reduce, reuse, recycle

I have tried to be a bit more conscious about my consumption over the past couple of months. I rather shamefully bought a brand new pair of shoes a few days ago, something which I normally wouldn’t do had I not fallen in love with them and had a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket. They cost £40. Worse still, they were made in China and I’m not even sure they’re 100% vegan. Yuck. I’m trying to convince myself I’ve at least partially made up for it by replacing my broken backpack with a wonderful hiking-style pack from a local charity shop for the princely sum of £3. Oh well.

My previous take-out coffee habit is all but gone, after I realised that fancy take-out coffee, as well as being environmentally destructive, tastes like shit. On the grocery front, I’ve been trying to avoid supermarkets where possible which has been going quite well (I’m lucky in that I live within walking distance of several greengrocers/ independent pharmacies/ corner shops etc), and I’m going to look into a local organic box scheme, which would reduce our household packaging further. I’ve bought a few more cloth menstrual pads which has been a fun and worthwhile experience so far.

• Doubtless I’ve been using a lot of electricity sitting on the laptop for hours, so I’d like to look into a solar charger of some description, especially now we’re getting the good weather.
• Have another crack at growing my own food – I recently received a supposedly idiot-proof grow yer own kit, so we’ll see how that goes
• Work on reducing food waste – cook smaller portions, use up things before they expire etc.

• Reuse water bottles
• Recycle paper, cartons and plastic (the council collects these from our block of flats fortnightly I think)
• Repair damaged clothes/shoes where possible.
• Leave nothing on standby
• Wash dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher
• Wash clothes at 30 degrees and hang them up instead of sticking them in the dryer

• Stop getting take-out coffee, or at least not as often.
• Grow some of my own food, and have the occasional peek in supermarket/health food shop bins.
• Buy local more often
• Reduce our amount of kitchen waste, particularly the amount of food thrown out
• Reduce the amount of new clothes I buy. The only exception to this would be shoes (I’m not an utter shoe fiend or owt; I own eight pairs) – although I am for the most part a practical rather than symbolic vegan, I don’t really feel comfortable wearing leather shoes.
• Switch to cloth menstrual pads
• Switch to the co-operative bank
• Have extra blankets on my bed or put another layer of clothing on instead of having the heating on constantly
• Be conscientious about my level of consumption and actively work to reduce it