Following on from yesterday’s watery post, green blogger Crunchy Chicken has proposed a “Dry Humps” (as in camels) challenge for one weekend next month. She states that the average American individual uses between 100 – 176 gallons of water a day, whereas an average *family* in an African country only uses 5 gallons of water.

The Crunchy one’s challenge is for people to cut down to 5 gallons a day (per person) for the weekend of the 12th & 13th June. Five gallons is 22.7ltrs, and as a guide, an average bath tub holds about 40gallons/150ltrs, and each toilet flush uses between 1.6gallons/6ltrs and 3.4gallons/13ltrs depending on whether it’s a new-fangled or old fashioned sort. So five gallons/22.7ltrs, per day, per person for a weekend really isn’t that much to live on – so quite an extreme challenge for us decadent water wasters, particularly at the height of summer.

A number of people who are taking up the challenge have wondered aloud how they’ll do it and another set of people have said the challenge is too extreme for them but they’d like to cut down their water usage over permanently – so I thought it might be a fun idea to brainstorm some dark green super tips – or bright green water saving gadgets or ideas.

We – the people switched on enough to read green websites – all know we should turn off the tap when we’re cleaning our teeth and to fill our washing machines rather than running them on water-wasting half loads. They’re the equivalent of “put on a jumper before turning on the heating” ideas for reducing heating bills/usage. But what are your favourite water saving hints and suggestions?

Do you have any gadgets to reduce water flow? Has a pay-for-what-you-use water meter helped keep you focused?

Do you use grey water (from baths, showers, washing machines etc) or stored rainwater to do anything fun? Have you hooked up any systems to automatically do that?

What about in the garden? It’s getting warm out there now and I don’t know about you but my veggies are gulping it down already. Do you do anything in particular to make sure you’re using what you need but not being wasteful?

And what about in the workplace? Have you encouraged your colleagues to cut down? Or seen any great water saving ideas in industry?

Any other ideas?

In the light of the two recent meat-heavy posts, I thought it would be fitting to have a post about reducing the amount of meat we eat ;)

We’ve both actually been vegetarian for extended periods over the last decade (frustratingly not always at the same time!) so personally have an assortment of meat-free meals in our repetoire – but I thought it might be interesting to hear what other people do/have done to cut down their meat consumption.

As I’m sure everyone who is green enough to read this site knows, meat production has a huge impact on the environment before you even start to think about animal welfare. As meat has got cheaper over the years, a generation or two has forgotten that most meat used to be a luxury item, not an at-every-meal basic for everyone. At every point along the meat’s journey from field/pen to plate, it has direct and indirect environmental costs – so whatever we can do to cut down is a good thing.

Do you have meat-free days? Or the other way around, only eat meat on certain days/at certain events?

Do you avoid one particular type of meat/only eat one type of meat? Why?

On a blog recently – I can’t find the precise post, Google Reader Search is failing me – someone mentioned using meat as flavouring in a meal instead of a core ingredient: for example, a little chorizo goes a long way in an otherwise veg/bean heavy dish. I thought that was a good idea.

I remember a friend of ours who went veggie a few years ago told us one of his biggest problems was finding variety for sandwich fillings – he didn’t want to eat tuna but he felt that was his own non-cheese option. He had an “of course!” moment when we mentioned hummus and egg mayo (not together, yick!), because they both had a similar mouthfeel to tuna — but any other suggestions for sandwich fillings/packed lunch ideas?

If you have cut down/are veggie, what were the hardest challenges for you? How did you overcome them? If you haven’t overcome then yet – tell us what they are to see if we can offer any suggestions!

My starting off point for this post was the question “How can I avoid getting free stuff at conferences etc?” but the easy answer to that is obviously “just say ‘no, thanks'”.

There is a bigger related discussion though: how can we stop companies from giving away likely-to-instantly-break junk at conferences and exhibitions etc in the name of promotion? And how can we reduce the one-off waste created by conferences in general?

