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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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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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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.

     

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    Peas frozen

    by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 2 Comments

    I have travelled far but pause to remember that MAY last year I was an innocent and  knew so little of all things plasticky

    Now I know that those of you kind enough to peruse these pages may imagine me as some kind of Birkenstock wearing earth goddess who loves nothing better than weaving yogurt while a pot of free trade, organic lentils bond themselves into a health some stew. Sadly not true. Dinner time finds me attacking the glacier that has taken up residence in our freezer in an attempt to liberate food, any kind of food, from its icy grasp. Frozen food is important to us and I am particularly partial to frozen peas.

    I saw problems ahead when I had to give up plastic wrapped frozen food. So I was overjoyed when I saw the Co-op put much of its food in bio-degradable packaging. I thought they meant biodegradable – an understandable mistake. However if this journey has taught me anything its to second check. Bio-Degradable does not mean biodegradable. It means conventional plastic with an additive to make it degrade or fall apart faster. You can find out more here.

    So I gave up peas and ALL OTHER PLASTIC PACKED FROZEN FOOD. SINCE THEN I HAVE NOT BOUGHT PLASTIC WRAPPED FROZEN FOOD I  know – feel free to marvel.

    It was hard so imagine my whoops of joy when I found Emly Moor Farm Shop who do frozen food in tubs. Using the little scoop you shovel what you want into the bags provided. Of course the bags are plastic but take your own bio bags (corn starch bags – made from vegetables they are fully compostable) and problem solved.x

    Here is the company who supply them – Field Fare. They supply shops nationwide. There is a postcode locator here which tells you where your nearest retailer is.

    The Emley Moor shop doesn’t stock the full range, but it will give you an idea of what’s available.

     

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    PLA Starch Bags – compostable plastic bags.

    by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables Tagged , , , , , 9 Comments

    PLA starch bags are described as a compostable plastic.Which can be confusing as they are a very different product from conventional, oil-derived plastics. Many people dismiss the compostable claim despite them being certified compostable  See plastics and introduction for more on this.
    PLA plastic  is made  from plant-based materials such as corn starch. You can find about more about starch derived plastics here .
    Once again they are compostable and certified as such.

    Same, same but different?

    PLA bags are almost but not quite the same as conventional plastic bags. However they share enough similarities to make them a very useful substitute and can be a great tool in your plastic free armoury.
    They are not quite as strong as conventional plastic bags so are not good as carrier bags but they are water proof for a limited amount of time, ( eventually there is seepage), but you can certainly use them to carry fish or meat home. 
    They are compostable and despite what folks might say they can be composted in a garden compost bin. Read more about PLA and composting here

    Biobags & Others
    One example of PLA bags is sold by the company Biobags. Back in the early days they were amongst the first to sell  in the U.K. They have very good credentials. Their bags are certified to BS N13432 standard and are manufactured sustainably at facilities certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. BioBag is the world’s largest brand of certified biodegradable and compostable bags and films made from Mater-Bi®. Biobags are the bags used in Modbury the plastic free town.

    These days many companies make and sell PLA bags and you can buy the from supermarkets.

    NB do check you bag is certified compostable.

    Compostable? 

    What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the European Norm EN13432. You can find out more here.

    What For & Which Size?

    I use them for
    fish and meat – (I ask that they use my bag instead of a plastic bag).
    Buying loose frozen foodstuffs … yes you can frozen peas loose!
    As freezer bags.

    If you can get it, I find the 6 liter size best to take shopping. The 8 litre is obviously bin liner size, and eyebrows are raised when you ask to have your steak put in a bin liner..

    Buy

    PLA bags  can be bought from most big supermarkets. Biobags and other PLA bags can be found in hundreds of online shops  including Amazon & Ebay. Some suppliers are listed here.

    Composting PLA Plastic At Home

    While most agree that PLA plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.
    AND I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. We have used and composted a number PLA plastic products (including Biobags , Deli pots  and disposable Cutlery)
    It does take longer than other products and  sometimes I have found shreds of it in my compost but I dig it into the soil where it quickly disappears.

