Philippines Water Refills

6 February 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged 3 water

When travelling in far-flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong.

First…
Check if the tap water is actually safe to drink. To find out, visit this super cool website to find out can I drink the water. Just pick the country you want and read the result.

If yes, hooray – all you need to take is your refillable bottle.

If no consider buying a Steripento sterilize you own water.

Refill Stations
Many countries offer a waterbottle refill service. This is for the locals not tourists but you can also use it. We do but still sterilise the water with our pen.

Cebu City to Moalboal

Theres no need to buy bottled water in Cebu as far as I can tell. Everywhere you look there are large refillable water bottles, encased in wooden boxes, where you can refill your bottle for pesos. They look homemade to me – the boxes not the bottles I mean. Of course there is no way of knowing that the bottles simply haven’t been refilled from the tap but the water is clear so can be further treated with your Steripen.

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

Iran – modify breakfast

4 January 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 5 Comments

I love Iranian breakfasts – fresh bread, eggs, goats or sheep cheese, creamy butter, village jam and honey with black tea. Nice.

Sadly, in hotels at least, they have gone for per-packed portion controlled servings in plastic with a boiled egg. The whole lot is cling-filmed to the plate for the purposes of hygiene apparently. I know…I know…

For the purpose of consumer research I tried one. The butter was weird and slick, the cheese was like dairy lee, the honey was just syrup water and the jam a bright red blob of jelly that tasted of no fruit at all. Grim, worse than tasteless and resulting in a plateful of everlasting trash.

What to do for breakfast instead?

Ask to have the bread and egg separate and unattached to the plate.Explain that clingfilm and plastic are carcinogens. Ask for some cucumber or fruit instead of poison wrapped spreads. You are missing nothing by refusing this rubbish and helping to endorse the use of local products which are far superior

For more posts on plastic in Iran read up here

Find lots more pictures of Iranian plastic pollution here at
Planet Trash and Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish

Want to travel plastic free – check out the plastic free backpack

Wrapping presents – cloth furoshiki

2 January 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade, 3.1 Special days & Parties 7 Comments

Fabric

To do this you will need a square of cloth. You can buy one or make your own

Make your own
Decide what size.
50cm x 50cm Cloth for smaller items
A wine bottle will need 100cm x 100cm version.
Pick your fabric. It needs to be thin enough to tie but not see through obvs!
Hem the edges for a neater look. Or pretend frayed is chic.
For more detailed instructions try the lovely Omiyage Blog

Ready Made
For teeny tiny gifts use a hankerchief.
For bigger gifts, buy a headscarf. You can find loads in charity shops.
Smaller stuff you can use a bandana.

If you really cannot get any of the above locally I have listed some here!

Wrapping

Then use it to wrap your presents using this ancient Japanese technique of furoshiki. The following image is from the Evermine Blog which is full of lots more great ideas.

If you do go down the paper route, be sure to use this plastic free sticking tape

Iran – Take a towel….

9 December 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. 5 Comments

And don’t dress like that. When backpacking we don’t usually stay in the kind of hotels that provide luxurious extras like towels. Our hotels are basic. The kind where you see something brown on your pillow its not a chocolate. Which means we have to bring our own towels .

As backpackers we try to keep our bags small so rather than carry towels we use multi-purpose wraps (sarongs). These double (triple?) as towels, beachwear and dressing gowns. While they make excellent dressing gowns they lack the absorbency of proper fleecy bath sheets. Basically you use them to wipe off the excess water but not much more. This is fine in warmer climates where the hot air can finish the job but in colder places they tend to leave you clammy in your clefts and moist between your toes. Not how you want to be.

Another consideration is drying them after use. Again not a problem when its warm, infinitely harder when its cold. Traveling with wet towels is unpleasant. After a couple of days everything in your pack smells horribly of damp and there is mildew on your knickers. Our immediate solution to cold weather drying problems is not to shower.

Being British, and Northern, I can go for days on one quick wipe round with a flannel. Village Boy has higher standards and soon starts winging. Eventually we have to book a couple of days in a reasonably nice hotel that supplies hot water, towels and ideally a laundry service.

The North of Iran has been wet and cold so shivering and whiffy we have been searching out decent places to clean up. For reasons I cannot begin to imagine some hotels in Iran have started heat sealing their towels in plastic bags. Yes plastic wrapped towels. We asked for unwrapped towels but apparently they return from the laundry like that.

