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:
Have a wonderful week!
No comments:
Post a Comment