Our carbon footprint?

[PeverilPeril 3,285]

Do we think about our carbon footprint? If so, do we try to reduce it?

Must confess, mine is not that good...

 

Discuss...

[philmayfield 6,180]

I don't have a carbon footprint, I drive everywhere. That's the stock answer!

[philmayfield 6,180]

To be less glib:

We drive Euro 6 diesels - less CO2 than petrol

We don’t fly abroad for holidays

We don’t have an open fire or a wood burner 

We recycle

I wear clothes until they are worn out!

 

[Cliff Ton 10,475]

I think my footprint is fairly low/small.

 

One car, which is 1.3 petrol. 

 

Not much long-distance travel by any other means.

 

One average-sized property.

 

And I’m not a Bitcoin Miner.

[Brew 5,422]

3 hours ago, PeverilPeril said:

Do we think about our carbon footprint? If so, do we try to reduce it?

Must confess, mine is not that good...

 

Discuss...

 

It's not something I think about really.

In my youth when carbon footprints were not even a thing I drove ridiculous cars and motorcycles at ridiculous speeds and generally hooned around without a care in the world..

As an adult my pastimes/hobbies usually involved motive power of some description and two or three flights to somewhere warm. We had coal fires and never gave a thought to recycling.

Now we make much use of home deliveries so there is almost no reason to go anywhere to the point it bothers me that I don't get out much. The house is well insulated, the boiler A rated etc. We do indulge ourselves by having a car each, which quite frankly is not rally necessary, but even so we do so little milage I imagine  our carbon footprint is no more than average.

[denshaw 2,872]

We have got solar panels and an electric car, this is cheap to run but the outlay is more expensive. We have also had an air source pump installed recently so not sure on running costs yet. Our bills are quite low especially in summer. No more gas bills so hope this is lowering our footprint.

[Brew 5,422]

41 minutes ago, denshaw said:

We have also had an air source pump installed recently so not sure on running costs yet

 

When it's settled down I'd be really interested to read of your real life experience rather than the sometimes pie in the sky adverts...

[mary1947 2,086]

denshaw     did we not return our pop bottles for cleaning and refilling? if you had bread or milk from CO_OP deliverd  was by an electric float. Did we not use cotton and wool for clothes?  before nylon came out if you had a garden when younger we must all have had our 5 a day. Not for getting the tin bath that came up from the cellar once a week. kids in first then mum =last dad.  went shopping paid 4d for paper carrier which lasted about 6 months, had to walk to school no car then.  

Sorry denshaw could not help it don't take it to heart your doing a grand job.

[PeverilPeril 3,285]

In the old days we didn't have any choice about food packaging and distribution. Nowadays it's all about freedom of choice and we tend, naturally to go for the most convenient and best value (note, I didjou

n't say cheapest).

 

I have a large carbon footprint but trying to reduce it. We have shut off the front half of our house. Radiators off and doors kept closed.

My old 4x4 is thirsty but I've reduced the mileage quite a bit. I need a 4x4 for the environment work I do, as well as for fishing.

The occasional long trips are in Mrs PP's little Renault 1.3 petrol.

We don't fly anymore, which helps.

During over 20 years of my working life I benefitted by helping produce single use plastics. When I look back at the billions (literally) of single use plastic components that my product helped to produce I feel a pang of shame. Oz will know what I'm referring to when I say that my speciality was hot runner control.

[MargieH 7,610]

@PeverilPeril you speak of a ‘pang of shame’ when thinking of your involvement with single use plastics.

I expect we all feel shame or guilt about some things we’ve done in our lives, whether unconsciously (as in your case) or deliberately….. 

Some things we can put right, perhaps by apologising to someone and healing a relationship, but sadly, other things can’t be put right, however much we wish they could be.
All we can do then is to ‘turn over the page’ and try not to make the same mistakes in the future chapters of our life.  You and others on here are certainly thinking about their impact on the planet, trying to reduce their carbon footprint and to improve the environment generally.  The trouble is, humans are by nature selfish and greedy and have to make some uncomfortable choices if they really want to improve life for future generations.

