Karmacat: To Infinity And Beyond!

gilligansyle

ZTD wrote: »

The rationale for energy saving lightbulbs is derived from taking all the good bits and ignoring all the bad bits. On balance they're probably a bad idea, which is why they have to be enforced by law.

See, this is the sort of thing I don't know much about and would love to find easily without reading lots of different things.
I would sooner buy local and non organic, than organic thats been shipped half way round the world and then in lorries all over the country.
I do occasionally use eco washing products etc. but because I like the smell most products are too strong smelling for me. I am also fortunate to live in a soft water area, so don't need to use loads of a product. But that said, I believe that most of the cleaning products industry is a con anyway.

ZTD

gilligansyle wrote: »

See, this is the sort of thing I don't know much about and would love to find easily without reading lots of different things.

Unfortunately I don't think you can. There is (alas) no substitute for being curious, scientifically minded, a bit "Nullius in verba", and with a stupidly high reading speed.

Though after a while you get to save time, because you can spot flannel exceedingly quickly.

All the "one stop shops" for information are hideously biased - there's a reason why I have "follow the money" as a .sig line...

gilligansyle wrote: »

But that said, I believe that most of the cleaning products industry is a con anyway.

You've got two main types of cleaning products - soap based (ingredients list things like sodium palmate, sodium tallowate), and detergent based (Sodium Laureth Sulfate or Sodium Laurenth Sulfate).

It's pretty much a choice between the two after that.

macgirl

I buy Ecover washing up liquid and toilet cleaner (try to buy in bulk when on offer), purely because once I had babies, I just didn't want nasties in the house. Like Cheery, I can't justify the cost of their washing powder or dishwasher tabs - which I know kind of defeats the object but I do prefer the washing up liquid to any other brand now.

The thing I would really like to see more of, is shampoo, shower gel and hair dye without SLS and parabens in them. There used to be a kids range "Halos and Horns", but it was really hard to get hold of. I love Fair Trade and organic and try to buy as mush as I can. For a while I had fruit and veg delivered from an organic service and it was really fresh and delicious (and local), but sadly the cost was prohibitive in the end and I had to cancel it.

As Gill said, a lot of it is a con, but there are some altruistic companies out there, you just wonder how difficult it is for them to enter the mainstream.....HTH

EDIT: I know there are "green" websites selling the things I mentioned above, but in all honesty, I'm only going to buy them from the supermarkets as like many, I need the convenience of a one-stop shop....

Karmacat

Ooh, thanks guys - thats really excellent. Sorry I wasn't around - the internet just threw me off, I couldn't get back on till now

Again, some really interesting points there - work life balance, cars, one stop shopping - absolutely! I'm looking at this in terms of products that are used in updating/renovating a house - mostly insulation, at the moment. There's plenty of sites on the net selling toiletries directly.

Cheery, what you're saying about walking is exactly what I'm able to live now - I'm in walking distance of almost everything I need, its wonderful

Gill, the issue you raise about lightbulbs is exactly what I want to challenge, finding information and sharing it - and hopefully (for me as the eventual website owner) getting money by click throughs and commission, sort of like Martin does on here, tho he doesn't get commission of course. Or maybe I'll try to make it just with click throughs, or maybe it *will* have a shopping section, we'll see, its a way off yet.

Taxi, interesting what you're saying about wind turbines and solar panels - bears out something someone said to me at that Green Housebuilding Fair I went to the other week, that there were dozens of companies installing wind turbines, just 5 years ago, and now they're all gone - because they don't work very well on houses! It certainly seems a lot has been oversold.

Lots of thinking to do - I appreciate your taking the effort to write stuff down, thank you!

ZTD

macgirl wrote: »

I buy Ecover washing up liquid and toilet cleaner (try to buy in bulk when on offer), purely because once I had babies, I just didn't want nasties in the house.

I'm not sure I follow the logic of that for toilet cleaner, where it doesn't exist in your house after the flush.

macgirl wrote: »

The thing I would really like to see more of, is shampoo, shower gel and hair dye without SLS and parabens in them. There used to be a kids range "Halos and Horns", but it was really hard to get hold of. I love Fair Trade and organic and try to buy as mush as I can. For a while I had fruit and veg delivered from an organic service and it was really fresh and delicious (and local), but sadly the cost was prohibitive in the end and I had to cancel it.

That's half the problem of it. The farmers complain that the supermarkets are grinding them into the ground, but given the chance to sell to the consumer (and keep *all* the markup) they go stupid...

macgirl wrote: »

As Gill said, a lot of it is a con, but there are some altruistic companies out there, you just wonder how difficult it is for them to enter the mainstream.....HTH

EDIT: I know there are "green" websites selling the things I mentioned above, but in all honesty, I'm only going to buy them from the supermarkets as like many, I need the convenience of a one-stop shop....

Then the difficulty of entering the mainstream lies with the difficulty of penetrating any given supermarket's product range. Given that most of these "green" companies want to, in effect, cause a revolution in consumer attitudes...well...good luck with that.

taxi73

I'm not much use on the renovating a house project but am interested as that is on the cards here.Since being here I have had cavity wall insulation,loft insulaion I have double the amount needed(was told that by a surveyor) but have since boarded the loft,DH is thinking of using that insulation looks a bit like foam with silver in the walls of the loft,had a Worcester boiler fitted,radiator valves and heat sensor thingy on the wall for it,had top rate DG fitted and top quality doors fitted.

Once mortgage is paid off then we'll have a new bathroom and kitchen but don't know what green stuff is available to make a difference.

The stuff has to be of equal or more capable of doing a job than an ordinary product.

In normal life I wouldn't have a car but as I have to have one as a taxi..then so be it.
I bought this house as when I'm well everything is within walking distance so tend to walk everywhere.

taxi73

forgot to say I hate the whole ethos of supermarkets...they rip the farmers off and stamp over everybody.Tesco being the worst of the lot..
I use local butchers,local fruit and veg places and local farms.The produce is both fresher and cheaper.

Ellidee

KC I was just perusing the 'Poundland Bargain Thread' - saw this and immediately thought of you ! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=37321910&postcount=1625 xx

redsquirrel80

Hi Karma

Like the new goals, you've obviously been doing a lot of thinking.

On the green stuff - a big problem for me is evidence that whatever product actually is more green. I don't mind paying a bit more, if I really feel that it will make a difference, but it still has to be affordable (obviously that's different for everyone but I do feel a real tension between being green and how much I spend). I'm quite cynical that there are probably a lot of products out there that claim to make a big difference when in fact all they do is gain a bigger profit! It's difficult to know which sources of information we can trust, and which things we do/ buy will really make a difference - sometimes I think we're maybe just trying to make ourselves feel better when we don't have that much real proof.. I tend to trust companies which give quite detalied explanations of why their products really are better, and do quite a lot of reading round them before buying.

Hope that helps! x

se999

Hi KC - for me the capsule wardrobe is also part of my green/reducing footprint approach. Buy less clothes, wear them more and buy better quality likely to last longer. So once it gets fully into place, I don't think it will cost more, I'll look better and feel more confident in myself, a decluttered wardrobe makes picking clothes so much easier, and a smaller global footprint by buying less. I also tend to prefer natural fibres anyway, so that is to me greener than synthetic.

I have bought occasionally clothes from ebay, but never had any luck with charity shop cloths shopping.

Once we've got a house again, I'll be into recycling the worn out clothes into patchworks, ragrugs etc and just cleaning cloths. Well every little helps