Carbon Credit Collector

Final week blog.

A reflection on the month of Eco-my-flat finds that we have managed to:
•    cut .41units of power each day from our power bill,
•    reduce chemicals in our cleaning – only the dish liquid left to go,
•    Turn the vast majority of ‘waste’ water from our house into grey water friendly.
•    ‘double glaze’ a large south facing window,
•    replace all our light bulbs with eco lights,
•    discover the ease of home made pasta
•    strengthen bartering ties with neighbours and a wider circle of friends
•    start saving seedling starter pottles for next spring
•    get lots of praise for shared home baking
•    join ‘spoke’ for cycle advocacy
•    Save water from the shower for the washing machine

I have been using a little baking soda to wash my hair, rinsing with vinegar (it doesn’t smell like vinegar!) and so have finally eliminated chemicals from my personal cleaning (previous to this I used eco-store soaps and apricot oil for moisturiser, and I don’t wear make up)
We have been using soap nuts in the washing machine, along with a little baking soda, and this has been working really well. It is quite satisfying to think that although we aren’t set up to collect and reuse the grey water from the washing machine, we aren’t adding to the cacophony of chemicals going down the drain.

This week I hoped to have given away and/or bottled the last of the courgettes, but unfortunately (or fortunately!) on today’s inspection of the garden the two plants were once again being industrious. The beans that I thought were all over coughed up a few more and the tomatoes are chugging along, every warm day seems to ripen another tonne. We still have beautiful sweet pea flowers on our fence, and I can’t really complain about the garden that keeps on giving! The garden is planted with marigolds as we don’t use any chemical pesticides (just the hover flies attracted by the marigolds) and their sunny yellow and orange heads bobbing in the gloomy grey days are always cheery.

Earth hour saw us at home. We turned off every electrical appliance and sat in candlelight talking (how romantic!) It is good getting the message out there that a little bit like turning off lights can make a difference, but as Paul Henry said on Breakfast the morning before, most people will probably sit in the dark watching tv or on their computers and what good is that? I don’t know if I really agree with him on that point, but one point I do agree with him on is that about plastic bags. Apparently a compulsory tax of 5c/bag may be introduced for supermarkets, and some already voluntarily do this. Henry’s argument against this was for all the industries that rely on second hand plastic bags – cleaners to line bins and preschools for wet/soiled clothes are two I can think of off the top of my head. I agree – without these bags to be reused, bin liners (or similar replacement) will be bought instead, thus creating more rubbish, instead of an item being reused (as in supermarket bags). If the supermarket bags are being taxed in order to reduce land fill why not focus on packaging that can’t be reused? I had an argument with a check out girl once because she wanted to put my meat and canned thing in separate bags. I said they would be fine in the same bag. She said that they had to separate them because of store policy (New World). I said that if the meat contaminated the canned good, I would be complaining to Watties about their canning process, not the supermarket. As a friend of mine would say ‘just use your brain’.
So instead of hitting the consumer with a penalty for a plastic bag they may well reuse, why not target the stores and their packing policies, and the manufacturers and their packaging strategies? Something along the lines of a tax break if a significant reduction is reached within a time period. Using less packaging is ultimately going to save them money, and having a tax incentive to boot can only help the cause.

Other things this week – I took a cake to the training session I was giving on Sunday, and suggested others might like to do the same in coming weeks. This was enthusiastically received, and reduced the amount of pre-packed highly processed snack food I would other wise have put out.

At the start of this competition I wanted to not use my car at all, and this hasn’t happened. I have been thinking more about the trips we have been taking, and we have been using my smaller, newer car more over the big ol’ ute. My car began this month on 195168k and now has 195648 ticks on the clock giving a distance of 480k, or an average of 18.46k a day. Jodes ute started on 327610 and finishes with 328050 giving a distance of 440k, 16.92k/day. I don’t know if this is better or worse than the month previous, but I would guess it was better. My car also took a trip to living springs and back, so that would clock up a bit.

We will be continuing on with our efforts as they are all easy things to be doing, and in cases like using baking soda and soap nuts, much cheaper than the alternatives. I may even give up coffee – the best anti-wrinkle secret! Caffeine speeds up your metabolism, which means all your body systems are working faster – including cellular aging. So no caffeine, longer lived cells, later on for wrinkles. Also, coffee has a terribly imbalance supply chain. Anyhow, that’s all folks – see you Thursday!!