Four Weeks!

We have made it to the end of week four!!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, which is why there was no post last week, but a lot of great things have been created and discovered which I can share with you now :)

Tonight I got all of our rubbish together from the past four weeks, separated it into old and new rubbish and weighed it. We are very happy with the results!

This picture shows our old rubbish total for the past four weeks (rubbish that we already had but hadn't used up the products). A grand total of 112g!

The main culprit of the "old" rubbish is foil packets from tea bags. I have none left now, and oh I do love a nice cup of tea! Thankfully I have mountains of herbal teas to work my way through and am hoping to give some loose leaf English Breakfast style teas a go (organic and rubbish free!).

And this picture shows our total of new rubbish we have collected over the last four weeks! 61g! And there is still room left in that jar!

Considering that the average New Zealand household throws away 8kg of rubbish per person per week (75% of which could be composted or recycled) I think we're doing rather well. Any guess at what the main rubbish item is in our "new" rubbish? You got it, chocolate wrappers. I can't seem to keep myself away from the stuff! Also included were some foil tops off cream, foil wrap from butter (we've found organic butter in wax paper now), and rubbish from a present gifted to us from a friend.

Another exciting thing that has happened is I made some reusable natural cling wrap. Unfortunately I didn't have any organic cotton fabric to use but I did make use of some scraps that I had in my sewing room.

The cling wrap is made by melting beeswax (sorry, it's not vegan) and dipping fabric (tight weave works best) into the wax, making sure to cover all of it before holding it up to dry (about 30 seconds). The wrap can then be easily wrapped around bowls by warming the wax with your hands, and creates an almost air tight seal to keep your food fresh and prevents the odour from the food escaping and making everything else smell and taste like curry or whatever it was you decided to cook. To clean you simply wash in cold water with a light scrubbing brush and leave to air dry. For obvious reasons the wrap can not be heated in the microwave or oven (the wax will melt), but can be used to wrap biscuits or sandwiches in instead of plastic cling wrap. I got the instructions on how to make it from this website.

Another eco-friendly household item I made was toothpaste. It's made of coconut oil, baking soda and peppermint essential oil. 

It tastes awful. 

But, I'm hoping it's an acquired taste and it really does make your teeth feel super clean! 

 I managed to drop the baking soda...

and smash the container.. 

I also made a natural face mask this week (I won't be posting photos of this :p) made from banana, honey and ground oats. Despite the fact that it made my skin feel healthy and radiant, I felt like some kind of banana/oat/honey faced monster and I literally couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous I looked, all the while hoping no one was going to turn up at the door! 

Work place recycling is finally kicking off and I hope to have it fully up and running in a couple of weeks (I'm counting on the fact that my boss is going to approve it!). I've noticed quite a big increase in the volume of items being recycled and hear stories of how other people are reminding others to recycle and not to throw recyclable items into the bin ;) It's also nice to hear how my encouragement (some would call it pestering) is influencing people at home and outside of work to think about the impact on the environment and to make more conscious decisions. 

My goals for the next few weeks are to find some second hand items I need to buy for my upcoming overseas adventures and also to try out a neat prototype sent to me by go bamboo man Mick. More information on that coming..

If you have any spare time and want something inspirational to watch I highly recommend these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsTQ04BOeCo&app=desktop

http://vimeo.com/15346778

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwg6ei2V6-4#t=239

Have a wonderful week!

Week Two

More rubbish has been added to the bucket, but again it is mostly "old" rubbish. One of the biggest culprits of new rubbish is chocolate wrappers.. especially those mini-individually-wrapped-so-bad-for-the-environment-but-taste-so-good-and-I-don't-feel-guilty-about-eating-10-at-once chocolate wrappers... I know I should buy fair trade, organic, high percentage cocoa, wrapped only in paper type of chocolate like this.... it is delicious by the way!

That shall be a new goal for this week ;) (how great to have goal around chocolate that doesn't involve not eating it!)

I thought I'd talk about the environmentally friendly products that we're using in the bathroom and wanting to implement seeing as I touched briefly on a couple of them last week.

Last week I mentioned about the shampoo bar that I am using, the photo below is what it looks like :) The brand is Jeymar and the bar is made using olive, coconut, palm, castor and almond oils and well as pure essential oils and they are made in Malborough, New Zealand.

I also mentioned about the bamboo products that we're loving! I am using a go bamboo toothbrush which is made of natural bamboo and the bristles are made of nylon 4 - yes this is 100% biodegradable as luckily specific bacteria like to eat it so it can be put into a compost bin without any worry. I've found the toothbrushes to be fantastic at cleaning my teeth! The go bamboo website are currently doing competitions for the best customised toothbrushes to tell who's is who's, and also for the most creative post teeth brushing use of your bamboo toothbrush.

We also use the go bamboo cotton buds and clothes pegs which are fantastic! Once again, here's the link to the website for more information about these products.

While it might seem like an insignificant change swapping over your toothbrush or your cotton tips to natural biodegradable options it really can make a difference. 30 million toothbrushes are sent to landfills in Australia each year, and cotton buds and plastic clothes pegs are among many items found inside the stomachs of dead albatrosses and other marine life following mistaking the items for food. Be sure you understand the conditions that the products biodegrade in, as simply throwing a biodegradable plastic bag into the rubbish bin thinking it will break down in the land fill is not quite accurate.. Due to a lack of oxygen in land fills organic waste (your limp lettuce you tossed in the trash) produces methane gas while it breaks down which is in fact more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. So-called biodegradable products also need oxygen to decompose and therefore it is not uncommon for these items to be perfectly intact after years in a land fill, even newspapers have been found to still be readable after 50 years in a rubbish dump.

Toothpaste is an area I haven't had to delve into yet as we still have almost a full tube to get through. I have read however, that baking soda can be used to clean teeth as well as coconut oil. Our organic store offers some natural options which I will look into, especially the packaging.

For soap/body wash we are currently reaching the last bit of our ecostore body wash (which smells incredible and is so nice on your skin) and we will use bars of natural soaps once this is finished to try and further minimise our plastic consumption - these are available un-packaged at commonsense organics. Coconut oil is a great moisturiser and a little goes a very long way! In fact we use coconut oil for so many different uses in our home, it is such a versatile product! I use it as a night time facial moisturiser, an all over body moisturiser, we use it predominantly as our cooking oil, and it can be used as a nice massage oil.  Have a look at this great website for more uses and benefits of coconut oil.

Luckily for me, my aunty makes my organic skin care products such as cleanser, toner and day moisturiser (packaged in glass bottles, not plastic) but I found it difficult to find honest "natural" products in common stores. There are an increased number of products claiming to be organic and natural and it can be simply overwhelming to try and choose one! The website safecosmetics.org gives great information about ingredients in common skin care products and lists "safe" brands to use - for you and the environment. I am currently using both Antipodes and Living Nature make up products which I am loving!

We buy toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper which comes wrapped in paper instead of plastic. There are people who use family cloth as an alternative to toilet paper but we aren't quite ready to swap those products over just yet...

Feminine hygiene products is an area I have researched but am yet to make the big swap over to a moon cup or similar option... 

I can't think if I have left anything out? If I have I'll let you know next week or feel free to ask me a question! :)

Work recycling was phenomenal this week with a whopping 27.2kg! Admittedly, 22kg of this was old policies and documents which had been updated and the old copies needed to be disposed of, but fantastic that they can now be recycled into new products instead of dumped in the land fill! I have meetings this week with recycling companies to see what they can offer our workplace in terms of a recycling service :)

Have a great week!