Easy Ways to Make your Home More Eco-Friendly

GREEN BRITAIN DAY 10TH JULY 2009 - Just one day to go!

We all want to do our part to protect the environment, but that can be seem difficult, if not impossible without spending loads of money. But doing your part doesn’t have to be hard. Small steps add up to a big difference, you just have to know which ones to take.

Use less water.
Saving water is all about small steps, here are a few that will help save big.

1) Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth
2) Take showers that are a minute or two shorter
3) Only flush the toilet when you need to
4) Only run full loads of laundry and dishes
5) Buy from sustainable producers. These are farmers and other producers that use techniques that pollute less and use less water. You can do some research online or ask at your local organic market to find these products.

Use less energy.
If you don’t have the money to buy a hybrid car or convert your house to solar power, you can make a big difference with small changes.

1) Buy energy efficient appliances. They may be more expensive, but make up for the increased cost in lower energy bills.
2) Unplug chargers when you’re not using them. Mobile phone and other chargers use up power even if there’s nothing attached to them.
3) Use renewable energy sources where possible - e.g. Solar-Powered Phone chargers etc
4) Put devices with remotes, like T.V.s, DVD players, and stereos, on a power strip and turn it off when you’re not using them. These devices use a lot of power to run the remote receiver even when the device is off.
5) Walk or ride your bike for short trips.
6) Buy local products. It takes energy to transport food and other products across the country. Buying local not only supports your local economy, it helps them use less energy.


When it comes to saving energy and water, it’s a great idea to get your kids involved. You can even make it a game. Have them track how much water and electricity everyone is using. You can compete to see who uses the least water. You can often count on your kids to help keep you on track when given the task.

Reuse.
Most of us know the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but when we work on conserving, we often leave reuse out of the picture. While you can often find tips on how to reuse common products from other people, what you need most is creativity. With a little thought there are many items around your home that can be reused - toilet paper holders can be used to sow seeds for the vegetable patch. And old yogurt containers can be cut into strip to make plant labels. Old food jars can be refilled with homemade foods or can make great impromptu vases.

Use environmentally friendly products.
When you go to the grocery store, you probably see more and more 'natural' or 'eco-friendly' products every time. There are generally two big problems with these products:
1) Just because they’re more natural than regular products, doesn’t mean they’re entirely natural.
2) They’re often expensive.

If you want inexpensive, natural, safe products, why not just make them yourself. Vinegar is a great way to clean and disinfect glass and other surfaces. Need to remove stubborn stains? Just add some baking soda to your vinegar cleaner. Some quick searching online will lead you to hundreds of other natural safe home-made cleaning products.

We all knowing that going green means better for the environment, but it’s also better for you. Conserving resources also helps save you money, which is something all of us need to do in these uncertain times.

A couple of healthy eating pitfalls.

Green Britain Day - 2 days to go!

In one of my earlier posts I briefly mentioned the on-going food-labelling saga, and how food companies are making their products appear to be healthier for you than they actually are, simply by manipulating the way in which you are presented with the information about them....

Here's a quick question for you;

Which is a healthier option for lunch - A supermarket-bought salad sandwich, or a 'Big-Mac'?

Like most people, you probably chose the salad sandwich - but it's not necessarily the case, as this newspaper article shows;

Salad Sandwich or BigMac?

A few years ago I bought a chicken salad sandwich from a local supermarket's so- called 'Healthy Eating' range. Now unlike the example in quoted in the article above, this one contained no mayonnaise, or other sauces. But I was horrifed when I looked at the list of ingredients - it read like a chemist's lab inventory!

'Healthy Eating'??......I don't think so!!

Unfortunately, by the time I got round to reading the ingredients, I'd already eaten the sandwich, so I couldn't take it back.

So, learn from my mistake - check the ingredients BEFORE you buy pre-packaged sandwiches or better still - make your own, then you know exactly what's in them! ( And if you've grown your own salad for your sandwiches - even better! )

As a general guide, the fewer additives there are in your food, the greener they are.

Green Britain - Green Eating.

3 days to go - Green Britain Day 10th July 2009!

Another simple way of minimsing your impact on the environment is by watching what you eat.

