#WIN a Vektra Vacuum Eco Kettle #ZeroWasteWeek
I’ve been learning some amazing facts for Zero Waste Week which runs 5-9th September.
The theme this year is reducing food waste, which is a topic close to my heart.
What if I were to suggest that when you came home from doing your weekly shop, you threw one third of the food you’d bought straight into the bin?
Sounds crazy, right?
Well, that’s what many households are doing, without even realising!
AND, one third of the food grown on this planet never reaches a human stomach.
Something’s not adding up when we’re told we’re going to struggle to feed people in the future!
Maybe we need to think about wasting less and redistribution of food…
I’ve learned it’s not just food we’re wasting.
We’re wasting drinks too.
And as tea is our nation’s favourite, I was shocked to learn we’re throwing away £110m of tea per year.
That’s not very British, is it?
Not only that, but the average household boils the kettle 1500 times per year and the Energy Saving Trust has found that three-quarters of British households overfill their kettles, wasting a total of £68m each year.
So here’s a simple pledge for Zero Waste Week – why not take care to only boil the amount of water you need AND take five minutes a day to kick back, relax and actually enjoy your favourite cup of tea before it goes cold?
Win a Vektra Vacuum Eco Kettle
I’m going to make it easier for you with your chance to win a fantastic Vektra Vacuum Eco Kettle which has generously been provided by the team at Boiler Guide. It’s ingenious design combines kettle and vacuum flask technology to boil water efficiently then keep it hot for up to four hours.
Simply enter the rafflecopter below and I’ll choose someone at random on Friday evening next week. PLEASE NOTE – this is only open to UK residents.
Always ensure you turn off switches when items are not in use. I always take my phone charger out of the plug socket when it is not in use to save energy.
here we try hard to avoid food waste. My husband takes any leftovers that make a meal-sized-portion to work for his lunch and any others I incorporate into other meals. We use reusable boxes and tins to keep them in the fridge or freezer for later. We also shop to a menu so we only buy what we plan to use.
This year our family focus is on reducing plastic packaging so all of our food is bought in a much more mindful way already.
Fantastic! love this!
My husband is terrible for leaving coffee to go cold, thankfully he still drinks it that way *shudder*
Totally need one of these, I’ve abandoned at least one cup of tea this morning!
We live in a drafty house, so old socks and fabrics all get saved and sewn into draft excluders and wearable blankets!
The dryer was my biggest expense – now I hang clothes on a airer and its really reduced my costs x
We do lots of things to reduce waste in many areas. I even switch off lights at work (hospital…) and at friend’s houses when it seems they aren’t needed at that moment in time…
I normally microwave cold hotdrinks but often boil kettle and forget so this is great. My best energy saving zero waste tip is if you have a condenser drier that you use in wet weather (we currently have no heating so using a clothes horse wouldn’t work), time it so it finishes when you’re ready to mop, the container will be full of lovely warm water
I’m forever turning lights off! I also only boil just enough water too. My main top tip is to cook my rice / risotto in the rice cooker then use the steamer tray for the veg which is built in. Traditionally I would have used two different pans on the gas hob.
Turn off all electrical products & don’t leave them on stand by mode.
Get all the family to close all doors to keep the heat in the room
Turn off electricals when not in use. Don’t leave tv on standby x
Hang up your laundry. Air-dry your laundry rather than tumble drying it can save you alot of money
switch off lights and electricals when not in use
Use as many Led energy saving light bulbs as possible in your home as they use very little energy.
We have a thermal cooker, which is excellent for things which need long slow cooking – bring the contents of the pan to the boil, then just pop the whole thing into an insulated case and it carries on cooking with no extra energy needed. I can even throw together a lentil soup, drive to my friend’s house while it cooks and arrive with freshly made hot soup to share!
