How to be greener at home

We are in a climate emergency. We are seeing protests and troubling statistics on a daily basis. What should be rare or extreme weather events are happening more and more and causing fires in Australia or floods in the UK.

We need to stop looking on in panic or despair and start doing something positive. Yes, we need to stop using fossil fuels, yes we need to stop fracking. But most of us can’t spend weeks or months at a camp or take a day off work for a protest. We have jobs and families.

So, how do we make our impact felt? Well, to quote a well-known supermarket, every little helps, and by this I mean we need to rethink the small decisions we make at home.

Here are some suggestions for how you can be greener at home:

Clothes

The UK is one of the worlds biggest purchasers of clothes, and we are encouraged to recycle our old clothes. But do you know where they go? In Penny Marshall’s report for ITN news, she revealed how containers full of old clothes from the UK are sent to Ghana, Africa. Ghana does has a large second hand clothes economy, but what they are receiving from us now is extremely worrying.

The problem is the quantity of clothes we are sending and the quality of the clothes.

We are exporting far too much to Ghana. There is so much that their waste system is at breaking point. Yes, they want our recycled clothes but they don’t want loads of poor quality clothes.

Our fast fashion items are cheap because they are poor quality, which means they aren't designed to last and can’t be reused. There is no market for them, and they end up in landfill in Ghana or even in the ocean.

So, the moral here is to buy less clothes, and when you do make a purchase, buy the best quality you can afford. Do you really need a single use T-shirt for a festival? So what if you have worn that outfit before? If it’s okay for Jane Fonda at the Oscars then we can all do it.

Grow your own

If you have access to a garden, allotment or even a window box, think about using that space to grow something that you will eat or use. Growing fruit and vegetables goes without saying. It cuts down your food miles and your food bills.

If you have a larger space, you could plant trees or set aside an area of wilderness, where you leave it unkempt, with logs, twigs and other vegetation to encourage bugs and insects. These crucial pollinators need our help if we are to turn things around.

There are other useful items that you can grow. How about a loofah to clean the dishes? At Knightshayes court in Devon, they are doing just that.

Loofahs are grown from the luffa plant and are similar to growing courgettes. The plants are easy to grow, sown in April but will need support as they climb. The loofahs are then harvested and dried for use.

Groceries

When doing your weekly shop, think about what the products are packaged in and, so long as you can afford to, buy items that are packaged in easy to recycle materials, such as cardboard, glass or aluminium. Steer clear of plastic as much as you can.

Once you have eaten or used the product, ask yourself, “can I reuse this packaging?”. For instance, by keeping a selection of old jam jars, you could use them for overnight oats, packed lunches for work, keeping leftovers in from last night’s dinner or maybe just cleaning paint brushes.

Some products are now available from what I can only describe as refill stations. Found in ethical or health food shops, you can take in an empty bottle and buy milk, washing up liquid or fabric softener.

If you drink milk and can’t find a local refill station or Milk Kiosk near you, try looking for a local milkman. They can be hard to find, but if we vote with our feet the milkman and the environment might thank us for it.

Bars of soap, shampoo and even conditioner are available, just try to go for something with as little packaging as possible. Make sure you get yourself a good soap dish so the bar doesn’t sit in water and go soft!

Storage

Since the 5p carrier bag tax was bought in, we have dramatically cut our use of plastic bags, but can we do more? I buy meat from my local butcher, but by freezing it in portions I was using a single-use freezer bag for each portion.

It may sound counter-intuitive to buy what feels like more plastic, but I am testing reusable silicone food and freezer bags, and it’s going so well I’m thinking of buying some more once all of my single-use bags run out.

We touched on reusing packaging earlier with jam jars, but there are other things you can do. Reuse sweet or biscuit tins for storing buttons, crayons, screws or nuts and bolts. They also make good cake tins if you’re into baking.

Glass bottles and jars will also be useful if you do manage to use a local refill station. Some sell dried goods like rice, pasta, pulses, nuts and dried fruit. As shops like this appear we should do our best to use them, or they will close.

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The climate emergency didn’t happen overnight, it is a culmination of lots of decisions we have made in what we buy and who we buy it from over the last 20, 30 or 40 years.

The good news is that by using some of today’s technology and some old tricks from our grandparents we can start to undo the damage and send a message to producers and manufacturers, that we want something different from them.