post

Handwash

by Posted in 3.1 House, Office & Garden, 3.1 Personal Tagged ,

I know a lot of people like a liquid hand wash. Personally I prefer soap but whatever. So this hand wash comes in soluble pods that you drop in water and refill the (plastic) bottle provided. When done you buy more via. The website. It is posted to you in plastic free packaging,  (NB according to some reviews they come with some plastic).

Now I think you are meant to buy the bottle as part of the starter kit but I see no reason why you couldn’t just buy the refills and use your own plastic free soap dispenser?

It comes from a company called

Splosh

This is an online refill service. A new way to buy your home cleaning, laundry and health & beauty essentials.
You buy the starter pack which includes a range of bottles and concentrate product. You water down the product and fill the bottles. Thereafter you buy more concentrate on line and refill your bottles as needed.

Some products come in soluble pods which you drop into water; others in plastic pouches which can be sent back to be refilled or recycled. While the refillable plastic pouches obviously are plastic (duh) the soluble pods sound useful.

They supply a wide range of products. But  “currently the surface cleaners and hand washes come in water soluble sachets and the rest come in pouches.”

Splosh also claim that the postal packaging for the starter kit and refills is also plastic free. Though according to some reviews they come with some plastic.

Here’s their mission statement. “Plastic waste is an environmental disaster and we’re committed to reducing it to zero. For each product we’ve designed a refilling system that takes plastic out of the waste stream. For example our pouches can be sent back for refilling and, at the end of their life, we manage their reprocessing into other products”

You can read more about how it works and order products here HERE
If anyone out there has used this product please let me know.

More

Want to know what soap is? How it works? Is there animal fat in there?
Read all our soap posts HERE

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.

post

Glass

by Posted in 3.6 Good to know, 4 About The Alternatives, More Information Tagged 1 Comment

Things to consider when choosing glass packaging as oppose to plasticglass featured

What is glass 

  • Glass is made from sand, soda ash and limestone baked at temperatures of over 1500oC (~2730oF).
  • It requires a lot of energy to make.
  • Sand mining and soda ash manufacturing can be problematic.
  • It is heavy to transport.
  • It is the latter that makes glass environmentally challenging

Carbon costs of glass compared to plastic

a PET (a thermoplastic polymer resin) jar versus a glass one uses twice as much abiotic material (minerals and fossil fuel) to produce and 17 times more water (predominantly from cooling power plants) and produces five times the greenhouse gas emissions. Lucy Seigal writing in the Guardian

But start transporting glass and the figures change

Some calculate this could be as much as 2 tonnes of CO2, per 1 tonne of glass, when transport of such a heavy product is factored in. All this gives glass an Embodied Energy of about 12.7 MJ/kg. (By comparison aluminum is 170 (!!), cement 5.6 and kiln dried sawn softwood 3.4). Treehugger

A PET jar shipped 1,000km in lieu of a glass jar saves 19g of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent).Lucy Seigal writing in the Guardian

The weight of three main packaging choices for beverages have big impact on truckload size and thus fuel use.

“For a 335 ml container, the aluminum can is the featherweight at 11 g. The middleweight PET bottle weighs 24 g, while the heavyweight champ of the drink container world, the glass bottle, weighs a comparatively colossal 200 g.

The additional 176-plus grams holds a sizable environmental punch, as fewer bottles can be loaded onto trucks due to weight limits, meaning more trips, and a heavier load uses more fuel. In a German study, researchers calculate that a recycled glass bottle could be the cause of 20 per cent more greenhouse gas than a virgin aluminum can due to its added weight on a cross-country truck journey.

Recycling

Glass can be recycled indefinitely and into the same product over and over again. Glass lemonade bottles can be made into glass lemonade bottles.

Every tonne of glass saves 225 kg of carbon dioxide.

Plastics degrade during the recycling process. They cannot be made into like for like products (though that is changing), but they can be made into other things. P.E.T. bottles can become fleeces for example.

Reuse milk featured

Glass containers can be easily reused.  Sadly this rarely happens and there are limitations. This is from a W.R.A.P. report on the subject.

LCA studies show that the level of benefits refillables have over single use systems is dependent on a number of key factors, e.g. capture rates, transport distances and recycling rates. This stresses the need to view refillables on a case-by-case basis and not simply to promote the wholesale use of refillables irrespective of circumstance.

End User Issues

Glass is also heavy for the shopper. It can be hard work lugging all those jars home. Heavier products are more difficult to manipulate. The elderly and infirm can find glass jars and bottles too bulky to manipulate safely.

Plastic is much lighter and easier to grasp. Glass is slippery.

And of course when it does slip from your trembling hands it can smash in nasty sharp potentially dangerous pieces.

But glass is inert. It does not leach chemicals whereas plastic does. Some consider this to be a potential health hazard.

Many claim that food tastes better when stored in glass. Possibly because there are no leaching chemicals.

Pollution

Plastic disposable items can easily end up as litter. Because plastic doesn’t biodegrade this is litter with a lifespan of centuries. Plastic waste is damaging the environment and is now a huge ecological threat. 

Conclusions

The general consensus seems to be that glass is environmentally better than plastic but only if it doesn’t have to travel too far.

Glass is ideal for bottle reuse schemes such as milk deliveries. You can find one here…

 

post

sugru – mending plastic

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged ,

sugru“What if you could fix, modify or make almost anything? That’s why we invented sugru.”

and I have long been a fan! It is high up there in my plastic2cutplastic category. That is a product with plasticky elements that helps to ultimately reduce your plastic use. Sugru is a  rubbery stuff that can be hand moulded and used in dry or wet, hot and cold situations to mend (or adapt) all manner of things especially plastic products that are getting a bit wobbly. I hardly need stress the advantages but here’s a copy of the press release any way….

“sugru was created by a young product designer on a mission to empower people who want to repair and enhance their products. It moulds like play dough, sticks to almost anything and turns into a strong flexible rubber overnight.Adopted by people in over 150 countries, there are simply thousands of uses for sugru, from modifying kit on expeditions to the North Pole through to homeowners making small improvements to gadgets, appliances and even toys.” You can read more here..

It really does work! I have used it to mend chargers saving them from landfill and me the cost of buying new.

Also to seal a gap in the wooden trim above the kitchen sink. Better looking than shiny silicone seal, easier to use and far less packaging.

As packaging goes, yes they do come in plastic lined foil sachets but they are packed in a cardboard envelope so the packaging is minimal and necessary to keep the product from drying out.

sugru is available at a wide range of retailers including B&Q and Wilko as well as online at sugru.com.

Because it is so darn handy it will come as no surprise that sugru are also supporting Waste Less Live More Week of which I am a proud partner.

Bit more press release…

“Inventor and CEO of sugru, Jane ni Dhulchaointigh is also looking forward to the challenge: ‘being resourceful brings a little bit of creative thinking into everyday life and I love that! We designed sugru to be easy to use in the hope that it might encourage people not only to reduce waste but to feel more confident and creative about fixing and improving things too. The Waste Less Live More challenge is a brilliantly easy way for people to make small changes… and if enough of us do those small things, it could make a big difference.”

post

Tomatos – an alternative to tinned

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , 4 Comments

I learnt to cook out of tins. I don’t mean as a student; I mean when I was growing up we ate out of tins, a lot. One of the staples in the cupboard was tinned tomatoes. They were used for everything. Even when we had a cooked breakfast it would come with tinned tommies.
I don’t know if tomatoes were scarce in Manchester in the 70s, just a seasonal treat or wether we preferred it that way. All I know is that the fresh tomato was rarely seen in our house.
What’s taught is whats known and as an adult I thought tinned tomatoes were an essential ingredient in bolognese, sauces and stews. Consequently the thought of giving up tinned tomatoes as part of our plastic boycott, (Tin cans of food – they are nearly all plastic lined), was scary. But I needn’t have worried.

I can of course buy Passata which is posh tinned tomatoes in a glass bottle . But those bottle have they will have plastic lined metal lids and are expensive so better and easier to use fresh tomatoes.

Better still I can make my own tomato base – useful if you have a lot of tomatoes and you need to something with them….. or I can use them uncooked. Who knew.

Pre-Cooked

Heres how
Get a lot of tomatoes. Go buy a big box full. Read up about plastic free veggies here.
Or grow some.

Wash them and pack them in a pot.
You can do them whole or half and cut the hearts out first. Cover them with a lid
1passata08
Bake them in the oven or on the the top of the stove till they go squishy.
1passata12
Sqeeze in innards out, pull the peel off.
freeze till needed
Nice additions – herbs when baking and or a dollop of tomato puree when freezing.
NB I reuse my PLA plastic compostable pots as freezer pots. So far only the lids have failed me.

Use Fresh As Is

Now while this is a good and useful thing to do, handy to have in and a great way to store a glut, it is not always necessary. Yes, since then I have found that you can add fresh tomatoes to whatever it is your cooking!
I know! This is how I do it
Cut them in half then remove the white bit out
Steam them on top of the frying veg
When the are cooked it is easy to peel the skins off.
Then you can mash them down to make sauce.
Just as good as tinned – honest.

More

Find more recipes in the plastic free cookbook.

Find plastic free fruit and veg here.

Fruit & Vegetables

 

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

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Porridge Oats

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink 3 Comments

Quakers Oats and Scots Porridge come in cardboard boxes and are plastic free.

Some of the expensive organic oats come in cardboard boxes but I have never tried them.

You can get them in a paper bag from Lidles very cheaply indeed. They are a bit woody but edible.

You can buy them loose from Whole Foods Market and some weigh and save type shops

 

You can find other plastic free products here.

 

Ullapool

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses Tagged

Dropped down out of the mountains into the pleasant town of Ullapool where we found the following fantastic plastic free finds

Out on what looks like a mini industrial estate is the smoke house where they smoke fish. They do two types of smoked salmon. We got there just in time just before this big boy was plastic packed for the counter. We proffered our reusable plastic tub and got it filled with fish.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ullapool Smokehouse 
4 Morefield Quarry, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Next door there was a bakery where we bought bread which we took away in our reusable cloth bag.
Unit 6 3 Morefield Industrial Estate, Morefield, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Off we went to the butchers and got bangers and mince in yet more plastic tubs.

Food For Thought (Highland) Ltd West Shore Street Ullapool Ross-Shire IV26 2UR

Got some loose criossants from Tescos in our own cloth bags.

post

Citric Acid

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged , ,

Can be bought in a cardboard box without a plastic liner from Wilcos.

Find more plastic free stuff as stocked in Wilcos, and Wilcos the store,here.

Supermarkets & Chainstores

Sometimes supermarkets can surprise you – check out the plastic-free and reduced packaging products here.

post

Glitter biodegradable

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged , ,

Yes you can get biodegradable glitter and this Etsy company sell it in compostable packaging. Yay!

Overview
Handmade item
Materials: Biodegradable Film, Certified as Compostable, Compost Home Certified, ISO 17088 2212, EN13432, ASTM D6400

And the bags and packaging it comes in are biodegradable too.

You can buy from EcoEquinox A U.K. Based seller.

More

Read more about compostable plastics HERE

post

U.K. Made Fabric

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses Tagged

This year I wanted to source some locally made fabrics. In the U.K. the locally made fabric is wool.
It is especially relavent to me as I live in Yorkshire a place once famous for its woolen fabric. There used to be hundreds of mills churning out meters of the stuff but those days are long gone. Indeed you may be surprised to hear that there are any working mills left. I was. But my research revealed that Yorkshire cloth is still being made by a handful of mills. What they turn out now is a luxury product. If you thought organic fair-trade was expensive check out these prices. £ 50.00 a meter is the cheap end of the market and way out of my price range. BUT……

Jacks, a stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market, sell end of line remnants of Yorkshire made wooden fabric.  For very reasonable amounts. Anything from £5.00 to £12.00 a meter.

Leons sell British wool

Ebay

Working Mills

Made in the U.K.

