How green am I?

OK, another post inspired by Fleshisgrass. This time more triumphant than last, I hope. Though almost definitely much more smug. But with a dash of embarrassment, and humility; we have a baby, for goodness sake; we ain't that green.

We do, however:

Compost municipally, therefore composting much more than we could domestically. I really don't throw any organic matter - save for baby excretions and chalk and woodpulp nappies - in the bin. They'll take everything but animal bones, and we don't have those in the house.

Use washable nappies. And second-hand ones, at that. (OK, not all of them were second hand, but give a girl a break).

Flush all our baby's excrement down the loo. People don't know it's illegal to put poops in landfill. That's not why I don't. But we plop the poop from the disposables we use at night time as well as the washables we use all day down the loo. It's bad enough we're chucking a 'biodegradable' nappy a day into a place it can't degrade, without sticking the effluent in there too.

Buy ecover laundry liquid and washing up liquid in bulk, and re-fill. It's more expensive (yup), but I'm just that bloody selfless. We have tried the cheaper of the reuseable washing balls on the market, but they may have given me a minor skin irritation. To my shame, I have bought soap nuts, but for that reason, I'm a bit scared to use them.

Re-use bags, like, all the time. I have one of Flesh's unbeloved 'fey' onyabags, a parachute nylon shopper that folds up tiny and clips onto your bag-bag, and we routinely use the bags for life for our big shops and any placky bags we come across as bin bags.

Turn our noses right up at nappy sacks. Heavens above. Is there nothing we stupid breeders won't buy as baby necessities? Well, (shock!) chez nous, we don't wrap our nappies! Unless we need a change when we're out, when mummy always has a stash of bread bags or supermarket veg bags or newspaper supplement bags. Or just puts the dirty nappy (shock!) unwrapped in the bottom of the buggy. Heaven forfend.

Use a Sigg bottle; like Flesh, because it won't photodegrade and saves the money, plastic, energy and pollution associated with the bottled water I would otherwise consume by the gallon, out and about.

Re-use and recycle aluminium foil. Obsessively.

Wash and re-use plastic freezer bags. Obsessively.

Make the baby's food in bulk and freeze in portions.

Strive to throw as little food away as possible.

Buy as few new clothes as I can bear. In 2008 I think I bought: one pair of maternity trousers (taking the total to two), 3 nursing bras (different sizes, as my boobs scaled down), two summer cardigans, two pairs of jeans, one summer top, a winter jumper and 2 winter cardigans, one work shirt. On top of that I bought a pair of canvas shoes, Terry bought me some winter boots, and Babs bought me some replacement slippers (she was sick on mine and I went without for 6 months) for Christmas. This is a short list compared to some, yet it does make me feel guilty.

Dress the baby almost exclusively in hand-me-downs and second-hand clothes; buy organic cotton when I do buy brand new.

OK, pillory me. I could try harder. Nothing on here is particularly ground-breaking, or inconvenient. Furthermore, I have neglected to mention the bad things I do, like occasionally driving to the supermarket, and heating all the rooms in the house most times the heating comes on. I could override Terry and get curtains for the two rooms without, and keep more heat in that way. I could remember to always turn off the laptop at the wall (d'oh).

I'm going to think of the things I could do better, and try and do them better. I need to curb my shopping habit and my generally acquisitive nature. I will get back to you.

Wanted, E17

I'm not quite sure about freecycle. I mean, I really like it for the giving/getting side - caveats to come - but I'm not so sure about the asking side.

Giving is just brilliant. Re-homing my old stuff for which I haven't the need, space, time, energy or [add your own, I'm sure the list must be long], keeping it from landfill and saving someone else some hard-earned is just perfect. Getting is just brilliant too, and it's perfect when you just need something for a short while - like I just got some baby bottles, saving myself some of my vastly reduced income, and was able to freecycle them on after a few weeks when babs just all-out refused to ditch tit for teat. But the getting can be hard, and here my suspicions kick in and I retreat to the more hostile attitude that armours my misanthropic nature. I just use the 'digest' facility, and get an email or two a day full of offers and takens and wanteds. Yet responding to offers, however quickly, usually results in disappointment. The exception of the baby bottles is perhaps because some folk find sharing that kind of thing distasteful - not us, we like germs (it's becoming a mantra); only 3 people asked when I offered them on. But everything else I've responded to (and they've been pretty insignificant; I have modest needs) has already been taken no matter how instantly I respond. My only conclusion is that people sit at the message board like vultures, picking off the best carrion and leaving only the bones for those of us with lives, jobs, stuff to do.

But these folk are not the object of my real irritation. It's the folk setting up home and having babies and asking for *everything* they might need, including the stuff that I don't have because the baby doesn't *need* it and I'd rather not participate in the rampant consumerism and the manufactured needs marketed to us from every angle once we're up the duff. Today there was a request for a bumbo, a super-duper baby seat that gets the tiddler upright as soon as their little head can be held up properly for a while at a time. Now fine, they're 30 quid and they're used for only a couple of months, so we should be trading them, not buying brand new and sticking up the loft til the clearout that takes it to landfill, but really, freecyle? Sure, if it's offered, well count your lucky stars if you get it, that's great. But Is this not what eBay is for?

Another recent ask was for a tumble drier, which got my goat til I read the requester was disabled, and somehow that pushed the right buttons and I didn't feel irked any more (though now that I'm thinking about disability living allowance and charities and suchlike I'm reviewing that. We'll see where I get to).

But the people asking for all-sorts for a new baby, when so much is offered, just cheeses me off. You can get stuff so cheaply all over the place, it's almost disgusting. So if you don't want it new cos your principles won't allow, you can get it secondhand from the charity shops and do two good things for the price of one. Everything you can't find there you can find pretty cheap on eBay, and you can respond to the many, myriad offers on freecycle. Or there's the newly launched SwapShop Yahoo! group that's moderated by the same damn people in our neck of the woods. I just think the ask is greedy, and belies a kind of sense of entitlement displayed by so many people having babies. If you're having a baby and it's in the least possible way planned, heck even if it's not, you've got several months to figure out your situation and find the few essential odds and sods. And so little is essential. Including the baby.

I mean, weaning cubes? I just bought two two-packs of ice cube trays for a grand total of two pounds from woolies. And I'm gonna keep them forever out of landfill and others' wanting hands, just on bloody principle.