Buy Nothing Day is on the 24th of November. Perhaps you could organise a day out to the beach or to the country taking a packed lunch. Perhaps you could just spend the day in bed! Whatever you do you’ll feel better for not buying anything for a day!

BTW Across the pond it’s on the 23rd – or perhaps you could try a ‘Buy Nothing Weekender’ and roll up both into the weekend!

I saw this on the FOE Youtube page – it’s quite funny with a serious point and it rips off the Tescos ads which has to be good!

Anyway despite our best effort we still shop at Sainsburys. I think we are caught up in the catch 22 that I think effects many people like us who would rather not go to the supermarket and do a weekly shop but feel that due to work and money they have to go to a big supermarket.

We do try though!

Once we get sorted it out will make our lives a lot easier as will not having overflowing recycling bins and the silly blue plastic bag lying around anymore. It will save us money on petrol too as we won’t need to go up to the dump quite so often.

I found an article about recycling the other day. It refers to a TV programme in which they say recycling doesn’t work. Here’s a link to a clip of the programme – it’s not particularly family friendly! This maybe true in terms of efficiency etc but I think that it’s the principle that is important. We can’t go on using stuff then putting it in holes in the ground (unless it’s been composted already!) – this might not seem so bad in the US but here in the UK land is not quite as available for landfill and nobody wants a landfill in their backyard.

You have to think about countries like China and India where they have huge populations. At some point they people are going to want all the stuff we have. If we don’t set the example of being serious about recycling and I guess in some ways reducing our consumption the waste produced by these countries will have a massive impact on the rest of the world.

The whole recycling system might not be efficient but really it is still in it’s infancy and hopefully retailers will get on the bandwagon and make their packaging more recycle friendly and people will demand more environmentally friendly packaging.

I think people sometimes miss the point with recycling it’s not just about separating the out the glass and paper etc. It’s about reducing your waste buying a particular product or shopping in particular shop.

It’s about reusing things, fixing things, taking them down to charity shop or freecycling them rather than dumping them in the bin.

It’s about setting up a compost heap in your garden and putting suitable waste on that so you can fertilize your garden easily and cheaply. Apparently 38% of all UK waste is organic waste that could be composted and contributes to creating greenhouses gases when put in landfill.

Once you have done those things then you can get down to sorting out the glass and paper!

The thing about all this stuff is it’s not rocket science, everyone can do and really there’s no excuse not to now – at least not Bournemouth anyway!

1. When we do get another car I’ll will be keeping more strictly to the speed limits. If I had been going any faster, I was under the speed limit at that time as far as I remember, the person I hit might have come off a lot worse and – thankfully everyone involved was ok but it could have been very different.
2. It’s amazing how close to the stuff that you would normally drive too is. We’ve walked to our local supermarket a couple of times now and it only took about half an hour.
3. It’s amazing how badly big shopping centres cater for pedestrians. I don’t think I mind the negotiating the huge car parks when I’m driving but when you are on foot it is a different kettle of fish.
4. Cycling is a nice way to travel particuarly on a sunny day. Hopefully we will be doing more of this even when we get another car.
5. You probably spend less money if you don’t own a car as with a car it is very easy to get in the car and go to the shops whereas without one you need to plan a bit more.
6. It’s a bit strange not having a car now – I generally walk to work but sometimes it’s quite nice to jump in the car and go somewhere.

We will get another car at some point. I am hoping to get a diesel as most diesel cars apparently can run on biodiesel but we not made of money so we will have to see what we can get.

It does bug me that you can buy organic produce from a supermarket but the produce is packed plastic that doesn’t bio-degrade.

Numbers of plastic bags that supermarkets generate bug me too – I think I might have mentioned this before. I stand grinding my teeth when I am waiting to be served in one particular place I go as the cashiers pull out bag after bag ready for their next customer and then almost force one on me – of course I politely refuse and try and stuff everything in by backpack or pull out a pre-used bag that I just happen to have with me! (perhaps not all the time to be honest but I try!)

As well as detailing their five main aims the site also provides addresses and a templated letter so you can write to the supermarkets to air your views.

I think this will do wonders for the image of the WI. When you usually hear about them it’s about jam or cakes but I think this idea is pretty cool and will be added to the list of campaigns on this site.

BTW I have updated the this site with a new theme which I built – there might have a few teething problems but I am trying to fix any problems as I find them!

It also seem that repear shops are closing – this seems odd as I have seen alot of web sites to do with modding which I think is a pretty green idea.

My general philosophy is that I would rather spend a bit more on a quality product that lasts me a few years rather than by something really cheap. I like to try to look after things as well – sometimes I think that the cheapness of stuff makes you respect it less so you don’care when it brakes.

I did a bit of searching and found this
article which if you can’t get the book gives a pretty good idea of whats what with plants that filter stuff out of the air in your house.