What can "I" do?

 This is a generalised "I" because it's really about what we can do, but it can't be me prescribing a list of things for you to do that I'm not prepared to do myself. Some things are high cost like solar panels or buying an electric car, but some things can be low cost like choosing something with less plastic packaging.

So here are a few things that we are doing or considering doing to change out footprint in the world.

1. Buy fewer clothes. It's astonishing to realise the amount of clothing that is wasted each year. About 30% of unwanted clothing ends up in landfill in the UK alone. That's around £140M of useable clothing. 

2. Use our heating systems differently. You'd think that some people think their heating system is designed to make their homes a tropical paradise. You could have an AI based thermostat system fitted (We have a Nest system) that learns your habits and controls you heating so that the house isn't heated when no one is there. Or you could simply turn the thermostat down when you go out and back up when you get home. And wear a jumper! 

3. Buy shower gel and shampoo in larger quantities and refill those single use bottles or have dispensers that you refill. We buy ours in 5l bottles (yes they are plastic) and decant into smaller bottles for use in the shower. I reckon we've taken between 12 and 20 single use bottles out of our footprint by doing this.

4. Don't waste money on water. A number of companies (Smol, Homethings) sell cleaning products in tablet form. You just add the water rather than paying for it and transporting it home. We haven't done this yet, but it's definitely on the list to explore.

There are just four ideas. There's plenty more we can be doing as individuals got have a positive impact on  our planet. The plastic problem won't go away overnight, but we can do something about it.  It is not an overwhelming problem without any workable solutions. We just need to make some choices.