it's not too bad I guess.

Lately I've been soaking, cooking and freezing legumes because we were using a fair few tins of beans etc which creates more rubbish than bulk-bought dry beans and isn't as good for us. If I have the same amount on hand in bags in the freezer, it's much easier than thinking ahead to get the dry ones ready in time for a meal.

This year we've had some fruit off the trees, and right now there's at least half a dozen bunches of bananas on, which is great. The vegie garden was a bit ordinary this winter, but I've been trying to use what we have instead of buying veg - pumpkin/sweet potato instead of carrots, odd leafy greens, beans, chokos, and the prized few broccoli heads instead of bought greens, more eggs and milk and home baking etc. I am also sourcing more food locally - through LETS, markets and co-ops etc rather than buying through a co-op which came from Brisi as I did a lot more often 6+ mths ago. I've been trying to make wine instead of buying it, but... Hmm, still not quite there! ;)

Baby steps...

[lucylu]

Wow, Bel, sounds so amazing. there's just something about reused building materials - they have more love, more life, more character about them or something...

Baby steps... Exactly.

We have revegetated the verge of our corner block from grass, weeds and palms to local natives. It's 4 years old and absolutely chock full of birds, insects and reptiles.

I forgot to add, that we have also decided not to have any more children, partly on an environmental basis. There are other reasons, of course, but the environmental one is probably the deal breaker.

[jodiemiller]

Hm, it's a very personal decision but I'm not sure that having fewer children is the answer to saving the environment. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that birth rates naturally go down and populations naturally get smaller as a country's health, education and standard of living increases.

Weird to read over this thread for me. We never did that family trip to India. Instead we put in a swimming pool. Yes, we made it as sustainable as possible but it was still very much a lifestyle choice over any kind of desire to live greener.

I have joined http://www.greenstreet.org.au/ which forces me to report in our carbon footprint every month. Our family are low to moderate consumers of fossil fuels (score 23). I have been trying to buy fewer packaged products and use the car less but I think I'm pretty much operating at our base level, until I get the garden to flourish somehow. We do regularly plant trees on our own land to offset our consumption, though we'll run out of space one day, I'm sure.

[boy wrangler]

hey Jodie, that link isn't working for me. I'd be interested in hearing more.

[jodiemiller]

Not working for me either. Weird 'cos they just sent me my email reminder. Maybe their domain is up for renewal. :2lol

[boy wrangler]

:)

We're trying to do as much as we can, but like has already been said, it's baby steps. We'd love solar panels, but they cost money! So we're focussing on things we can do now. We buy in bulk or things with less packaging, we buy as much local F&V as we can, along with eggs from friends, honey from the honey man at the markets etc etc We buy produce in season and bulk and then preserve it when it's cheap. We have one car that has LPG. I try and do all my town errands on one or two days to reduce the amount of driving we're doing, especially now we're out of town. This is one area that I've really improved on since we've moved out here. Some days I used to drive into town twice a day, once before sleeps, home for sleeps and then in again after sleeps. Now if it doesn't get done on the first trip and it's not urgent, it can wait until next time! We have a ridiculously large LCD TV that was a gift from the in-laws *rolls eyes* but it doesn't get watched much.

A is awake so I'll come back and visit this thread again in a bit, glad it's been revived!

[jodiemiller]

Driving really reduced for us too, once we moved just out of town. There's no avoiding the driving altogether though while the kids have activities during the week. It sucks really.

[boy wrangler]

yeah, it's going to increase next year when I'll have to do the drop off/pick up 5 days a fortnight. Plus another day to go in for the markets, Fridays will be my only home day! Ick!

[lucylu]

Hm, it's a very personal decision but I'm not sure that having fewer children is the answer to saving the environment. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that birth rates naturally go down and populations naturally get smaller as a country's health, education and standard of living increases.

Yeah, it is a really personal decision. I guess my approach to 'living greener' is to reduce my consumption, especially of non-renewables; to take from the earth what it can sustainably withstand, as well as reducing pollution.

Having more children would increase my consumption quite a bit. And when they are adults, my children's consumption and pollution would undoubtedly increase for each child I have. Further, the money we would spend on a third child could be diverted to helping us 'live greener'...

Thanks for the link Jodie. Looks helpful in an in your face, this is your footprint way :)

[emmy]

Hi Boy,
you can have a look at the website www.dutchcargobike.com.au (http://www.dutchcargobike.com.au)

I haven't figured out how everything works on this webiste, but will have a look at the intoductions and will try to get a photo on my profile!

[Hailstorm]

Hey Emmy here's a link to the intro forum (http://www.intuitiveparenting.com.au/forumdisplay.php?13-Introductions) for you.

how are you enjoying the cargo bike? another member recently posted a link to it saying she had been looking at them....and drooling slightly :2lol

[milkymumma]

Baby steps here too:
- composting food scraps
- recycling whatever household waste I can
- saving for a TMX ;)
- growing fruit and vegies (I shudder to think of the energy expended shipping them out here to the middle of nowhere)
- reusing shopping bags
- saving bathing and mopping water for the garden
- op-shopping
- walking or taking the bus
- using cloth nappies and ECing
- making x-mas presents instead of buying new

hmm, still thinking

[Phoenix]

Baby steps here too, we are still consuming way more then what I would like. This fortnight we have an over full recycle bin. :gasp

Growing what food we can
Reducing our wastage with meal plans and list of food that needs to be eaten soon
Grey water
composting
Cloth nappies

There are heaps of changes I am planning to make but will be small things over a time.

Chelle, do you still use cloth wipes for the toilet?

[mama_bel]

I'm going camping and for some reason, when we camp, we eat a lot more packaged food - potato chips, dip & bikkies, bought juice and bread etc. Then we have to deal with bags of rubbish! We do make 'real' meals and take pre-cooked stuff including home baking, but travel always involves more rubbish for us. I try not to feel guilty, 'cos we do pretty well at home, but I still wonder if we should avoid the stupidmarket foods for camping (now we've gone and set it up as a twice-a-year tradition for our kids to have Just Right type cereal, bottles of juice, chippies, marshmallows etc when camping)... Is the fun and easy factor worth it? I do have trouble with the bigger picture. ;)

[mrs fox]

I think that if you are being careful with your rubbish allthe other times Bel, camping does not count.
When we went camping I would cook the first few days food and freeze it and let it deforst whilst fishing, hiking etc...that way we only took a little lot of processed foods.....Every bit counts is my motto!

[mama_bel]

Yeh, that's true Mrs Fox. We still do "real food" meals, but all the snacks are just sort of part of our camping trips now...

I also freeze meals, then just boil some pasta etc. It works great, doesn't it?

[mrs fox]

yep..beats baked beans
I make a spag bol, a curry and sausages in onion gravy...then all we do is warm it up....even thought its camping the kids still need food that tops up their energy.

[lucylu]

I'm with the others Bel :)

[Lee]

I'm jumping on the bandwagon to help get a Really Really Free Market going in my town. That's definitely green... less stuff going to landfill, less new stuff getting bought, everybody sharing with each other. Win win win.

[Stardust]

That is a fantastic idea Lee!

I'm getting greener as the year goes on. Even caught myself hanging washing out in the rain the other day. Figure it will dry eventually :)
Got chooks, growing lots more food. Or attempting to.