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Frequently asked questions

If you have a question about sustainable living send an email to info@sustainwales.com we will try to answer them and selected questions will be posted on this site.

Q. What does sustainable living actually mean to me and my family?

Q. How much will living more sustainably cost me?

Q. Is sustainable living just about recycling and the environment?

Q. I’m very busy. Will making sustainable changes to my life just be an extra burden?

Q. I try my best to take all my family’s empty bottles to the bottle bank every month but how can I encourage my family to recycle more of our rubbish when we don’t have a kerbside collection service for all the other stuff?

Q. With all the different messages we keep hearing nowadays, I sometimes get confused when I’m out shopping about which one I’m supposed to buy: fair trade, locally sourced, organic or fresh produce?

Q. Why do I always have to turn off the tap while I brush my teeth or stop watering my lawn to save water when we’re an island surrounded by water, surely it can’t be that bad?

Q. Why should I bother recycling when it only gets sent to China to be land-filled anyway?

Q. Is it true that my car can run on old chip fat?

Q. What does ‘carbon off-setting’ mean and how does it actually work?

Q. What does sustainable living actually mean to me and my family?

A. Sustainable living means thinking about the way you and your family live and doing things in a way that meets your needs but without causing a negative impact on others’ wellbeing and your environment.

It’s not as daunting as it sounds and you don’t have to turn your routine upside own to make a difference; remember that small things add up to big changes.

Sustainwales.com is packed full of ideas to get you started on the road to a more sustainable life – ideas that could even save you pounds and get your family fitter and healthier!

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Q. How much will living more sustainably cost me?

A. Living more sustainably doesn’t have to cost you a penny. In fact, many sustainable lifestyle choices will actually save you money!

Bigger projects, like installing solar panels on your house, will cost you money initially, but the most important thing to bear in mind is the long term reward. Not only will you be cutting out the need for fossil fuels but, over time, these investments will pay for themselves - you’ll soon start to see savings in your pocket too! There might also be grants available to help with the cost.

Sustainwales.com is full of tips that explain what you can do to help save pounds and the planet and you’ll be able to search by postcode to find out exactly what you can do to live more sustainably in your local area.

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Q. Is sustainable living just about recycling and the environment?

A. The way we live our lives and every choice we make has the potential to affect the environment, people around us and communities further afield.

Of course, recycling is a really important part of minimising the damage we inflict on our planet and will undoubtedly help protect the environment but it’s only one element of sustainable living – it’s just an easy idea to get you started!

Sustainable living involves looking at the way you live your life and the choices you make day by day.

Try considering the wider consequences of each decision you make. For instance, if you buy local, organic produce you’ll be ensuring that you’re getting good quality, healthy fresh food for your family, supporting your local economy, helping to keep local businesses trading, and keeping your community vibrant. Better still, by walking to your local store or market you’ll be minimising damage to the environment by reducing the amount of emissions you would produce by travelling. It’s win-win!

So, in a nutshell, sustainable living isn’t only about recycling and the environment; it’s about thinking about the wider impact of your decisions and trying to make choices that will minimise harm to people and the planet.

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Q. I’m very busy. Will making sustainable changes to my life just be an extra burden?

A. There’s no doubt that changing your routine takes a bit of getting used to. However, making one small change at a time is a very easy and quick way to getting on the path to a more sustainable life. Just making the tiniest changes, like switching off your TV properly when you go out or go to bed, instead of leaving it on standby, is a great way for busy people to get started.

Sustainwales.com is packed full of quick tips and ideas that even someone with the fullest diary can easily fit into their daily routine. And if you need an extra incentive, many of the ideas on the site will also help you save money and get healthier!

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A. Try following these simple steps: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.

Reduce: Start by encouraging your family to reduce the amount of packaging they bring home by buying less, choosing loose items over heavily packaged ones or refusing a carrier bag when they don’t really need one. Some companies now offer biodegradable packaging on their goods made from materials like corn starch that can be composted.

Re-use: Then try re-using useful items that you bring home such as taking your carrier bags with you when you go shopping or saving your used ice-cream tubs and jam jars – perfect for freezing food or keeping your screws together in the shed. And don’t forget the other ‘R’ of Repair which can give your items a new lease of life.

Recycle: If you follow these simple steps it will mean you have much less to take to your local recycling point each month making it much easier to manage. You should also try contacting your local authority to find out when you will have a recycling collection service in place in your area.

To find out where you can easily recycle all your goods in your area visit www.recyclenow.org.

