My local paper had an article this week about this earth camp programme in the Akatarawa Valley at the Organic Blueberry Farm in Upper Hutt (Wellington, New Zealand). It is a series of workshops where local experts run sessions teaching parents and children skills that are dying out such as making preserves, fly fishing, organic gardening and cooking organic recipes. I don’t have any children but it sounds a great initiative for a good family activity. The workshops run from January through to the end of April. You can find more info and their calendar of events on the Blueberry Farm blog.
Trash Challenge (2)
Well I’ve completed my trash challenge for a week. I’m not sure how Dave (365daysoftrash) managed to do it for a whole year keeping all his rubbish in his basement! By the way Dave is keeping his old site but also has another site sustainable dave now that he has finished his challenge.
I think keeping track of your rubbish and recording it is a bit like keeping a food journal. It just keeps you aware of what you are consuming and makes you realise at the end of the day how much waste you have created. Each day you have a reminder of how much rubbish you have created the previous days which inspires you to keep trying to reduce your rubbish consumption. A group of Chico university students did a zero waste challenge a bit more radically – for two weeks carrying around a clear plastic bag which could be no more than 5 feet from them at all times and into which they had to put all their rubbish that wasn’t recyclable, reusable or compostable. Have a read about the initiatives some of the students are carrying out at the university – it’s inspiring.
There are 2 things that stand out the most to me after my week of trash collecting and recording. The first is that I need to sort out this year some sort of compost system for my household as I presently have nowhere for food scraps to go. The second is a bit more depressing – I live with a very committed meat eater so every day we have to have meat, that’s a lot of polystyrene meat trays and plastic wrap over a whole year. I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about that part of my rubbish really – I’ll have to do some thinking about that one.
The sheer bulk of it all
As a consumer it’s easy to think that I am only creating a small amount of waste – what’s the big deal? I find these art works Running the Numbers by Chris Jordan are a good reminder to me to try to keep reducing my waste even if it is only in small ways – my full load of laundry washed in cold water is outside drying in the sunshine, my batteries are charging in the charger, my appliances are off at the wall, I haven’t shopped today, I’m bulk cooking tonight for a few meals ……… tiny small steps!!
Plastic Bags
I was browsing through some of the NZ sites of groups working to reduce the number of plastic shopping bags we use – No Plastic Bags in New Zealand and Plastic shopping bag free. I thought it would be an interesting personal exercise to see how many businesses are asking customers if they want plastic bags or not. Although I usually say no to plastic bags I’ve never thought about how many bags that ‘saves’. I’ve therefore set up a separate page “Say no to plastic bags” where I can keep a record of the transactions I have with shops and the bags I say no to. At the end of the year I’ll be able to see how many bags I have refused and can calculate how many bags we could be saving as a nation if I am viewed as an average person.
I still find I want bags for things around the house so I will need to get organized this year and sort out some alternatives – paper bags, biodegradable bags. Of course I would have to pay for these while most shops give me plastic bags for free. There have been suggestions that building in a charge for plastic bags, such as Pak n Save does, would help reduce the number of plastic bags as once you charge for an item consumers become more reluctant to take that item when there is a cheaper alternative such as bringing your own bags when shopping.
PS I just found an article published today by the National Business Review regarding the Packaging Accord. Surely we can do better than a reduction by one fifth?
Positive cleaning experience
I think one of the things that stands out for me using vinegar/water to clean is that I feel positive about cleaning! I hate cleaning but if I have to clean I like to be able to do it in a low key casual way. Using my vinegar/water cleaner I can clean with the cats roaming around underneath my feet or touch things or eat/drink while cleaning without having to worry as vinegar isn’t going to do anyone any harm. I even cleaned my kitchen bench the other day with a visitor right there beside me at the bench. I didn’t have to worry about the spray fumes getting near my visitor or the problem of sitting at a bench that still had cleaner residue on it.
In contrast if I clean my appliances with my store bought stainless steel towelettes there is a list of encouraging instructions regarding my health – ‘avoid breathing vapour, avoid contact with eyes, avoid contact with food and food preparation surfaces’. After that comes all the first aid instructions including calling the Poisons Information Centre!
In addition to these wonderful ‘safety instructions’ there are no ingredients listed on the towelette packaging or the box itself. It is difficult for consumers to become better informed about the products they are using when companies provide no product information. I guess it’s another good reason to try and produce things at home where you know what the ingredients are.
My mirrors came up really well today so I can give the vinegar cleaner the thumbs up C for mirrors – it evaporated really quickly after wiping leaving no smudges. It was just as good to use as my normal Mr Muscle glass cleaner.
Would you like a cup of tea puss?
