Author Topic: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?  (Read 568611 times)

Mountainbug

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1050 on: January 10, 2019, 07:03:53 AM »
Successfully completed weekly grocery run without getting a single plastic bag. Not a huge accomplishment but a first for me as I never seem to have enough bags or produce bags, and I have to shop with a 2 year old in tow. Also said no to drive the coffee place, as I did not have my reusable mug.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1051 on: January 10, 2019, 06:58:52 PM »
Successfully completed weekly grocery run without getting a single plastic bag. Not a huge accomplishment but a first for me as I never seem to have enough bags or produce bags, and I have to shop with a 2 year old in tow. Also said no to drive the coffee place, as I did not have my reusable mug.

That's awesome :D

BuffaloStache

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1052 on: January 11, 2019, 01:35:41 PM »
Since Jan 1 I've been committed to, and have actually followed through with working one day a week from home, on average. I'm an unfortunate (and admitted) member of the clown-car commuting society (I do it so that my wife has basically zero commute), so 1 day of working remotely saves ~30 miles (48km) of driving on my car. Plus, I've been trying to exercise/read/do productive things with the time I used to spend commuting!

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1053 on: January 12, 2019, 09:50:32 PM »
Stretched to five days between hair washes, which saves water. My hair is very thick, so washing it means a significantly longer shower.

Combined trips this morning to minimise use of the car.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1054 on: January 13, 2019, 08:44:21 AM »
-Once per month, my book club gets together. We all live across a fairly large area and rotate where we host it. Next month, the furthest person from me is hosting. I already set up with another friend so that I'll drive half way to her house, then three of us will all carpool from there. May even pick up a fourth member on the way if she wants to meet at a center point.

-Neighbor saw my husband taking out our latest Imperfect Produce box to the recycling. Said he just got an email from them that they'll start collecting and reusing the boxes. So Husband brought the box back, and we'll hold onto it until we find out if they're taking ours back too, or whether it's some sort of pilot program the other guy is in. Should know by Thursday.

-While it's a budget loss for us, I realized not being near a Costco anymore definitely reduces our plastic use. Especially when we buy meat- at costco, not only is it not well sourced, it's in a lot of plastic (and prone to leaking, so ends up in MORE plastic). Whereas if we buy from the butcher counter, it gets paper wrapped. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before that buying the 'tray pack' meat by the butcher counter at the store uses a lot more plastic than the paper wrapped meat when you get it from the counter! But I'm going to start doing that. Fairly easy change to make, and it's not like the 'tray' wrapped meat can be frozen that way anyway! Or even prevents leaks well. There's also a plastic decrease for produce- cucumber are the example that come to mind. Costco wraps their 3 pack hothouse cucumbers individually in plastic sleeves, then puts all 3 in another sleeve. So many layers of plastic!

jengod

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1055 on: January 13, 2019, 06:40:35 PM »
* Cargo biked to the grocery store.

* Brought my own bags to the grocery store.

Anatidae V

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1056 on: January 14, 2019, 10:23:17 PM »
Did a big shop and used all my own bags. We've also been having a problem with remembering them. Next step is to remember the lightweight produce bags.

Monocle Money Mouth

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1057 on: January 16, 2019, 05:11:15 AM »
I finally replaced a fluorescent fixture that was dying in our kitchen with one that can take LED bulbs. The old fixture took two circline fluorescent and produced 2950 lumens and consumed 54W. The new setup produces 3000 lumens and only uses 26W. Even though the new setup is only producing 50 more lumens, it is much brighter since the new fixture doesn’t block as much light as the old one.

I’m pretty close to eliminating all the incandescent and CFL lights in my house :) All of my old CFL bulbs get used for exterior lighting or the garage. Since we don’t leave lights on all night and we aren’t in the garage that often, I figure I can use them up in those applications before they die. The interior lighting is finally all LED and those are the lights that get used the most. As the CFL bulbs die, I’ll swap them out for LEDs.

Mountainbug

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1058 on: January 16, 2019, 07:54:26 AM »
Someone on our neighborhood fb group was giving away LED bulbs for our recessed lighting because they were the wrong hue. Picked them up and installed them in our most used areas.

Cutting up a bag of T-shirt’s for rags instead of dumping them at goodwill. They are old plain white tshirts, and while I don’t want or need more rags I can’t bear to just dump them.

Trying2bFrugal

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1059 on: January 16, 2019, 01:06:07 PM »
We use cloths to clean kitchen tops/water and just hand wash them and keep using them. Six kitchen paper towel individual roles were just completed after almost an 5 months span.
Thats after 100+ guests visited our house in that time span.