We opened them and used the towels but it quite spoilt our shower.

We have taken the plastic bags with us to reuse.

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the plastic- free backpack

Palm Oil

1 December 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade, 4 About The Alternatives Tagged 1.6 Definitions, 3.1.3 Oils & Spreads, 4 raw materials 3 Comments

While I was in Malaysia I got to see some orangutangs. Most of them were in the rehabilitation center which is basically a safari park, a bit of preserved jungle. I was also lucky enough to see one in what was left of the wild outside – along with some big nose monkeys. When I say wild, I mean a tiny strip of jungle left straggling along the river bank. The rest of the area, that had once been wild and wonderful rain forest, was now covered with palm oil plantations. Acre upon bloody rolling acre of palm trees. The only reason we got to see so much wild life was that it had been pushed right up to the river by farmers encroaching on their habitat. Those monkeys had no where to go and no where to hide.

Palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia. Both countries have cut down hundreds of acres of rainforest to make way for huge mono crop farms. While Malaysia appears to be finally taking a more considered approach Indonesia is still tearing down trees and destroying ancient peat land at a frightening rate.

“The average annual rate of forest loss in Indonesia was 498,000 hectare (ha) (FAO, 2010) from 2000 to 2010 or the equivalent of over 55 rugby fields per hour.

The expanding palm oil industry has been a key driver of this deforestation. In the decade to 2010, Indonesian plantation area nearly doubled to close to 8.0 million ha and is expected to near 13 million ha by 2020 (PWC, 2012).”

Indiginous people have been expelled from their land and the loss of habitat has obviously resulted in a reduction in wildlife some of which, like the orangutang, is now endangered. This has caused international concern and calls by many for palm oil to be boycotted, So much so that in 2004, an industry group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed to work with the palm oil industry to help mitigate some of the worst impacts and rehabilitate the palm oil brand.

The World Wildlife Foundation has approved the RSPO efforts in “providing assurance that valuable tropical forests have not been cleared, and social safeguards have been met during the oil’s production” of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil.

What’s Palm Oil Used For?

Almost everything from food to cosmetics. You can see a big list here.

How Do I Know?

That’s not so easy. Many products that use palm oil don’t clearly label the fact. Palm oil and its derivatives can appear under many names.

The WWF lists includes the following:

INGREDIENTS: Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Fruit Oil, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol

And here are some more

PKO – Palm Kernel Oil
PKO fractionations: Palm Kernel Stearin (PKs); Palm Kernel Olein (PKOo)
PHPKO – Partially hydrogenated Palm Oil
FP(K)O – Fractionated Palm Oil
OPKO – Organic Palm Kernel Oil
Palmate
Palmolein
Palmitate – Vitamin A or Asorbyl Palmitate (NOTE: Vitamin A Palmitate is a very common ingredient in breakfast cereals and we have confirmed 100% of the samples we’ve investigated to be derived from palm oil)
Sodium Laureth Sulphate (Can also be from coconut)
Sodium Lauryl Sulphates (can also be from ricinus oil)
Sodium dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS)
Elaeis Guineensis
Glyceryl Stearate
Stearic Acid
Chemicals which contain palm oil
Steareth -2
Steareth -20
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (coconut and/or palm)
Hydrated palm glycerides
Sodium isostearoyl lactylaye (derived from vegetable stearic acid)
Cetyl palmitate and octyl palmitate (names with palmitate at the end are usually derived from palm oil, but as in the case of Vitamin A Palmitate, very rarely a company will use a different vegetable oil)

*Disclaimer: Through research we’ve found that Vitamin A Palmitate can be derived from any combination of vegetable oil such as olive, coconut, canola and/or palm oil. Though in all the cases we’ve documented, companies use palm oil to make derivatives like Vitamin A Palmitate, it can be tricky to know for sure.

Join The Plastic Boycott & Go Palm Oil Free

Being plastic free means our palm oil consumption is cut to a minimum because we

eat little processed food as processed food is usually plastic packed food.
cook from scratch and the only oil we use is olive oil or sunflower seed.
make most of our own cosmetic and cleaning products. We know what goes into them and that is the tiny amount of palm oil in a cosmetic emulsifier. Really we are talk maybe 25g And is certified sustainable.
clean using bicarb and palm oil free soap
using butter not margarine
don’t shampoo

When we do buy we try to buy palm oil free using this great data base of palm oil free products for guidance.

