Natural Progression

I love being nosey at what people do. Their bookshelves, shopping trolley and their lunch. I also like looking at their lists. So here is one of mine. I’m listing things that are part of working towards a less wasteful lifestyle.

What we always did:

• We have bought our fresh supermarket produce loose in the trolley for years! Entertaining watching the checkout person pyramid our apples on the scales, but no one ever comments.
• Recycled whatever the council would take, including us taking bigger items to the centre.
• Giving used things that still had a good life span to charity shops
• Composting our food waste
• Growing: including some vegetables, fruit and herbs
• We have a very long, very narrow garden with apple trees, damsons and plum, and planted a cherry tree and blueberry bush, and many, many herbs. We also have gooseberry bushes, raspberry, and blackcurrant.
• We try to work to permaculture principles
• We try to develop skills and think in a circular economy way
• Wine making (He makes the wine. I drink it)
• Wearing things until they are too scruffy to wear out, then they become bedclothes, decorating and gardening clothes, or go in the recycling.
• Cycling and waking to work and the shops whenever we can
• Keeping chickens (animal welfare, no transport of eggs)
• A low meat diet, and the OH is vegetarian. We have a lot of vegan meals too
• Sharing resources with friends and neighbours; plants, produce, clothes swaps etc.
• Borrowing tools and lending them rather than buying new
• Almost all I wear comes from charity shops.
• Most books, kitchen ware and, well, stuff, also comes from charity shops
• Volunteering practical skills and labour now and again on eco-projects in the area
• I hardly wear makeup anyway, and buy very few, simple toiletries
• Haven’t used menstrual products for years, just Mooncup
• Wear shoes out until they have holes in, and not collect them (I have enough for each type of activity, plus a couple of pretties).
• I don’t wash my hair every day.
• Use bar soap, what is with shower gel?
• We don’t have a T.V. and I haven’t for about 12 years. My BF still watches stuff online but it’s getting less and less.
• There are a host of appliances that a ‘typical’ household has that we don’t, like a dishwasher.
• Our electricity supplier is an environmental one. We don’t have gas but we use coal: our entire house is heated from a coal burning stove (we live in a Miner’s cottage that has changed little over time)
• I have only ever been on 6 plane journeys (three trips) but BF likes to travel. We holiday mostly at home and camping, hostelling or volunteering
• We compost all our food waste
• I keep old clothes for fabrics (but never end up making anything)
• My friends do regular swap nights for clothes and jewellery
• I have an annual swap night for seeds, and later one for plants
• I use only ‘eco-friendly’ hair products and cleaning products
• We make most of our food from scratch, but cheat with ready sauces and pizza
• We rarely do activities that cost money or resources: lots of walks, creative activities, play and learning. But we do use the car to get about quite a bit!

Things we are changing now:

