Cleaning the sea

Plastic pollution is seriously damaging the planet, so that is why my family are trying to reduce the amount of plastic that we buy and throw away. Other people are working hard to clean the oceans. Clearly, reducing what goes back into the oceans is paramount. Here are some links to some of the ocean cleaning projects.



http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ocean-cleanup-project-sustainability-electrify-the-world_uk_57da5a54e4b05d79136e440b?icid=gravity_sponsor_eop


also, two surfers from America started 4Ocean and are doing a sterling clean up job!

https://4ocean.com/

You can get yourself a lovely bracelet too!

8 weeks of 'black' bin rubbish

So, my family managed to produce 1 bag weighing 20 KG of landfill waste in 8 weeks. That is 63g per person per week. It is still a lot, however it is a lot less than we have ever produced before. Additionally, we have dramatically reduced our plastic recycling rubbish too. The trick is analysing what you throw away and finding no waste alternatives. So, what are the top 10 plastic recycling tips?

1. get milk from a milkman (see the 'milk and more' site.

2. buy bars of soap and ditch liquid soap and shower gel dispensers.

3. buy oranges and squeeze them when you want orange juice.

4. refill washing liquid and fabric conditioner (many places do this now)

5. make your own yoghurt 

6. choose glass over plastic for jam/ peanut butter/ oil etc

7. make your own hummus

8. carry a water bottle at all times to avoid buying drinks

9. bring your own coffee cup when out and about (refuse coffee cup lids)

10. refuse straws

5 tips for reducing none recyclable plastic

1. buy meat in a butcher and ask for it to be placed straight into your box/glass/Tupperware 

2. bring your own bags to buy vegetables/ fruit

3. choose loose vegetable over the ones in packets

4. buy soap without packaging

5. always carry shopping bags with you

I still can't find away to buy cheese without packaging........

                                         

Dips for the BBQ!

Summer season is here in the U.K which means lovely days hot and sunny that end up in a BBQ followed by a day or too of showers and cloud! Whatever the weather hummus and dips are delicious and versatile. In supermarkets they come in horrible plastic tubs. This photo is of a cannelloni bean and beetroot dip and hummus with pomegranate seeds. I did use tins that will be recycled but all the other ingredients were fresh and bought loose. They taste so much better than the ones in a plastic pot. A tin makes loads and it will keep for a week in the fridge. Yum!

30 days to make a change! June

So, last month was all about using bars of soap instead of shower gels. I hope you found some lovely soaps!

This month I'm going to be all about making small easy changes. Not getting rid of anything but finding friendly packaging. For example, each time I buy a bottle to choose glass over plastic.

I found biodegradable cloths:

https://www.allianceonline.co.uk/chicopee-j-cloth-3000-compostable-j-cloth-hcec3003.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwgODIBRCEqfv60eq65ogBEiQA0ZC5-SK0uBO3ibXUUaP6YD0kAhTCRFWDFbilUv8v4I5FWdwaAteI8P8HAQ

And sponges made from recycled materials. The spong part is biodegradable too!

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=264776316

Good luck and happy shopping!

(almost) Waste free pizza!

Friday night, movie night! 

This week we had pizza. I made pizza dough in my bread maker. The yeast came in a little packet that can't be recycled, I need to research a better one...and the skimmed milk powder has a plastic lid, but you don't need much so I will make a LOT of pizzas with the one box. The rest is waste free.

All the toppings were waste free apart from the cheese. I CANNOT find cheese anywhere, even in delis that do not come wrapped in plastic??

The photo is hilarious, reminds me of the photos you get in the worst fast food places that you can sometimes find yourself in! Thankfully it tasted delicious!

My new cup!

Very few people know it, but 2017 marks a somewhat dubious 30th anniversary: that of the modern single-use “paper” cup. In three short decades, we estimate over 2 trillion of them have ended up in landfill – oh, in case you’re wondering, that’s 2,000,000,000,000.

The average lifespan of a single-use cup is 13 minutes – and due to their plastic content less than 1% get recycled.

It is estimated that 100 billion cups are used every year.

Taken from the Ecoffee website- https://ecoff.ee/pages/stopthe100billion

Here is my cup that I will take everywhere and use instead of disposable single use cups.

Something to think about...

I live near a cricket ground and last week the local roads were closed for a day of cricket. The road closures were clearly organised with the council, however someone there forgot to notice that it was also recycling day! So the trucks were not allowed through!!! 

The next day many of the streets were littered with plastic that had escaped in the wind :( I saw a friend and they explained what had happened and said that they hoped the council will come by soon other wise they would be swamped by all the rubbish. So, in only 8 days there is a problem, it looked like this:

In 14 days there would be serious health issues and in a month well, we can't even imagine what it would look like in a month!
Clearly, we all need to buy less plastic. 

Plastic free mens shaving stuff!

Here is a great recipe for mens shaving cream/oil.
You need 80g shea butter, 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and 4 drops of tea tree oil- that's it!

heat in a pan (not messy!) pour into a pot cool.

Then put in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

Job done! this lasts for between 40 - 50 shaves!
My husband has been using this for a while, have a go!

31 days to make a change

It's May!

