When I declined a straw recently in a cafe, the waitress was very proud to tell me she no longer used plastic straws at home as she’d gone ahead and bought herself some stainless steel ones. ‘I’m doing my bit for the planet’ she said. Of course it’s great she’s stopped buying that single use plastic, but I was burning to say to her - if you don’t need to use a straw, don’t be fooled into buying more stuff that will have had an impact on our environment when it was manufactured and sold in the first place. (I didn’t, I was a chicken.)

Going without isn’t the story we’re being sold. We are still being hounded by messages to ‘buy more stuff’, only now it’s shrouded in the ‘buy better because it’s eco’ marketing. This list isn’t one of them. Instead, it’s about being mindful of where we create waste at home and what we can do to lessen our impact on the planet - all of which are ridiculously simple.

1. Say no to unsolicited junk mail
   Did you know you don’t have to accept all that junk mail falling through your letterbox? Either request a form from Royal Mail, or download it here. (yes, they are literally making more work for themselves by asking you to pop it in the post!) Be mindful, your opt out only lasts two years (!) so you have to send another form to remain opted out. You can also register with the Direct Marketing Association’s ‘Your choice’ scheme to refuse further unsolicited mail, or go to the MPS to opt out online.

2. Put a lid on your saucepans

   Think of it like putting the heating on whilst you open a window. You probably wouldn’t. It’s just the same when you use a saucepan without a lid. Using a lid helps maintain a constant temperature, so you won’t have to use as much gas or electricity to maintain that boiling point (or inadvertantly heat your kitchen).

3. Save your peelings

   If you’re not composting, or have a council kitchen waste scheme, you’ll be sending them straight to landfill. Landfill sites are so overcrowded that waste has to anaerobically degrade, which takes much longer than whenoxygen can circulate easily. But there are so many things vegetable peelings can be used for - making your own stock, baking cakes, making soup and so on. I keep a bag in my freezer and chuck all my peelings straight in there until I’m ready to make use of them. That way they stay fresh, and your bin doesn’t start stinking of rotting vegetables after a couple of days. If you have more scraps than you need, why not give Share Waste a holler. You might find someone down the road with a compost bin who’d be happy to take it off your hands.

4. Keep your freezer full

   As annoying as it can be playing freezer tetris, a full freezer uses less energy to maintain its temperature. A freezer works hardest bringing its contents down to the desired temperature. When it’s already done that bit of hard work, all it’s doing is maintaining the air temperature circulating around what are essentially large blocks of ice. I often chuck bottles of water or make ice cubes in mine if I know it’s going to be sparse for a while.

5. Have an ‘eat me first’ box in your fridge
   Roughly 1.3 billion tonnes of food gets lost or wasted every year.* That figure disgusts me. I have a box in my fridge labelled ‘eat me first’. I got the idea from the brilliant documentary film Just Eat It (everyone should watch this.) I’ll usually go through the fridge every couple of days and pop anything in there that I know might go off if I don’t use it up soon. When I’m going to start prepping a meal, or feeling peckish, I’ll open the fridge and rummage in there first. So simple!

6. Don’t preheat your oven
   Most of us aren’t on the Bake Off. We’re not cooking elaborate meals that require precise cooking temperatures so we can plate up at an exact time. Preheating your oven wastes so much energy that for the majority of us, isn’t actually necessary. Pop your food in and turn the oven on so your food can start baking as it gets up to temperature. If you rely on cooking times on packets and recipes, it’ll take a little bit of getting used to at first, but if you’re a basic home cook like me, I promise you it really is easy to adjust to this less wasteful way of cooking.

