A Planet Positive Home Audit To Remember

Things start heating up

What else do I have in my office? Oh yes – a radiator. Our thermostat is sat at 25 degrees (I know, I know), but the thought of the bill still sends chills up my spine. Especially when I know we are currently keeping our Christmas decorations warm and toasty in the box room before they make the yearly expedition to the loft.

30% saving with a Radbot smart radiator valve

Then I found out that I – as in me, myself – can fit this nifty little product called Radbot onto our radiators wherever we have a TRV. As if by magic (aka some science) it understands if and when I am using a room, limiting the heat output if the room isn’t being used. No apps, no expensive programming or plumber needed. Fitting Radbot to all our radiators will mean we save about a 30% on our heating bill – which I calculate is about £341 a year. So, at this point we are at a total saving of over £1500 a year!

Keeping with the heating theme and moving on to the living room where we have a log burner… “We know it’s bad Kirsty, but isn’t there something we can do?” I found myself asking. “Well yes Liz, there is” Kirsty happily replied!

The natural firelighters swap 

According to Kirsty, there’s an easy sustainable swap that won’t add fuel onto that fire. Paraffin firelighters are fossil fuel based and release chemicals and formaldehyde into the environment. And yes – the same formaldehyde used in embalming (gag). But the natural alternatives are made using vegetable oil and FSC certified wood, which is miles better.

By switching, not only are we waving goodbye to the nasty chemical-ridden firelighters, but we’re also saving £432 a year – bearing in mind our cosy evenings with the log burner run from September to July. They’re also great for BBQing – an all-year-round winner in my mind!

Next up: disposables and single-use 

Next on the list is our trusty kitchen roll, used for all major spills and the odd tear. We can easily swap this out for reusable bamboo kitchen roll, where each sheet can be washed and reused up to 88 times! Move over Plenty, there’s a new sheet in town, that’s “strong as bull”!

How does buying bamboo reusable kitchen roll = cleaner air?

We easily go through about two rolls of kitchen roll a week, so swapping to bamboo will save us £67 a year. Not only this, but 52 packets of plastic won’t be going to landfill – considering this, the bin being collected on a biweekly basis isn’t causing me so much stress. There’s more to feel good about though, because bamboo is a plant that absorbs 30% more CO2 and releases 35% more oxygen than regular trees. I’m conscious of our current need to reduce emissions and although I’m sometimes confused by what I can do, supporting the bamboo farming industry makes me feel like I am contributing that little bit more.

Now we move to the washing up area where we have cloths, sponges, scourers… I think that’s it? Little did I know that not only do my sponges come wrapped in plastic, they are also themselves made of plastic, which can take hundreds or thousands of years to degrade (there’s that word again).

Changing to compostable sponges 

So, we are swapping to compostable sponges. These look and feel like our normal choice of sponge but are reusable and will compost at the end of their life – yes, no toxins! We can save £4.80 a year (as the phrase goes, every little helps) and even better, the 52 sponges a year we were using will not go to landfill. That is, wait for it, wait for it…. 52,000 years of degrading! Bearing in mind 52,000 years ago was around the time of the Stone Age – gives you an idea of how long that is.

Moving on to where our waste goes

Then Kirsty wanted to audit my bin next… ‘good lord’ I thought please don’t judge the fact we have eaten oven chips for the last two nights!

The wonders of compostable bin liners

Obviously, we use black bin liners – doesn’t everyone? Apparently not and we can swap these out to the aptly named Waste Not compostable bin liners. As the name suggests, they are completely compostable – we love that word, because it means it’ll break down naturally without releasing any toxins. Obviously our whole family is either working from home schooling from home so snacks are rife and our waste volume is increasing. If the three black bin liners we usually throw out a week will now compost that’s 156 bin liners a year now not going into landfill – the plastic ones would’ve each taken over 100 years to degrade (oh I am sick of that word now).

So, let’s just take a moment to recap savings before we move upstairs. In total we have annual savings of £2206 a year, not to mention the landfill and plastic reduction thrown into that.

What about the laundry? 

Okay, we’re on a roll now – I’m now in the deepest darkest depth of my utility room where I shamelessly have a bottle of Fairy Non Bio on the counter top. I quickly remove these from my favourites list on the Tesco delivery when I learn about how we can swap to a laundry egg.

Making this easy swap will stop us throwing away at least 14 plastic bottles a year – that’s 7000 years of degrading saved. Not only this but its cheaper as well, we’ll save just over £49 a year by switching. What a small but mighty planet positive hero. At this point I’ve called in my boys, the laundry egg uses solid pellets you see, not liquid – so its time for a bit more home schooling aka learning how to use the washing machine!

An eco-friendly dryer sheet alternative 

Whilst I am in the utility room my tumble dryer is on – let’s face it, we live in the UK so we have too many rainy days get by without one. Here we can invest in some dryer eggs, these aren’t necessarily a swap, as we don’t use tumble dryer sheets in this house, but they’ll still help to reduce my drying time by 28% – which will be about £39 a year off my electricity bill. At this rate the electricity company are going to be owing me money!