This question is partly inspired by yesterday’s post about recycling promotional rucksacks but also because it’s the start of conference season (in the tech world at least) so there will be a lot of promotional junk flying around soon. To be fair, some of the stuff we’ve collected at events in the past has been well made — I’ve had some promotional pens last for years and my favourite shopping bag is from a tech conference in 2008 (and when it finally falls apart, I’ll use it as a pattern to make a new one) — but a lot of it is poor quality and random stuff that just about no one needs. Still, despite it being crap, there seems to be almost an expectation about the provision of swag at conferences – I know people who feel a bit cheated if they don’t come away with at least one free t-shirt, even though many are poor quality and they admit used only for decorating or laundry day provision.

Has anyone attended any conferences or events where the organisers/companies have cut back on junk, given away quality items or been more creative with their offerings?

Or has anyone had any luck convincing organisers/companies to cut back or make the switch to better stuff? And what can be done to change the expectation attitude of attendees?

And what else can be done to reduce the one-off waste produced by conferences and the like? Any clever ways to avoid providing new nametags (especially ones needing lanyards) at every event or reducing the amount of paperwork (schedules, maps, other blurb) given to attendees?

(Photo by TheSeafarer)

In honour of International Women’s Day on Monday, we’re having a week of women’s health and sexual health themed posts here on Recycle This – with lots of related giveaways.

It’s great having so many wonderful things to give away – the range of green, reusable sanitary products available these days is amazing — really something for everyone, whether you’re a pad user or want something inside instead.

There is a quite a lot of buzz around menstrual cups – like the Mooncup we’re giving away – at the moment but chatter about menstrual sponges isn’t quite so common – which is a shame because they’re a great natural option and these ones we’ve got to give away? BEST. NAME. EVER.

Jam Sponges are natural, unbleached sea sponges, sustainably harvested from the Mediterranean Ocean and used a bit like tampons – inserted into the vagina, they soak up menstrual fluid before it has a chance to escape into the wild. Unlike tampons though, they’re chemical-free, won’t cause Toxic Shock Syndrome and won’t cause a giant pile of landfill/block sewers. Treated with care, each sponge will last a year and is fully biodegradable so can compost when you’re done with it.

Plus – PLUS – they come with a shiny bag to keep the spare in AND a badge. (Do take the badge off the sponge before inserting ;) )

We’ve got two sets of these fab things to give away – again, they’re courtesy of the lovely Rachael at Moon Times. Just leave a comment below (doesn’t have to be long – “hi” or “jam sponge? hahahaha, that’s fantastic – puntastic!” will do ;) ) before noon (GMT) on Monday 15th March and I’ll pick a winner at random.

I’m happy to ship internationally and remember to leave your email address in the email address field – it won’t be published on the site but let’s me get in touch with you if you win.

UPDATE – Monday 15th 2010

Thanks to everyone who entered. Our lucky winners are…

urban craft and Rachel! I’ll be in touch with you guys soon to get your addresses.

Thanks again to Rachael at Moon Times for providing the sponges – a great green alternative.

(Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days – one of our beloved cats died very, very suddenly on Monday night and it threw me somewhat. :( )

Last week, during our lunch themed week, I asked about alternatives to plastic bags & film wraps for packed lunches and it made me think about reusable alternatives to disposable cling film/foil in the kitchen general.

We’ve not really used film for years – a combination of deliberately wanting to avoid using it and being burned buying a couple of rolls of really not clingy clingfilm. I occasionally, when I’m in a rush, use a bit of tin foil as a temporary lid but mostly I use proper lids – we’ve got a selection of random lids which largely fit our standard eating bowls, and we’ve got some plastic can covers.

The downside with the plastic can covers is they only work for cans that are precisely standard size. That’s why I like these homemade reusable bowl covers. They’re elasticated so can be used on a range of sizes of cans, bowls and assorted tubs. A great, simple idea!

What have you done to reduce the use of disposable covers/wraps like cling film/saran wrap in your kitchen?