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Lush plastic free products

by Posted in 3.2.3 Supermarkets & Chains, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged ,

lush are one of the more forward thinking British companies. They are ethical in all kinds of ways and  sell a lot of their beauty products unwrapped. Good if you are trying to live plastic free and not hurt the bunnies. Read more About ethical Lush here

They do plastic free

unwrapped soap
solid shampoo  read my review here
solid conditioner read my review here
unpacked henna
Unpacked bath bombs

Most other products are in recyclable pots – return to store for free product

And these new products
The following is from the UK business insider review.
Lush just released “naked” — or packaging-free — versions of shower gels, body lotions, and body conditioners.
The naked body lotion and body conditioner are surprisingly great, and work slightly better than their packaged counterparts.
The naked shower gel is unique, but isn’t quite as moisturizing as the original formula.

Read more.

I don’t use them much as the shops smell way to strong. I can’t go in without sneezing. But there are plenty who do who. Here is a great series of reviews by Minimalist Exposure

And they support stuff like this:

One of four Pop Ups being staged to support the Lush 2017 Creative Showcase event in London next month, Naked House is part gallery exhibition and part immersive experience curated by the brand team at Lush to show just how easy it is to make the switch to Naked (as in living with less packaging).
Read more here.

More

Find other plastic free personal care products here…

Making Other Personal Care Products 

Its quicker then  trying to choose between a hundred different shampoos and it’s really simple, fun to do, so much cheaper  and  I get to control what goes on my  body, where it comes from and what environmental impact it has.

Lots more info here on making your own personal care products

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Ecoforce -recycled cleaning products

by Posted in 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged

Increasing the use of recycled plastic products
EcoForce’s mission is to replace products made from ‘virgin’ raw materials with those made from recycled plastic and is committed to bringing affordable, practical recycled items to the general public.

We live in a world of finite resources and this is not going to change. Making recycled plastic uses 70% less energy than making virgin plastic, reduces landfill and conserves precious resources. It makes plain common sense to use recycled products for everyday tasks, especially if these produts work just as well, if not better, than alternatives made from raw materials. EcoForce is determined to help you run a greener home without it costing the earth.

Links / featured posts
www.ecoforce.co.uk

A bit more…

This post was written by the contributor. It is a PfU.K. Directory submission.

And the Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their fantastic work. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

 

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Snact in compostable packaging

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises, 3.6 P-f U.K Directory Tagged , 5 Comments

Snacks… so good when trekking, so hard to source plastic free. The best we have is loose nuts as sold at Lidles,  Until now!

Take a look at Snact. Fighting food waste and plastic pollution and making some fine tasty vegan goodness while they are at it.

They “make snacks from surplus produce. That’s produce that would otherwise be thrown away for being too big, too small, too ugly, or simply too abundant. Tonnes of perfectly good fruit and vegetables get rejected before reaching shop shelves in the UK. We turn that surplus into healthy snacks that contribute to one of your five a day.

Already like them but here’s the really good stuff. “fruit jerky will now be available in 100% home compostable packaging – the first of its kind in the UK!”

Our new innovative packaging, developed by Israeli start-up TIPA, is just as durable and impermeable as ordinary plastic – but it biologically decomposes within just 180 days and becomes a fertiliser for soil, behaving similarly to an orange peel.

Currently they do 3 flavours
Apple & Mango
A full and juicy flavour combining the natural sweetness of mango and tartness of apples.
Apple, Blueberry & Banana
A guaranteed crowd-pleaser with the deep flavour of blueberry and a subtle hint of banana sweetness.
Apple & Raspberry
Naturally sweet, tangy & punchy, just like you’d expect raspberries to be.

All are
100% fruit
Vegan & gluten free
No additives or preservatives
Less than 65kcal per bag
Made in the UK
In home compostable packaging. That means you can compost the wrapper at home!

Buy

You can find out more about Snact and buy bars here

More About The Snacks

Hand made on a family farm in Kent with whole fresh fruit sourced predominantly from British surplus produce, it is vegan, gluten free, low calorie, and counts towards your five a day. We don’t use any concentrates, additives, or preservatives, just 100% fruit.

Until they went BANANAS
Their new banana based bar will be out soon. Congratulations on raising the money to do this “Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world, but also one of the most wasted. We want to stop 1.4m bananas going to waste every day by turning them into awesome food waste-fighting delicious banana bars – or if we may: the best bars on and for the planet!”

More About The Packaging

Tipa have developed a a bio- plastic which I take to mean made with plants. It is compostable and meets composting standards. “Tipa’s products, compounds and films comply with EU 13432 and ASTM D6400 standards and are certified for both home and industrial composting through the OK Compost mark by the Vincotte institute. Tipa’s materials also meet food contact regulation requirements in Europe and the US.”  And they say it can be composted at home.

Composting Plastic At Home
FYI While most agree that some  plastics are indeed compostable, many say that they can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. I have used and composted a number of compostable plastic products 

Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics

What is biodegradable? Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here

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. Read more about compostable plastics here

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Hodmedods – British Grown Beans, Grains & Pulses

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink, 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises, 3.6 P-f U.K Directory Tagged , , , ,

Did you now you can get homegrown British beans, lentils (soon) and even Quinoa. Many of them organically grown….

