Plastic-free and eco-sustainability: What are YOU fucking doing about it EH?

[Fambo Number Mive]

I follow my partner and kids around the house and turn off all the lights they leave on. I have calculated that I save around 40,000 years of the Earth's lifespan every week by doing this.

Also I don't use a straw, who the fuck drinks through a straw once their age is in double figures?

People with certain physical disabilities need to use a straw to drink.

[Butchers Blind]

Has anyone thought of throwing this waste plastic up into space?  Loads of room up there, hence why its called space. Come on Elon, get your act together and set up Plastic Space Force

[Huxleys Babkins]

Also I don't use a straw, who the fuck drinks through a straw once their age is in double figures?

You can't drink a thick shake without a straw. Also, fancy cocktails must be drunk through a straw to reduce the risk of little paper umbrella-related eye injuries.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

You can't drink a thick shake without a straw

Pretty sure if it can be poured from the container it can be poured into a mouth.

[Paul Calf]

Also I don't use a straw, who the fuck drinks through a straw once their age is in double figures?

This is mook and crisps all over again. Why do people persist in this joyless mummies-and-daddies game?

[Harry Badger]

It seems the next big thing is going to be deep-sea mining for the rare earth elements needed for electric vehicles and other techie products. The technology for mining in the deep sea beyond coastal shelves is only just emerging, and of course big corporations are trying to manipulate developing countries to get a piece of the action. Volvo, BMW and some other companies announced recently that they support a moratorium on it, but the minerals will still need to be mined on land if they are serious about switching to electric vehicles.

There will come a point, and we are fast reaching it with oil, where it will take more energy to extract these substances than you get from them. But I seriously doubt there is enough lithium and rare earth mineral anywhere on the planet to maintain anything like this way of life.

[hamfist]

I have solar panels on my roof, and a big battery in the garage - and they're pretty good I think - normally on sunny days we rely on grid energy for only around 4-6% of our needs daily. Today is a bit cloudy here in York but we still only need the grid for 11% of our consumption.

Our grid energy is supplied by Pure Planet and is supposed to be green energy.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Pretty sure if it can be poured from the container it can be poured into a mouth.

You don't pour thick shakes, they are pumped like a whippy ice cream. You need a straw to provide the required pressure to pump it up into your gob.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Fuck's sake, craving a McDonalds milkshake now.

[Inspector Norse]

So basically the key to saving the planet is abolishing milkshakes of a certain viscosity.

[Dr Trouser]

I've spent 20 years of my career on the electrification of aircraft, marine and energy systems. The amount of reduction in CO2 and fossil fuel burn I've been responsible for is enormous.

Therefore I am quite happy putting plastic shit in my non-recyclable bin, driving around aimlessly and eating lots of meat, as my net contribution will always be in the positive. I'm guilt free and golden!

[thenoise]

So basically the key to saving the planet is abolishing millshakes of a certain viscosity.

If only there were some kind of metal hand-scoop we could use for ferrying viscous substances into our mouths. Come on boffins!

[Sebastian Cobb]

If only there were some kind of metal hand-scoop we could use for ferrying viscous substances into our mouths. Come on boffins!

In the meantime I've got this funnel and some hose, which end you wanting this shake in boss?

[Midas]

Drinking through a straw can be useful for maintaining good dental hygiene. They allow liquids to bypass your teeth which limits exposure to sugar and helps prevent tooth decay, reduces enamel erosion and decreases staining. It's important that we live more ethical and sustainable lives and taking proactive measures to prevent requiring treatment can also help reduce your carbon footprint (even if only in a tiny way).

I've recently gone a step further and removed the straws themselves from the equation by taking all my fluids rectally. Two birds with one stone.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Two birds with one stone.

What are they doing near your rectum? Sounds unethical.

[Inspector Norse]

I've spent 20 years of my career on the electrification of aircraft, marine and energy systems. The amount of reduction in CO2 and fossil fuel burn I've been responsible for is enormous.

Yeah whatever, do you drink through a straw?

[Midas]

What are they doing near your rectum? Sounds unethical.

They stand around waiting to gollop some treasure. I can't stop them, they're free-range.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Has anyone tried the bagless supermarket delivery option from places that offer it (Asda do, Morrisons don't)?

You best have some crates to shove everything in because it's really quite awkward unloading things into your hallway one by one while the driver, who I assume is probably on unreasonably tight schedules waits.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

discovered that despite every home having an accessible recycling box or point in my town, the council have an ongoing 30 year contract with a waste disposal firm which means all recyclable material gets binned or incinerated. neat

[Sebastian Cobb]

discovered that despite every home having an accessible recycling box or point in my town, the council have an ongoing 30 year contract with a waste disposal firm which means all recyclable material gets binned or incinerated. neat

So the entire recycling process in your town is literally theatre and presumably less efficient than using a single bin lorry to pick everything up?