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A. Everything that appears on our supermarket shelves has gone through a process of production, trading and travelling to get there. The concepts of organic, fair trade, and locally sourced fresh goods relate very simply to these three things.

Organic production recognises that our health is directly connected to the health of the food we eat and of the soil on which it has grazed or in which it has grown. There are strict regulations which ensure that the food is free of chemicals and that animals are not given drugs to protect them from pesticides and parasites and alternative methods are used. This also helps to keep our rivers clean and our fish healthy and protects other animals in the food chain such as birds.

Goods which are fairly traded ensure that the producer is given a fair price. This enables him in turn to provide a fair wage for his workers and invest in better quality and safer farming and production. All too often producers are squeezed for the lowest price possible meaning that they either resort to cheap, unfair and unsafe working conditions or they go out of business. Fair trade goods are now widely available and as more people buy them the prices come down.

The third thing to consider is the distance that food has travelled to reach the store. Everything clocks up food miles on its way to the stores. This means that carbon emissions are being released into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. Much of our food comes from abroad, particularly that which is out of season. Try looking for seasonal goods that have been grown locally, they will also be cheaper as they are abundant.

There are lots of different things to weigh up when we do our shopping, go with your instinct and try not to get bogged down by the great choice of ethical alternatives that are now available!

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Q. Why do I always have to turn off the tap while I brush my teeth or stop watering my lawn to save water when we’re an island surrounded by water, surely it can’t be that bad?

A. For every minute the tap is running it is wasting 10-28 litres of drinking standard water. Water supplied to our home comes from rain water that’s been taken from a river, chemically treated to drinking standard, and then pumped many miles. With annual rainfall levels starting to drop parts of the UK are now regularly experiencing drought conditions and there isn’t enough water in our rivers to supply everyone’s needs.

Water is very heavy and the energy used to get it to your home is impacting on global warming too. You could consider getting a water-butt to collect rainwater for your garden, which is much better for your plants than treated water, and putting a water displacer like a ‘hippo’ or a simple house brick in your toilet cistern to reduce the amount of water being flushed away each time.

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Q. Why should I bother recycling when it only gets sent to China to be land-filled anyway?

A. Recent reports in the media have claimed that a lot of recyclable waste goes abroad for landfill disposal. These reports can sometimes be misleading. Many materials are sent abroad for recycling because emerging markets, like China and India , have a greater demand for recyclate than their own economies can supply.

International, European, and UK law all contain rules and regulations on the movement of waste and the efforts to track and control these shipments has recently been tightened. In the UK all exporters of waste must register with the Environment Agency, and may only ship regulated waste to regulated countries with a full visible audit trail. No mixed waste, or municipal (household) waste can be shipped (NetRegs).

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Q. Is it true that my car can run on old chip fat?

A. We can use second hand vegetable oils and fats in a number of ways. We can burn it in power stations, helping to produce cleaner energy when it is co-fired with fossil fuels, use it as a lubricant, or use it as bio-diesel for cars.

It should only be used in cars that normally run on diesel but you should seek advice before making the switch to bio-fuel and cars that run on 100% bio-diesel need to be specially modified. According to the Allied Bio-diesel Industries for the UK the use of straight vegetable oils or strange mixtures in unmodified engines will harm your engine.

It’s a great way to dispose of old fats and oils that would otherwise clog up our bins, drains and sewers in a way that is useful and reduces fossil fuel consumption, and can be beneficial to the community if bio-diesel is produced by the community for the community using oils collected within the community.

Case Study: Sundance Renewables

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Q. What does ‘carbon off-setting’ mean and how does it actually work?

A. Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is an essential element for life on earth. It is absorbed by plants throughout their lives and oxygen released, giving us clean air to breath.

Fossil fuels come from plants that died millions of years ago, turned into oil or coal over time and locked the carbon underground. When we burn them, driving our cars, cooking on the gas hob, or using electricity for our appliances we release the carbon back into the atmosphere. It is this excess production of carbon gases in our atmosphere that is believed to be one of the main causes of human induced global warming.

The idea behind carbon offsetting is to offset the amount of carbon we are personally responsible for by paying for projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere - for example, by investing in fuel efficient technology or renewable energy projects or by planting trees to absorb the carbon.

How people choose to act is a personal matter and sceptics argue that there are a number of ethical and moral issues behind paying your way out of guilt while continuing to emit carbon as normal. However, most people agree there is a need to reduce our fuel consumption, reduce the impact of deforestation and invest more in fuel-efficient technologies and renewable energy.

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