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Dishwash Powder

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged

I have tried to make my own dishwasher powder but with variable success. Rather sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t and it can’t be so green to wash them twice. Very glad then to hear tell of plastic free dishwasher powder on sale. Not used it yet but will be trying it very soon.

Sainsbury Supermarket

have come up trumps with this dish was powder in a cardboard box. Not used it my self but   who sourced this  assures me the packaging really is plastic free. Hooray.

Though according to Louise” they now have a small plastic attachment to the pourer that is black so non-recyclable in my area. Previously this pourer was metal and previous to that cardboard.”

Waitrose Supermarket

Vicky tells me that Waitrose essentials come like this too.

My Hand

For those of you who prefer washing up old school you can find how to do it, plastic free, right here. Everything from washing up liquid to rubber gloves!

More

While you are there you can check out these other Sainsburys plastic free products.

And see what other supermarkets do here.

 

 

 

 

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Cutlery – disposable & compostable

by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables Tagged , , ,
Though it’s not the greenest option there are times when disposable partyware is the only choice. For our last big bash, some years ago now, we bought disposable cutlery made from PLA compostable plastic. It is just like normal plastic cutlery, tough and hard wearing. So much so it can be washed and reused – at least we do… and are still doing so.
The cutlery is really useful for picnics and outdoor parties. We always leave stuff behind and we don’t feel too bad about loosing this.

We got ours from Denny’s. They also do compostable straws, plates and glasses. In fact everything you need for entertaining.

Since we bought, a lot more companies have started to offer compostable party ware and new products are appearing all the time. It would be worth looking around.

Composting
There are those who say you cannot compost PLA plastic in home composters. We did. The knives did biodegrade. It took some time but it happened. However we do have a Green Joanna, the queen of compost bins.

Renting
We rented the extra stuff we needed for the party from a catering company . We probably could have hired cutlery too but we were curious to try the cornstarch stuff.

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Deodorant – Ready Made

by Posted in 3.1 Personal 1 Comment

Stinky pits can pose a plastic free problem. No one wants to smell but deodorants are highly plastic packaged and may contain unpleasant nasties.

Alum

Thankfully there is an old and natural remedy for this old and natural problem – ammonium alum. This is a naturally occurring mineral salt with antiseptic properties. It inhibits the bacteria growth that causes odour. Alum molecules are far too big to be absorbed by the skin so they just sit there doing the job.
You can buy alum in a spray, as a push up stick or in lump crystal form. The first two involve nasty plastic packaging and lots of it. Better, environmentally speaking, to buy it in lump form. Pit Rok sell a single 80 gram crystal in a small cardboard box. Minimal packaging, completely natural, and fragrance free.For Pit Rok stockists in your town go to www.pitrok.co.uk/stockists.asp. and type in the name of. They do not differentiate between the products. In my experience the health food shops are more likely to sell the crystal form. You can of course buy online too.

Or this from eBay looks rather GOOD.

Bicarbonate

It is claimed can deodorise smells. YOu can read all about bicarbonate of soda HERE.
There are bicarbonate based deodorants out there.
Earth Consious is one. The following is from the website.
Earth Conscious the natural deodorant that works
made in the UK
Comes in a tin. N.B. Will almost certainly be plastic epoxy lined. Read more here
Example
CITRUS (Lemon & Orange)
Contains fresh lemon and orange organic essential oils
No aluminium, parabens or carcinogens
Allows your skin to breath and perspire naturally
Will not block your sweat glands and will allow your body to remove toxins as nature intended
Totally cruelty free
Supports healthy marine life
Recyclable packaging, no plastic
Suitable for men, women and teens
EU registered and certified
60g
Ingredients:
Certified organic coconut oil, certified organic arrowroot powder, certified organic shea butter, sodium bicarbonate, certified organic beeswax, certified organic lemon essential oil, certified organic orange essential oil.

Visit the website here.

 

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Washing Up Liquid Soap

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged , , 2 Comments

Soap Flakes

I did try to use soap flakes to wash up. I did not find it  pleasant. Yes it cleaned the pots but everything was so slippery that it was a stressful experience. If you want to try this I advise you to make a soap stew as it seems to take a while for the pure flakes to dissolve. You can also use the stew for washing your hair. You can find out more here.

Washing Up Liquid

Then I found that I can get my ECOVER washing up liquid bottle refilled  at Half Moon Health Foods 6 Half Moon Street , Huddersfield. If you are not local then Ecover have a postcode search on their site to find the nearest refill point:

So though the bottle is indeed plastic it can be reused many many times. I now have three bottles on the go – that allows for forgetting to take the empty into town, not once, not twice – but for weeks at a time. But I can proudly say I have thrown away no washing up bottles since.

Need More?

Try this… How to wash up plastic free

Other Products

You can also get refills for ECOVER –

TOILET CLEANER
LAUNDRY LIQUID,
FABRIC SOFTENER,
MULTISURFACE CLEANER,

 

 

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Microplastic in the sea. Studies.

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged , , 1 Comment

From the BBC News

Dr Richard Thompson at the University of Plymouth researches what happens when plastic breaks down (degrades) in seawater

They have identified plastic particles of around 20 microns – thinner than the diameter of a human hair.
In 2004 their study reported the incidence of the particles had been increasing over the years.

They have found plastic particles smaller than grains of sand.