So many useful tips here. We have solar panels so I try to use as much free daytime energy as possible. Candles for light at night, blankets rather than putting the heating on and buying fruit and veg ‘as is’ from the local allotment which saves on horrible- and often useless- plastic packaging. Also don’t bother with best before dates, the apple doesn’t fall from the tree with a date printed on it. Use your judgement and you’ll find things are edible well beyond what the supermarkets say. I really could go on all day about this…
Alter the on/off times for your heating to reduce by 15 minutes each day.
I nice simple one, switching lights off. I find it something I really have had to make a conscious effort to do over the years. Simple but effective!
Switch off all electricals at the socket, don’t leave anything on stand-by and measure out cups of water to fill the kettle so you only use what you need!
Thank you very much for the chance to win this fabulous kettle-ours has packed in so we could sure use a new one!🍀 ☕️👍🍀
I’ve made door quilts for our old house and covered them with nice curtain fabric hung in font of the quilt. Although we have insulation around our doors. The glass in them is not insulated . This makes the halls more comfortable and I suspect saves energy.
We have lovely recycled wool blankets from the National Trust on the end of each sofa/chair arm downstairs and we pull them on when we feel chilly rather than turning the heating on/up. We use a three tier steamer on the hob to cook three things on one gas ring.
I had never even given the extra boiled water a thought – something that’s made me think today.
Thank you.
I make my own cleaning cloths from our old worn out cotton clothes rather than buy them from the supermarket. Still haven’t worked out an alternative to scouring pads!
Susan
When you no longer in a room make sure that the light is switched off!
We flush the toilet every other use, for urine that is !
Set your heating and hot water to come on and off when you need them, heat only the areas of your home that need heating and set the temperature for each area of your home.
We run our washing machine at a lower temperature – usually 30 degrees – as it cuts down significantly on the amount of electricity that it uses!
Others have already covered many of my energy saving tips, so I’m going to go with keep fridge/freezer fairly full. This means it won’t waste energy cooling lots of empty air space.
Use a tiered steamer rather than individual pans and always put the lid on.
I only ever use the oven if I cook multiple things at once. When cooking rice I turn the heat off before the end and leave it in the hot water to finish cooking. In the winter we avoid putting the heating on by wearing multiple layers and going to bed early to relax with a heated blanket
Excellent work. As an avid recycler and energy saver, this is a really good read and I’d love to own this kettle frankly!
@Tim A: My tip is simply not to leave everything perpetually on standby and to switch off things you are not using. It should go without saying!
We never throw out food, all it takes is a bit of careful meal planning and good shopping lists! My best energy saving tip is wearing big jumpers and thermal long sleeved tops, keeping the heating use to a minimum is great!
Turn off all plug sockets when not in use,ie Mobile phone charger and kettle,
Don’t buy more than you need as it will only lead to waste
charge your mobile phone with a solar powerbank
Buy a small travel kettle and use it when you only want enough hot water for one or maybe 2 cups of tea – saves a fortune in electricity costs and will soon pay for itself.
anything that saves energy is a winner for me. Great kettle
Only boil the amount of water you need in the kettle and use it straight away.
Only put enough water in the kettle for what you need, don’t boil too much it wastes electricity
Buy an electric car 95% efficient compared to 17 to 21% efficiency of a internal combustion petrol car.
Charge the car on economy 7 and pay between 2-3 pence per mile.
Keep an eye on how much electric everything uses. Switch things off when not being used.Hang things up to dry instead of using a tumble dryer.Wash clothes at 30 instead of 40.
Dry your washing outside as much as possible. Saves energy and money and smells fresher too!
Get electricity and gas meters installed. They make you far more sensitive to energy usage.
turn the heating down – better still turn it off
I wait until I have a full load of washing for my machine and wash at 30c.
Turn everything off at the plug! Standby is a waste 🙂
Wrap up more in the winter rather than cracking the heating right up
Switch off the microwave when not in use. Most kitchens have a wall clock, so why waste electricity on an additional clock you don’t need.