Tag: olio (page 1 of 1)

9 Free Apps to Help You Be Greener Today

I (Emma) don’t know about you, but over this [swearword redacted] of a year, I feel like my productivity has gone right down. Leaving aside the arguments about toxic productivity and that we are worth more than what we get done in a day, this has been hard for me.

It hasn’t just been the pandemic, but rather a lot of personal stuff that hasn’t got any easier throughout the lockdown period, which for me is basically from March 16th and will continue until my grandad gets the vaccine. (This is not an arguement against the lockdown, which I fully support.)

And this productivity vacuum hasn’t just been limited to work. In fact, I’ve been less green in all the ways you’d expect (buying packaged food and takeaways) and ways you might not (using the dryer more).

So how can we be more green with less time and energy? Well, this is the topic of this article. Apps.

Ecosia

person searching with binoculars

I feel like we bang on about Ecosia a lot but they use their ad revenue to plant trees in places that need them most. They’ve planted over 114 million as of writing.

They’ll also put a green leaf icon next to websites that supply eco products or have sustainable practices.

Forest

tree

On a similar note (and because this post is focused on productivity), Forest will encourage you to put down your phone for a set amount of time while a cartoon tree grows on screen.

It also plants IRL trees through partnering with charity Trees for the Future.

Too Good to Go/ Olio

bags of peaches

I’ve put these together because they both fight food waste by picking up stuff that someone else doesn’t want; Olio from other people and TGTG from restaurants and shops.

I haven’t used them since early March because #shielding, but if you feel confident, you can do contact-free pick-ups from people’s houses or in the same way that you’d usually buy food in the store. (Follow the advice on the apps.)

Pinterest

photo collage

Now, there are a lot of things on Pinterest that aren’t eco, but it’s a great place to search for vegan recipes, upcycle tutorials, and zero waste tips. Approach with caution. It’s addictive.

BorrowBox

woman reading book

Can’t get to your library or a charity shop? Want to avoid buying books online with all the pointless packaging? With BorrowBox, you can borrow eBooks and audiobooks for free without leaving the house.

[As always, second-hand books can be bought from World of Books and new books can be bought from the independent and Southsea-based Pigeon Books, who wrap them in paper and deliver on bike.]

Good On You

clothing store

We all know that Tamara likes the Ethical Consumer, but what if that was in app form and scored clothing brands based on their impact on the people, animals, and the environment.

I haven’t used it because I don’t buy a lot of clothes new – one band t-shirt this year – but I thought it might be good for people who like clothes shopping, as if they recommended you avoid the brand, they’ll give you better options.

reGAIN

woman with boxes of clothes

On a related note, reGAIN encourages donating clothes, shoes, and accessories you no longer wear to the British Red Cross in exchange for discounts on new items.

Weather App

person riding bicycle during rain

This is something I use all the time and the best part is that you don’t have to free up space because it’s already on all of our phones. My most common use of it is to check if it will rain, so that I can put the washing out at night and bring it in the next day.

Other uses could include checking if you can walk somewhere rather than taking the car, seeing the best day to go for a bike ride, or using bad weather as an excuse not to see someone you don’t like when the lockdown lifts.

Hopefully, this will help you be more eco without much effort. Let us know in the comments below if you have any other app suggestions.

GREEN CHALLENGES: How we Scrwed up this year and how we’ll do better

Following our Green Wins, join Emma and me as we bare our souls and reveal our Eco ‘Oopsies’. But as eco-shame is never the aim of our game, we also set our positive intentions with personal enviro challenges for the next 365 days of Shades of Green.

So, first, the waggy-ish finger – What Eco ‘Oopsies’ have Emma and I (Tamara) made in the last year in our attempts to live green?


Confessions of Shady Greens

Image by jessica45 from Pixabay

Emma’s Eco Oopsies

Chauffeur Hire: I have been persuaded to share a taxi late at night, rather than get the bus, which I feel guilty about. (Tamara says: You are SHARING a taxi. That is fine. I absolve you.)