Each month I'm going to offer one idea to make a change that will result in reducing plastic waste.

A couple of years ago my county started collecting plastic waste in recycling boxes. It felt better to be recycling almost giving permission to buy as much plastic as we want, so long as you recycle it. Although this an area of major development and there are many projects being investigated very little of the plastic we use actually gets recycled.

One method is to change plastic bottles into fleece and other polyester fabrics. The process is quite shocking especially if you think about the ship loads of plastic being sent around the planet, the worker conditions in China and the fact that it all gets shipped back again. Take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyF9MxlcItw

So, I have decided to reduce the amount of plastic that I buy both the kind that has a recycling symbol on and the kind that says ''currently not recyclable'

Here's a challenge for you....

This month dig out all your bottles of shower gel/ wash and use them all up. This may take longer than a month, it of course, depends on how many bottles are stashed away!

While you are using them all up have a search around at soaps.

In my local supermarket I bought a cardboard box with soap in and for less than £1.00 It's a mild one and skin sensitive.

In my high street you can buy 'faith in nature' soaps in many different scents but it's in a plastic packet, not good. However, in a different shop I found the same soap for just over £1.00 and it is sold loose...it's just a case of shopping around...

Once you start looking there are thousands to choose from ranging from cheap to expensive (and we all need a treat every now and again, right?)

Clearly the choice is yours but this month find a soap/ soaps you like at a good price.

After that, just think of all those bottles of shower gel you are not throwing away- good feeling!

Additionally to shower soap you could also ditch the liquid soap in the bathroom. We have a tiny downstairs loo and we looked around for an innovative way to store soap. This is a french design and the soaps come in many colours. We love it! The soaps last for ages and smell good too! We got ours through amazon, replacement soaps are sold separately and last ages, as it stands it seems to be working out cheaper then a bottle of liquid soap too. Awesome.

Of course a normal soap dish works well too!

Good luck and write a comment to share how you get on!

yum- crumpets!

I love crumpets, but the ones I get are in card and wrapped in plastic. I started to wonder what on earth crumpets are? What are they made of? how do you make them? As ever BBC good food had the answer!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6039/crumpets

SOOO much nicer than the shop bought ones. They need time but while the mixture is rising you can go away and do other stuff. I'm going to make them again and freeze them for a more rushed day. 

The only annoying waste is the butter wrapper....I still haven't found waste free butter....

enjoy!

Monday's recipe

It's getting easier to find waste free recipes as I'm getting better at spotting great recipes.  So last night we had salmon which I got in the fish mongers straight into my glass box, available from IKEA.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/cookware/food-storage-organising/f%C3%B6rtrolig-food-container-clear-glass-art-50233790/


With veggies and potatoes with homemade pesto a la Jamie Oliver:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/salmon-pesto-dressed-veg/

Delicious with no waste at all!

Nice!

Here's a great waste free recipe!

Last night we had :

http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/box-recipes/peruvian-jumping-beef

It was delicious! I left out the baby spinach as that comes in bags and we had a waste free meal!

First day of Spring!

My list for de-cluttering is perpetually growing. I went to the charity shop 4 times last week. I'm forever taking stuff out, sorting it into charity, recycle, bin keep....and somehow my home never looks clutter free or even tidy!

What I did do was write a shopping list for most of the week and managed to shop for everything today instead of making daily trips. So, that should free me up some time. I got meat in the butcher and he was fine about putting the meat straight into my boxes, saved some plastic there. I bought all of my fruit and veggies in the green grocer everything loose with no packaging at all. I did buy some crab in the fishmonger and that came in a polystyrene pot in a plastic bag, it's not on my regular list but I found a nice recipe....I bought some fennel seeds in the scoop shop by bringing in an empty jar and they only cost 47p. Finally, I went to the supermarket and bought a few bits in glass bottles, loo roll and cat food. The loo roll comes in recyclable plastic sadly, not all of the cat food is. 

I spent £55  which included loads of cat food and a huge loo roll. When I subtracted these and calculated the cost per head for 4 days at £2.44 not bad. Sometimes it feels more expensive shopping in the local shops but I don't impulse buy nearly as much as I do in a supermarket...


Here is a link to the meal we had tonight:

http://www.recipetineats.com/one-pot-italian-chicken-orzo-risoni-pasta/

Ingredients that produce waste of some kind- Plastic in red

Marinade

• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar glass/ metal 
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard glass/metal
• 
  

Risoni

• 1½ cups risoni / orzo pasta in a plastic bag 
• 400g/14oz can crushed tomato
• 3 cups chicken stock / broth in a card box with a plastic lid (but it lasts ages.)
• ¼ cup (3 tbsp) grated parmesan cheese wrapped in plastic. 

 Over all not waste free but not too bad.

• 
  

If you read this ....

Hi there,

If you read this blog, please leave a comment I'd love to know what you think.....