    Read more about compostable plastics here

    More

    Find loose food outlets listed on the loose foods list
    Other kinds of useful, plastic free bags are listed  here.

    Greenwashing

    And never forget that bio-degradable plastic bags do not biodegrade where as compostable plastic bags do compost. Not all bio-plastics (plant derived plastics) are compostable. Read more here.

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    Pots – PLA compostable

    by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables Tagged , , , , ,

    These  deli pots are  made from  PLA plastic. This looks and acts just like plastic but is made from corn starch rather than oil. Not only is this a renewable resource, it is also  compostable 

    I have bought  two size of pots ( with lids), specifically made to serve food portions,  which I take to the shops with me and use instead of the plastic pots provided.

    I use them for
    Olives
    Humus
    Potato salad
    Pate
    and anything else that takes my fancy.

    I use them in supermarkets, farmers markets and anywhere that sells loose.

    My Pots

    The 350 ml (Big enough to hold a jar of Tesco olives)
    The 500 ml (Big enough for a jar of beetroot)

    Please note – the lids fit securely but are not completely waterproof – you might need to put the pots in a cornstarch bag for additional security.

    More

    The pots are really sturdy and don’t as you might imagine start biodegrading the minute you use them. For instance, I use them keep my home-made cosmetic cream in – months later there is still no sign of disintegration.

    You can wash them but they do melt in hot water so cannot be washed at temperatures hot enough to sterilise. For this reason I would recommend that you take a new pot with you every time you go shopping.However that  need not stop you reusing them around the house. I recycle them as freezer pots , use them for sprouting seeds, growing cress and other garden based activities of which more later.

    Find out more about PLA here

    Suppliers

    You can buy pots at various places on-line, they have started appearing on Ebay and there are some very good deals on Amazon

    I bought mine from WF Dennys – very cheap but minimum purchase 100.

    Vegware do a great range of shapes and sizes and will sell smaller amounts.

    Compostable? 

    What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the European Norm EN13432. You can find out more here.

    Composting PLA Plastic At Home

    While most agree that PLA plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.
    AND I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. We have used and composted a number PLA plastic products (including Biobags , Deli pots  and disposable Cutlery)
    It does take longer than other products and  sometimes I have found shreds of it in my compost but I dig it into the soil where it quickly disappears.

    Read more about compostable plastics here

    Greenwashing

    And never forget that bio-degradable plastic bags do not biodegrade where as compostable plastic bags do compost. Not all bio-plastics (plant derived plastics) are compostable. Read more here.

     

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    lip balm

    by Posted in 3.1 Personal Tagged , , ,

    Well looks like winter is finally here – again – and the need for a good lip balm has never been greater. Needless to say I take issue with the plastic tubes and pots that commercial balms are packaged in – especially as they are used only once then thrown away. So I make my own.

    1 tablespoon beeswax pellets or olive oil flakes
    1 tablespoon roughly chopped shea butter
    1 tablespoon grated cocoa butter
    1 tablespoon sweet almond oil
    1 tablespoon castor oil
    Melt the whole lot together in a bowl in a pan of hot water. Mix and pour into little pots (from here or other online stores) to set.

    The end result is a really nice, very effective lip balm.

    Pots and ingredients can be bought on line from www.aromantic.co and other companies.

    However if like me you work out doors, digging mud, applying lip balm from a pot with grimy finger is not ideal. So I refill my old lip balm tubes – you will need to wash them out and rewind them first – obviously. Sometimes you have to push the base plate down a little before they will wind back.

    Or you can buy new, empty tubes from here or  www.aromantic.co

    Filling the tubes is fiddly and a small funnel helps. small funnelsYou can get these metal ones here.

     

    Mouth diameter is 3.2cm Spout diameter is 4mm Inner spout diameter is 3mm Total height 2.8cm

    NB

    One more advantage to making your own balm is not being poisoned! In addition to the synthetic preservatives and flavours, white petrolatum, the basis of many shop bought balms, is derived from petrol. Yuk. Every time you put it on your lips you ingest a little – make your own and you know what you are eating.

    Plastic alert – most of the products will come plastic packed but you will ultimately be cutting your plastic consumption.

    Find more homemade makeup and other stuff here

     

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    Shampoo

    by Posted in 3.1 Personal Tagged , , 5 Comments

    Shampoo in a plastic bottle? Why bother when there are gentler, cheaper and plastic-free soap substitutes?

    Liquid Shampoo


    Soap Flake Shampoo
    Long ago  I stopped buying shampoo and started making my own. Simple recipe – soap flakes mixed with water to make a liquid soap

    Soap flakes are pretty much pure soap and so my shampoo contains  no artificial fragrance, color, preservatives, detergents, alcohol, urea, formaldehyde, sodium laurel sulfate, DEA, propylene glycol – or any of the other synthetic hair care additives.

    SHAMPOO RECIPE

    2 cups of soap flakes
    2 litres of water
    30ml of glycerine. ( I can’t decide if this makes any difference so it’s obviously not essential
    This makes a big pan full.

    Heat up and stir till the soap flakes melt then leave it.
    When it cools the soap will go all stiff and jelly like.
    If it is too thick add some more water.
    When it is the desired consistency you can add a few drops of scent if you wish.
    If you make a batch and store it for a while you might find that it solidifies. Don’t add water whisk it with the blender and it will return to its original consistency.

    It’s not as sudsy as shampoo though if you do two washes and you get lots of lather the 2nd time. You don’t get the feeling it is stripping your hair bare and it doesn’t leave it frizzy and mad. It seems to take hair some time to adapt.

    Buy Soap Flakes
    I use Soap flakes from Dri pak, a Derbyshire based company. They are described (on their website) as follows

    Dri-Pak Soap Flakes are predominantly pure soap – with no added perfumes, enzymes, bleach, phosphates or additives, so you can be confident that they will degrade harmlessly without damaging watercourses and aquatic life.
    Soap Flakes have not been tested on animals. They will leave your clothes feeling soft and fresh, and far less likely to cause skin irritations than regular detergent washing powders. They are gentle enough for woollens, silk, delicates and modern outdoor fabrics that have special waterproof and breathable properties, which can be damaged by detergents and fabric conditioners.
    They also come in cardboard boxes so there’s no nasty plastic packaging. You can get them from Wilkinsons hardware stores, Ebay or direct from Dri pak.

    Wilkinsons also do own brand soap flakes in a cardboard box. More details here.

    Ecover emergency shampoo
    This one also works well and so far no one has twigged. Put some Ecover  washing up liquid, which you buy as a refill, in a nice bottle ( you can dilute it if you think it is too strong, I do). Add few drops of scent if you wish. Luxury shampoo in no time at all.

    Using Essential OIls
    Essential oils are concentrated and so should be used with some care.
    Do not apply neat to the skin. They should always de diluted. Read more about how to use them HERE
    It is good practice to do an allergy test before you slather on any product containing them.
    Do some further research into the oil you plan to use. Some are very strong and need to be used with caution.
    Buy from a company that is clear about how they grow and harvest their oils. You can read more about this,here

    Solid Shampoo

    Bar Shampoo
    If that seems like a lot of faffing around, get a solid shampoo bar from Pure Lush. These come wrapped in paper if you buy them from the shop and plastic if you buy from the website. I know – plastic – but it is a small shrink wrapped bag as compared to a whole bottle.You can find many stores on-line selling similar.

    Soap

    I got to thinking why bother with all that flaking and making – surely soap is soap is soap. Turns out yes it is and you can wash your hair with a bar of soap just as well as anything else including shampoo which is just runny soap.

    I find its best to wash twice.
    N.B. Dove soap is not good for this.
    For my hair type I have to use soap in conjunction with an occasional  vinegar rinse. Seems to clear out build up.
    After a while you might find your hair stops looking so good after washes. Change soap.

    Bicarbonate Of Soda

    Often called the no poo method. You can read up about it here

    Disclaimer

    Be 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,
    That’s me I mean.

    I am telling you of my own experiences for your information only. You should do a lot more research before proceeding. None of the following have been tested on anyone other than me. All I can say Is that I have used the above for a long time with, as yet,  no ill effects.

    More

    See a full range of homemade #plasticfree personal care products here 
    And find out how to make lots more stuff HERE
    Find all plastic free personal care products here…

    Ingredients

    An introduction to some of the stuff you need to make the above

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    Ear buds

    by Posted in 3.1 Personal 11 Comments

    The not so darling buds…

    I was brought up with the fear of perforated eardrums so avoid cotton buds, q tips, call them what you will. My husband however gets through boxes of them. He must have the cleanest ears in Yorkshire. So he did not react well when I told him his brand of bud has been banned from our house because the stick is made from plastic.

    They may be small but the cotton bud features large on the pollution chart. One major problem is that people use them and then flush them down the loo. Each week an estimated 500,000 plastic sticks are sent down the pan in the Thames Water region alone.

    Being small they can squeeze through filters at sewage works and so out into open water. During Beachwatch 2004, they made up 87% of sewage related debris found on our beaches – that’s a staggering 154 buds every km of beach surveyed. In 2006 they were the second most common item of litter washed up on our beaches.

    Being plastic they are of course with us for ever. The obvious answer is don’t dispose of them in the toilet. Now in all fairness the husband (though guilty of many bathroom crimes) does not flush his down the loo. But that still leaves the question why make a disposable, one-use item out of something that lasts for centuries? If they don’t go down the loo they still have to be disposed of somehow and plastic is not got rid of easily. I don’t see why clean ears have to mean a dirty environment.

    BUY plastic free

    My husband though insists that clean ears are vital to health, and cotton buds are essential for clean ears. So we have compromised. We buy cotton buds with a paper stem – not only are they made from renewable sources, they biodegrade naturally in the compost heap. Biocototige (French company) do them and they can be bought from eBay – www.ebay.co.uk.

    U.K. based….cotton buds

    UK based online company Boobalu sell the bamboo versions pictured above. As she is very plastic aware, she will no doubt recognise your onward plastic free packaging needs! Check out her store for a whole load of plastic free goodness!

    According to the comments below, Coop and Marks and Spencers sell paper-stem buds.
    “Midlands Co-op do fairtrade ones with a cardboard shaft albeit in a a little plastic resealable bag”
    “Co-op and Marks & Spencer now do Fairtrade Cotton buds which have paper sticks. These are also obviously made from Fairtrade Cotton.”
    And this might be worth looking into “There is a brand called Simply Gentle made by http://www.macdonaldandtaylor.com that have paper sticks and are made from organic cotton.”

    If you know of any others or have more information on the above please do comment.

    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 making plastic cotton buds by the end of 2017.

    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 

    More

    Find all personal car products here

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    Pen Ink refillable

    by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables, 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged , , , , , 7 Comments

    Here is a one of the worlds finest inventions as radical in its time as the computer has been in ours treated as a throwaway piece of rubbish
    Not only am I ridding the world of plastic I am reinstating dignity to the much abused pen.

    Refillable Fountain Pen

    I have bought myself a fountain pen with refillable cartridge. Please note many pens use disposable plastic ink cartridges which defeats the object. DO CHECK!

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    Fountain pen with reusable ink cartridge.

    The pen is from Parker and the body is made (mostly), of stainless steel.As is the nib.
    Yes the cartridge thing is plastic but it is reusable.
    I have been using this pen for a while now and I like it a lot.

    Bought the wrong pen?

    If you have got a disposable cartridge pen you may be able to buy a refillable cartridge.  For example this one for Parker Pens. You will need to Google the make of your pen to find out.

    Failing that Indestructables have a guide fro refilling throwaway cartridges. Looks time consuming and messy to me but it can be done!

    Ink

    The ink  comes in bottle but they do have  plastic lids. The bottles are  so cute I plan to up-cycle them when I get enough.
    I don’t actually do that much writting by hand so that might take some time.

    Plastic Alert

    Of course the pen  has plastic elements but we don’t boycott all plastics. We think that there are some valid uses for the product ( gasp!! yes I know…you can read our reasons here).

    Buy

    I strongly recommend you buy from a shop. This pen is going to last you a long time! You need to get the feel of it. Besides which, pen shops are lovely.

    Though we try to link with business we know we cannot always do this. Then we try to find a similar product on Amazon.
    Amazon is a very dirty word at the moment and I thought long and hard before suggesting them.  Heres why I went ahead….. No we are not entirely happy with Amazons recent history. However, we have always found their service to be good and their packaging usually compostable.

    If you buy a product via this link we do get an affiliation fee for this. This is not why we do it.

    Parker Jotter Stainless Steel Chrome Trim Fountain Pen Medium Nib - Gift Boxed Parker Fountain Pen Refillable Ink Converter Parker Quink 57ml Ink Bottle Permanent - Black
    Parker Jotter Stainless Steel Chrome Trim F…
    £13.97    		 Parker Fountain Pen Refillable Ink Converter
    £3.87    		 Parker Quink 57ml Ink Bottle Permanent – Bl…
    £4.48

    Biodegradable Cornstarch Pen

    But I am bad with pens – years of abusing them can not be wiped out in a moment. Used to loosing them destroying them throwing them away without a backward glance means I am careless.

     

    In the meantime I don’t want to lose my expensive fountain pen so  I have bought some disposable pens – pens that biodegrade. You can read about them here.

    They were rubbish so now I  use a pencil…..

    Read more about pens & pencils here….

     

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    Bread and bread machines

    by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , , 1 Comment

    Buy

    As you know, most bread comes plastic wrapped. Unless you are lucky enough to  have a local bakery, and don’t work office hours, this can be problematic for the plastic free.

    I do get to choose my own hours so I can go shopping in the week, and we do have a local bakers – but there is still a problem.They put their bread in plastic bags. They do have paper bags for the buns but they don’t like using them for bread. Each time I ask, they tell me the bread doesn’t fit in a paper bag. It quite clearly does and has been proven to do so on previous occasions. It is, for whatever reason, an issue with them so I don’t push it.

    Most supermarkets do unwrapped rolls and will let you use your own produce bags.

    However man cannot live on barm cakes alone!

    Make

    So I bought a bread maker which is easy to use and the bread is fantastic. There are still some plastic elements – the milk powder comes in a plastic lined packet and the yeast is plastic foil wrapped but it is a small plastic price to pay compared to pre-packed bread.

    Of course the  breadmaker has plastic elements –  but we don’t boycott all plastics. We think that there are some valid uses for the product ( gasp!! yes I know…you can read our reasons here). The breadmaker fits into the plastic products that reduce the use of plastic disposables category.

    More

    So now our bread needs are met with a combination of buns from the co-op, a run in with the bakery when I have the time and the stamina and homemade bread.

    Speciality Breads get fantastic nan breads from Maryam Bakery

    Find more yummy baked things at bread, buns and biscuits

    Courses & Community Made Bread

    Not only do these guys do scrummylicious bread which I totally recommend, they do it for a good cause!

    All quotes are taken from the website….

    “LoveBread is run by bakers and volunteers who love baking bread. We want to involve the local community in providing real bread for their community.  ”

    This not for profit organisation  bake handmade artisan bread for sale in  Ryecorn’s Wholefoods, Brighouse every day except Wednesday, Villa Farm Shop, Huddersfield on a Friday and Saturday and Ingfield Farm Shop, Southowram on a Friday and Saturday.

    Learn to make Real Bread

    Love Bread run regular workshops teaching the basics of making your first loaf to advanced techniques of shaping and flavourings.  We also run courses and training sessions for community groups and schools.

    All workshops are available to book online, visit our workshop page for more information. Our workshop vouchers are now available from the bakery, market stalls or email us for more information.  We are now taking bookings for all our workshops, visit the workshop page for more details and to book your place.