5 things I have done today to help the planet... [Day 001 - 15 May '19]
Following on from my post yesterday about getting back into environmental campaigning I thought it best to start at ground zero.
Me, my family, my home. What can we do here, now, today that will make a little bit of difference.
It may just be a little bit, but a lot of little bits can make a big bit.
So I'm setting myself a challenge. Every day. To do five things that are 'planet positive'.
Here goes...
1. 100% Recycled Toilet Rolls
I thought I would start at the bottom and work up.
It may not seem like much, but we all use toilet paper every day in every way.
Today we switched to Renova 100% recycled toilet rolls.
There are plenty of recycled toilet rolls on the market but this one is available readily in bulk on eBay or even better from the new Good Club - both at a pretty good unit price of 26p (USD 0.33).
2. Electric Car
We are very keen now to switch to an electric car.
The ranges are getting better and the number of charging stations increasing - even in rural Wales.
We are looking at cars from Nissan, Renault and Hyundai at present as they have dealers within a couple of hours from us.
Today I called the Hyundai dealer in Aberystwyth to see if they have any electric cars available to view.
Hyundai have two fully electric models - the IONIQ Electric and the KONA Electric.
The dealer has the IONIQ in stock so we are going to take a look and test drive on Saturday. The KONA has a waiting list until next January - it must be popular!
3. Furniture Giveaway
Over the years we have collected a lot of furniture. We have too much - and are now trying to downsize.
Today we gave away two office chairs and two beanbags to a young couple just setting up home nearby.
Saves them buying, saves us taking to the tip. Saves the planet providing more precious resources.
We still have more to giveway - Freecycle here we come...
4. Ethical Consumer Magazine
Ethical Consumer is a great magazine that gives the low-down on the environmental and ethical performance of companies to help you decide who to buy from. They cover all manner of consumer products and services.
The latest edition includes guides on supermarkets, cat & dog food, cooking oil and paint. Coming up in future editions they will be covering toilet paper, nappies, over-the-counter medicines, laptops, toothpaste, email providers and makeup.
The magazine has been running since 1989. I let my subscription lapse some years back.
Today I re-subscribed. It costs £29.95 for six issues a year - available in both print and digital editions.
How we spend our money and what companies we buy from really is one of our most powerful personal campaigning tools. Be informed, spend wisely, help the planet.
5. Donation to the Centre for Alternative Technology
If I can manage it I am going to try give a small donation to an environmental charity or campaigning organisation every day.
This will be funded as far as possible from what I earn on these daily posts.
Today I donated £10 to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, north Wales.
CAT has a very special place in my life. It really is where it all started for me way back in 1974.
If you dig back in my posts you will find at least part of the story. It's as important as penguins.
This is my first 'five for the planet'.
If you fancy joining in this challenge I would love to hear from you.
Maybe we will even need a hashtag...
[ lead image from pixabay.com // other images by @pennsif ]
Let's talk please because I'm currently brainstorming and experimenting SEVEN77Plus Challenge (SEVEN Comments for 777 Days) and I'm sure there is a strong possibility collaboration
Hi Nathan. Message me on Discord. Let's see what we can come up with...
Wow - nice list of actions!
Coincidentally I also just subscribed to EC this week - great magazine - mainly interested in their corporate monitoring.
Feel like this has some kind of clean planet dev potential.
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It will be interesting to see how long I can sustain it and if anyone joins in the challenge...
Gonna buy a Tesla soon?
That's on the list for when STEEM reaches $10...
Interesting idea. I think all of us should give this some thought and see what surprising and easy things we may be able to do to help the planet.
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Join the challenge!
Lovely! These are not little like you pointed out from the beginning, you’re already doing a lot to help our one and only planet safe!
Keep it up especially donating to the environmental charity or campaigning organization.
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Thank you. Feel free to join in.
I did some investigation into electric vehicles and recently wrote a post on that. It's still very early days and hopefully things will improve, but at the moment there doesn't seem to be a big environmental improvement for them, due to production methods having such a high carbon footprint. Mostly it's the battery, as you'd expect, but they are working at improving it. The carbon battery is looking promising. It's still early days for me to even consider it, because we're not in the position to buy new and not at the point of having much of a second hand market for them.
Some good ideas here. I'll have to think on things more. I've made lots of changes over the years and am always looking to see if I can make more.
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There are many articles about the comparative impacts of electric v petrol cars, with many differing views on the topic. I would hazard a guess the oil industry will not be adverse to funding some of the less 'electric-positive' ones...
Electric car battery technology is improving at a rapid rate.
And of course I can generate my own electricity with solar PV - but I can't produce my own oil.
In the meantime we will be switching to one of the renewable electricity suppliers in the UK like Ecotricity.
I didn't read any articles which were completely negative about them, although I'm sure there are some. They all concluded that improvements are being made and that technology should improve things as we inevitably advance. As we move over to renewable energy, then we won't even have to consider that footprint for them. Now we just need to see dual carbon batteries for them, so they are more easily recycled and less toxic.
I'd love to hear how you go if you try any out.
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Battery technology advances are going to be key to the speed of adoption of electric cars.
Here is the review of the first electric car test drive...
"starting from the bottom up" hhahahaha come on!!!! that got a little chuckle out of me! LOL
excellent work :)
Thank you.
You're welcome! Gave a little shout-out to you on our Monkee video today! Telling our 10 subscribers...(😂😂😂😂) How you're inspiring us and making us think
I didn't get to your post today yet...because I'm running on E.
But will tomorrow 😄
Just been watching your video. Thank you for the mention.
Yeah!!!! Thank you for your inspiration! 😊
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