How To Be a Bore About Saving Almost Anything

The original caption is 'The Importance of Not Being Intellectual', but it could just as well be 'The importance of Not Being a Bore' - after Pont.

As well as trying to get the most mileage from a gallon of petrol, I have taken to trying to save other stuff as well.

It has occurred to me that I waste a lot of water washing things under the tap without catching the water in a plastic basin (to be used on the garden). That has changed and the plants near the back door now look better watered than ever. 

Until now I have saved my vegetable peelings for friends' chickens, but I have now taken to cooking up the top end of leeks, potato skins and other leafy stuff in a vegetable stock. And the stalks of broccoli, once sent to the chicken as well, are now peeled and chopped fine and taste delicious - especially raw! I do however now have more veg stock that I strictly need and so the chickens continue to get their greens!

I have also bought some 'Beeswax Wraps' that can be used (and reused) in the place of clingfilm or silver foil. They work really well, particularly for keeping a loaf of bread fresh, and for cheese.  

A lot of waste goes on in the bathroom. Needless to say, I turn off the tap when brushing my teeth, and I do use the plug in the basin when running water for my shave, but I expect I should find a way to use even less water. But I can't quite bring myself to shave in a mug of hot water. Shaving is such a pleasure that I still preserve the full ritual. However, I draw the line at not flushing the loo each time one has a pee, but of course, one should use the small flush option if there is one, or put a brick in the cistern.

But perhaps my main contribution to using less polluting forms of energy is in the fact that the house is heated only by electricity. When I bought it it had night-store heating - which was ok in the mornings as the heaters (essentially piles of brick) gave off a tolerable level of heat, but when I built on the kitchen at the back of the house in 2014, I put in underfloor electric heating which warmed the large high room very well. However, it was expensive to run in winter and when I eventually took the plunge to get rid of the night store heaters and put in some electric radiators with sophisticated thermostats, I found that I didn't need to use the underfloor heating nearly as much and my bills went down by £100 a month*. Even if it's a bit chilly on cold days, I sit on the sofa with a rug. But I do still have a wood fire own very cold days and will continue to do so until they are banned.

What more to do? I always read articles on energy-saving and pollution with interest and am keen to make changes when opportunities arise. I would like to think that my reluctance to fly anywhere has something to do with saving pollution from aircraft, but I'm afraid that if I needed to fly long distance to see family, I still would**. However, I would seriously consider taking the train or bus for European travel, as I am no longer constrained by time. 

I hope to go on adding to my list of things to bore on about, but I am struck by the entrenched attitudes that I encounter. The most common is that none of this makes any real difference, so why bother, and 'as most pollution comes from India, China and the US, it is they who should tackle the problem'. This, however, is not actually correct, as driving eg fuel-hungry cars has a measurable effect on emissions. and both the US and China have actually made some serious effort to use more green energy.  

The fact is that we are all responsible for polluting the planet, and in fact, CO2 pollution really started right here in the UK in about the 1850s as heavy industrialisation became widespread. NASA have just released a study of tree-rings that shows increased CO2 levels beginning at that time. As we (the industrialised countries) have benefited from more than a century of industrial activity, even though we are now using less fossil fuel than we once did, we actually have the most responsibility for its global effects. The other point is that we should try and use as little of the earth's resources as we can, and conserve what we can, as a careless attitude to the use of energy and other resources breeds a similar careless attitude to conservation in general, leading to a decline in many species.   

* Not surprisingly! When the electric radiator company surveyed the house, they showed me that in order to warm the kitchen to 21c, the floor had to be 30c! 

** As an illustration of how things have changed, I was happy when British Airways gave me a Gold card for life, in recognition of the thousands of miles I had flown with them, but I am now somewhat ashamed of it and fully expect one day to have a tax surcharge applied to any tickets I buy using it.  

See also 'How To Become a Petrol-Saving Bore'

The Scourge of Intensive Farming