Environmentally friendly practices

[Snao Cone]

What kinds of things do you do to help preserve the environment?

[Still]

I do the most environmentally friendly thing of them all: not breeding 

[Guest]

Green transportation, I recycle what can be recycled (and I use a compost), avoid buying plastic bags (+ other such things), and I eat a completely vegetarian diet.

[Snao Cone]

I have reusable items for which many people go with disposable options. I compost and recycle, and I walk to 90% of the places I go.

[Grumpy Alien]

Recycle

Reduce plastic use by cutting back on bottled water and using reusable shopping bags

My house is solar

I'm a vegetarian

I have automatic monthly donations to WWF

 

I would love to not drive or go electric but alas, not an option currently.

I've briefly considered composting but wouldn't know what to do with the compost.

[Karacoreable]

Vegetarian + don't drink milk - got a lovely little statistic about the tiny environmental impact of producing oat milk, looking at me right now from the side of the carton. Walk. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and if I get a pet I won't get a puppy from a breeder, I'll adopt from a home. Cos dogs are an environmental disaster but I really really love them, so I figure getting one that's already around and giving it a better life isn't so bad.  

 

@Graceful Love Dylan Moran, great quote.

[Tanwen]

Local councils in the UK have targets for the amount of waste sent to landfill - we separate out recyclables/food, garden waste (goes to composting), glass goes to a collection centre. My new walk-in shower was mainly the result of Freecycle. We have PV cells on the roof and get around £120 a quarter 'Feed-in Tariff'

 

*Some dairy alternatives are very damaging environmentally - almonds require a lot of water - very thirsty trees  *

[Tos]

I live in a rural area so I have to drive if I want to get anywhere. When I am in places with public transportation and/or bike-friendly streets I use them, though.

[WinterWanderer]

I take public transportation, and I have given up pork and beef -- partly for environmental reasons, but also because I only buy animal products from pasture-based farms... and pork and beef tend to be really expensive from those suppliers. Also working on giving up dairy and poultry.

 

Unfortunately, most of those other options in the poll are impossible for me right now. I've been cutting back on plastic bags. But can't do much in the way of recycling. There aren't any recycling centers close to me. I take advantage of recycling bins when I can find them, but they're few and far between.

 

I also can't use solar because it isn't an option where I live currently. Can't compost for the same reason - nowhere to compost at, and nowhere to drop the compost off. (I don't garden.)

[Gloomy]

I recycle and reuse, and often would rather buy second hand clothes than spend more money on new clothes. I also donate or sell my old clothes that I don't want anymore. 

 

I didnt really drive until I was almost 24, so I guess that's something too....

[Antihero.]

None.
Though I make use of public transportation because I have to but I’d rather not have to use it at all because I hate it for various reasons. I could write a whole book about how public transportation totally sucks arse. Maybe I should, it's a splendid idea, I just need a good title

[Snao Cone]

6 minutes ago, Antihero. said:

None.
Though I make use of public transportation because I have to but I’d rather not have to use it at all because I hate it for various reasons. I could write a whole book about how public transportation totally sucks arse. Maybe I should, it's a splendid idea, I just need a good title

Public Transport-FAIL-tion.

[J. van Deijck]

I guess none, except for we are generally forced to sort trash (you know, separate bins for paper, glass, plastic, etc. etc.). if we don't do it, we may pay fees.

we also have to do the same thing at work.

[Yatogami]

I drive a Prius, and tend to eat organic or locally grown food. 

[Cimmerian]

Recycle or reuse mostly. Some reduction (not a big bottled water person).

I'd love to have some geothermal energy/heating (hello, constantly hot water!) and plan to have that put in if I ever get around to building a house.

[Autumn Season]

I turn down the plastic bags, which are always offered to me in the convenient stores and reuse the ones I already have.

[Guest]

Recycling is compulsory where I live (which is good)

 

I'm vegetarian but I didn't become it for this reason (I have been for almost ten years now though)

[deltaX]

I always recycle, and try to use public transportation or walk when I can.

[everywhere and nowhere]

Vegetarianism, recycling and exclusively green transportation - I have no choice anyway, I'm horribly scared of driving.

I wouldn't compost - I can't stand the smell. But I think it's anyway only useful to people who have a garden, and I live in a block.

[Pramana]

Recycling and composting are increasingly becoming mandatory across Canada. And I remember when I lived in Massachusetts there was stringent enforcement of garbage and recycling separation regulations.

[Skycaptain]

I can get my fortnightly non-recyclable waste down to under 1Kg, and if cat food pouches were recyclable it would be less. 

I try to grow my own vegetables, albeit some are more successful than others. 

 

We're not allowed solar panels on our roofs because of a building covenant 

[Famethyst]

I became vegetarian entirely for environmental reasons (animal rights stuff was just an added bonus!) when I learned how big of an impact meat can have environmentally.

 

At school I don't have a car, so for 3/4 of the year I only walk or use public transportation. Unfortunately I can't compost at school for the most part, but I have a bin at home. 

 

I also recycle and try to reduce or reuse as much as possible. I don't by lots of things and I wear clothing until it is completely worn out. I also print double sided when possible and save paper printed on only one side for scratch paper. I reuse all sorts of things, and try to remember a reusable shopping bag. 