You can read why Lush stopped using palm oil in their cosmetics here.

Considerations

The palm oil industry provides a lot of work. While a boycott might help some it will of course impact on others. A meaningful dialogue and alternative work opportunities need to be developed.

Down The Drain…..

26 November 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged 2.2 Litter

Where does all this plastic trash come from? Well dirty litter droppers get most of the blame and they are responsible for much of it – except of course when they aren’t.

These men were trying to transfer some polystyrene peanuts, a packaging material, from one box to another.A strong wind blew up and peanuts blew everywhere.

Here they are bouncing down the street……..

along the kerb….

up to the grid….

down the storm drain.

This being Istanbul, it wont be long before they are washed out into the Bosporus and so out to sea …

That’s one way plastic escapes out into the environment. Being non-biodegradable, once out there it will be around for some time looking ugly, working its way into the food chain, releasing poisons and posing a threat to wild life.

Plastic trash has been implicated in the deaths of all these animals

Polystyrene is just gross – you can find out more here …..

Water – Index

26 October 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 00 working, 3 water, 3.1.3 drinks 1 Comment

You’re in the right place for information on

Tap Water U.K.
Refill Schemes – in the U.K.
Carbonated Water Make your own from tap
Office water
Bottled Water – some facts and greener optionsplastic-free, refillable options here
Water Abroad
Is it safe? Find out here.
How to sterilise
Some refill schemesOther watery stuff

U.K Tap Water

If you are lucky enough to live in a country where the water is safe to drink the easiest way to access plastic free water is from a tap. You can do this at home. In which case you will need a refillable water bottle to take out with you.
Read up about U.K. Tap water here

Refill Schemes

But what happens when you’re out and about and away from the kitchen or you’ve forgotten your Steripen

Refill Schemes in the U.K.
The U.K. is one country lucky enough to have safe drinking water BUT sometimes when you are out and about it can be hard to access tap. These worthy schemes aim make safe, free, tap water available.

Carbonated Water

But I like fizzy water? Make your own from tap

Office Water

Want plastic free water at work – try these water filters

Bottled Water

Tap is best but what if you need bottled? Some plastic-free, refillable options here

Unsafe Tap Water/ Water Abroad

Tap water in many countries the water is actually safe to drink. In others sadly it is not. You can find out here… Can I Drink The Water?
Visit this super cool website to find out if you drink the water. Just pick the country you want and read the result.
Yes? Hooray – all you need to take is your refillable bottle. Fill it with tap water and no need to ever buy bottled.

Sterilise Your Own Water
When the tap water is not safe we still don’t buy bottled water. Instead we sterilize tap water using a Steripen. Been doing this for years all over the world.

Refill Abroad

Many countries offer a refill service where you can buy filtered purified water
Find A Refill Service
S.E.Asia Thailand & Malaysia
Phillipines
India
China

Water Bottles

For both of the above you will need a refillable, reusable bottle. You can get these anywhere

Other Drinks

And if you can’t stand the filthy stuff, check out our our drinks index here

More Travel Tips

Why and how I backpack #plasticfree. Homemade suntan lotion and a steripen are 2 of my favourite on the road #plasticlessproducts. Rummage in my pack here

N.B.

Lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Glue

4 October 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged 00 working, 3.2 house, 3.2.4 make, 4 plastivan

So many glues, so many man-made polymers. Plastic? In glue? Oh don’t get me started! Yes lots of it, and not just the packaging. Find out more about plastic HERE

Wikkipedia tells us that

Adhesives may be found naturally or produced synthetically.

Neanderthals produced tar from the dry distillation of birch bark for use in binding stone tools to wooden handles. The Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. In Europe, glue was not widely used until the period 1500–1700 CE. From then until the 1900s increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual.

Only since the last century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.

You can read more but basically most modern glues are synthetic polymers. Some are actually plastic that you melt and use to stick stuff

Glue

not easy to find plastic free. Heres an introduction to some of the greener glues

And BostiK seems to be natural rubber in solvents.