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

So the entire recycling process in your town is literally theatre and presumably less efficient than using a single bin lorry to pick everything up?

WELL, more specifically it's only a very limited amount of material that is recycled, with cross contamination meaning the whole lot is often burned

_{edited for clarity}

[Sebastian Cobb]

The Greens sadly have a bit of a flaky record with this don't they? I heard they (as in a Green-controlled council) completely fucked up waste collections in Brighton.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

The Greens sadly have a bit of a flaky record with this don't they? I heard they (as in a Green-controlled council) completely fucked up waste collections in Brighton.

plenty of drama on the local groups about the bins

THE BINS THE BINS

[Dr Trouser]

Yeah whatever, do you drink through a straw?

Damn right I do, biggest plastic fuckers I can find, then I jam them down the throats of passing ducks when I've finished.

[Glebe]

I've been recycling my shower gel bottles and that lately.

[touchingcloth]

I was looking into those compostable plastic-free dish sponges yesterday. £8 for four, are you having a fucking laugh? Saw someone else on here recently saying they use old rags and stuff. Does that work? How effective is RAGS in scrubbing burnt-on oil and potato bits from an oven tray when I've made my own chips and forgot to turn them when they were cooking?

We use old rags, so that was probably me. They work for non-stubborn stains, but for baked in stuff we use either coir or metal scourers, no plastic.

Someone on Gardeners World grows their own loofahs and slices them up in to mini scourers. Monty thought it was a good idea but I'm not so sure.

We've used loofahs as kitchen scourers and they're pretty damn good. In fact, some of this lot is loofah:

We've got seedlings planted for the horta in the garden. They're mainly things which are more expensive to buy or harder to find in the shops (artichokes, squashes, chillies, radishes, ugly tomatoes), greens (various lettuces, rocket, cabbages), misc. (sweetcorn, broad beans, peas), and some sacrificial marigolds to hopefully attract the slugs and snails.



I'm not looking forward to the weeding that's needed before they're planted out, but we seem to have successfully made the 10m³ of compost we need for it over the past few months, so it's going to be rewarding spreading that stuff out as my shoulders hated me for having to turn the damn stuff so often.

The first shoots are starting to appear in the herbs we've potted by the kitchen:

[Sebastian Cobb]

You said you used rags instead of paper towels as well didn't you? I ran out and tried it but it feels a bit manky if you're patting off something like defrosted chicken to have it sitting around in a bucket waiting upto a week for a washing load.

[touchingcloth]

You said you used rags instead of paper towels as well didn't you? I ran out and tried it but it feels a bit manky if you're patting off something like defrosted chicken to have it sitting around in a bucket waiting upto a week for a washing load.

Wherever possible, yeah. I can't remember the last time I patted defrosted meat off, come to think of it. Probably the last time I cooked steak, but that was a few months back and I probably did use paper towel. I did defrosted chicken quarters the other night and just banged them in the pan slightly soggy - I know it's not good chefery, but fuckit, it does the trick.

Riveting topic this, yeah?

[Sherringford Hovis]

My trousers have nine pockets. I am an enthusiastic proponent of pocket-mulching.

[flotemysost]

A couple of years ago when I had to clean my old flat for the checkout, I thought I'd try to save the world and some money by using baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice etc. Obviously I did it in a bit of a rush and it looked like shit and I ended up just bleaching everything anyway. I'd like to learn how to get better at this though.

I'm intrigued by absorbent period pants - I do own a Mooncup, but it's still in its box gathering dust at the back of my wardrobe. Just can't do it (plus I was still in my twenties when I bought it, and rather confusingly, they recommend the larger size for women who've had children or are over thirty, so maybe it'd get lost in my cavernous thirtysomething vag these days anyway, who knows?). I see lots of ads for these magic pants on social media, which seem far less scary, but then if you read the small print on some of them it says they're only meant for a few hour's use, in which case if you're out and about that's pretty rubbish, unless you don't mind carting round a spare all morning and then a pair of worn, bloody pants all afternoon.

I like the Lush solid shampoos and conditioners - the Jungle conditioner is surprisingly rich and it smells lovely. Noticed Garnier have jumped on that bandwagon (not that that in itself is a bad thing of course) with a free travel container for every bar sold, made out of plastic, which lots of people will probably never use and chuck in the bin anyway.