  • Dugdale (only merchant still in the centre of Huddersfield) Owns Thomas Fisher and Duffin & Peace names
    Huddersfield Fine Worsteds (Owned by US distributors HMS) Owns Minnis, John G Hardy, Hunt & Winterbotham

And the major merchants with operations in the UK are:

  • Holland & Sherry (owned by the US Tom James group)
    LBD Harrison’s (owned by the Dunsford family in Exeter) LBD bought Harrison’s a while ago, and also now owns the Lesser’s name and Porter & Harding
    Smith’s (only English merchant based in London) Owns W Bill
    Brook Taverner
    Bateman & Ogden
    Scabal
    Dormeuil

And then there is the Woolsack Website

Ackroyd and Dawson Trade only all British wool “Ackroyd & Dawson has the distinct pleasure of welcoming you to the revival of a great tradition, to a revitalization of the legacy of the world’s finest woollen and worsted cloth — 100% British.”

Anta  The tweed fabrics are 100% Wool, sourced from the British Isles and woven in Scotland

Bespoke Fabrics  Although not listed on website they were selling wool cloth at an event, so contact them.

Dashing Tweeds Collection of 100% British wool tweed – original designs woven in UK.  Also including the fine wool Romney collection

Harris Tweed (available in small quantities if required)

Harris Tweed Hebrides  Along with supplying some of the World’s biggest brands, Harris Tweed Hebrides cloth is available direct from our mill to the individual.

Hebridean Woolhouse  There are four tweeds in the Hebridean Woolhouse range; the ‘Hebridean’, the ‘Dunay’, the ‘Auchnahyle’ and the ‘Islay’.  They are made purely from the natural undyed Hebridean wool with the addition of coloured Shetland wool to make the subtle pattern.

Laura’s Loom  Online shop. Also small pieces of woven fabric which could be used for making into cushions. It is undyed Bluefaced Leicester wool which could be dyed, stitched into, quilted, etc. The price is £10 per piece, incl. p&p and is large enough to make one cushion.

London Cloth Company  Our British Wool all comes from small flocks of sheep within the British Isles. We have been working with ecologist Heather Webb from Nude Ewe and shearer Michael Churchhouse to source wool from conservation flocks, which is then spun into yarn for us in Halifax. The resulting yarn is 100% natural, un-dyed British wool. We never dye it and rarely blend colours, so we design the cloth by breed of sheep. Despite this, there is a huge spectrum of shades to choose from.  Store

Melin Teifi  Welsh Flannel fabrics are available from Melin Teifi, Dre-fach Felindre, Llandysul, Dyfed, SA44 5UP

Middle Campscott Farm  Wool from the flock of Friesland/Dorsets is woven into cloth, in three different weights and weaves, suitable for curtains or soft furnishing.

Original Cumbrian Wool Upholstery fabric in different shades woven from undyed natural wool from Lakeland sheep

Shawbost Weavers  Harris Tweed cloth

The Harris Tweed Authority – Find Tweed  Information about Harris Tweed and links to suppliers

British Wool Felt

Olwen Veevers  I have a felting machine which will produce sheets of felt up to 1200mm x 600mm. Fleece from Corriedale sheep is ideally suited for this purpose. I can supply these sheets to customers

More Fabric
on line suppliers
Local fabric shops.

Regenerated Fibres & fabrics  a very basic introduction
Kinds Of fabric – my ongoing experiences with natural fabrics.

post

The Hut

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses Tagged

Polish deli on Wood street, Huddersfield. Sells  cheese, salami, bacon, gherkins, bread and cakes and sweets sold  #unpackaged

N.B. The cheese is in large blocks wrapped in plastic. The piece they cut off is plastic free. – You can find more cheese here

The gherkins are  in a bucket and you help yourself. Was absolutely thrilled to find the latter. I love gherkins and I sometimes I buy them in glass jars. The jars have metal lids which are of course plastic lined so I have to count it as one of my guilty pleasures. I thought I had found a solution. Sadly I didn’t like the taste of them. Sigh.

The sweets are loose but wrapped in plastic or foil.

The butter looks like it is wrapped in paper. It is not! It is wrapped in plastic.

You have to take your own plastic free packaging. I took biobags. 

More
08 Other bags - 2