The plastic cover is our trash disposal cover. The Costco trash bags were still sitting in the box last 1.5 years.

We always use glass tumblers instead of plastic cups, we just dont have it in our house.

We never bought any frozen foods, always cook fresh.

We buy in bulk (4 month supply) on non-perishable and having long expiration dates.


Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1060 on: January 16, 2019, 01:40:47 PM »
I took the train to work today and then the bus home and walk the last 1.2km. And I brought my lunch.

gatortator

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1061 on: January 17, 2019, 08:25:27 PM »
made my own hard sugar wax and waxed my underarms.  had a few previous missteps with the wax making before and am so happy it worked today...  so close to being able to give up razors!

Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1062 on: January 18, 2019, 07:58:10 AM »
Instead of vacuuming - I dusted with an old towel and mop. 
Made mint tea with mint that I dried this fall and it is delicious and fresh.  I will probably need to dry double the amount next year.  At the rate that I am drinking it, it is going to be gone by the end of the month.  I have almost eliminated all tea bag purchases, replaced herbals with my own harvested ones, and switched to one pound bags of loose tea. 

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018. 

chaskavitch

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1063 on: January 20, 2019, 06:52:51 AM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1064 on: January 20, 2019, 07:03:06 AM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.
I have found that making it in the instant pot in a huge quantity takes exactly the same amount of effort as making smaller quantities so I make up 2.6L at a time.  My guys know not to touch the small jar that says yogurt starter on it. 


chaskavitch

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1065 on: January 20, 2019, 07:11:03 AM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.
I have found that making it in the instant pot in a huge quantity takes exactly the same amount of effort as making smaller quantities so I make up 2.6L at a time.  My guys know not to touch the small jar that says yogurt starter on it.

Haha, I have a little mason jar labeled "starter" in the fridge too :)

I just tried yogurt in the instant pot for the first time a week or two ago.  Usually I just portion it out into jars after I add the starter and put them in my oven with the light on for ~6 hours, but it's nice to be able to actually USE the oven for that time, especially in the winter.  Also there's no chance of my husband turning off the oven light and letting everything cool off too early.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1066 on: January 20, 2019, 07:15:29 AM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.
I have found that making it in the instant pot in a huge quantity takes exactly the same amount of effort as making smaller quantities so I make up 2.6L at a time.  My guys know not to touch the small jar that says yogurt starter on it.

Haha, I have a little mason jar labeled "starter" in the fridge too :)

I just tried yogurt in the instant pot for the first time a week or two ago.  Usually I just portion it out into jars after I add the starter and put them in my oven with the light on for ~6 hours, but it's nice to be able to actually USE the oven for that time, especially in the winter.  Also there's no chance of my husband turning off the oven light and letting everything cool off too early.
  I like really thick tangy yogurt so we have been doing 10 hours overnight in the IP - seems downright crazy - but when you add thawed runny blue berries....

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1067 on: January 20, 2019, 01:24:35 PM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.
I have found that making it in the instant pot in a huge quantity takes exactly the same amount of effort as making smaller quantities so I make up 2.6L at a time.  My guys know not to touch the small jar that says yogurt starter on it.

Haha, I have a little mason jar labeled "starter" in the fridge too :)

I just tried yogurt in the instant pot for the first time a week or two ago.  Usually I just portion it out into jars after I add the starter and put them in my oven with the light on for ~6 hours, but it's nice to be able to actually USE the oven for that time, especially in the winter.  Also there's no chance of my husband turning off the oven light and letting everything cool off too early.
  I like really thick tangy yogurt so we have been doing 10 hours overnight in the IP - seems downright crazy - but when you add thawed runny blue berries....

I always do 10 hours in the IP!

I buy a new mini-carton of Fage for every other batch. If anyone has a better idea, please share. (NOT going longer without fresh starter. I have tried that and I am not happy with the results.)

BUT I do make my yogurt primarily with milk sold in reusable cartons. Win!

Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1068 on: January 20, 2019, 06:01:20 PM »
...

I have also gotten totally into making my own yogurt.  The only plastic is from the four liter bags of milk.  We are sweetening it with honey from my neighbour or maple syrup that I made in 2017.  Or berry jam that I made in 2018.

I love making my own yogurt :)  It's a tiny bit time consuming, but so worth it - we eat it sweetened with jam I made too.  Side bonus, our toddler loves eating his yogurt from a "little tiny jar" that I portion it into for him, he thinks it's super fun.
I have found that making it in the instant pot in a huge quantity takes exactly the same amount of effort as making smaller quantities so I make up 2.6L at a time.  My guys know not to touch the small jar that says yogurt starter on it.