They estimate there are 300,000 items of plastic per sq km of sea surface, and 100,000 per sq km of seabed.

Thompson and his team conducted experiments on three species of filter feeders and found that the barnacle, the lugworm and the common amphipod or sand-hopper all  readily ingested plastic as they fed along the seabed.

They wanted to  establish if chemicals can leach out of degraded plastic and if plastic absorbs other contaminants such as PCBs and other polymer additives.

“The plastics industry’s response is that much of the research is speculative at this stage, and that there is very little evidence that this transfer of chemicals is taking place in the wild.It says it is doing its bit by replacing toxic materials used as stabilisers and flame retardants with less harmful substances.
Whatever the findings eventually show, there is little that can be done now to deal with the vast quantities of plastic already in our oceans. It will be there for decades to come.”

You can read more about the problems of micro plastic pollution here.

More Science

And if you want more data on the problem here are just a few of the hundreds of studies being done. Thanks to Fabiano of www.globalgarbage.org for keeping us well informed.

Jan Zalasiewicz, Colin N. Waters, Juliana Ivar do Sul, Patricia L. Corcoran, Anthony D. Barnosky, Alejandro Cearreta, Matt Edgeworth, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Catherine Jeandel, Reinhold Leinfelder, J.R. McNeill, Will Steffen, Colin Summerhayes, Michael Wagreich, Mark Williams, Alexander P. Wolfe, Yasmin Yonan, The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene, Anthropocene, Available online 18 January 2016, ISSN 2213-3054, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2016.01.002.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305416300029)
Abstract: The rise of plastics since the mid-20th century, both as a material element of modern life and as a growing environmental pollutant, has been widely described. Their distribution in both the terrestrial and marine realms suggests that they are a key geological indicator of the Anthropocene, as a distinctive stratal component. Most immediately evident in terrestrial deposits, they are clearly becoming widespread in marine sedimentary deposits in both shallow- and deep-water settings. They are abundant and widespread as macroscopic fragments and virtually ubiquitous as microplastic particles; these are dispersed by both physical and biological processes, not least via the food chain and the ‘faecal express’ route from surface to sea floor. Plastics are already widely dispersed in sedimentary deposits, and their amount seems likely to grow several-fold over the next few decades. They will continue to be input into the sedimentary cycle over coming millennia as temporary stores – landfill sites – are eroded. Plastics already enable fine time resolution within Anthropocene deposits via the development of their different types and via the artefacts (‘technofossils’) they are moulded into, and many of these may have long-term preservation potential when buried in strata.
Keywords: Anthropocene; Plastics; Stratigraphy

http://www.globalgarbage.org.br/mailinglist/S2213305416300029_In_Press_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf

Carme Alomar, Fernando Estarellas, Salud Deudero, Microplastics in the Mediterranean sea: Deposition in coastal shallow sediments, spatial variation and preferential grain size, Marine Environmental Research, Available online 18 January 2016, ISSN 0141-1136,http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2016.01.005.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113616300058)
Abstract: Marine litter loads in sea compartments are an emergent issue due to their ecological and biological consequences. This study addresses microplastic quantification and morphological description to test spatial differences along an anthropogenic gradient of coastal shallow sediments and further on to evaluate the preferential deposition of microplastics in a given sediment grain fraction. Sediments from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) contained the highest concentrations of microplastics (MPs): up to 0.90±0.10 MPs/g suggesting the transfer of microplastics from source areas to endpoint areas. In addition, a high proportion of microplastic filaments were found close to populated areas whereas fragment type microplastics were more common in MPAs. There was no clear trend between sediment grain size and microplastic deposition in sediments, although microplastics were always present in two grain size fractions: 2mm>x>1mm and 1mm>x 0.5mm.
Keywords: Marine litter; MPAs; Anthropogenic gradient; Sieve fractions; Contamination; Balearic islands

http://www.globalgarbage.org.br/mailinglist/S0141113616300058_In_Press_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf

Teresa Rocha-Santos, Armando C. Duarte, A critical overview of the analytical approaches to the occurrence, the fate and the behavior of microplastics in the environment, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Available online 11 December 2014, ISSN 0165-9936,http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2014.10.011.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993614002556)
Abstract: Plastics can be found in food packaging, shopping bags, and household items, such as toothbrushes and pens, and facial cleansers. Due to the high disposability and low recovery of discharged materials, plastics materials have become debris accumulating in the environment. Microplastics have a dimension <5 mm and possess physico-chemical properties (e.g., size, density, color and chemical composition) that are key contributors to their bioavailability to organisms. This review addresses the analytical approaches to characterization and quantification of microplastics in the environment and discusses recent studies on their occurrence, fate, and behavior. This critical overview includes a general assessment of sampling and sample handling, and compares methods for morphological and physical classification, and methodologies for chemical characterization and quantification of the microplastics. Finally, this review addresses the advantages and the disadvantages of these techniques, and comments on future applications and potential research interest within this field.
Keywords: Debris; Detection; Environment; Marine environment; Microplastic; Plastic; Sampling; Seawater; Sediment; Water

Note to users: Accepted manuscripts are Articles in Press that have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of this publication. They have not yet been copy edited and/or formatted in the publication house style, and may not yet have the full ScienceDirect functionality, e.g., supplementary files may still need to be added, links to references may not resolve yet etc. The text could still change before final publication.