Thank you for introducing this topic x

[Beekay 5,172]

I drive a 1.2lt, three cylinder petrol engine car. Only drive a out 1200 miles a year, including one journey to Nottingham.

Would,nt have an electric car as a gift.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I recall Mrs Barnes, our art mistress at Manning, having an obsession with plastic carrier bags. This was back in 1969. She used to regale us with tales of going shopping with a large cardboard box in which to put her purchases. In those days, supermarkets handed out free plastic carrier bags by the dozen but she was having none of it. Apart from not liking plastic, she had a bugbear about being used as a walking advertisement for the supermarket because their name was printed on the bags.

 

"Don't use carrier bags, girls!" she exhorted. "Find a cardboard box to put your shopping in."

 

We thought she was off her shopping trolley at the time but perhaps she was just exercising a little more foresight than most people in those days.

[mary1947 2,086]

How many of us go shopping and after putting it all away end up with a very large pile of plastic / paper/ trays/ect   is it not time for someone with some brain's looked at this?

[Brew 5,422]

2 hours ago, mary1947 said:

How many of us go shopping and after putting it all away end up with a very large pile of plastic / paper/ trays/ect   is it not time for someone with some brain's looked at this?

 We could go back to Bens heyday with butter cut from a barrel, bacon sold by slices sugar weighed while you wait, all served on a sheet of greaseproof paper, and is there anything else madam?

It would bring down plastic use at a stroke, improve our balance of payments and help unemployment figures - but are we prepared to pay for it?   

[MargieH 7,610]

We still can get bacon sliced in our village butcher’s (but it then gets put into a plastic bag so not that much better than in a supermarket!  I do have a long storage container specially for bacon rashers so I suppose I could take that to the shop to bypass the plastic bag  

[Beekay 5,172]

What,s the storage container made of?

[MargieH 7,610]

@Beekay  it’s made of rigid plastic BUT it’s not single use plastic - it’s reusable and will last for years and years.

[Beekay 5,172]

  Bit like the owd Tupperware eh ! If you've got it, might as well use it.

[mary1947 2,086]

MargieH     Is it dishwasher poof?

[MargieH 7,610]

3 hours ago, mary1947 said:

MargieH     Is it dishwasher poof?

yes it is

[Alpha 176]

MargieH

 

Nice to see that you are able to source sliced bacon. If we had bacon sliced at the counter I would certainly buy it, though Morrison's bacon is not too bad.

Our ex-Waitrose was probably the best.

[philmayfield 6,180]

Our grocer sat on his bacon slicer and got behind with his orders.

[Brew 5,422]

6 hours ago, mary1947 said:

MargieH     Is it dishwasher poof?

With less water, less electricity and cheaper detergent plus dishwasher tablets contain bleach and enzymes; are dishwashers environmentally friendly or is it better to wash by hand?  ..................  and yes we have one...

[PeverilPeril 3,285]

There isn't much we do in modern living that does not have an adverse effect on the natural environment. 

I was only talking today about some test results from the lab and for the possible reasons for the lack of invertebrates in one of our rivers. The samples were taken upstream of a known pollution area (farm slurry) and this is really worrying. It was a similar result that used to show where sheep dipping took place but this is not sheep country and that particular sheep dip has been banned for a long time. There was no obvious suspects however my scientist friend said that it could be the result of something as simple as dogs taking a swim after being treated for flees!! Apparently the chemical used in flee treatment is 1000 x more toxic than the banned sheep dip stuff. A public footpath runs alongside this river and is popular with dog walkers. There is so much that we don't know....

[mary1947 2,086]

Your so right PP so, as we are (well most of us) all getting on in life I don't think we can do much about it

 

So just smile be-happy