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!
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