Waste free Breakfasts

I was surfing around the net and came across this lovely collection of overnight oat breakfast collection:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/stevia-what-is-it_n_5983772.html?slideshow=true#gallery/341349/0

So, last week I soaked oats in coconut water and or milk. I then added dried fruit, frozen fruit, seeds and cinnamon. No two days were the same and they were all delicious! There was very little waste, I bought the oats, dried fruits and cinnamon from my local scoop shop and filled my jars there. The milk is in a glass bottle from the milk man. The coconut water was in a tetra pack that can be recycled. The only real 'baddie' was the frozen fruit that comes in a none recyclable bag. However, this week fresh raspberries were on offer for 39p in my local green grocer so I bought them in a plastic punnet and shoved them in my freezer. At lest the punnets can be recycled...
This week I also bought some nuts and I filled paper bags and they are all in a jar waiting to be added to my breakfast bowl!
The wide variety means that breakfasts won't get boring and every now and then I can go back to the link and grab another idea or two...

Friday Nights

On A Friday night we will often eat in the TV room with dinner on our laps and watch a film as a family, a real treat. We often have curry or pizza and some naughty snacks! Last Friday we had chicken Chow Mein a la Jamie Oliver most of the ingredients were waste free. I even bought a dish to the butcher to get my chicken. 
Our naughty snack was an awesome fruit crumble that my daughter made with a little bit of custard! YUM
However,
The waste
Pak choi came in a plastic bag, (To be honest, it's not a favourite veg and next time I'd leave it out) 
Water chestnuts came in a tin.
An elastic band around the spring onions
The soy sauce is in a glass bottle
and or course, the noodles were in a plastic packet. 

The frozen fruits came in a plastic bag
The custard came in a card box with a plastic lid.

So plastic- All in all 3 plastic bags, one plastic lid and a rubber band - not great :(

Sometimes it's too challenging!

Yesterday and today I've been in bed! Full of a horrid cold- usual symptoms! So, lasts night meal was far from waste free! My other half came home with breaded fish in plastic packaging and two plastic bags of oven chips! I wasn't going to share but in truth, anyone trying to reduce waste will be confronted with days like these! I find some of the professional bloggers a bit intimidating at times as they are further along in the journey than I am. Additionally, many live in America where, in the places they blog from, there seems to be a better infrastructure to support them in their journey. Check this place in San Francisco out:

https://www.rainbow.coop/


I could do with a shop like that, and to be fair, I am reading a lot about shops in London too. However, Bristol which is better than most places in the UK is still lacking..

While in bed I've been surfing the net and came across this TED talk that I thought I'd share, about human waste!

http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_winter_the_taboo_secret_to_healthier_plants_and_people?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=science

Enjoy!

No more milk bottles, what a difference a year makes!

A year ago I ditched milk bottles for a milkman! Three times a week we get two bottles delivered before we get up! Awesome!

What IS incredible, is that by now we would have bought around 100 plastic bottles! I am never sure about the lids, some places recycle them and others do not. However, this is what they look like:

NOT good right? if you want to switch, here is a link to Milk and More who deliver all over the U.K

http://www.milkandmore.co.uk/home

Zero ish waste free evening meal

Clearly food is a cause of much of our waste, so I am scouring the internet and books I have for waste free meals. I have the book Deliciously Ella and in it are some great recipes. I originally bought it when we cut out sugar from our diet.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deliciously-Ella-Awesome-ingredients-incredible/dp/1444795007/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476954805&sr=1-4&keywords=deliciously+ella

In this book there is a recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh

Ingredients
Quinoa
Fresh Coriander
Tomatoes
Pine nuts
2 tablespoons of Tahini
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt and Pepper

Recipe

Cook the quinoa as instructed (then allow to cool)

Chop the coriander and tomatoes

Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan

Mix the rest of the ingredients together to make a sauce

Mix together

It was very east to make and all but my son loved it. He reached for the jar of peanut butter and ate a loaf of bread complaining a lot!!!! ho hum that's 11 year olds for you!

But was it waste free?

Well there are 9 ingredients, actually I added an avocado so that makes 10!

The Quinoa and Pine nuts I bought my own jars into a local scoop shop so no waste there.

The coriander I got loose in the greengrocer, but it came with an elastic band which I have kept for reusing.

The tomatoes, lemons and the avocado I got loose from the greengrocer, straight into my cloth bag.

The Tahini is in a glass jar which I will be able to reuse.

The Olive oil was the baddie, we had a large plastic bottle of olive oil left over from our time 'camping' whilst the builders were renovating our house. It finished with this recipe and I will replace it with a glass bottle!

We have a wooden pepper grinder which we fill with pepper corns from the scoop shop. And we have salt in a glass grinder which we can refill.

I'm back!

Well, I've had a lot of building work done in my house and that meant that firstly life was in chaos and secondly my kitchen was reduced to a table and 2 electric hobs. Our waste became horrible. We even bought a microwave and ready meals at times. 😧

However, things seem to be settling down. I have been doing a lot of reading and have come across some interesting blogs:

This one is by one of the leading Zero waste people- Bea Johnson a French lady who lives in California:

http://www.zerowastehome.com/

A British one:

http://myzerowaste.com/2010/01/buying-from-bulk-bins-reduces-waste/?replytocom=11920#respond

And another American one: Kathryn K she has lots of recipes for bathroom things and tips wide and varied...

https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/

Enjoy