OK so I have been experimenting a bit with cleaning stuff in an effort to reduce the ridiculous number of plastic bottles purchased with cleaning stuff in. I cannot believe the choice that we have in the supermarkets. I think that the truth is probably that far simpler concoctions that are not full of different chemicals will do the job as well with a bit of 'elbow grease'. I am busy saving sprayer bottles and washing them out to fill them either with something that I have made or something that I have bought in bulk 5 litre bottles.
What I have discovered so far I have tried bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and found it to be slighlty abrasive, so it makes a good scouring cream. It does the job really well. Vinegar also works well but is smelly so I have found a ...
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So. What have I done so far to improve my impact on this world, especially when it comes to plastics. You need to bear in mind at this point that we cannot afford to choose expensive solutions to this conundrum, we need to try to keep costs down and I would like to break even in terms of cost of household products if at all possible. Here is what we have done so far:
I concluded yesterday that decisions on how to be more environmentally friendly are by no means simple. There is often a lesser of two evils. Whilst it is vital that we try to recycle materials and buy into products that are bio degradable, we also need to consider our consumption.
Shop, Shop, Shop It is key that we think about reducing our collecting of 'stuff'. Shopping seems to be a national past-time. I was talking to a neighbour recently who works selling phone accessories market. I asked him what he put the success of this type of product down to. His said that he felt that is was because the products were inexpensive and that folk like to come away from shopping with something that they have bought. The prices enabled people to change their phone cases reasonably frequently. I thought that this was a really interesting observation. Reduce I think that the question we need to ask ourselves when shopping is 'do I really need this'. The shops are all doing their level best to convince us to buy stuff. They tell us that we are 'saving' money when they reduce items. We aren't, we are spending money and it is only a saving if we buy something that we really need and intended to buy. I include myself in this... Trying to become more environmentally friendly is not straightforward. I have concluded that if I were to live in a self supporting and sustaining community that grew all its own food, made fabric and clothing from fibres that were home grown, relied on home remedies, did not access western fuel sources and used horse and cart for transport then my lifestyle choices would have far less of a detrimental effect on the environment. There are communities like this in our world. Hunter gatherer communities with little outside contact do exist. There are also religious communities like the Amish that shun modern technology and embrace a simple, self sufficient life. But, I am not in these communities so how do I work through the complexity of choice in order to be kinder to this world and its inhabitants? Complex Choices I saw an article recently which pretty much said that plastic isn't that bad because the alternatives also have environmental implications. The argument was... It would seem that 200,000 people signing a petitions to ask Unilever to remove the plastic from tea bags has had the desired effect. It has been announced that PG Tips will remove plastics from all of their tea bags by the end of this year, starting from now. There will be eco friendly pyramid tea bags on sale from next week and all the other tea bags will be fully biodegradable by the end of the year. It would seem that the public do have a voice when it comes to the possibility of a reduction in sales. Lets hope that the others follow suit and lets not forget that the Co-op vowed to do this first without the prompting of 200,000 people.
Tea bags contain plastic
I'll repeat that. Tea bags contain plastic. They use plastic to stick the two sides of a tea bag together. I have just gone over to drinking tea instead of coffee for health reasons. I drink decaffeinated. I had the bright idea of using loose leaf tea and a teapot and tea strainer and making my tea the old fashioned way. BUT I cannot find loose leaf decaffeinated tea for a reasonable price. I don't mind paying a bit more but considering that the manufacturers have not had to shell out on making tea bags I really don't think they should charge me such a lot for trying to do the right thing! The good news is that The Co-op hope to have plastic free tea bags for their own tea by the end of the year. Why are there so many different cleaning products?
Cynically I think it is to make money out of us by convincing us that we need a different product for each thing we clean. They are nearly all in plastic bottles. What to do? I have been researching making my own cleaning products and it seems that vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) feature heavily here. Glad to report that they are available cheaply in either glass or paper packaging! I am going to try them out and report back. I have some recipes, I will recycle my sprayer bottles, and I might put teatree oil in to mask the smell of vinegar and make the spray more antibacterial. I don't think the chemicals in commercial cleaners are good for us so this could be a win win situation!!! So, this is my first post. I've never done this before and I think it will be interesting to be able to look back and see just how much I can reasonably change my lifestyle to reduce my effect on the environment. I hope to have lots of useful tips and information to share with others on my journey.
Problem: reduce plastic bottles My first action has been to research alternatives to some of the most common plastic generated from my home. Shampoo bottles, hand soap, washing up liquid, shower gel and the numerous plastic bottles generated from cleaning products. We will start with the personal care products. I should say at the outset that we are not made of money and we need, as far as possible, to break even on this venture and not spend loads more than we do now. Solution: buy in bulk I have Googled away and concluded that the best way to cut the plastic is to... |
AuthorMy name is Pauline Silverwood. I live in the UK and have decided to look at my lifestyle and see how I can reduce my impact on the planet and its human and other inhabitants. ArchivesCategories |