Bizarre go-green advice
Posted by lewisa on April 20, 2009
Tired of the green wash? Here are a few more original tips for going green and loving the planet
Go green and pee outside – flushing the loo uses three gallons of water
I’m always on the lookout for eco-tips and snippets of info to help in my mission to green up my lifestyle. Whether it’s flicking through magazines, collecting random leaflets that look like they’re about ‘green stuff’, or trawling through obscure eco-blogs and websites for news and titbits, there’s tonnes of good stuff out there. But on my way around the green scene I have, now and again, come across some decidedly wacky advice. Read on and I’ll share all.
Weird tip number one is to wee outside. Simple as that, really; there isn’t much further direction with this one. I presume they mean in a bucket of some sort because, alongside other flush water and toilet paper savings, it seems urine will give garden compost a boost. Whether you go in a bucket then pour into your compost bin, or just urinate straight onto plants, is up to you. I guess it just depends how sheltered your backyard is. And maybe what equipment you have, if you get my drift.
“Saving water by taking shorter showers is a serious and effective tip to implement into our lives”Number two is namely some practical advice for the vegetable growers among us, if there are any, but still mildly entertaining for the rest. If you have ever wondered what to do with an old bra, one suggestion is to use them as “a support for ripening fruit and veg like tomatoes and grape fruit.”GirlGenius, advises on the How Can I Recycle This? forum, “Just hang them on the branches so they cradle the fruit in the cups.” DD cup tomatoes, anyone? Other suggestions were to make your old bap boosters into purses, slingshots, or hanging baskets.
With Easter fast approaching, bizarre tip number three is rather topical – what do you do with all the packaging you get from Easter eggs. It’s never just the pure chocolate, is it; there’s always at least three other layers of cardboard, then plastic, then foil to grapple with before the good stuff is loose. So rather than throwing it all out, or recycling it the regular way, why not use the plastic to protect things in the post? It’s a good idea in theory, but the thought of trying to find an envelope to fit, and then the bemused look on the recipient’s face when they opened their egg-shaped, chocolate scented, yet well protected parcel did amuse me. Suggestions for reusing the foil included employing it in the garden to scare away birds – in case you need to do that.
Saving water by taking shorter showers is a serious and effective tip to implement into our lives. But the way this Save Water campaign tries to get the message across is hilarious. Rather than a hard hitting clip of drought, this campaign video resembles an odd advert Chris Tarrant would have included in his funny ad breaks programme (I can’t remember what it was called now, but it wasn’t that great anyway).
