What a waste!
Posted on November 9, 2007 - Filed Under General
What a generation of wastrels we are.
What ever happened to fixing things and making do? Mending socks is a long lost art that seem to go when my Grandmother left this earth.
My Grandfather..now he is another story, he would be horrified to see what is thrown away in the world today. He was the man that if you wanted anything fixed, from a clock to a tractor, you knew for sure that good old Paddy could fix it or at least have a damn good go at it. Now we turf it out and go to the shop and get a replacement, usually trying to fix it doesn’t even enter our minds.
Then there is food. More waste. Not so much in this house as everything not eaten by humans is soon consumed by either a feline, canine, bovine or a caprine, so what one won’t eat you can be assured one of the others will.
Packaging is another bugbear with me. Most things we purchase are over wrapped, another waste of our precious resources. Refuse to use plastic bags, but don’t be like me and leave your “green recycling shopping bags” at home, I have found out recently that the green bags really only work if you remember to take them shopping with you. I think someone is going to have to invent something that prompts shoppers to remember the bags as I am sure there are many out there like me with the best of intentions but very poor memories. I used to just buy more green bags on the occasions that I forgot the others, but when TETB pointed out to me that we would soon be able to build a house from green eco bags, then I thought perhaps it was time to stop. Ooops!
Water wasters are another group of people who just don’t sit well with me. Let them come and live for a month with me where the only water you have available is the rain that seldomly falls from the sky and then see if they want to waste precious water hosing driveways and washing cars.
Speaking of cars, how about our fuel resources and also the pollution it creates?
What is wrong with public transport people? Or carpooling? It would be terrible if another person actually shared a car on the way to work and invaded our personal space even though it would help to save the planet wouldn’t it? Cars…what is it with people that live in cities but just have to drive the biggest 4×4 on the market? Why do you need a gas guzzler like this? When are you ever going to be required to drive off road? Small car owners should be rewarded with cheaper registration and insurance, start hitting people in their hip pockets and I think that will encourage these monsters off the road.
As you can see this is a subject I am quiet passionate about, so how do you cut down on waste in your house? Please share all your tips and ideas with us so each of us can make that much more of a difference! 
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27 Responses to “What a waste!”
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Water!!! I can’t stand people who waste water. I hate going into town and seeing people just let their sprinklers run and run. Honestly, who cares if your lawn is brown? And what is wrong with using grey water on the lawn anyway.
Ugh!
i am saving water by not doing dishes nearly as often as i should. does that count or does that come under bad-housekeeping?
i am also saving water by not even having a lawn. that doesn’t really count because i wish i did have one.
okay - how about this : i will bathe less. no, that won’t work, i don’t like me stinky.
i’ll try to try.
Veronica..I agree totally..ugh!
Holly..too funny and yes you do get points for trying to try LOL
Practice the art of turning off the water - in between brushing, in between washing the dishes, in between exfoliating…
Switch to CFL’s, global warming isn’t just a media cook up. It is happening people.
Recycle. Stop buying styrofoam or paper cups. Carry your own grocery bags. And if you don’t want to eat it, don’t put it in your plate…and if you do put it, eat it!
Wow, excellent post MGL. I feel so strongly about this topic. We buy locally (less consumerism = more green) and re-use, recycle and reduce whenever we can. But we, too, still have lots to improve on.
I’m like you, I have all the green grocery bags, but they never seem to make it into the car…… lol
We try do all our errands on one day conserving fuel (and make less pollution that many trips to the shops). We run our grey water onto our garden and don’t worry about the lawns other than a patch of greenish grass for the kids to play on. Our lights are all energy efficient and we buy local produce wherever possible (less transport and packaging pollution)How’s that for a start?
Ana…some great tips here, I find it incredible that there are still people in the world today that consider global warming to be some kind of conspiracy theory…too incredible for works really!
Worksformom…seems like you are on the right track. Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words
Bettina…you are doing well too! Fuel is a costly commodity for us as we live at least 40 mins from a real town. Hubby rides a motorbike into work so that saves fuel and son gets bus to school but we are so far out that he has to be driven in to catch the bus which kind of defeats the purpose really.
Nevermind…we can but try!
I don’t take public transit, I just go where I can roll usually - um, I also recycle everything and because I am poor, everything gets used twice (except toilet paper - I draw the line there). Most often I try to sell things on or trade them so I have a bit more to buy something with (on sale).
Elizabeth trading and bartering are great ideas and both really under-utilized in my opinion.
I have to say that I agree with you about recycling the toilet paper..can you believe that yesterday I was reading about a lady who cut up her worn out old clothes and used this in the toilet and then washed them in a bucket and re-used them…this is taking a good thing just a little too far in my view!
Hmmmm, let me think….
My husband is a human garbage can. What we can’t finish or want to eat gets scraped on his plate. I cleaned out my pantry the other day and made a box of expired food that he is slowly making his way through…… ewwww.
Perhaps I should call him the mad goat man?