Flying McFly Face: Two of my holidays in 2019 have involved air-travel and I cannot pretend that I feel good about it. Before my holidays, Tamara and I discussed offsetting the carbon, which Tamara feels is greenwash. I can’t prove that the companies would have planted a tree with the £10, so I donated it to Portsmouth Green Party instead.

Single-Use Trees and Leaves: I do routinely forget to tell restaurants that I don’t want paper napkins, so I end up taking my unused napkin home and using it for emergency toilet paper if I haven’t washed my cloths. Otherwise, restaurants will just throw them in the bin because they don’t know what you’ve done to them.

Strike a Pose, Vogue: I bought three *new* items of clothing that were definitely not made from sustainable materials. I wish my swimsuit had been made from recycled materials and that the other items had been bought second-hand. 

Tamara’s Eco Oopsies 

Cat vs Food: My stupid cat has stupid ongoing urinary problems. She is now on stupid urinary food for life and though I have sourced it in a can and not in a stupid plastic pouch, it is not ethical meat. Gutted. Farewell to Yarrah‘s organic, grain free and MSC wet cat food!

Who Needs Teeth?: I am pleased to report that I have sourced zero waste toothpaste and floss. I have been using Toothtabs (with fluoride!) for a while now and am very happy with them. I’ve been buying them online and was so chuffed to buy them locally from Refill and Replenish  – a fab mobile plastic-free shop run by the lovely Laura and Alice.

However, though I bought plastic-free dental floss from Wild Thyme ages ago at the Package Free Larder launch event March, I haven’t actually used it yet. My dentist will be horrified. 

Think of the Fishes: Since Emma’s post last year on eco-ing the festival experience, researching and buying eco sunscreen has been on my list. I have not yet sorted that but I am using up one from last year’s Turkey holiday in September

Fish are Friends, not Food: But my biggest oopsie is that I’ve been eating illicit fish here and there, mostly eating (delicious) sashimi at Sakura Southsea – and it’s not even ethical or MSC fish. It is a massive fail. And I dare to still consider myself a vegetarian. It is a complete identity crisis. Who even am I?


We learn from our mistakes and we are not about eco-shaming, so Emma – please lift us back up – what will you be focusing on for the next 365 days of Shades of Green?

365 Green Challenges

Emma’s Green Challenges for Shades of Green 365

  1. A lot of the green progress I’ve made is a case of thinking more about what I need and do not need. That’s cut down on packaging, as well as the creation of new items. I want to continue this thoughtful thinking next year.
  2. I’m taking a stand against presents. Over the next year, I’m going to be telling all of my friends and relatives that I’m not going to be buying them birthday or Christmas presents, nor do I wish to receive them. (Actually, I’m just linking them to this post.) I will be making exceptions for my niece and nephews, but in order to ensure they get something that they’ll cherish, I’ve asked their parents what they want.
  3. I will continue to cut down on:
    • packaging, even stuff that can be recycled, by buying naked products
    • animal byproducts, by eating vegan meals more often
    • food waste, by optimising  my use of Olio, the Trash Cafe, etc

Tamara’s Green Challenges for Shades of Green 365

  1. Terracycle and stretchy plastics in the Carrier Bag recycling banks – this is an ongoing de-merit. I have started taking stuff to carrier bag recycling but I still haven’t looked into it properly so always feel guilty in case I am contaminating it. I do take my crisp packets to a Terracycle collector in Southsea and keep my pens for Milton Cross School (but haven’t actually taken them) but again haven’t really done the research.
  2. Water-saving is a challenge indeed as hopefully, I will be moving this autumn (hence the new mortgage green win in our previous post) and my new-fingers-crossed-home has a water meter. This is something I haven’t experienced since living in Tobago when we would bathe using a bucket. I am going to become a water-saving bully, I know it! I am taking inspiration from Emma’s post on ‘How to Eco-Hack Your Bathroom’ and her tips as her household are water-saving champs!
  3. I have signed up to be #flightfree2020. I have warned my friends and family who reside abroad and am mentally preparing myself from now! Did you know that there is a new Sweedish word for the feeling of shame experienced when flying – flygskam. 2020 shall be flygskam free for me!