• The biggest thing that crosses my mind is ‘well they used to be able to do this before plastics!’ so I am looking to the past for inspiration as much as new methods and technologies: wartime make do and mend and medieval recipes! Whatever you can think of.
• Last month I spent a small fortune of discount mason jars for dried foods
• Bulk buy loose product sin wholefoods, meat and dairy from ‘local’ shops (although they are miles from us) and bulk purchase online
• Spent £10 on fabrics and made produce bags with a borrowed sewing machine
• We organised our shopping time, gear and route
• We found out where we can get fish straight to our plastic lunch box, no packaging
• I now have a metal fountain pen, which I felt guilty about until a biro stopped working with loads of ink still in it. Again.
• I have a bamboo coffee cup
• Made wax wraps from fabric stash
• Stopped using hair serum and started using glass bottled oil. Much cheaper.
• Replaced cereal (from box with plastic bag) or toast with butter sachets (plastic) with yogurt, fruit and seeds, packed in glass jar to work. I just can’t eat breakfast that early to have at home.
• Lunch goes in my synthetic insulated bag with cool pack; oatcakes and peanut butter in a small jar, or sandwich in a homemade beeswax wrap. This is instead of buying sandwiches in a box or using Clingfilm
• Keep a notebook in my bag on places I have seen things to buy like bicarb etc. And to write down ideas.
• Just ordered from Who Gives A Crap? 48 loo rolls that work out just as cheap as supermarket own per 100 sheets (and cheaper than brands). Will have to empty a cupboard!
• Made a standing order with milk delivery service. If I make yogurt from part of the weekly order instead of buying it in 500ml plastic tubs then it works out the same as our usual milk/yogurt purchases price wise.
• Made yogurt to see if it was easy enough. It was
• Made oat milk to see if it was easy enough. It was!
• Bought loose tea from OH’s friend who bulk orders.
• Have jars ready for the herbs in the garden to become dried herbal tea
• Made a huge list of all the things we will replace over the next year, like the odd light bulb, and a list of packaging free and more environmentally responsible alternatives at the ready.
• We bulk buy dried foods now
• Have been playing with homemade cosmetics and cleaning products; getting the recipes balance right for when I run out of the regular stuff
• Bought a bamboo toothbrush.
• Stuck a “no junk mail please” sign on the door. It is (mostly) working
• When the Britta water filter was expended I bought a kilner jar water dispenser and an activated charcoal filter
• I still have petrochemical based tealights to use up, but have switched to beeswax/beeswax and rapeseed candles.
• Stopped buying sponge scourers in the kitchen. We have brushes and cloths
• I signed up to the Royal mail opt-out service to ensure that named and address ‘junk’ mail does not get delivered to me
• No more microfibre cleaning cloths – from now on I will add cotton face cloths and dusters to my cleaning gear
• We have started using the local fruit and vegetable stall in the next town (our village is close to a big supermarket that saw off most of the local businesses) and the bakery up the road.
• Getting creative with leftovers – we always did, but much more now we can’t just pop to the plastic supermarket

Things I plan to do:

• Buy only natural material clothes/fabrics, new or from charity shop (this is more about feeling good rather than waste saving, as second hand is second hand)
• Get silk dental floss
• Get a kleen kanteen
• I will need prescription sunglasses this year for driving (when I have learned), so I plan to have shaded lenses put in my current plastic frames, and buy new metal rims for my regular prescription glasses.
• Learn to sew better; good enough to alter clothes and mend them properly.
• If I am any good at that, buy a sewing machine (second hand)
• Get current shoes re-soled when they are worn through
• See who will sell us meat and cheese in our own containers
• My lunchtime cool bag is wearing thin – I plan to make one using wool as insulation.
• Make liquid soap from bar soap; keeps visitors happy. I have a dispenser already
• I have made tooth powder…will see how that goes
• I accidentally made whey when trying to make yogurt, and nearly made cheese. I want to learn how to make cheese, butter and what to do with the whey afterwards (there are lots of things, I just need to try them)
• finish making make-up and cleaning products
• Get a lightweight bamboo set: knife, fork and spoon and make a bag to keep them in, so I don’t use disposables.
• Make oat cakes – when the bought ones run out, I need a non-plastic packed option
• Regularly make and keep biscuit dough, pastry and pizza dough in the freezer
• Kombucha making! I love it! Now to make it! This will replace my now renounced fizzy water in large bottles habit – my dirty little secret.
• More permaculture, circular economy and skills building efforts

Things I still need to source ready for when they eventually need replacing:

• Affordable non-synthetic flip-flops or make some, somehow
• Eco-friendly walking boots
• Can you buy tea lights with no metal holder? I know they melt, but I could place them in a ceramic holder…if only I could find them without the metal holder. I need them for the essential oil burner
• Safety razor
• Rubber gloves?
• Source high quality renal cat food not in plastic sachets
• Chicken feed in non-plastic sacks
• Coal (our only heat fuel) in non-plastic sacks (we can’t afford to put a tank in for oil and there is no gas supply to the village)

There are plenty of other things that could be added to the list of things you could have environmentally friendly options for, but we already have plastic items that will last quite well in the meantime. Change as we go.