Haha, I have a little mason jar labeled "starter" in the fridge too :)

I just tried yogurt in the instant pot for the first time a week or two ago.  Usually I just portion it out into jars after I add the starter and put them in my oven with the light on for ~6 hours, but it's nice to be able to actually USE the oven for that time, especially in the winter.  Also there's no chance of my husband turning off the oven light and letting everything cool off too early.
  I like really thick tangy yogurt so we have been doing 10 hours overnight in the IP - seems downright crazy - but when you add thawed runny blue berries....

I always do 10 hours in the IP!

I buy a new mini-carton of Fage for every other batch. If anyone has a better idea, please share. (NOT going longer without fresh starter. I have tried that and I am not happy with the results.)

BUT I do make my yogurt primarily with milk sold in reusable cartons. Win!
I have only made four batches of yogurt so far - really new to this.  I have reserved some from each batch to make the next batch.  Does something happen that the previous batch doesn't make good yogurt?

Anatidae V

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1069 on: January 20, 2019, 09:01:37 PM »
I used my own coffee cup for my green tea at work today, and am now keeping a "keep cup" here as well for buying hot chocolates if I need a break or am meeting up with others.

cl_noll

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1070 on: January 21, 2019, 11:00:26 AM »
For a whopping $3.02/month, I purchased a 100% offset of my electricity consumption with renewable energy from my energy utility. 

chaskavitch

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1071 on: January 21, 2019, 11:54:20 AM »
For a whopping $3.02/month, I purchased a 100% offset of my electricity consumption with renewable energy from my energy utility.

I just sent in my form to update to 100% too!  Ours is $5.30 per block of 200 kWh, and we use on average 400 kWh/mo, so more than $3, but not much AT ALL.  I'm stoked.

BuffaloStache

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1072 on: January 21, 2019, 09:00:57 PM »
My team at work got lunch catered today- I opted to get a cookie (wrapped in a compostable paper sleeve) -vs- chips in a non-recyclable plastic bag. Also went grocery shopping on the way home from work, and brought my reusable bags.

Anatidae V

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1073 on: January 22, 2019, 04:14:36 AM »
For a whopping $3.02/month, I purchased a 100% offset of my electricity consumption with renewable energy from my energy utility.

I just sent in my form to update to 100% too!  Ours is $5.30 per block of 200 kWh, and we use on average 400 kWh/mo, so more than $3, but not much AT ALL.  I'm stoked.
Mine would be $30/ month extra for 400kWh, which are our high use months. Ouch. We might start at 25%.

BuffaloStache

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1074 on: January 22, 2019, 07:57:08 AM »
For a whopping $3.02/month, I purchased a 100% offset of my electricity consumption with renewable energy from my energy utility.

I just sent in my form to update to 100% too!  Ours is $5.30 per block of 200 kWh, and we use on average 400 kWh/mo, so more than $3, but not much AT ALL.  I'm stoked.
Mine would be $30/ month extra for 400kWh, which are our high use months. Ouch. We might start at 25%.

This is something I need to look into. I know it's not super expensive here in Colorado, but I also need to get a better understanding of how much kWh we use each month (my wife pays that bill, so I usually never look at it).

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1075 on: January 24, 2019, 11:52:35 PM »
Husband cleaned out the filter for the air con, now it runs far more efficiently. It would be even better not to have air con, but this is summer in Australia.

Anatidae V

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1076 on: January 25, 2019, 12:39:34 AM »
Husband cleaned out the filter for the air con, now it runs far more efficiently. It would be even better not to have air con, but this is summer in Australia.
This is a good reminder that I need to work out how to do this on ours. At least we've gotten away without using ours the past week with the very unseasonably cool weather.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1077 on: January 25, 2019, 07:17:55 AM »
I've been working on easy sauces that I can make from scratch, so that I'm not using something that comes in packaging. Given my current dietary goals, I'm also looking for dairy free ones. The taco salad dressing was a win (uses hemp hearts as the base!), but the peanut sauce I tried wasn't quite "it". Hoping this reduces things like BBQ sauce (although we buy ours in glass containers already).

Husband has switched from coffee to green tea for days he's home. Anyone know the relative footprints and ethical considerations on the two crops? Either way, his green tea is all paper packaging, whereas coffee bags are often plastic lined, so that's a bit of plastic waste cut out/down.

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1078 on: January 25, 2019, 10:47:54 AM »
I've been working on easy sauces that I can make from scratch, so that I'm not using something that comes in packaging. Given my current dietary goals, I'm also looking for dairy free ones. The taco salad dressing was a win (uses hemp hearts as the base!), but the peanut sauce I tried wasn't quite "it". Hoping this reduces things like BBQ sauce (although we buy ours in glass containers already).

Husband has switched from coffee to green tea for days he's home. Anyone know the relative footprints and ethical considerations on the two crops? Either way, his green tea is all paper packaging, whereas coffee bags are often plastic lined, so that's a bit of plastic waste cut out/down.

I made teriyaki sauce from scratch once, it was relatively easy and very tasty - I liked the ability to tune the sweetness, too.  I've been meaning to make it again, just haven't actually made stir-fry recently.  I've also made a cranberry ketchup that we really like as a chicken marinade, or to put on homemade fries, but I wouldn't call that an easy recipe.

What kinds of cuisine do you tend to eat?

Hirondelle

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1079 on: January 25, 2019, 11:13:37 AM »

Husband has switched from coffee to green tea for days he's home. Anyone know the relative footprints and ethical considerations on the two crops? Either way, his green tea is all paper packaging, whereas coffee bags are often plastic lined, so that's a bit of plastic waste cut out/down.

As far as I know tea is more environmentally friendly than coffee. Not sure why and by how much, but it's one of the things i remember from a carbon footprint calculator i used ages ago.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2019, 04:15:20 AM by Hirondelle »

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1080 on: January 26, 2019, 08:25:06 PM »
Convinced husband to fix the cheap, crappy desk our toddler damaged, so we can find it a new home rather than it ending up in landfill. (Trying NOT to complain about him letting the toddler damage furniture...)

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1081 on: January 27, 2019, 02:21:30 AM »
Discovered an open tube of superglue. These seem to dry up within a week or two of being opened, so I figured I'd better take my chance: fixed a laundry basket, a toy and a handful of books.

If I have the energy, tomorrow will be mending loose and missing buttons day.

Imma

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1082 on: January 28, 2019, 03:43:23 AM »
Got a whole pile of work clothes from a friend who was going to throw them away. She buys a lot of fast fashion, but she's also losing a lot of weight (which I really admire her for! She's doing great!) so after a few wears she's done with them. By now, half of my wardrobe consists of items I get from her.

I don't keep everything she gives me, what I don't keep I recycle. I'd rather have her stop buying alltogether, but this is the best alternative in the current circumstances. She has a much better sense of style than I do and she loves shopping while I hate it, so it's pretty convenient for me too. It's just a shame that many of those fast fashion items are poor quality that don't last very long.

We also had vegan food all weekend and I'm going to do some mending / tailoring of clothes tomorrow.

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1083 on: January 28, 2019, 05:08:30 AM »
I continued the process of eliminating fluorescent and incandescent bulbs in my house. I decided to switch all my E25 garage lights from CFL to LED. That will cut my energy use out there in half. Originally, I was just going to leave the garage with the CFL bulbs, but the prices are low enough on LED bulbs, I figured why not. I still need to convert some old T8 tubes to LED in the garage, but I’m deciding whether to just buy LED tubes that work with the ballast or convert the fixture to use nonshunted LED tubes. There are also some halogen flood lights on the outside of the garage I need to convert. We don’t use that much at all, but I still want to convert them for the sake of completeness and consistency.

I also recycled all the CFL bulbs and some old burned out UV tubes my wife uses for her reptile. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be anyplace that will recycle fluorescent tubes for free. There’s a store called Batteries+Bulbs that will recycle them, but they charge $0.86 per tube. Disposal is another reason I want to get away from fluorescent bulbs and tubes.

Fishindude

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1084 on: January 29, 2019, 12:24:09 PM »
Burning wood to heat the house last few days, it's 10 F today and supposed to be below zero tomorrow.

Hirondelle

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1085 on: January 29, 2019, 02:07:50 PM »
My heating was broken over the weekend. 2 days of no heating and hot water costs. Let's look at the bright side and say I helped save the environment?

Frugal Lizard

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1086 on: January 29, 2019, 06:14:45 PM »
Used bird seed for traction on the ice instead of salt.  Shoveled by hand the driveway instead of hiring a guy with a plow.

