Green Your Gaf!

As we all settle into a new reality of working from home, Glandore would like to make this experience as green as possible. We have some hassle free tips to bring your workplace green initiative into your own home also!

Electricity

At home or in the workplace, we are all guilty of leaving electrical items on standby, leaving chargers plugged in and lights turned on. This is a waste of energy, producing unnecessary CO2, This waste of energy has been nicknamed “Vampire Energy” as leaving items on standby or plugged in sucks power. In fact, it can add up to 20 -30 per cent of your bill each month.
Why not get the whole family to unplug their mobile phone chargers from the wall when not being used. Switch off your laptop and TV – don’t leave it on standby.

Declutter
While 2019 may have been the year of Marie Kondo, many of us still have cupboards, presses and wardrobes full of items we are never going to use. Spend an hour this week, clearing out a wardrobe, emptying a cupboard or shelf of items you no longer use or need. When COVID19 has passed, donate these items to your local charity shop. Charity shops will happily take your good quality used items. Sort through your old bed sheets and towels, donate the good quality items to your local homeless shelter or women’s refuge – generally they prefer single bed spreads as opposed to double bed sets (call them to find out). The ones that are not suitable for recycling can be donated to your local animal shelter instead.

Food Waste
With many of us stocking up on food over the last few weeks, the reality is, food is going to go to waste. Spend 10 minutes going through your fridge and cupboards to find items coming towards their sell by date and use these products first. Google can be a great resource to find out how best to use up food. Our personal favourite comes from Nigella Lawson who’s top tip is to freeze the last of your red wine in ice trays and use those red wine ice cubes to make a red wine sauce at a later date. Get into the back of the fridge, freezer and cupboards and pull the oldest items to the front to be used first. Rotate your food in much the same way supermarkets do.

Repair

We all have items we’ve put on hold to fix and just never got around to. Now is the time to get out the needle and thread or superglue. Youtube is a great resource to learn how to fix and mend. Repair a small hole in an item of clothing that you have stopped wearing. This will mean you will get a lot more wear out them and also save money.

Ebay

We all have perfectly good items such as bicycles, tablets, laptops, camera’s, phones, books, exercise equipment etc that we aren’t using or no longer need. While decluttering, put these items aside, take some pictures and pop them up on Ebay, Amazon or Done Deal and sell them.
Many tech products hold value and required huge energy to produce. Reselling these items ensures we don’t have to mine for new virgin metals and minerals and helps reduce our carbon foot print.

Old Chargers and Cables

Our homes and businesses are full of old chargers, cables, earphones and other broken pieces of tech. These can be recycled at your local county recycling centre as they are considered electrical waste. Take an old reusable shopping bag and put any old broken electrical items into it, old remotes, cables, earphones, speakers, Christmas lights etc. Any item that uses a battery or plug can go into this bag. Leave the bag in a cupboard and once full pop it into the boot and the next time you are passing your county dump, drop them off at the WEEE recycling section.

Cosmetics

We all have half used bottles of cosmetics, be it face cream, aftershave, perfumes, shampoos etc. Sort through them all and try and use them up over the next few weeks. Using up every last bit of a manufactured item ensures we get it’s full economic and carbon value and reduce waste.
Pour half used bottles into each other. Give unwanted cosmetics items to family or friends, Un-opened products can be donated to your local charity shop. Remember to rinse out any old bottles and put them in the recycling bin.

Recycle More, Recycle Better

We all need to increase our recycling rates both at home and in the workplace. The vast majority of us don’t recycle items in our bathroom such as shampoo or shower gel bottles. Consider putting in a second bin into your bathroom for recycling.
In the kitchen it’s important to remember to rinse and dry out your cartons, tins, bottles and containers before being placed in the recycling bin. Sign up to Terracycle to recycle your empty cosmetics containers and pouches. Put an old shoe box aside for collecting these items, once you’ve collected 2Kg, you can ship these items back to Terracycle completely free and Terracycle will donate 2 euro to your chosen charity. You can also sign up to recycle old crisp packets with Terracycle and much like their cosmetics recycling programme, once you have 2Kg you simply ship it back for free.

Zero Waste
Zero Waste entered the Oxford English dictionary in 2019 and it is something we can all aim for. Consider watching Zero Waste videos on Youtube, there are some excellent tips on reducing waste coming into our homes and businesses. Watch Bea Johnson, this French-American is the Queen of the modern Zero Waste Movement. You will learn so much from her.