Introducing Hodmedod’s

“We work with British farms to source a range of top quality ingredients and delicious foods. We’re particularly interested in searching out less well-known foods, like the fava bean – grown in Britain since the Iron Age but now almost forgotten – and black badger peas.
THE GREAT BRITISH BEANS PROJECT
We founded Hodmedod following the successful Great British Beans trial project to stimulate and assess demand for indigenous pulses.”

So far so fantastic but it gets better…

Plastic Free Packaging

“Many thanks for your enquiry.

Using recyclable packaging is something we feel very strongly about and we are avoiding plastic where we can. We are aiming for all plastic-free packaging.
So far all our 500g packs of dried pulses and grains are packed in compostable plant based cellophane.
At the moment we are still struggling to find a compostable sticker adhesive, but you can peel off the sticker and pop the rest in the compost.
most bulk bags are paper
our packaging puffs are compostable non-GM maize.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer this for our snack range which are packaged in impermeable packaging and resistant to break down from the oils within them and no biodegradable packaging we are aware of fulfils these stipulations.”

Heres the product range but do check the site as there may be more by now

Pulses & Beans
Yellow Peas split
Green Peas, Split
Fava Bean split and whole
Carlin / Yellow / Blue Peas,
Red Haricot Beans

Lentils coming soon

Quinoa
Wholegrain White Quinoa

Grains
Spelt,
Emmer,
Einkorn,
Naked Oats

Flaked & Puffed Grains
Quinoa Flakes,
Quinoa Puffs,
Naked Barley Flakes

Seeds
Camelina Seed

Buy from the Hodmedod’s website

More

Buy Local, Buy British
Check out other British based stores and products HERE

Other options for loose beans include

Wholefood Market a supermarket chain
Weigh & Save shops a UK franchise
And other loose food outlets as listed below

Loose Food A to Z
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them.
Heres alist of towns with shops selling loose food.


 Packaging

While these shops provide bags and they are almost always plastic ones. You will need to take your own plastic-free /reusable bags.

More Food

Check out the tasty food index to find lots of plastic-free GRUB yum yum!

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Greencane Tissues/ Paper Productsd

by Posted in 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged , , 11 Comments

A while ago a company called Greencane sent me some tissues through the post. Not just tissues but toilet paper and kitchen roll too. A great big cardboard box full.  Since then I have been busy mopping, wiping and sneezing.  I now feel qualified to comment.
To conclude, the tissue was as soft and absorbent as any I have used.
But it was the packaging that thrilled.

I received a Mixed Box
Neatly packed in a box, a cardboard box, were
32 Rolls of Toilet Paper
(8 packs of 4 rolls)
6 Rolls of Paper Towels
(3 packs of 2 rolls)
3 Boxes Facial Tissues

The products were individually wrapped packs.
All the packaging was paper, card and or cellophone.
The cellophane is certified  as commercially compostable.

Anyone trying to live a plastic free life will know what good news this is!

About

Tissues 

Personally I prefer  reusable handkerchiefs or loo roll but there are times when a box of tissues come in handy and then there are problems. Buy what you think is a cardboard box of paper tissues and  you may find the hole, the one you pull the tissue through, has been reinforced with a plastic collar.
Well these are cardboard all the way. Yay!

Find out more abut plastic free tissues here.

Kitchen Roll

I don’t use kitchen roll. I have cotton dishcloths that can be used to wipe up spills, loo roll for sticky fingers and cotton napkins for fine dining… but if this is your thing you can now get it plastic free.
THIRSTY & STRONG!
Our 100% biodegradable paper towels comes in a convenient 2 roll pack with each roll having 80 sheets.

Toilet Rolls

You can buy  loo rolls in PLA compostable plastic packaging but buy in bulk and the packs come packed in normal plastic!?!
These guys will deliver,  in a cardboard box a
total of 48 rolls thats 12 packs of 4 rolls.
Each roll 300 sheets, 2 ply.
UK £23.80 per carton

Read more about going to the toilet plastic free, here.

More Details

There is a sticky label which peels off at the packet and looks just like plastic but I have been assured that this too is compostable cellophane. I quote: “This is a biodegrable water based coating to protect the core paper of the sticker but over the last few shipments has got thicker and thicker to the stage , I agree ,it seems like plastic.plus is proving hard to compost. So over the last 3 months have been working hard on minimizing this coating.But proved too hard so have made the decision to do away with coating altogether and next week i get first shipment with new label.”

The Paper

From the website: “Up to 70% of our paper is made from a mix of recycled sugarcane and bamboo fibre (bagasse), a byproduct of the sugar refining process. (Bagasse supplies are virtually unlimited worldwide). To obtain both strength and softness we need to then add 30% certified wood pulp = Sustainable.”

In a letter:

Real United Nations thing with our sourcing.
Timber from Canada.
Sugarcane from Thailand .
Bamboo from China.
Bags are supplied by Australia Company.not sure exactly where made .
Then all made in a very modern factory in Southern China.
All these suppliers carry environmental accreditation .
Including no GMO and Bpa.
I have over the years done a lot of work with our supply chain and with over 200 plus organic type stores we have had a lot of questions asked of us.

Delivery

They offer a home delivery service for the UK from their Brighton warehouse which is proving increasingly popular.

Buy

For lots more info and to order products  visit the website

Composting Plastic At Home
While most agree that some  plastics are indeed compostable, many say that they 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.

Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics

What is biodegradable? Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here

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.

Read more about compostable plastics here

More Info

And you might like these other health & hygiene posts