Although accepted manuscripts do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI, as follows: author(s), article title, Publication (year), DOI. Please consult the journal’s reference style for the exact appearance of these elements, abbreviation of journal names and use of punctuation.

When the final article is assigned to an volumes/issues of the Publication, the Article in Press version will be removed and the final version will appear in the associated published volumes/issues of the Publication. The date the article was first made available online will be carried over.

http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmars.2014.00070/full

Reisser J, Proietti M, Shaw J and Pattiaratchi C (2014) Ingestion of plastics at sea: does debris size really matter? Front. Mar. Sci. 1:70. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2014.00070

Keywords: microplastics, marine debris, plastic ingestion, zooplankton grazing, copepods

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmars.2014.00070/pdf

http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/11/16207/2014/bgd-11-16207-2014.html

Reisser, J., Slat, B., Noble, K., du Plessis, K., Epp, M., Proietti, M., de Sonneville, J., Becker, T., and Pattiaratchi, C.: The vertical distribution of buoyant plastics at sea, Biogeosciences Discuss., 11, 16207-16226, doi:10.5194/bgd-11-16207-2014, 2014.

Abstract. Millimeter-sized plastics are numerically abundant and widespread across the world’s ocean surface. These buoyant macroscopic particles can be mixed within the upper water column due to turbulent transport. Models indicate that the largest decrease in their concentration occurs within the first few meters of water, where subsurface observations are very scarce. By using a new type of multi-level trawl at 12 sites within the North Atlantic accumulation zone, we measured concentrations and physical properties of plastics from the air–seawater interface to a depth of 5 m, at 0.5 m intervals. Our results show that plastic concentrations drop exponentially with water depth, but decay rates decrease with increasing Beaufort scale. Furthermore, smaller pieces presented lower rise velocities and were more susceptible to vertical transport. This resulted in higher depth decays of plastic mass concentration (mg m−3) than numerical concentration (pieces m−3). Further multi-level sampling of plastics will improve our ability to predict at-sea plastic load, size distribution, drifting pattern, and impact on marine species and habitats.

Review Status
This discussion paper is under review for the journal Biogeosciences (BG).

http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/11/16207/2014/bgd-11-16207-2014.pdf

 

 

 

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Water – Tap

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged ,

Tap Water

If you are lucky enough to live in a country where you can drink the tap water do so. Get a  refillable water bottle, fill it with tap water and drink that.

Refillable Water Bottles

Check out which water bottle here

Refills 

U.K. Refills

There are a number of innovative schemes out there that provide tap water refills for when you run out when out. You can find them here.

Outside The U.K. 

Here are a list of places you can refill your bottle abroad

 

Not Safe?

Of course, sadly, water in many countries is not safe to drink – you can find out where here. When this is the case you can

Steralize Your Own Unsafe Tap Water

We sterilise unsafe tap water water using a Steripen …. but when a bottle refill service is offered we will use that instead.

Plastic Water Bottle Bans

Links to interesting projects that are tackling the problems of bottled water

If You Must…

Buy bottled water, you can get it packaged in PLA compostable plastic bottles. More info here…

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Degradation Initiators & Degradable Plastic

by Posted in 1.2 Plastic The Product Tagged , 16 Comments

Traditional plastics do not biodegrade. Of course plastic breaks, tears and cracks. It weathers and sunlight makes it brittle, It falls apart – it degrades – but only into smaller pieces of plastic. And that can take hundreds of years. See Why Plastic Doesn’t Rot.

Plastic litter is not surprisingly increasing exponentially with disastrous environmental consequences.

But suppose there was a way of making non-biodegradable plastic, biodegradable? The plastic industry argue that they can do just that by means of chemical adatives known as degradation initiators.

Types Of Degradable Plastics

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has defined six types of degradable plastics.

  • Degradable – breaks down in some way.
  • Photodegradable, broken down by light
  • Oxidatively degradable broken down by oxygen.
  • Hydrolytically degradable. Broken down by water
  • *Biodegradable – can be broken down by microbes to mass, water and co2 but with no indication of how long that might take. May also need chemical addatives to make this process possible.
  • *Compostable – degrade at a rate that’s similar to other types of compostable materials, and they result, again, in water, carbon dioxide, humus, and inorganic compounds. Compostable plastics biodegrade naturally.They do not need additonal addatives to break down the polymers as they made from natural materials that microorganisms recognise.

This is a confusing list because the last two (*) seem to refer to the natural process of biodegrading while the others refer to  plastic with added degradation initiators. It is important to note that there is a huge difference. Degradable does not mean biodegradable despite what the plastics industry tries to imply.

What Are Degradation Initiators

Degradation initiators are added to the plastic mix in amounts of up to 2% of the total composition. Very basically, these addatives break the long unnatural plastic polymers into shorter recognisable polymers that microbes can attack and digest – or biodegrade.

English: illustration of the Oxo-Bio-Degradati...

English: illustration of the Oxo-Bio-Degradation is, as the name describes, a two-step process whereby the conventional polyolefin plastic is first oxo-degraded to short-chain oxygenated molecules (typically 2-4 months exposed) and then biodegraded by the micro-organisms (Bacteria, Fungi, etc.). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The process happens as follows.

  • Microbes are attracted to the additive;
  • They “crack” the long polymer allowing acces to other microbes and water.
  • Eventually these will break down huge polymers into smaller and smaller bits.
  • These smaller bits are then vulnerableto other microbes.

More Research

That’s the theory and it sounds good BUT as Green Plastics point out

“you can add an additive to normal, petroleum-based plastic that will make it become brittle and crumble in sunlight: this is referred to as making “photodegradable” plastic. Other additives can be put into plastic that will make plastic break down by oxidation: this is referred to as making “oxo-degradable plastic.”

These methods will make the bulk of the plastic appear to disappear; however, the small pieces (or even find “sand”) that is produced by this effect is still small pieces of plastic.  Nothing has changed. Over a matter of years, it is possible for the pieces to become small enough to be assimilated by microorganisms, but there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to verify how long this might take.  In the mean time, they are just very small pieces of plastic.”

Or this by Eco Savvy

“The only difference between “oxo-biodegradable” plastic and petroleum based plastic is the presence of an oxo-formulated additive in concentrations of 1-3% (metal salts) within the petroleum based plastic.  This additive allows the petroleum based plastics to degrade in the presence of oxygen, light, heat and moisture.

Oxo-biodegradable plastic is designed to degrade in the open environment and this short timeframe of biodegradation is not necessary. Furthermore, a high rate of conversion is not desirable because the conversion to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide contribute to the warming of the atmosphere, hole in the ozone layer and depletion of carbon available for the soil.”

The Right Place At The Right Time

The difficulty is of course ensuring that the plastic doesn’t start biodegrading in normal conditions so that the strength of the plastic product is not jeopodised. Biodegradation is designed to start in certain extreme conditions.

As 75% ofplastic ends up in landfill, most addatives are designed to work in landfill conditions.

While products may start to degrade outside of  the specified conditions but the process will take much longer.

The obvious flaw in this solution is the wrong product in the wrong place. For example plastic that has been manipulated to degrade quickly in a landfill conditions ending up as litter on the roadside where it will not degrade quickly.

Other Considerations

So, to become degradable, plastic has to be further chemically engineered. Obviously, this is by no means a natural process (as biodegrading is normally understood to be), rather it requires complex chemical eginerring.

The composition of these chemical addatives is secret and known only to the companies who produce them.

Biodegradable plastics are made using traditional (usually petrochemical based) plastics. They don’t always break down into harmless substances.

Confusing & Misleading Marketing

Because the initiators are bio-based this has led to the process being described as bio degradable. .

Which has led to confusion because now bio -degradable plastic could be a compostable plastic that biodegrades naturally OR plastic that has had a degradation initiator added to make it bio-degrade.

Compostable plastic is a plastic that can biodegrade with out chemical addatives within a certain amount of time.

The Guardian reported in October 2014 that

Last month, the FTC sent warning letters to 15 additional marketers, informing them that their claims “may be deceptive”. The FTC also requested “competent and reliable scientific evidence proving that their bags will biodegrade as advertised”. This time, the term of offense is “oxodegradable”, implying the bag will break down in time when exposed to oxygen.

And

“The plastic is not degrading, it’s fragmenting,” Greene said. Over time, as opposed to breaking down into less hazardous organic components, these plastic products break down into lots of small, equally toxic bits.

Why make plastics degradable?

Why go to the effort of making degradable plastic bags when we already have naturally compostable products such as paper bags and cornstarch bags. Why not use plastic for things we don’t want to rot away like drainpipes and use naturally biodegrading materials for disposable packaging?

Useful stuff to know

Degradable, biodegradable or compostable plastics – whats in a name
Why leaves rot and why most plastics don’t at Why Plastic Doesnt Rot

Degradable, biodegradable or compostable

So most plastics are made from oil and most plastics do not biodegrade. See how and why here… And yet you will find plastics described as degradable ...
Read More

Compostable Plastics Index

Plastic was the name given to early synthetic products such as cellophane,  that were derived from cellulose. These plastics  were biodegradable. Then they learnt how to make ...
Read More

Biodegrading and degradation – Plastic Lifespan,

So most plastics are made from oil and most plastics do not biodegrade. See how and why here... But what does that actually mean? Biodegrading Biodegradation ...
Read More

Plastic eating microbes

Is this a good idea?- much as I hate bad plastic I am rather attached to the computer and Dyson. Will they disappear before my very eyes ...
Read More

Degradation Initiators & Degradable Plastic

Traditional plastics do not biodegrade. Of course plastic breaks, tears and cracks. It weathers and sunlight makes it brittle, It falls apart – it degrades – but ...
Read More
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Our Waste & Why We Don’t Recycle

by Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog 6 Comments

No Landfill

Ever worried about not making your mark on the world? Think you might not leave anything behind you when you go? Don’t – I can assure you that everyday in every way you are making a lasting impression. I realised just how big my own everlasting monument would be when I decided, back in October 2006, to record my own plastic consumption.

I began saving all the disposable plastic that passed through my hands. A sobering 7 days later and I was running out of cupboard space. Leave only footprints? – Not bloody likely! I will be leaving an enormous pile of rubbish with a thousand year lifespan to commemorate my 3 score years and ten on this fragile globe.my pile waste featured

Having realised the plastic problem what’s a girl to do? In this capitalist paradise consumer pressure has massive leverage – reduce demand and supply will follow. The best answer seemed to be to take direct action and boycott the filthy stuff.

On studying my mighty pile, I realised that an immediate boycott would have some very unpleasant results – dirty, rotten teeth, bad body odour and hair thick with grease would occur within the first few days Followed by scurvy, rickets and ultimate starvation. Plastic has become so much part of our lives it is hard it seems to live without it. So I decided to modify my plan. Each month I would study my heap and decide to eliminate one thing. I would research for a non plastic wrapped substitute and replace the bad and ugly with the good. Rather than an immediate ban we would tackle the problem one wrapper at a time.

In January 2007 we launched our 12 steps program for a cleaner planet. We called it that because a) we were giving up plastic..and b) we thought it would take 12 months. Years on and we are still finding new plastic to cut.

Why we don’t recycle either….

When I started this blog, plastic recycling was a small affair. Few councils collected and when they did it was only certain plastics. However since public awareness of plastic problems has grown it seems we can now recycle everything and are praised and applauded for doing so.

Problem solved back to eating crisps… hooray!

Not so. Let’s be clear about this recycling is just a more responsible form of waste management. That stuff in your recycle bin is still rubbish and has to be dealt with the attendant environmental and financial costs. While recycling may offset these costs it is still expensive.

Moreover recycling does not address the main issue of misusing plastic and stupidly using it to make one use throwaway items.Mangroves pollution featured

Because most plastics do not biodegrade plastic lasts for a long time  possibly for ever. It cannot be composted or left to rot where it is dropped or dumped like organic rubbish. Every bit of plastic rubbish has to be collected up and specially disposed of. Inevitably some plastic trash ends up as litter. Because it doesn’t rot, once it is out there it is out for ever. Hardly surprising then that plastic litter is increasing exponentially with dreadful consequences. Not only does it look ugly, it is damaging the environment, polluting the sea, choking up drains and maiming and killing animals.

Anyone who uses plastic disposables, (which is everyone), is deliberately, accidentally or through ignorance guilty of improperly discarding them at some point. Think of the plastic seal on the water bottle that blows out of your hand, the toddler dropping sweet wrappers or even that tea bag you put on the compost heap. Huge amounts of plastic disposables escape out into the environment on a daily basis.

And not just onto the streets and into the trees. Scientists are findings increasing amounts of plastic in the sea and soil and animals they support. Our discarded plastic is changing the environment in fundamental and irreversible ways.

Who Is Responsible

The plastics industry say end users should behave more responsibly, stop littering and start recycling more. To dispose of plastic properly the end user needs to be able finance an expensive system of specialized plastic treatment plants and organize regular rubbish collections. As many people still don’t have access to clean water that’s not going to happen globally any time soon.teabag featured

Then they need to know the difference between what is compostable and what looks as though it is and yes teabags do contain plastic. Then they need to research and find the plastic  in the most unlikely places (tampons, toothpaste, chewing gum and lots more sneaky plastics) and then dispose of it “properly”. Recycled tampons anyone?

We are not anti recycling. We use long lasting multi use plastic and believe it should be recycled at the end of its life. But recycling should only be used occasionally as an end of life treatment not as a regular method of waste disposal.

Dealing With My Own Rubbish

The only regular, sustainable methods of waste disposal are composting and carbon nuetral burning. Disposable plastics fall into neither of these categories. We want to be able to deal with most of our waste ourselves. If it cant be reused, composted or burnt we don’t care for it. We want no trash in our black bin and no trash in our recycle bin.

Cutting plastic and sourcing compostable alternatives means we are almost there.

And check out the campaign for real litter…

 

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Carrier Bags reusable

by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables, 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged , , , , 1 Comment

Cotton string bags are fantastic. These are my best bags and I use them most of the time. They have many virtues including:

  • When empty, they fold up really small, but they can carry a ludicrous amount of shopping.
  • Their soft handles do not cut into my fingers.
  • They are fully biodegradable.
  • They are organic &  fair-trade
  • Long lasting

    • I bought mine from Organic Ally”

    She sells bags with either long or short handles.
    The short handles are great for supermarket runs, the long handled bags can be hung off your shoulder for more leisurely shopping – I don’t like them as much as the short.

    Bought in bulk i.e. numbers of 5 they are cheap – from around £4.00 a bag inc vat and shipping. You can mix and match bulk orders so you have a combination of short and long handled bags.

    Make Your Own?
    Or you could be uber-green and knit your own string bag – lovely bare foot person has posted a pattern for cotton yarn and a knitting machine.

    Fold Up Bags
    The only downside to string bags is that they are full of holes which means that they are see through and they do not fold up up as small as the opaque  nylon fold up bags

    onya bagI like Onya bags …..BUT they are made from a synthetic fibre RPET
    WHAT IS RPET?
    Post consumer bottles are collected from recycling plants and spun into yarn. From this yarn comes the fabric that makes Onya Bags.
    So, you might think, plastic bad…. but recycling good. Confusing
    Well yes – but I have bought them anyway. In fact I have other nylon fold up bags that are not made from bottles. They are very convenient if not quite as ideologically pure as the string bag!

    Why do I use them?
    Well man-made fabric is not only slightly more waterproof and opaque, it folds up really small. When packed up, these bags are the size of a golf ball, much lighter and come with a clip so they can be attached to your handbag or husband.
    I haven’t found a natural fibre bag that is as good at folding, weighs so little or dries as quickly.
    They can be carried round at all the times making them an ideal just- in -case bag for impulse purchases.
    Moreover because they dry so fast they don’t get mouldy. This makes them perfect for taking on holidays and backpacking trips where laundry facilities are not of the best and space is limited.
    Onyabags (UK)

    Onyabags also do, amongst other things, a messenger bag, a really handy fold up rucksack and mesh produce bags.

    If you live in the USA, Chico bags do a similar thing.

    More

    Find more bags and packaging HERE

     

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    Conditioners

    by Posted in 3.1 Personal Tagged , , 4 Comments

    I read that Britains get through 15 million plastic bottles a day. How many? I find that utterly shocking. So I decided to stop buying hair products in plastic bottles. Which pretty much means I stopped buying hair products.

    Finding a suitable conditioner was hard work

    Solid Conditioners

    I tried the Pure Lush solid conditioning bar.  It smells lovely and others rave about it (see www.purelush.co.uk for details). Sadly it didn’t work for me.

    Olive Oil

    The recipe for the olive oil and honey conditioner on www.tipking.co.uk sounded yummy so I tried it Putting olive oil on my naturally lustrous hair – ok greasy hair- was a big mistake. 3 days later and I was still washing it out.

    Coconut Oil

    Fantastic as a conditioner. I have oily hair so I rub it on my hair before showering, leave for 5 minutes then shampoo off. Afterwards my hair is lovely and silky. Village boy has very dry hair so he applies a little after showering. His hair is also nice and smooth. And you can use it for everything else as well. Read more here….

    Vinegar Rinse

    For me its the vinegar rinse. Its really easy to make, just dilute half a tablespoon of apple vinegar in a cup of water and use it to rinse your hair after washing. Don’t be put off by the strong smell – once the hair is dry there is no odour of vinegar – honest. It works and here’s why; acidifiers (such as vinegar) close the cuticle of the hair making it shiny and less prone to tangling – and I got that from a real hairdresser so it must be true.

    Tescos do an apple vinegar in a glass bottle with a metal screwtop lid. Apart from the little plasticised disc in the lid they are as plastic free as you can get….unless you decide to make your own apple vinegar.

     

    2016

    by Posted in 4 Year

    December

    November

    October

    So… whats happening in plastic-free November?
    My new blog theme and some new plugins
    A guide to a #plasticfree festive season
    How to use those leaves to make seed compost
    Try trailing the plastic awareness game?
    Updates on the #plasticfree compostable wardrobe
    Take Action – sign the petition asking UK retailers to stop selling plastic cotton buds

    Latest …..Google Verification!

    And then there is Google verification. WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN?!!! for years now Google has been asking me to verify my site then refusing to accept my attempts to do so. In fact I think it was trying to add my access-code-to-my-header-page<what//the$%6&R.U.asking4> that messed up my last site and led to the recent theme change.
    But because I am really STUBBORN and refuse to be beat, I installed this plugin
    Google Analytics for WordPressThis Google Analytics for WordPress plugin adds and enables Google Analytics tracking code on your website.Version 1.1 | By praveenchauhan1984 | View details.
    So, I am now verified with Google. Is that a good thing? I have no idea! I just add it to all the other Google mysteries that haunt me. Like why I have 2 Google ranks for the same site and how my Google stats never match my WordPress.

    Other Blog Business

    Another day another theme. My blog was loading so slowly. I tried everything but I think the actual theme was badly compromised – by my own ignorance. I was using Flagman – Retina Responsive News WordPress ThemeVersion: 1.01 By ZERGE. Flagman is Responsive, Retina Ready, WordPress theme.
    It was great program, really easy and intuitive to use and a great introduction to fancy themes. All faults were as a result of my own cak handed incompetance.I loaded the wrong stuff, made changes, and at one point even managed to delete all my work. I generally bodged and buggered around till I damaged it in some fundamental way which of course I lacked the skills to recognise and correct. So I decided to start again with a new template. A free one from WordPress Themes. I was planning to reload and return to Flagman but actually I rather like this new look and new theme.

    DiscoveryVersion: 2.3 By Template Express a highly customizable, fully responsive and Premium design WordPress Theme. With a focus on simple customization, Discovery allows you to add your own logo, header, featured areas, social media links and much more with a click of a button. This multi-purpose theme has a premium quality design that can fit the needs of any website.Blah blah…

    It needed quite a lot of tweaking but the end result is a much speedier load.

    However it lacked certain features I had come to enjoy in my paid for Flagman theme. One was the blog map showing all my posts. Useful for readers to navigate their way around the blog and for me to remember what I have written about.

    Thanks then to this cool little plugin
    WP Sitemap Page Add a sitemap on any page/post using a simple shortcake you paste in a page or post Version 1.6 | By Tony Archambeau.
    You can see my site map here…

    While searching I found this – a page view count that you can add to show how popular posts are. “the Page Views Count Plugin. Use the Page Views Count function to add page views to any content type or object created by your theme or plugins. Version 1.4.0 | By A3 Revolution” . So as of this month I can see how many visits each post is. Nice. The only page it doesn’t work on is this one which it says is massively popular. Much as I would like to, I really can’t believe I’ve had over 19000 veiws!

    Other blog related posts are
    Building My Blog – notes on how the blog has developed over time.Does Size Matter – how popular am I and does it matter?

    Playing Gmes

    The Auroville community in India are tackling plastic waste through education.

    “Last year, interviewing experts was part of our research phase for developing a memory style card game which we have decided to call ‘kNOw PLASTICS’. The game educates children about the impact of plastics on animals, the environment and us. If you know of any schools, organisations or teachers then we would be very happy if you could connect us or test the kNOw PLASTICS game. Follow the link to find out what this would entail.

    Party Frock? OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    Not quite but here are some shorts what I have made!

    And a choir boy shirt
    And a frumpy corduroy skirt
    a new post on patterns! Get those ruffled shirts!

    And an update on my Fair Share Wardrobe

    Sign Up

    Call To Action Switch The Stick Sign Up

    Switch The Stick is a campaign and petition to get plastic cotton buds out of the drains and off the beaches. It has been organised by  Michelle and Natalie (both can be found in the Plastic-Free U.K. directory). They  are asking UK retailers to stop selling plastic cotton buds by the end of 2017.

    cotton-buds-personal

    According to Switch The Stick ” Waitrose and Johnson & Johnson announced they’d make the change to paper, and the Coop and Marks and Spencers sell paper-stem buds. Now we need to make sure the others do the same.

    Tesco, Sainsburys, Boots, ASDA, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, Superdrug and Wilko are currently reviewing their policies on cotton buds … which is why we need to show them how many of us support the switch to paper!”

    They already have over 11000 signitures. If you havn’t done so already do add your name. It’s so easy to change this and millions of fish will thank you
    The petition is now on 38 degrees (new link here)
    lots more information about Switch The Stick, can be found here 

    September
    First an apology. I have moved house and my internet provider didnt move with me. Not through want of asking. So I have been on and off line. Obviously going for a social media detox albeit subconsciously. I am trying to keep abreast but there is only so much time I can spend in Costa Coffee. I dont like leatherette or chains, they get snotty about the amount of wifi I expect for one small expresso. In a china cup if you dont mind! They do! They mind a lot.

    I have been trying to get by using my phone but no contract means I have very limited data. Add to that awful coverage and cut outs, posting has been a hit and miss affair. In short sorry for the late and rather scrappy update of #zerowasteweek2016 (read it here), bad spelling, insane predictaive text and missing words.

    Here is the rather later September update

    Sign up….

    Please do support this campaign…..

    Michelle and Natalie the best U.K. anti- plastic campaigners I know are running a campaign asking UK retailers to stop making plastic cotton buds by the end of 2017. These pesky sticks wash down the drains and up on the beaches. Heres a quick update

    We meet with the large retailers in just 10 days to ask them to#SwitchtheStick!! We need to keep the momentum of this petition goinghttp://switchthestick.org/ Likes and shares are great, but it´s SIGNATURES we really NEED!

    If you use cotton buds you can plastic free ones here….

    Waste Less Live More Week

    From 19-25 September, ” organizations, charities and businesses, (including ME!!!), will be hosting … events and activities which encourage people to waste less and live more. They have kindly suggested over 101 activities including having a bath together. Feel free to join me in the tub but it’s a small tub and I’m a big girl.

    And after my Zero Waste Week of eating-plastic-free -but- only-buying- from – supermarkets project I would like to to focus on local shops. Activity Number 46 looks ideal. It is Buy local – Try buying local for a day. Using local businesses instead of chains is great way of supporting local jobs and investing more money back into the local economy.

    So for all of WLLM week I will be posting photos of my local shops and businesses and the (plastic-free) produce I buy from them. I invite you to join me. One day in the week, when out shopping, take a photo of your favorite indie, local shop then post it up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or all of them.

    If enough join in I will combine it with Activity No 17 Have a photography competition and will offer a fantastic prizes Activity Number 39 Make a puppet or sock monkey perhaps or back to Number 77 Share a bath ? – a voucher system maybe?

    So Trashionistas what do you think? Will it work? Are you in?

    You can read more about it here….

    Zero Waste Week

    The first full week in September is Zero Waste Week. Zero waste week is organized by Rae Strauss. Each year there’s a theme. This year it is food waste. My zero waste week has been a celebration of loose and unwrapped food. As bought from supermarkets! Is that even possible? Find out how I got on, here.

    Free Fruit

    Blackberries are ripe – lets go picking. Not a huge fan of the jam but love bramble jelly with ham or cheese!

    Subscriptions

    I am moving over from Jetpack and other hungry plugins which may affect your subscription to the blog. If you want to continue getting up dates by e-mail, please re-subscribe  here. Many thanks.

     

    August

    July

    June

    May

    April

     

     

    March

    Back home from the tropics I desperately needed some new clothes, so three weeks in Leeds saw me busy sewing. However the design brief is a little more complex this year. Not only do the clothes have to be sustainable & plastic free, they have to be rather more dressy than I am used to.
    This Easter we will be in Seville for the Santa Semana and the Feria. The first is a week of processions elaborately decorated floats are hauled through the streets, by teams of ‘costaleros’ (bearers) followed by hundreds of ‘nazarenos’ (penitents), many in pointy hoods looking very sinister.
    Some of the drama that is Seville….

    This is followed a couple of weeks later with a big party The Real de la Feria where people drink, dance and dress up. The “women wear the traditional “traje de gitano”, literally “gypsy outfits” or flamenco dresses, often in bright colors, and accessorized with matching/coordinating flower in hair, comb, jewelry, tasseled scarf/shawl and fan. The dresses are pricey, but worth investing in if you’ll be coming back again – nothing makes you feel part of an event like being dressed appropriately”

    Bugger! After nearly a year backpacking, preceded by a year living in a van I can truthfully claim that while all my scarf featuredoutfits may well be representative of the modern-day gypsy none of them are fit for a party. This nomad wears khaki shorts, sludgy colored T-shirts (murky from repeated mixed washes) and the emergency muumuu for visiting Iran. Absolutely no bright colors or fringed shawls and definitely no frills.
    All I have in my hair is twigs and bits of straw. I haven’t accessorized since my Jackie reading days.
    But I am not investing in a dress. I can’t afford it and I would feel ridiculous. More importantly I am living within my fair share of fabric allowance which works out at 3.8 kg of natural fibres. You can read more about it here.

    Any clothes I get are going to have to last me the year. They have to theatrical enough for Seville yet practical enough for the U.K. Who knows where we will be and what we will be doing when we get back to the U.K. But I can’t imagine a flamenco dress is going to come in handy.

    So I need something dressy, theatrical yet practical, sustainable yet frivolous

    Seville Loose Foods

    We will of course be partying plastic free – here is our list of loose food products we can buy here. It includes crisps!!!!February will see the return of the wanderer and I am so looking forward to getting home and catching up with some of my zero waste chums.

    I will shake the dust of deepest, darkest Borneo from my feet and embrace the grey drizzle of Yorkshire. Plus  we actually have a house to live in – hurrah! its been a long time since I have had a fixed abode. We will have no furniture so it will be an excercise in extreme minimalism! Bring it on!

    Meanwhile lets get on with this months #plasticfree tasks.

    Latest

    Looking into making pants and I found this kit in a box. Could be a useful introduction. You can also get them at John Lewis

    Jen over at Make Do & Mend got sent on a course!

    Participate

    First theres a petition to sign.

    Introduce charges on plastic & polystyrene containers for the takeaway industry

    “I would like to place a charge on every plastic and polystyrene container used by the food industries and takeaway industries like the plastic bag charges brought in. Hopefully this will push people to use the eco-friendly products that are on the market but that are over looked due to the prices.”

    Sign here..(for U.K. Citizens only)..

    And there’s another one here asking Dairycrest to keep milk deliveries in glass bottles.

    Plastic Free Lent 10th Feb to 26th March.

    For those of you who didn’t know, some folk are taking part in a plastic free Lent. Sorry for the late news and indeed I would love to tell you more about this project but I don’t know a great deal myself

    . It is organised by peopel in Bristol (I am pretty sure of that) and has run for a couple of years now. It has a great FB page.

    Here’s some blurb “Welcome to the Lent Plastic Challenge. A group for all those who are ready to challenge themselves and take on the pesky single-use plastics that pile up in our modern life.

    To support your challenge, each week we will have different theme. So you can start off in the first week with one item and build up gradually”

    Hooray for them. I would love a feature them  though I ask and ask, no information ever gets sent my way. Sigh. Would love to have them in my the Plastic-free U.K. directory.

    Mothers Day March 

    Now the madness that is Valentines Day is out of the way you can start thinking about Mothers Day and here are some excellent ideas on what to get the old dear and how to wrap it up.

    Activites

    While it is still a bit cold to be out there, thoughts now turn to the garden and the seeds that need to be sown for the coming year. You need to start planning ahead for plastic free seedlings.
    You can buy plastic-free seeds from these suppliers and find instructions on how to make your own paper seedling pots here.

    I am going to have to make some new clothes when I get home. Browsing through Offset Warehouse and their amazing range of fair trade fabrics that they send out plastic-free.

    I will of course continue to boycott plastic and help others do the same by sourcing loads of great and sustainable alternatives. Check out the new and updated lists of plastic free products here.

    Save Our Bottles

    In 2015 I started a petition asking Diary Crest to reconsider their decision to phase out refillable glass bottle for doorstep deliveries. In December I received this message from Milk & More (Diary Crest)
    “glass milk bottles will continue to be delivered until at least April 2017. This date may be pushed back further. Many thanks.”
    Good news for now but I will continue to promote the petition. If you haven’t signed yet please consider doing so.

    Fair Share Fabrics Project

    If we cannot produce more (and we are rapidly running out of resources), we have to consume less. And consume more fairly. This is how the equation works for me

      • We cannot exceed current levels of production
      • We cannot expect others to want less than we have.
      • Therefore we can only consume our global share

    What’s a global share? 
    If all the fabric created annually was shared out equelly amongst the global population
    11.74 kg per person of which 3.8 kg is natural fibres. You can check my figures here.
    Last year I used 3.5 kg of natural fibres and 3.2kg of synthetics. You can see what that looks like here.

    2016

    This year I will be doing the same with hopefully a lot less synthetics.

    Back Home

    Been on the road for much of last year. I am looking forward to getting back home, ordering some fabric from Offset Warehouse and getting sewing….

    Cutting The Crap

    I hopefully suggest that this year everyone cuts one bit of unnecessary plastic, says no to straws perhaps, maybe use reusable produce bags or find a milkman with reusable bottles.