Firstly, some background knowledge, just a little about me, myself and what I am and what I do. Yeah, I know, your thinking, god damn it, I came here to read about all things eco, and all things little...well...patience my friends...patience...that will come.
Now, I'm presuming you have all read my profile...what??? You have'nt???? Well, do so now, as I'm not typing that lot out again, and no, i cant just copy and paste it, you cheeky lot!
OK, I live in Gowerton, a little village of 4000 people, about 5 miles outside Swansea and right on the edge of the Gower Peninsula, the UK's first area of outstanding natural beauty. I work as a graphic designer and wannabee wildlife photographer in Cardiff, which is around 50 miles away from where I live.
What made me start this blog was something that happened to me about 6 months ago. I was happily sitting in work after travelling the best part of 500 miles in my car during the week, when all of a sudden...an email arrived...it was an Earth Footprint test http://www.myfootprint.org/ go check it out! I did the test...it came out with 6.4...YES...6.4...so in other words, my Earth Footprint was 6.4 so if everyone lived like me, we would need 6.4 Earth's to survive. That shocked me, it was by far the highest in my office, and for someone such as myself who loves wildlife and who loves the outdoors it was a horrible realisation about what i was doing to our Earth, i stared into my coffee cup and knew i HAD to change.
It was time to make some cuts. There was no way I could go on like that, i was doing roughly 700 miles a week in my car, 90% of that was on my own in the car, i was blindly buying ready meals for lunch, wasting paper, getting plastic bags with everything, using normal light bulbs and just generally not thinking about stuff. It's easy to do, its easy to go out at lunch from work, walk into a supermarket, pick up a ready meal, pay for it, put it into an oh so convenient plastic carrier bag and wander back to work, completely unaware of what you have done.
I never thought about the packaging on ready meals, a cardboard sleeve, a plastic tray, with a plastic cover. Food that comes from god knows where, no where near organic, and no where near fair trade, a plastic bag that you use once, or maybe you keep them, stuffed in a cupboard, because its a "shame" to throw them out.
I never thought about driving my car to work everyday, never thought about flipping a switch in my bedroom that turns all my electric appliances off so they aren't on standby, nothing about swapping my bulb in my room for an energy efficient one, never thought about using my bag, which i carry everyday, instead of a plastic bag, never looked at the fresh food that's sold in the market in Cardiff. I didn't not think of it on purpose, it just never entered my head.
Well now it has...and now I AM doing something about it!
So far, during the last 1 month,
- I have taken 1 plastic bag from a shop, and that was only because a shop assistant wrapped a shirt in one, before i had a chance to protest
- I cant remember the last ready meal i ate
- I have replaced my energy wasting bulb in my room for a an energy saving bulb
- I have cut my weekly mileage down to 200, I get the train 3 times a week now
- I switch off all my electrical items in my room so nothing is on standby
- I always unplug my phone charger when its not in use
Please stay tuned to my blog, and please comment, i want your views on things. I want my blog to influence people, as well as that i want "Little Eco Things" to spread the word about helping the environment and about how to live in a more Eco way.
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