7. Use cloth wipes (and handkerchiefs)

   It’s frustrating that something that was once common place in our homes now seems to be banished to the ‘bygone era.’ It was only in the mid twentieth century that handkerchiefs fell out of favour. Funnily enough, this was around the same time as disposable (plastic) baby wipes were invented. I understand that carrying cloth wipes out and about is a challenge, but at home they are so ridiculously easy. I have an old lunch box that I keep next to my kettle so every morning, as I’m making my coffee, I pour some of the boiling water over a stack of bamboo Cheeky Wipe cloth wipes. (I shake a couple of drops of tea tree oil on them when I’m feeling fancy.) Voila, I have a whole fresh pack ready for the day. When I’ve used them, they get thrown in a plastic bucket next to my washing machine and I simply stick them (and my hankies) in with my next wash.

8. Repair your clothes

   It’s estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes to landfill every year.** Much of which is like new or simply in need of some TLC. We are very lucky to have our very own video encyclopedia on hand 24/7. Love it or blame it for our loss of DIY skills, we need to make more use of it than watching cute animal clips on repeat. I’m lucky, I’ve grown up in a family of dressmakers, but when a friend told me recently he didn’t know how to sew on a button I was surprised. I take my sewing knowledge for granted. I gave him a spare matchstick and a needle and thread and suddenly the shirt he was going to chuck was like new. We need to (re)learn to repair our clothes. And if you can’t do it yourself, then take it to someone who can. I’m waiting for my village cobbler to put a new zip in my Gabor leather boots as we speak, for just £23. The boots were £130 four years ago (gulp) and still fit like a dream. I polish and rewaterproof them every autumn and spring. The motto on his shop door reads ‘if your shoes are good enough to wear, they’re good enough to repair.’ Hear, hear.

9. Measure quantities properly

   I was originally only going to talk about cleaning products here, but realistically it applies to food too. When I stopped just chucking laundry detergent in my washer drawer ‘by eye’ I started saving myself a fortune. I started saving my clothes too. Liquid detergents and fabric conditioners leave a coating on your clothes that make them soft. Over time, this build up can destroy both natural and manmade fibres, wrecking your clothes. These companies don’t include a measure for nothing; they’ve done test after test after test to gauge the right amount to ensure their products work the most effectively. They don’t want you to switch to their competitor because it’s not doing its job properly. Use the measure. Even try using less than the packaging states. If you do this with food too, you’ll be doing your bit tackling food waste as well.

10. Reduce your online shopping
    I’m not an avid shopper. But with two young children, it became way easier to go online and hit ‘buy’ than go to the shops. I’m not disabled, online shopping for me is pure convenience. So I set myself a challenge. In January, I uninstalled all shopping apps from my phone. I created a list in my notes every time I wanted to buy something online, with the link and the date. It revolutionsed how I shopped online. It also meant my bin wasn’t overflowing with cardboard or bubblewrap every month. It was eye opening to see what were obvious ‘impulse’ buys and what I truly needed - those things that drove me to the shops. However, I’ve deliberately said ‘reduce’ and not ‘stop’ because there are times where it has been necessary for me to buy online. I don’t have any bulk shops locally, so I do my bulk shopping online, but it also made me more mindful of the huge range of independent shops we can support with our online spending too. Try it and tell me how long you last before you reinstall an app!

    *Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/ 05/10/2019
    **Source The Waste and Resources Action Programme http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/clothing-waste-prevention 06/10/2019

And because you’ve scrolled all the way to the bottom, here’s one extra tip for you:

Use a smart plug
The reason this isn’t included in my list of ten is because you have to buy something else in order to be less wasteful. I don’t condone buying more stuff to manage the stuff you already have, but smart plugs have revolutionsed my energy consumption. We use them for all our electricals that either we don’t need to use at night or on holiday, or which we can’t reach the plug sockets easily (ie they’re behind the washer and dryer / big furniture/in cupboards etc). You can control them from your phone or set a timer so your gadgets come back on automatically for you when you need them. They really help us to ensure we’re not leaving electricals on idle or standby unnecessarily. They do draw a small current when they're in standby mode, but it's a very small amount of energy and much better than leaving multiple devices using energy they don’t need. A win in my eyes.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please do share it and leave me any comments below, I find it heartwarming to hear from so many like-minded individuals.

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