A new tin of Bostik 3851 natural rubber adhesive glue. It can be used for bonding natural rubber and latex sheeting to each other and to porous surfaces such as leather, canvas etc. Volume: 250

EVO-STIK 3851
BOSTIK 3851
CONTACT ADHESIVE
NATURAL RUBBER CONTACT ADHESIVE
Bostik 3851 Adhesive is a translucent grey, natural rubber solution in petroleum solvents.

Recommended Use:
Bostik 3851 Adhesive is used for bonding natural rubber and latex sheeting to each other and to porous surfaces such as leather, canvas etc.

Bonding Instructions:
Ensure rubber surfaces are thoroughly clean and dry, abrading the surfaces if possible. Leather surfaces should also be abraded if necessary

Apply Bostik 3851 Adhesive by brush to both surfaces to be joined and allow the adhesive to become touch dry (approximately 10 – 20 minutes) before bonding the surfaces together under pressure

Why This Post Is ….

A little bit rubbish. You are reading a work in progress. Here’s how the blog is written and why we post half cocked.

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Exfoliate

25 September 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Personal, 3.2 How To...plastic-free Tagged 00 working, 2.2 Micro plastics, 3.0 sneaky plastic, 3.2.4 make makeup, 5 Content Veiw 4 Comments

Microbeads…. the newest way to exfoliate. These tiny particles, or microbeads, scrub away at the skin supposedly leaving it wonderfully cleansed. These beads may well deep clean your skin but guess what? Unless otherwise stated, they are almost certainly made from plastic.

After using, they are washed off your face and down the drain and into the ocean where they become pollutants that don’t biodegrade. Truly, plastic is rubbish!

Here’s a really easy way to avoid this problem.

Reusable Products

Cotton Flannels – the old school way to clean up. Rub away the dirt and dead skin…it works, honest.

Want tougher love? try a luffa. These dried fibrous vegetables will buff up your blackheads and polish your butt. I got mine, unwrapped, from TKMax. I cut off smaller pieces to do my face with. Gently scour.

Then there are natural bristle brushes for body brushing. This is exactly as it sounds. Brushing your body and I love this. I have had my brush for ages and I can’t remember where I got it, but these look quite nice – sustainable beech body with pig bristles – vegans and vegetarians you could try these with tampico fibres.

Exfoliating Scrubs From the Kitchen….

All these have been recommended on the internet. I usually use the above so cannot really comment.

BE CAREFUL

it is probably good practice to do an allergy test and do some further research.

Disclaimers

If you are happy to bumble along with me and are aware of the risks of listening to someone who

a) doesn’t have any training in this field,

b) most of what they know comes from Google,

Welcome aboard but please, proceed with caution….

Bicarbonate of soda. Before I knew as much as I did about bicarb I did use this occasionally on my face when it got really greasy and blotchy looking. Since I have found out how alkaline it is I think it is best left for the the laundry. I do not advise that you use it on your skin.

However if you choose to, its particles are rough enough to scour off dead skin but not so brutal as to leave you weeping. You can get plastic free bicarb here.

Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Salt is good and scratchy and makes a good scrub. It is not as harsh as pumice, and you can use it in a plastic bath. I like it for my oily chest but would not use it on my face. You can find plastic free salt here.

Sugar Scrubs – use sugar mixed with coconut oil. This one seems to work well .

Oatmeal – described as soothing, exfoliating, soft (no scratchy edges) and known for its gentle, skin-healthy effects. It also contains vitamins B and E. Grind up plastic free oats in a food processor. I don’t use this on my face because I have get a reaction to it. I find it too brutal.

Coffee Grounds – grab them out of the pot rub them on. Let them cool down first! I will use these occasionally and sparingly as it is a bugger to clean the shower afterwards

Other stuff….

For truly brutal exfoliation try pumice powder…arghhhhh. Best suited to hands, feet and really grisly elbows. Use up to 10% in a moisturising cream base (find out how to make your own right here). Do not use the pumice scrub on sensitive skin. Do not use in a plastic bath – it may take off the surface. Can be bought from Aromantics. (NB Comes in a plastic bag)

Other plastic free health and beauty products can be found right here

Compost Bins Which Is Best For You

21 September 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 6 archive Tagged 00 working 17 Comments

lets talk waste.

Waste is used to describe:
materials not needed after primary production:
the unwanted byproduct of a process:
Products no longer needed:
Objects that are now defunct:

Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.

