is anyone else considering their carbon footprint?

That is current advice. Second hand mattresses are a big risk factors for newborns. Just because some survive it doesnt mean others did..

There are some things that need to be new. And other things you dont need at all.

Ah yes. Soap nuts. Did try them, back in my Mumsnet days.

I'm with you gillybob I love train travel. I much prefer watching the world from a train window to being in a plane. Also airports are awful. Sadly stations are going the same way. Paddington international for example. It's a retail park with trains.

Laundry detergent again = a matter of being sensible. I know other parents who buy a full school uniform for every day of the week. Mine get a clean shirt pants and socks every day, but only have 2 skirts and jumpers each which they wear for a few days at a time!!

Again being frugle = being eco friendly.

Washing everything even knitwear after every wear in eco powder is less eco friendly than doing fewer washes in bog standard powder

Also using LESS detergent than the suggested scoop actually works better I find as it reduces build up.

Its not about having a house full to the brim of eco products. Its about being mindful about what you really need and using what you have well and sensibly.

My kids also don't get brand new school shoes every september either, I never understood that! They wear them till theyre worn out or too small

And its just as well that I never bought them "green" shoes because for a long while, "vegitarian shoes" were the green-trend... but theyre plastic! So now theyre out

Also the problem with eco household products is you have to keep replacing them if you are to keep up:

CFCs
Then surfactants
Then palm oil

And probably several other things in between

Its a great business to be in, the ol' green ££

I’m with whoever said it was good to be frugal. I’m also a miser so that helps too! And I’ve got so fed up with all this “Because you’re worth it” stuff I’ve stopped wearing make up too apart from a small amount of moisturiser. That’s saving a fortune and I really don’t see any difference. DH certainly hasn’t noticed. But if we all follow the frugal movement the economy will really go down the pan!

Animal agriculture is the most damaging for the environment . Most of the soy grown is to feed pigs or cows. Cutting down on meat and dairy is the single best thing we can do.

Grammaretto, the cars are another example of confusion.
Is it better to keep an old but good and reliable diesel to drive 6,000 miles/year or trade it in for a newer, greener model. It could last another 10years.
Your old car will either be bought and used by someone else or scrapped and use energy to recycle it. How on earth can you work out what is the best option for the planet.

I suppose that’s where notanans2 advice comes in. If you can keep using it then do.

Unless they are outdoor cows Crystal. Meadowland and grass ties up an awful lot of CO2.

It is quite easy to eat meat that is not fed grain and soya. All you need to do is go to the pasture-farm website www.pastureforlife.org/where-to-buy/ to find a local farm or mail order service that will sell you meat that has been fed only on grass by grazing and eating hay from the farm raising it.

As with so much the problem lies not with what you do but the way that you do it.

Farmers Markets are pretty good too.

It's very easy to be vegetarian too!

There are a lot of us who do not want to be vegetarian, we enjoy being omnivores. Within an omnivore diet you can eat as much or as little of any food as you care for.

I have always loved vegetables and grew up in a home where meat was not an everyday occurence because my mother did not like it, my home is no different. Some days we eat meat. some days we don't. What I do make sure, however, is that the meat we do eat comes from ecologically and environmentally sustainable sources that meet high animal welfare standards..

It did matter, BradfordLass. The hippies of the sixties marked a paradigm shift in consciousness.

high quality meat is better for animal welfare but is too expensive for most people. Nevertheless it would be better for animal welfare and cookery skills if everybody were willing to pay a little more for quality meat AND thought of meat meals as an occasional luxury.

I’m with MOnica. We eat good, local meat - but much less of it. The better quality is denser and more filling so you don’t need as much and it’s better for you. Therefore it’s no more expensive than cheap, badly raised ‘meat’. In fact a good free range chicken goes so much further it works out cheaper than an intensively reared tasteless one which has been flown halfway around the world and needs expensive sauces to give it a bit of flavour.

All it needs is for us to eat less meat. No one is expecting you to become veggie overnight.
At present I am trying to explain to the unconverted, why the locally grown organic veg especially lettuces don't last as long on the shelf as supermarket stuff. Also that the tiny hole in a courgette means a creature has liked it enough to share it but that's OK and you can cut that bit off - and pay less for it and at least you know it's not been sprayed.
It's uphill this proselytising

I do eat less meat than most people. And that's as veggie as I intend to get!

We are fortunate to live in an area with proper butchers buying locally raised animals from a local abattoir, a greengrocer who also has his own small holding to grow a lot of his veg, and a lot of places to buy eggs and stuff 'at the gate'. We therefore tend to eat what's in season a lot rather than demand strawberries in February or pineapple because we fancy it. Grapes, bananas and oranges are our main failings. We do splash out on them.

But on the whole we eat a much plainer diet than most who shop in big supermarkets. Persuading folk to give up the vast variety of foodstuffs now provided by the supermarkets is nigh on impossible.

Our local bus company tweeted this today:

"Travelling 10 miles by bus instead of car, you can save around 1.8 Kg of carbon.

This is equivalent to:

1385 hours of low energy light
120 kettles boiled
20 hours of TV
7 loads of washing"

In direct contrast the Tyne and Wear Metro tweeted this today:

We’re sorry for the disruption to services this morning. This was caused by a power fault at one of our two depot entrance points. Further details about this can be found here

This is an everyday occurrence . I pity those (like my DD) who rely on this "not fit for purpose" system to get to and from work everyday.

My D has to have a car as she starts work at 5am and there's no transport. The same when she does shift work, it can be late/early morning when she finishes and again, no transport.

Being veggie doesn't ncessarily reduce your carbon footprint. Lots of crops are grown with lots of added fertiliser and transported long distances. I am not talking fancy fruit and veg but coffee, tea, flour, sugar, canned and frozen fruit and vegetables.

Then, of course there are all the services we take for granted; rubbish collection and disposal. Hospitals. How green are they?

Even electric cars are very ungreen. It takes the equivalent of 100,00 miles of car travel energy to make the batteries, they only last eight years and are very difficult to recycle because of the dangerous and damaging heavy earths and rare metals used in making them.

My DH never ceases to point out that statistic about electric cars MOnica along with the query as to how and where all the electricity is going to come from when we all have to drive electric.

Our local bus company put a similar sign on their buses wildswan. But as they run old buses and the road which is an unofficial bus station has the highest pollution levels in Norwich, they were quietly removed.