Are you "green" ?

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not green, I'm frugle

I recycle what I can, mostly because I can't stand waste. I compost what I can so I don't have to buy so much compost. I turn lights and heating off where I can, because I don't like the bills.

Oh and we don't have a car

I'd go along with that.
Another reason(s) I got rid of my car was: getting around town was quicker by bike; I could never find anywhere to park; I started getting fat when I gave up cycling for driving.

I've always found work within 5 miles of my home, so that I can cycle there.

The bus is a pain (filthy, slow and full of shouty kids) and I don't have a train station within 3 miles, so getting into the city or further afield is a bit of a hike, but I only do it once a month or so for hospital appointments etc.

I use supermarket delivery for big grocery shops (well worth the £3 fee)

I stopped eating meat 20+ years ago because I couldn't afford it. I've never missed it.

I'm not really interested in foreign holidays: I flew to Singapore 2 years ago because it was a "free" holiday to visit rellies, but I'd much rather hike/cycle/camp around the pubs of England

[sweetiepea]

I'm definately frugle and try my best to be 'green'. I do drive a car, but its small and my mileage is low (I live in the country and public transport is a very limited bus service in the village). I try to buy local as much as possible. I use local delivery men for bread, milk, and fruit. Our eggs come from neighbours hens (hope to have my own this spring). Most of our meat is 'grown' and sold locally. I don't do a weekly shop any more and not only save money, but I've cut out a huge amount of food and packaging waste too. We don't use bins and recycle as much as possible. We are extremely frugle with our drinking water supply (I only wish our neighbours were the same), and at the moment I have five large water butts which are used for cleaning and outside jobs, as well as the garden. We compost. Like stella I only use half the recommended amount of washing powder - but only on heavily soiled items. For most of our washing I use washing balls, which I love. We're not perfect by any means. We do have oil fired central heating, but we also burn wood which heats the house a treat!

[Hilary B]

We recycle, we minimise waste, that is frugal, happens to also be 'green'. We do use the car more than is essential, because driving into the woods to walk the dogs is one of our pleasures. We also take the car along when we go to our Spanish holiday home, but it's that or hire, because getting around out there any other way is not on!
Once there, we shop semi-locally most of the time, all our electricity comes from our windmill and solar panels, the water supply is collected rain water, and we recycle about 99.9% (if you include using rubbish as fuel, which I do.) We cook partly on gas and partly on home-grown wood.

[dogsbody]

My 7 year old car lives in the garage except for weekend shopping as I walk to work. The old jallopie still delivers over 40miles to the gallon. The new central heating is set at 17 C. Grow as much of my own as I can. Chook numbers will increase this spring. Use solar power wherever I can in the garden.

You can check out how green your garden is by following the Natural England wildlife garden thread I posted in the wildlife section.

Green is frugal, saves money as well as the planet.

My dark side? - motor-racing 18 days a year (sorry!!)

[sandspider]

I'm green in parts!

I turn off lights (pet irritation of mine to leave them on), don't overfill the kettle, dry washing outside, grow my own, recycle, compost, wood burning stove and cycle to work (some of the time, anyway! :s). However, I drive an ancient Porsche (2.5L engine)... That said, as it's old, it's carbon footprint is much less than a brand new Prius with all the mercury and other nasties in the batteries etc., and I don't drive too much. I'm also quite tempted to get a 4X4 or van so I can carry more stuff around, and go off road a bit (I'm getting into clay pigeon shooting, which is possibly not that green either but very satisfying and a good way to get outside).

Chris, I too work in IT and I too want to get out of it, and possibly move to Portugal (or the countryside). But then I think I'm paid quite well, and would it be any better abroad or on my smallholding? Hmm...

[winstonwobble]

I think i'm quite green apart from my car a Ford Ranger 4x4 which i need as i live on a small holding in the countryside and there is no bus service for 3 miles i have to use it every day as the school bus drops my son off a mile and half away from home and walking down country lanes isnt safe as people use them as race tracksliving on a smallholding is hard work but loads of fun nothing better than eating what you have produced your self need a cow next then i can cut the milk man out 0 food miles

[HeyWayne]

I do what I can, when I can. I try to enjoy the life I'm living without worrying too much about the life I'll live.

That said, I'm not frivolous with the world I live in.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Like Wayne, we're as green as we can be.
We recycle everything we possibly can, we compost, we use energy saving bulbs and switch off lights when we leave a room, our new house is super-insulated with hemp and recycled plastic bottles, we have underfloor heating at the new house which means we have our thermostats set much lower than we do at the old house, we work at the same place so we only use one car (though we own two), we use peat free compost, we shop locally where possible and support local producers.

I'm sure there is more we could do, we're probably only classed as 'Light Green', but what we do, we do to the best of our ability.

[Flummery]

Light, deep green then Becki?

[Pumpkin Becki]

Light, deep green then Becki?

Yeah, sort of lincoln green, but not as dark as forest green?

[Alison]

I think it's important to look after the planet and tread as lightly as possibly and that we have a duty to respect our natural environment and think out our choices before we make them. We don't use supermarkets and shop locally, I refuse to buy objects (as much as possible) with excessive packaging and don't waste food. This reduces the need to recycle at all. Neither of us fall into the trap of wanting the next new thing all the time and I quite happily wear jeans I've owned for 8 years and only buy new when the existing item is falling apart. I cycle and walk wherever possible and use the bus a reasonable amount also, as part of my plan to reduce car travel I changed jobs a few years ago to be nearer to home (less stress to o when you're not sat in traffic jams all day). Our house is a cool but consistant temperature which has been improved by taking up the grants for cavity wall insulation and we rarely feel the need to put the heating on during the day at weekends as we're usually moving about and have jumpers which can be used. Obviously we also grow as much of our own food as we can.

However, OH drives far too much (80 mile round trip most days ) and we tend to go on an overseas holiday most years and I've not been able to totally do away with a car (contractually I'm supposed to have one). Although by some people's standards we don't have many gadgets I'm still very aware that we use a fair bit of electricity and should try to cut back a bit more. Basically I'm aware that we do more than some but there is still lots more we should be doing and hopefully one day we'll get there.

[Flummery]

We are all too aware of what we AREN'T doing - but the fact that we are all taking small steps is a tremendous help. The main thing is that we all show a respect for resources. A generation ago people thought that using things up was their right.

[Alison]

A generation ago people thought that using things up was their right.

But a generation before that people made do and did with what they had - OK many of them had no choice but they were usually far greener than us.

[Flummery]

Yep - we've gone soft!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Am I right in thinking that the War generation were healthier too, or is it all relative?