Waste is often considered worthless but this is usually not the case. It very much depends on the type of waste. And the waste disposal system favoured.

Read about disposing of plastic here.

Secateurs

10 September 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged 3.1.5 gift, 3.1.6 Garden, 4 Reviews 1 Comment

The cutters of I use are from Joseph Bently
I bought this set from TK Max– steel and wood tools with minimal packaging.
Yes there are some irritating bits of plastic – they are attached to the cardboard/ plastic covered board with all plastic ties but that is as reduced as you can get.
However try as I might I cannot find them anywhere else, not even on Amazon. So I have had a trawl round to see what is available out there instead. All secateurs in the shops seem to have plastic handles and come packed with at least the blades covered by a plastic blister. Some come completely enclosed.

However I came across these on line

Made in Japan from high carbon steel, these secateurs are extremely high quality.
Presented in a beautifully authentic gift box.
Preserving traditional forging and grinding techniques crucial for manufacturing high quality sheers, the company incorporates modern technology such as a numerical control grinding system and industrial machinery.
From Waitrose On line – a company we like.
Obviously I cannot say how they will be sent to you i.e. what kind of packaging but of course you could enquire.
Monty Don likes Japanese secateurs!

Ebay
You can get vintage secateurs on ebay.

Amazon

Failing that you could try these from Amazon. I don’t know what the packaging is like but the tools at least look to be plastic free. Please do read our disclaimer for more info about buying from Amazon


Draper 45317 210 mm Bypass-Pattern Secateur… £13.35	Bypass secateurs with ash wood handles £13.91	8″ PROFESSIONAL STAINLESS STEEL,WOODEN HAND… £8.99

Pruning Shears – Titanium Bypass Hand Prune… £106.72	Razorsharp Professional 6959BS Spear and Ja… £25.99

Yogurt & Yogurt makers

11 August 2012 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 1.2 BPA, 3.2.4 cook book, 4 plastic2cut plastic, 4.1 plastic we use 5 Comments

Yogurt comes in plastic pots and I of course refuse to use one use disposables. So the pots have to go,but who can live without yogurt? Not us, so I had to learn how to make my own.

I had heard of how you could make it in a flask but I just ended up with curds and whey and an evil-smelling flask. Then Husband remembered how they used to make it back in the village of his birth. He ended up with curds and whey and evil-smelling blankets.

So I bought me an Easy Yo Yogurt maker – – really easy – just mix the contents of the sachet with water – yes that’s right – the plastic foil sachet that came in the plastic packed box. Didnt think it through. Not best pleased – it did make very good yogurt though. If only they sold the mix in a jar – or cardboard box. Ho hum back to the drawing board.

And maybe it might be worth doing some in depth research:

So What Is Yogurt

Milk like everything else is full of bacteria. Even pasteurised milk as pasteurisation only kills a certain percentage of bacteria in milk. After a time these bacteria start to multiply. Some bacteria cause milk to go bad, others can turn it to yoghurt. Depending on which gains the upper hand, the end result can be evil smelling gunk or a tasty snack.

The main (starter) cultures or bacteria needed to turn milk into yogurt are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

These are used to ferment the lactose (milk sugar) in milk. This results in lactic acid which decreases the pH, and breaks down the cell membranes so the proteins clump together and form the soft gel or as we know it, yoghurt.
Yoghurt is actually a very soft cheese.

If the yoghurt making bacteria are dominant they multiply and consume the food supply (milk sugars) starving out other bacteria, including the type that makes milk go off

Traditional yogurt has a high acid content, which many bacteria cannot survive in which is another reason yogurt stays fresh longer than milk.

Making Yogurt

The yoghurt making process is one of favouring certain bacterias over the others. This is done by killing off existing bacteria, introducing yogurt making bacteria, the starter culture, then ensuring that conditions suit the growth of that bacteria.

You will need…

milk 1 liter
starter culture (bacteria) 3 tablespoons of live yogurt or a powdered starter – see below for more details
a way to heat the milk
a food thermometer
A container for your yoghurt.
a way to keep the yogurt at a warm and constant temperature.