For the last few days my male cat has had a weeping infected eye. Being a male everyone in the household knows when he’s not feeling well. Rather than taking him up to the vet and paying the public holiday surcharge I decided to try a remedy I heard a few years ago – washing his eye with cold tea. After trying that for 3 days he bounded on to the bed this morning with lovely clear green eyes. It is a remedy that can work for all eyes – human and non- human. No rubbish generated from eye drop bottles etc – just a tea bag that goes out into the garden and very little cost!
Home made spray and wipe cleaner
Well I’ve started my record of my rubbish production. Yesterday was pretty good but today we have people coming to lunch so I think it may be a high rubbish production day.
I am so proud of myself. I have finally made my own cleaner out of white vinegar and water which I have been planning to do for over a year now!! I am now going to test it over the next few weeks to see what kind of performance it gives in comparison to other cleaners I have in the house. Yesterday I used the vinegar cleaner on the brushed stainless steel and glass appliances in the kitchen and they came up wonderful. It was also great being able to use the same cleaner on appliances that have both glass and stainless steel on them. It wasn’t so good a performance on my Formica cupboard fronts – the grime came off easily but it tended to streak a little so I will have to play around with that a bit more.
I know white vinegar and water isn’t a great secret but I think enthusiasm often encourages people to give things a go so I showed my mum today my beautiful stainless steel appliances.
Cost analysis:
I bought a 2 litre bottle of vinegar for $5.40 which is probably fairly close to the price I would pay for 500mL of a brand cleaner. That makes it a good consumer choice in terms of cost as with a 50 : 50 vinegar : water mix I will end up with close to eight bottles of vinegar cleaner for the same price as one bottle of brand cleaner. In addition I am continually reusing the same spray bottle so there is only the original vinegar bottle to recycle.
I came across a white vinegar website giving vinegar tips on everything from automative to cleaning. It will probably take me a few years to work through all the ideas – I’ll share the ones that I find really useful on this blog.
Trash Challenge
Dave of 365daysoftrash fame has today finished his year of storing and analysing his trash. I bet his family will be glad to get the basement back. His challenge to others is to do for a week what he did for a year so I thought I would give it a go starting today. I will collect and record the rubbish that I and the cats create over the next week (I’ll leave my husband out of the equation as all this kind of stuff isn’t really his thing although he is sort of improving in the recycling area). I’ll see how it goes for a week and what I can learn from the exercise. It seems as good a way as any to start a new year, reflecting on possible changes I can make to my lifestyle in order to reduce the amount of stuff that ends up in the landfill.
Shopping Mania
It’s December 31st today and despite being constantly bombarded by advertisements on the TV, in the newspaper and via junk mail I have just realized that I have managed to avoid shopping (other than food) since Christmas Eve. It’s not that I don’t love shopping. I’ve just sort of got to the point where it all seems some sort of a crazy frenzy. I want lots of things but if I were to ask myself what things I need then my shopping list becomes considerably smaller.
Not that I’m a no-shopping saint or anything. I’ve just decided to try and see if sometimes I can exercise constraint on my desire to have to go out and purchase ‘stuff’ as a form of entertainment. Sustainable Dave has a helpful list of questions that a consumer may want to ask themselves before purchasing things: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/get-on-board-the-non-consumption-train.html.
With regards to this my husband and I have been renovating our house over the last year and a few weeks ago I bought two pieces of art for the house. I really like the two pieces but on reflection about my consumer habits I’m wondering if I could instead create some of the art for my house instead of buying it? I started yesterday creating ideas in my workbook (I already had one J) and although it is very early days I’m really enjoying the creative process. A bonus is that it should take up time that I might otherwise spend shopping!
Reducing my cats’ carbon pawprints
My cats aren’t very impressed. They want to know why I started with their food rather than mine. There have been quite a few dirty looks, begging roll over tricks and complaining in the early hours of the morning about the changes to their diets.
Over the last few weeks I’ve started looking at their wet food consumption. First to go was the lovely aluminium pouches which I love using because they are so easy to grab especially in the morning when you are in a hurry and being harassed by furry friends. But I know that aluminium pouches never break down and I can no longer justify using them.
My cats adore the little gourmet feast tins – made of aluminium. I have been using them and recycling them but recently noticed that the product is made in the USA. I can’t really justify all those carbon miles just to feed my cats.
So at the moment we are on to cat food made in Hastings. I recycle the tins and the labels. I know nothing about how the product or the cans are made and it’s not information that I can find out.
Raw meat might be a better food option (furry ears have pricked up!) and is my next area of investigation – I don’t want to get it from a supermarket because it is packaged in plastic. There are no butchers for at least 20 minutes drive (they are a dying breed where I live) but it could be possible to buy it in bulk and cut it up for the freezer???