And so concludeth our anniversary introspection! Emma and I will report back on our green challenges in approx a years time in August-ish 2020 Till then, here’s to another 365 days of living in various Shades of Green!

And what of you Dear Reader, what are your green oopsies and challenges? – tell us in the Comments Section.

Tamara’s Trio of Food Smugness

This week’s post is a celebration of food and community. First pat on the back in my trio of food smugness goes to Foodcycle Portsmouth and my friend Alexa, a fellow Green Party member, who organised a Portsmouth Green Party meal ‘takeover’ of Foodcycle which I participated in recently.

Portsmouth Foodcycle

 

Foodcycle is a fantastic food waste charity that creates free meals for the community from donated food waste. Foodcycle  Portsmouth provides the local Pompey community with tasty, free vegetarian meals made from surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. They do this twice a week: on Tuesdays at the John Pounds Centre and Thursdays at King’s Church on Somers Road.

 

It was a blast! A group of us Greenies were welcomed with open arms by the regular volunteers and guided by a calm and knowledgeable Team Leader, we cooked a three-course meal of veggie soup for starters, pasta bake with potato wedges, garlic mushrooms and wilted spring greens for mains and fruit salad for dessert. The entire meal – the cooking, prepping, serving and cleaning up – took about four and a half hours and was attended by about 45-50 guests. The evening was both wonderful and exhausting. I took the mountain of veggie scraps for my compost and left on a complete high and with the vow to volunteer there once a month.

 

Trash Cafe Food Hamper

Credit: The Real Junk Food Project South East (Facebook)

 

The Real Junk Food Project South Coast run a number of pop-up ‘trash’ cafes in Gosport and Portsmouth dedicated to collecting and repurposing food waste.  They are part of a global network aiming to abolish surplus food through a variety of Pay As You Feel concepts. I bought my first veggie food hamper from their Portsmouth pop-up cafe, which can be found at  Buckland Community Centre on Wednesday afternoons, for a £10 Hamper fee paid in advance when I ordered online and a Pay What You Feel on collection.

There was so much food – a great mix of fruit, veg, proteins such as tofu and also snacks. It was so fun to receive as it contained foods and brands I haven’t tried before. There was some fancy fake-chicken that I would not have bought in the supermarket as it is rather pricey! All that perfectly good food would have been destined for the bin but instead was destined for my belly! Double win! They also offer gluten and dairy-free hampers and can deliver for an extra fiver. As you know, I’m not a big fan of leaving the house, especially now winter is coming, so I will definitely be using their delivery service!

Being Neighbourly

 

At the Dutchman’s (my hubby) work, his office has a plastics-free fruit box delivered each week. I hadn’t realised that if the fruit isn’t all eaten or taken home by a colleague, it goes in the bin. Sacrilege! About 40 apples and pears were destined for the bin. Not on my watch!  I offered the fruit on the  Zero Waste Portsmouth discussion group on Facebook, with Foodcycle Portsmouth and the Olio app as my backup.

In less than an hour, the apples and pears were collected by a Zero Waster who turned out to be a neighbour who lives on the same street as me! We’d never met before and both happened to be members of Zero Waste Portsmouth. And as a kindness, the next day she gave me a bag of parsnips that she’d won in a hamper and did not want. It gave me the warm fuzzies and I am loving the green community in Portsmouth!

 

And what about you, dear Reader? Have you had any experiences with FoodCycle or the Trash Cafe Network? Or any tips and tricks on reducing food waste? Leave your thoughts in the Comments section below. We really do LOVE hearing from readers. It gives me such a buzz! Byeeeeeee buzzzzzzzzz 🙂