Chose your Milk
To make yoghurt you need milk proteins and milk sugars – milk in other words. But which milk?
I use Pasteurized milk from the milk man. Check out this list of people who deliver milk in glass bottles.
Ultra-pasteurized is said to be too sterile(I don’t know why that matters if you are introducing the culture), raw milk I don’t work with.
The milk can be whole or reduced-fat.
Or a mixture of the two.
Adding dry milk powder will increase the amount of whey protein and create a richer textured yogurt. See where you can buy loose powdered milk here.
Cream apparently doesn’t work at all.

Pasteurize the Milk
The milk mixture needs to be heated to 185°F (85°C) for 30 minutes or at 203°F (95°C) for 10 minutes. Which means you warm the milk to just below boiling on the stove, maintain the temperature keeping an eye on it all the while.
Some recipes say for half an hour though many say less time is needed.
This serves 2 functions:
First it breaks down the milk proteins resulting in a more stable yoghurt
Secondly it kills off any unwanted bacteria already present in the milk.
N.B. Even Pasteurization of milk only kills a certain percentage of bacteria in milk.

Cool Milk
Put the milk into your containers.
Allow the milk is cool to 108°F (42°C) the ideal growth temperature for the yoghurt making bacteria, (starter culture).

Add bacteria
Now add your Starter Culture. This usually a dollop of live yogurt though you can buy starter culture in other forms. more on this below.

Mix well

Allow To Ferment
The mixture now has be kept at 108°F (42°C) until a pH 4.5 is reached allowing fermentation to take place. Fermentation results in the soft gel known as yogurt. This process can take several hours. Too hot or too cold and your bacteria won’t work.
You have to find a reliable way to keep your mixture warm and at a stable temperature.

Ways to keep warm
an electric yogurt maker,
an insulated container or flask
an oven with just the light
a food dehydrator
Lots of blankets

To check the yogurt is ready, try tilting the pot. If it moves as one you have made yogurt.Yay. If it separates into liquid and solids the bacteria has run out of food.

The longer you let your yoghurt ferment the more acid it becomes and the more tart the taste.

Cool
To stop the fermentation process cool the mixture to 7°C.

Starter Cultures

The yogurt starter can be made from live yogurt bought from a shop. make sure it says “live cultures.
You can use your own homemade live yogurt as a starter culture.
You can buy starter cultures as a powder. These are from Amazon. Obviously the packaging contains some plastic but so does a pot of yogurt.

Trouble Shooting

Theoretically you should be able to use your own home made live yoghurt to make more yoghurt indefinitely However we find that after a while our home made live yoghurt seems to loose its strength and we cannot make more using this batch. So every few weeks we need to buy a new container of yogurt for a fresh culture.

This is because the bacteria is weak, possibly dead

One solution is the freeze a fresh batch as soon as the yogurt is made. This keeps your bacteria feisty.

Keeping it warm. If you dont have a constant heat source, yogurt making can be tricky. I tried putting it in the oven and making it in a flask but the results were too variable. finally got me an electric yogurt maker from Lakeland – mail order. The yogurt is made in a plastic container -BPA free for those of you worried about leaching chemicals. It works really well. So although it is a plastic product I feel it is worth it as it cuts our overall plastic consumption. It does make good yogurt and is very easy to use. If you are busy I would recommend getting one of these.

Update

Trying Homemade Again Since then VB has re-learnt his yogurt making skills and now makes it in a pan which he leaves wrapped in a blanket overnight. Completely plastic free.

Reusing the Easy Yo And if you check the comments you will find out how to make yogurt using hot water and how to use the Easy Yo yogurt maker without purchasing more sachets.

Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are the only 2 cultures required by law to be present in live yogurt.
Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus subsp. casei, and Bifido-bacteria are probiotic cultures. These, it is claimed, help improve lactose digestion, gastrointestinal function, and stimulate the immune system.

There are yogurts that culture at room temperature, which is even easier!

Find other plasticfree recipes here.

Cebu City to Moalboal

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Fabric

Wrapping

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What’s Palm Oil Used For?

How Do I Know?

Join The Plastic Boycott & Go Palm Oil Free

Considerations

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U.K Tap Water

Refill Schemes

Carbonated Water

Office Water

Bottled Water

Unsafe Tap Water/ Water Abroad

Refill Abroad

More Water Posts

Water Bottles

Other Drinks

More Travel Tips

N.B.

And before you go…

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Why This Post Is ….

N.B.

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Making Yogurt

Starter Cultures

Trouble Shooting

Update

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