Where you buy your food from can make a huge difference to the environment. For instant, when you buy from a supermarket, the food has had to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to get to you! (Think of all those transport fumes polluting the air! Urgh!!)

Here is my simple set of guidelines to ensure you eat well, while still doing your bit to be green;

1) Don't buy imported foodstuffs if there are alternatives available in your own country. Imported foodstuffs have the largest harmful impact on the environment because of the enormous distance they have to travel. Also, by not buying imported food, there is an economic benefit to your country!

2) Even ensuring that you only buy foodstuffs produced in your own country is not enough. Even then, some products may still have travelled hundreds of miles to get to your dinner-plate. So, where possible, buy from local farmers markets and other local producers. The distances involved may then only be a few miles - much better for the environment! It goes without saying that whatever you buy should also be certified organic, to ensure no harmful chemicals were involved in the food production.
There's another great reason for buying from a farmers market - farmers are having a tough time, what with the recession and everything, but mostly because the big supermarkets are squeezing the prices they pay to farmers. By buying direct from the farmers, there's no middleman taking his cut, so you're helping your local economy stay prosperous, without spending any more money!

3) The best way of all is to grow your own food - that way the harmful impact on the environment is reduced to zero! And of course, your own costs are reduced to practically zero!
Now, in reality, even the greenest of us can't practically grow all our own food - but we can all be more selective about what we buy and where we buy it from.


To sum up -
1) Grow your own food if you can - if you can't, then buy local produce.
2) If you can't buy local produce, then buy products made in your country from the supermarkets.
3) And ONLY if you can't buy an equivalent product made in your country, should you buy imported food.

That way, you're being as green as you can be, when buying your food!

Green Britain Day - 10th July 2009

Do your bit for your wallet and your planet!

I know - you're sick of being preached at to save energy, recycle, and generally live more efficiently! So am I! The information put out by governments and big business is usually bland and not very productive.

I thought I'd redress that imbalance by giving you some information that you can actually USE - TODAY - NOW!

Without further ado - here are my first few tips;

1) I know the growing season is moving swiftly along, but there's still time to plant plenty of foodie-things in the garden - You can still plant peas or beans for a late crop, or how about some green salad items like Pak Choi, rocket, or bean-sprouts. You can't get fresher - and you'll know there's no chemicals involved!

2) Instead of using local authority recycling bins - why not re-use as much as you can yourself?
( And who know's what happens to stuff that goes in them? Besides, the local authority usually makes & saves money from the stuff you throw away - so why shouldn't you? )
Here's a few ways;
a) Empty plastic bottles make great mini greenhouses or cloches for seedlings etc - just cut the bottoms off and cover the seedlings! ( For ventilation during the day, unscrew the cap - to protect them at night, put the cap back on! )
b) Invest in a paper-brick maker - then you can reuse your old newspapers and the like - use them for a barbeque! Old newspapers can also be used to make papier-mache - in the 1800's lots of items were made from papier mache - but it's very much a lost art now, as palstics have become the norm. Why not revive this art? The items made will be fully bio-degradable - unlike most modern plastics.
c) Talking of plastics - food-trays can be re-used as seed-trays! Just thoroughly wash, fill with compost, add the seeds and water. Quick, easy, and cheap! And related to the item above - if you make papier-mache seed trays, you can then plant the whole seed-tray directly in the ground where, as the seeds grow, the tray will decompose, adding nutrients to the soil! ( and you can cover the seedlings with the plastic bottles! )
d) Old clothes which are not fit to go to charity shops can be cut up and made into dusters, or sheets for a pets bedding etc.

3) Turn your heating / air conditioning down! These are wasteful of energy and very expensive - as we all discover when we see our energy bills! In the modern world, we have become soft - we have been conditioned to central-heating etc. Most households have the heating up way too high - so turn it down by one or two degrees. No-one will notice if it's done gradually - they'll get used to it, and you'll save about £2 a week on your heating bill!

4) For a free ebook on being green & saving money click on this link; Go Green - Save Green - it's usually £1.00 but free when you click from here ( that's the 'nice surprise' mentioned! )

Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts!