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Trimmings & Fixings

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged 1 Comment

Zips & Fastenings

Metal trouser hooks and eyes can be bought loose from trimmings shops on Leeds Kirkgate Market, Covered Market City Center
Huge press studs on cardboard backing Leeds Kirkgate Market, Covered Market City Center.

Ribbons Lace

You can get organic 100 % cotton lace here

And more here https://jamestailoring.co.uk/product-category/haberdashery/lace/

FINE FRENCH COTTON LACE BORDER

ID: 12244Fine French Cotton Lace Border. Width 60mm. 90% Cotton/10% Polyamide. https://www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk/p/12244/cotton-lace-trims/mw/fine-french-cotton-lace-border

And lace like this  guipure style lace trim  100% certified organic cotton https://www.embroidered-lace.com/sale-10515379-embroidered-guipure-venice-lace-trims-organic-cotton-lace-trimming-for-chemises.html

Lancaster & Cornish Ribbons like this…. This bias cut feather weight habotai silk is super soft and drapy.  The silk is dyed with natural plant dyes in our Cornwall studio.

Or real silk ribbons hand hand died in Scotland using natural dies made from plants grown in the garden WANT SOME!!!!!! Not bought any myself but I bet you could get them in plastic free packaging if you asked. They seems a very nice business.

A bit from the website

I have started to produce hand dyed ribbon using the plants and flowers grown at Mill Pond Flower Farm. We are very fortunate in having a wide variety of mostly native trees and plants with the addition of flowers grown for sale. This gives a great store of material that can be used in dying fabrics and can give a range of colours. The effect of using natural dyes is to give a softness and depth of colour that changes with the light, blending effortlessly with other fabrics and hues.

Buy here

On Amazon – you can see a selection here

More

Find lots more plastic free sewing aids and fabrics HERE

See The clothes I have made here

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Straws Compostable

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

The picture shows a turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose (You can watch the video in full here). Every years hundreds of thousand plastic straws end up polluting the environment. Ecocycle estimate that 500 million straws are used in the US every day alone.

If you must have disposable straws, (and none of these great reusable options suit), then why not try these compostable ones made from cornstarch. They look and act  just like  plastic straws…  but they are made from PLA cornstarch and are certified compostable.

Find out more about compostable plastic here.

You can buy them from Vegware. They do everything from black cocktail (1000 for 10.00)  to jumbo smoothie.

I have seen  paper straws on ebay but (as far as I know), they are not certified compostable and  may be plastic lined. They certainly are plastic packed.

Any one know any more?

Composting

One type of certified compostable plastic is  Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) plastic.

Some say that PLA plastics do not break down in home compost bins. THEY ARE WRONG. We have used and composted a number of  PLA plastic products.

You can see the PLA products we have used here.

More

Or you can try these  reusable stainless steel beauties or glass straws. 

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Soap

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 General & Homemade, 3.1 Personal, 4 About The Alternatives Tagged , , , , 1 Comment

 Making Soap 

Basic soap is made from lye, oils or fats (animal or vegetable) and water.

Saponification
When these three are mixed together a chemical process called saponification takes place. The end result is soap

In the olden days soap makers used lye obtained from wood ashes. Find out how, here.

Modern day soap makers use Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye and caustic soda. This is made from salt and is very caustic See how that is made here.

History

In the olden days making soap was a labour intensive process. There were plenty of animal fats but making lye took forever. And it wasn’t very reliable. Then in 1791 French chemist Le Blanc discovered how to make Soda Ash from salt. Soap got much easier and cheaper to make and the great unwashed could finally afford a bar in every home.

How does it work

Alkaline & Organic Soils

Soap is alkaline which means it will work well  with organic soils ( dirt). Alkaline emulsify grease.  Fatty acids are normally insoluble which is why they cannot be cleaned using water alone. The alkaline breaks down fat making them dispersable in water. Read more here

Soap & Germs

But folk were not just cleaner but safer too. Soap does actually kills germs but it does a good job of physically removing them. 

Whats in YOUR soap
Here are some of the things you might find in your soap.

Sodium tallowate  is from animal fat usually from cows.

Sodium lauryl sulfate (commonly known as SLS)  and Sodium laureth sulphate and sodium laurel sulphate also attract dirt so work in the same way as soap but they create more lather. This is the main reason they are added – to create lots of lovely lather.  They are a known skin irritant. Internet claims that they cause cancer are unproven.

Synthetic fragrance  – which may contain DEO a phthalate used as a solvent and fixative. Despite the general bad press about phthalates this one is considered safe.

Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) are used in soap making  because they make the soap more bubbly and result in a harder bar. Palm oil –  comes from Malaysia and Indonesia. They have cut down hundreds of acres of rainforest to make way for huge plantations of palm oil. This has impacted adversely on the habitat of the orangutang  a now endangered species. You can find out more about it and why we minimise our use of palm oil, here .

Other considerations when buying soap might include does the company still do animal testing.

Is it a British company.

Soap Formats

Soap comes in various forms which in my experience are often interchangeable.

Bar Soap – hard. Everything from luxury cosmetic soaps to the increasingly rare dish wash bar.
Soap Flakes – thin slivers of soap that dissolve more easily
Liquid soap such as body wash, shampoo or washing up liquid.
Soap powders mostly for dishwashers and washing machines.

Homemade

You can make your own. Read this from Jen of Make Do And Mend Life

Here are some recipes for making Castille Soap

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.

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Greetings cards

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade, 3.1 Special days & Parties Tagged , , 2 Comments

Cards  have been the bane of my life , (I mean greeting cards not gambling  – that’s all in the past), as many come wrapped in icky plastic. So what are the alternatives?

E-cards

I love my friends but I love the planet – what to do.  I know you can send e cards but that’s just mean. No cards = no mates in my shallow social circles….

Unwrapped Cards

Look harder….there are unwrapped cards available. The post office in Marsh, Huddersfield sells them loose, and our Tescos had a lot of  unwrapped cards… which surprised me. So, I heard, does Hallmark.

On Line – Amnesty

2018 Got my Christmas cards from Amnesty International. (www.amnesty.org) Lovely cards on sustainable cardboard and advertised as plastic free. By which they mean they have used a compostable plastic. They arrived in a crinkly plastic bag which looks like cellophane to me. There was no identifying label which was rather a shame.

They have others that aren’t so Yuletide.

Responsibly Made Cards

but if you can’t find what you want, try Etsy – art cards in compostable PLA cornstarch bags.
Check these out Bradford based company – Great Valentines day cards and plastic free  good loving.
Read the blurb….
100% RECYCLED WITH BIO-DEGRADABLE CLEAR BAG Printed on 100% recycled smooth white board. Each card comes with 100% recycled C6 brown craft paper envelope inside a clear bio-degradable bag. The bag is made from corn starch which is fully bio-degradable and compostable, breaking down to just CO2 and H2O – as green as you can get! Dig The Earth!

Print Your Own Cards
You can find downloadable art work for sale on Etsy or try Mrs Thriftes Free Printables Pinterest Page

Make Your Own Card 
Nice ….but sadly crafts are plasticky what with the glue,  felt tips, glitter and packaging.

More

Read more about plastic free presents, gift wrap , special days and parties right here

Composting Compostable Plastic

Many people say that bioplastics cannot be composted at home. They are wrong. I have composted cellophane in my own compost bin.You can read more about cellophane and composting compostable plastics over at the blog.#ukplasticfreeproducts

Plant derived and compostable, one of the first plastics made. Sounds great but comes with its own environmental impact. What is cellophane? Read more here.

Here are the PLA cornstarch and cellulose compostable plastic products I have composted in my back yard bin. They said it couldn’t be done Mwahahahaha! Read more here.

N.B.

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

And before you go…

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

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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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