 

On 8/17/2017 at 1:57 PM, Still said:

I do the most environmentally friendly thing of them all: not breeding 

Yaaasss! I had a research mentor who was actually really passionate about not overpopulating as probably the best way to protect the environment. And she's not wrong! Not that there's anything wrong with wanting kids of course. 

[Busrider]

I'm not into expensive environmentalism.

I reuse stuff, buy or accept used, wear really down and out, patch & repair.

I might switch to less power consuming tech- / gadgets, if it seems somewhat economically reasonable; my ride for example has the lowest (user reported) fuel consumption of all mass produced vehicles listed on a local comparison site.

I sort waste as ordered. - Neither the home here nor work collects compost separately. 

I also try to avoid waste by buying not more food than I'll eat. Works quite well but I was told families face harder challenges in that field

I'm probably under average carnivorous. 

But again: I'm not green; I'm just a cheapskate.

[Snao Cone]

My environmentally friendly practices save me money by a longshot. Not having a vehicle is by far the most significant thing for both of those benefits. I can count on one hand the number of sets of menstrual products from drug store shelves that I've bought in the last 10 years. By reusing glass bottles from iced tea, I don't buy water bottles. Not buying meat to cook at home reduces the amount of meat I consume and saves me time and money. Buying less crap creates less waste and saves more money. The "expensive" environmentalism seems to be more for show than benefit to the environment.

[Jea]

I ticked the five first. I nearly never use the car, I bike and walk when I can, and take the bus when it's longer. I recycle everything that they recycle here, which is pretty much everything. I've never thrown anything away just because I didn't want it anymore. If something's broken, either I repair it unless it's too broken for that. If I can't use it anymore, I try to give or sell it to someone who can use it. I use very few plastic bags, etc.

In my house where I usually live I do composting, but here (I'm staying abroad for a year) I don't have a garden. But the municipality recycles that too.

I have solar panels at home, but not here of course.

As for dietary choices, I am not a vegetarian but I eat very little meat, and as much as I can I buy locally produced food. That doesn't work as well here as it does in my home country, as the weather here is far too cold to grow most things, but as much as I can. And I buy vegetables of season only, which means that they don't fly by plane to come from the other hemisphere. I avoid most processed or frozen food as well.

Also, I boycott more or less strictly a few of the worst producers, especially Nestle, and I buy only organic muesli and mais, two of the things I know to be made by Monsanto if not organic. Also, no almonds from California (that's where they use the pesticides that decimates the bees.

All this clearly saves money, as @Snao Çoñé said above, most genuinely environmental-friendly practices are not expensive at all, as the knack is to buy less.

[RK800]

I'm vegan, I don't drive, I recycle everything I can, and I use a couple charity services like Amazon Smile and the like. Also any biodegradable trash I throw out near my banana trees.

[Sylvastor]

I have neither a car nor a license, so I walk, cycle or use public transport to get somewhere. Not like owning a car would make much of a difference in this area anyway, you get stuck in traffic at certain times of the day.

 

I also reuse products, this includes things like a computer mouse Frankenstein'd from two mouses of similar type with different broken things (one had a broken case, the other a broken circuit board), or simply using older products that still last, in my case there's… a lot to list.

It's probably not fancy, but whatever. If I'm not going to waste more money on bad product quality anymore when I have older things that still last, then I can spend said money on things I'd rather buy and want to own, like a new video game, a movie or a good book.

I have to note I'm not doing this for some green activity, but simply because I got tired of things breaking all the time and myself wasting money on said things. It's a *curse words* waste… of money and products (and my patience). Being more environmentally friendly is just a side effect.

 

I also use no smartphone. Saves me the hassle of having an outdated one and being forced to purchase of a new one every two to three years (if not much less these days). Saves resources, but again, just a side effect of actually not really feeling like using any smartphone.

 

All in all it's very relative anyway. Who knows how environmentally friendly I really am. I doubt any more than the average person.

 

PS: And some minor trash sorting, but that's standard here.

[Lonemathsytoothbrushthief]

I don't drive and don't plan on ever learning. However my feeling in these sorts of things is that the absolute greatest concern of ours with regards to the environment should be large corporations. So if you're a major boss in a company I don't care what you do in your personal life, you have some major stuff to account for before I'd consider you environmentally friendly. I also don't feel like I have the executive function to commit to many  personal lifestyle choices in environmentalism, my current house is much happier to put food waste in with general waste and I don't have the energy to disrupt it. The housemates are also unlikely to have the energy for it, since we're all neurodivergent it seems which has made this the absolute best house I've ever been in.

 

But yeah. I see opposing capitalism as my primary environmentally friendly thing to do. Especially since my local anarchist organisation, which I'm hoping to join, does a serious amount of direct action against companies drilling for fossil fuels and other environmentally damaging things in the area at the moment.

[Busrider]

9 hours ago, Snao Çoñé said:

The "expensive" environmentalism seems to be more for show than benefit to the environment.

You included dietary choices in the poll. - While it is probably possible to green farm or garden your own food locally, I can't get rid of the suspicion that buying such food as a consumer might dig a deep hole into one's pocket? - I have no clue and regret not living in Pennsylvania, in that context. 

 

[binary suns]

I didn't  vote because at current, I purposefully spend Zero time on this as I can't afford to stray my attention from my self-growth, as I've been in a lot of trouble with that. but, it makes me uncomfortable that this is the case - and I'm even thinking that I might try to get into environment-related or -affecting work of some kind once I finally do get on the track to financial reliability.