Taking the plunge
“When we made the decision to use the car less, I was the slacker,” says Rachel, an assistant pub manager. “Cherie had to drag me kicking and screaming onto the bus. I’ve been driving for four years and had forgotten about walking and taking public transport.” Cherie, a mental health support worker, only passed her test earlier this year so she was less entrenched in un-eco ways. But both recognized it was time for a change, given that road transport is responsible for 20 per cent of total UK emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas causing climate change.
Neither, however, were prepared for the week’s first challenge: taking three small children, all under five, to the zoo. On public transport. Cherie’s younger siblings were bundled onto a bus and then a train bound for Dudley Zoo. “The outward journey was fine; the kids were excited and we were lucky enough to be on a pushchair-friendly bus,” says Rachel. “The return journey was a different story. We were exhausted from walking round all day and the children started whinging. That’s when we wish we’d brought the car.”
Advertisement
Halfway there
By the end of week, though, Rachel and Cherie had rediscovered the joy of fresh air and exercise. “You don’t realize how much you miss being outside until you take the plunge and get back out there,” says Rachel. “And you don’t have to cope with finding parking spaces or people driving like maniacs; it’s good stress-relieving stuff. We couldn’t believe we hadn’t done it before.”
They were also car-sharing to reach work. One dropped off and picked up the other, a sensible financial move as you save petrol money. Over the week, they estimated that they avoided 100 miles of driving. This spared the planet 0.03 tonnes of carbon dioxide and saved their pocket roughly £10 in petrol.
Advertisement
The verdict
“We’re definitely going to carry on walking to the high street, and, in the not too distant future, we’ll get rid of one of the cars. As long as you start off when the weather is still mild, walking is not as hard as you think. When it’s a lovely day, it’s easy to set off on foot.”
“Since thinking about transport, we’ve started doing other green tweaks around the house. We’ve converted all our light-bulbs to the low energy variety and try to avoid excess packaging when we shop – we’re boycotting the new plastic Marmite bottle.”
Advertisement
As for Rachel’s eco-reluctance, she says she’s turned over a new leaf: “I’m now as committed as Cherie - and I’m getting greener every day.”
Louise Watson is a deputy head teacher who works mean hours at Copenhagen primary school in North London. Setting off from home at 6.15 in the morning and often not getting back until after 8pm leaves little time for her other daily commitment: cleaning.
She keeps a spotless house and admits to an addiction to cleaning wipes (that go straight to landfill) and sparkling surfaces that smell of forest pine. “When people stay at mine I can’t wait for them to leave, so I can clean up after them,” she confesses. “Even when my parents stayed for a week over the summer, everything got so dusty, I couldn’t bear it.”
Advertisement
The keen cleaner
Until now, Watson has not been prepared to compromise on eco-friendly products that might not work and has found them too expensive (“I end up using tonnes of the stuff in order to make things smell clean”). But there’s a green light at the end of the tunnel. She already divides her rubbish for recycling and tries not to overfill the kettle. So, for a week, Watson agreed to turn her back on her stash of conventional cleaning agents and join the 34 per cent of us, according to a survey by the Energy Saving Trust, who use Ecover products daily. All its ingredients are plant-based, rather than coming from petrochemical derivatives. When they are flushed away, they put less pressure on our heavily polluted water system, degrading easily, without harming marine life.
Early days
“I started off thinking this isn’t going to work,” says Watson. “I’ll cheat and get my wipes out. But I didn’t. In fact, I’m in love with the Ecover multi-surface cleaner and washing up liquid. Both these products had added lemon so they made everything smell good.” Not everything was a success, however. Such was Watson’s suspicion of green products that she ignored instruction on the bottles. She used three cupfuls of the laundry liquid instead of two and poured undiluted multi-surface cleaner onto work surfaces, instead of mixing it with water.
Advertisement
The verdict?
Would she consider following the instructions to cut back on waste and save money? “The problem is I’m too much of a fan of clean smells,” she says. “If I had more time I would research the subject and find out if these products really do make a difference. Then I’d probably trust them more.” But she’s realistic about this. “You always like to think you’ll do more but with my current job, it won’t happen,” she says. “For now, I’ll carry on buying the multi-surface cleaner and the washing up liquid again but I’ll probably revert to some of my old favourites.”
Should you wish to comment on any of the issues raised in the article please email gogreen@timesonline.co.uk or go to Anna Shepard’s blog.
Reader comments so far:
I read the article about the woman who tried using Ecover cleaning products. Due to the fact that they didn’t give her the after scent she was looking for, she couldn’t mix them properly and they didn’t clean as well as she hoped for, she reverted back to using products that harm the environment. Fortunately, I have a most wonderful option of using a product line that is available at the corner grocer.
METHOD organic cleaning products, safe for the environment, people and pets and bringing happiness back into cleaning…really I’m not kidding. They have the best smelling products on the market.
Window cleaner that smells of MINT….I can’t stop cleaning the mirrors, even when they aren’t dirty. The counter tops and just about anything else I can clean gets a douse of their all-purpose GRAPEFRUIT cleaner. Don’t even get me started on the ALMOND scented wood cleaner, which in fact is the best wood cleaner I’ve ever used and I have to contain myself from wanting to eat it.
Not to mention the dishwasher detergent, which is also, the best I’ve used. My dishes are cleaner than ever and never have a soapy residue. The LAVENDAR scented floor cleaner is also just as amazing as all the other products. The hand soap that comes in several earthy floral scents cleans my hands better than any other hand soap on the market. All of their products are mixed properly and are already packaged for immediate use. Is it possible for household cleaners to be eco-friendly, smell divinely delicious and work far better than chemical cleaners? Thankfully for mother earth and me the answer is YES, YES YES.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm I have for these products could lead me to writing a book and I don’t want to do that to you today. So, just do me a favour and take a look at their website. If you choose to give the products a try, and I know for a fact that you’ll love them, do me another favour and spread the word. Thank you for your time….I hope you have a lovely day!! They are available in the UK, so no excuse.
Ivy, Florida, USA
No, we have grown so profligate in our use of fuel, I see little hope of changing attitudes. Indeed we’re constantly being urged to seek ever cheaper suppliers of gas and electricity. WHY ?! And people won’t be weaned from their cars; a car is seen not just as a means of getting from A to B but as a status symbol and a way of exercising power....yeah...give it some “wellie”....see me GO! Enough ranting.
Janet Joseph
We need to begin to trap the energy from the sun at the rate we consume it the only way this will feasibly happen, considering human behavioural patterns, is through science. In short, we need to learn to photosynthesise to process the energy from the sun as efficiently as plants do. Check out the excellent In our Time podcast on carbon on Radio 4 website: ‘carbon: the basis of life’.
Sally Howard, London