Thanks for the sweet comment on my blog
hi! a goat lady after my own heart! coupla things, my mum has bought these plasctic covers with elastic around the side, bit like a shower cap. she covers her left over dishes with these instead of using glad wrap.
not sure if i’m just a skinflint or a recycler but i like to collect furniture from the verge!! it just makes me feel good to know that something that sitll has life in it won’t be crushed at the tip.
i grew up on a farm and we had a couple of tips on the farm that we’d visit for spare parts but we also regularly visited the tip for bits and pieces!
this is my first visit so i’m looking frwrd to browsing thru your blog!
Well, we recycle for one. And, we try and walk to our destinations a lot. We live near a park, post office, library, both schools, restaurants…it’s one huge advantage of living in a city.
Ecobags as well, but as soon as they are unpacked, they go back in the car. Food scraps to chickens that then give us eggs! Think twice before I hop in the car to go somewhere. And reusable plastic containers in lunch bags so that there is less plastic waste (I could go on since I am equally as passionate but….) However, you won’t ever see me darning a sock. Unless I get a hole in one and then i’ll mutter: Darn SOCK!
I grew up on a 50 acre tree farm. We grew all our own food, canned and froze for the year or we didn’t eat. Water went into a 50 gallon cistern from the roof - we took a bath once a week and usually shared the tub with the next one in line - and if we had to - jumped in the pond with a bar of soap in between. Dishes were washed in a sink - and dunked to rinse - no running water here. We used baking soda for toothpaste and had an outhouse until I was 6.
And here’s one - we used our bath and hand towels for a week.
Want to drive me insane - throw a wet towel on the floor you’ve used once and watch me scream!
I could write a book on the stupid ways we waste our time, resources, energy, and lives on maintaining the new “social order”. We’re too busy driving our kids to soccer and buying them the latest feel good gadgets - I worked the counter at my father’s dry cleaning shop from the time I was 7 and cooked the family dinners every night from the time I was 10.
I don’t need 87 different kinds of soup to choose from when I go to buy groceries because they’ve made it too expensive to grow your own food on land that’s drenched in insecticides and fertilizers. Wouldn’t it be nice if a can of soup cost $.10 because I didn’t have to pay for the NFL superstar and his mom’s TV advertising fee and the truck to bring it 700 miles from the distibution center and the CEO’s salary of $40 million a year.
Can I come live with you?
blessings,
julia
julia ward - a BLINDING heart - a writer’s blog - www.ablindingheart.com
Kelley…hubby sounds as efficient as a goat
Ali…love those little shower caps..great idea.
Momo…good old shank’s pony
Is that something you would say over there? It means to walk.
Leendaluu you are just too quick for me!
Julia..I can relate to everything you say..especially the towels, how hard is it to hang them up?
Send me your socks! I’ll be happy to darn them up so your feet won’t hurt! Except for those new fuzzy things they call socks with the toes in them like mittens. My God, what were they thinking?
blessings,
julia
julia ward - a BLINDING heart - a writer’s blog - www.ablindingheart.com
I also am really bad about forgetting my canvas bags in the car, where they don’t do me any good. My boyfriend and I try to buy local food (just blogged about that, actually), and I try to recycle everything I can, and use cloth cleaning rags instead of paper towels, bring reusable coffee cups to the coffee shop, etc. But so many of the things we buy are so grossly overpackaged, especially when you buy things online and they are shipped to you.
(P.S. I have a secret fondness for floppy-eared goats).
Ha, MGL, I have come up with a cunning plan. I put everything I want to take out to the car, including my reusable bags, on top of my car keys. That way, I can’t go anywhere without at least noticing all the stuff I want to take. Sometimes, I even put my car keys inside one of the bags - the one on the bottom of the pile.
I’m hopeless when it comes to remembering, but I’m inventive if nothing else.
Shine On,
Lill
You mean people wash their towels more frequently than once a week??? I don’t even wash mine once a week unless they haven’t been drying properly on the towel rack. I mean, you come out of the shower clean and you only use the towel to dry off. Not sure if that makes me a water saver or just a slack housekeeper but I rarely wash my towels every single week.
Patric just pop your greenbags in the car and keep them there and pop them straight back in the car afterwards. We have a set for each car so that no matter which car we take, we have the bags in each.
I would like to cut down on my car usage but working where I do, carpooling isn’t an option since they are all sensible and live closer to work. I would happily carpool if there was someone who lived closer who worked the same shifts I do. We both have fuel efficient cars and we use E10 in both where it is available when we are fueling up.
The majority of our lightglobes are the long-life ones. We do have four downlights which due to the type of fixture we can’t get long-life ones for but we just try to use them the least amount possible. We don’t own a heater except in the form of blankets and jumpers. Except for my frangipani which I use recycled fish tank water on, the plants only get watered by whatever rain falls from the sky.
There’s a lot more we could be doing here but I’m trying to cut down on the amount of waste we generate. We started a compost heap and try to not buy products which are excessively packaged. But you know what really annoys me….when you go to the likes of a book store or boutique and you say no, I don’t need a bag, I have one already and they continue to put it in a bag. I think they do it for advertising purposes but it really annoys me and I end up offending them by removing the article and receipt and sticking the bag back on the counter. I don’t mind the paper ones because they are able to be recycled but the plastic ones often aren’t and just go out to landfill.
Hey, when’s the march? I’ll be right there with you.
So agreeing with all your bugbears. And just don’t get me started on 4 wheel drives!!!!!
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