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1087 on: January 31, 2019, 01:07:13 PM »
This is small indeed but I used my daughter's bathwater to mop.  And instead of draining it immediately, I let the heat dissipate and warm our house (she's old enough that I don't have to worry much about her drowning in an undrained tub)

krmit

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1088 on: January 31, 2019, 01:24:30 PM »
My 5-year-old iphone 5s battery life severely declined over the past few months, to the point where it would die in 5-6 hours.
Last week I ordered an Ifixit battery replacement kit and committed successful phone surgery! My battery life still isn't AMAZING (thanks, bulky iOS updates) but is definitely improved - I can actually leave it unplugged overnight.

I feel like a total badass and it cost me $30 and maybe 2 hours of time.

Trifle

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1089 on: January 31, 2019, 04:04:28 PM »
My 5-year-old iphone 5s battery life severely declined over the past few months, to the point where it would die in 5-6 hours.
Last week I ordered an Ifixit battery replacement kit and committed successful phone surgery! My battery life still isn't AMAZING (thanks, bulky iOS updates) but is definitely improved - I can actually leave it unplugged overnight.

I feel like a total badass and it cost me $30 and maybe 2 hours of time.

Awesome @krmit!  We did that too on my iPhone 5s.  It was a bit nerve wracking, but it worked!
 

jengod

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What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1090 on: January 31, 2019, 07:28:16 PM »
We replaced 22 bulbs with LEDs today.

(Saved all the old bulbs that still work and will try to rehome them. If that doesn’t work will take them to the e-waste collection site at the local university.)
« Last Edit: January 31, 2019, 07:30:41 PM by jengod »

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1091 on: January 31, 2019, 08:24:20 PM »
Today:
Eating mostly vegan, entirely vegetarian.
Not driving anywhere.
Doing all the usual things to avoid single-use products (using hankies, cloth napkins etc).
Toddler is now super into his Duplo. Instead of buying more new in packaging at the shops, we're finding some secondhand on Gumtree.
Working with a teammate to get more environmental charities on the roster for the weekly collection at our office.

Anatidae V

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1092 on: January 31, 2019, 11:41:20 PM »
Cloth pads for me, cloth nappy for toddler, practiced taking the train with him so we can do combined car/train trips, and cancelled a trip this afternoon as it was too hot and we napped for too long to miss traffic.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1093 on: February 01, 2019, 02:12:51 PM »
I am experimenting with using a cereal bag inside a reusable container instead of a single-use, specially freezer bag for freezing ground beef. Seems like it could possibly prevent freezer burn better than the container alone... will report back if it's successful. It's just for tacos anyway, so it's not a huge risk.

Hirondelle

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1094 on: February 01, 2019, 02:21:34 PM »
No coffee at work (avoided reusable cup + environmental impact of the coffee and the milk).

Vegan dinner and breakfast, vegetarian lunch.

Wear a sweater at home rather than turning up the heat.

Paid CO2 compensation for a flight for me plus the friend I travel with (it was only $2.50 total so I'll pay extra voluntarily as I think the amount is too low).

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1095 on: February 01, 2019, 03:33:42 PM »
Joining in to see if I can learn some new tricks. So far today I:

Biked to work (as per usual).

Brought the plastic bags and batteries our recycle service won't pickup to the recycle depot near my office.

Vegan lunch packed in reusable containers.

mountain mustache

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1096 on: February 01, 2019, 08:42:02 PM »
biked to work, biked to the store to pick up a few groceries on the way home.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1097 on: February 01, 2019, 11:36:59 PM »
As part of my commitment to avoid the 'fast fashion' trap, today I cleared out the mending pile. Fixed up two cardigans and a dress and they're back in my wardrobe.

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1098 on: February 02, 2019, 06:59:22 AM »
I finally eliminated all incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with an E26 base in my house today :D I finally had a chance to get into the attic after the cold snap this week and swap out the ancient 100W incandescent lamp up there for a 13W LED.

I also eliminated a halogen motion sensor security light on my house. The bulb died years ago but you could still here the click of the motion sensor whenever you walked past it. I know it used a negligible amount of energy, but at least it's no longer there consuming energy for the benefit of no one.

The final phase of my project will be swapping out lamps and maybe fixtures in the garage. The previous home owner installed 3 halogen flood lights on the garage and there is still a fixture that takes 4 fluorescent tubes inside the garage. Fortunately those barely get used, so the urgency for swapping those out isn't as high as it was for the actual house.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: What small things did you do today to reduce your environmental impact?
« Reply #1099 on: February 02, 2019, 10:37:55 AM »
It occurred to me that maybe I could use one of our 937 reusable grocery sacks (one keeps getting them for free), one of the ones that stands up pretty well, to hold recycling instead of using a paper grocery sack. I had forgotten to get a paper sack at TJ.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!