So to start with meat. We've had a meat free lent, but as it was my husband's birthday today as well as easter day, he asked for a roast. Thank goodness for our farmers' market. It only comes once a month, so very timely! And thanks to Rother Valley Organics, they were very friendly and happy to sell me a joint of beef and squeeze it into the tupperware box that I'd taken along. We don't have any local butchers who sell organic meat, and I also can't find any on the meat counters of our local supermarkets. So a monthly outing to the market is the only solution that I've found so far.
And having just done 40 days without meat, I think we'll be mainly veggie going forwards anyway. It's cheaper, healthier and much better for the planet, so what's not to love. Although my husband has begged for some sausages and bacon once in a while...now to try and find somewhere local that I can source that!
And my second challenge currently is bathroom products. Simply put, it appears impossible to source 90% of these products without plastic, and I understand some of the logic (who wants to drop a glass bottle of shampoo in the shower and attempt to get out without ending up with glass shards in their feet!). So it appears to be more a question of minimising the amount of plastic, so it's about bulk, and obviously ensuring that that plastic is recyclable.
I've also found out a bit about palm oil recently, and I'm always terrified by the fact that I basically understand nothing on the ingredient list for products, with the exception of water (or 'aqua' as they are required to put based on some naming convention), so I'm trying to source new alternatives that are less filled with mystery. (shame they can't sell it without the water...we have some of that at home, and could add it ourselves....would certainly make the packaging smaller)
Soap - we use liquid soap in the downstairs toilet and kitchen, and we've used Ecover's hand soap, which comes in 5L containers (we then just decant into smaller ones), and in the bathroom we use good old fashioned bars of soap (we've had several kids visit and question what this strange thing on our sink is :-) I've discovered that 'Faith in Nature' soap is available in boxes of 18 bars, and comes unwrapped, so we're testing out a scent with a single bar from our health food shop first, and if we get on with it, I'll be ordering a box.
Shampoo & Shower Gell - good old 'Faith in Nature' again, do 5L containers of these, so I've bought a 400ml one to try out first, and then hopefully we'll find one that works well for us, and be able to get the 5L ones. (I've heard mixed reviews on the shampoo, so fingers crossed.)
Toothpaste - I'm currently stuck on this one. All suggestions welcome. (Randomly found an environmental toothbrush the other day, which is made from Bamboo and some other things, and is 100% biodegradable. They do a kids one, and adult ones, although I'm pretty converted to electric toothbrushes now, as they do seem to clean your teeth so much better than regular brushes...so undecided.)
Razors - we don't buy the disposable ones, so we've limited the amount of plastic we ditch. Haven't seen anything about them being recyclable though.
Toilet Roll - Suma do 'Ecoleaf' toilet rolls which are made from 100% recycled paper, and the packaging is made from potato starch so is recyclable. Brilliant, and we've been using them for the past 2 months now, and are getting used to them. Only thing I'm not sure about is when you buy the bulk lot....feels like that's in regular plastic, so I've emailed them to double check...no response yet, but will let you know when I hear back.
Sanitary towels/tampons - I've left this to last, so any guys reading this that freak out at this point can stop reading now, and you won't miss anything else. Or challenge yourself to just toughen up for these issues, and read on :-)
So buy far the most environmentally friendly product on the market appears to be the 'Mooncup', which is basically a silicone cup that you insert and which collects everything. I've trialed one now for the past three months, and I am totally sold on it! They estimate that in a woman's lifetime we'll each use over 11,000 pads and tampons! That's a lot of waste, and you need none of them...just a mooncup, and it lasts for years. Even the packaging is all recyclable. So it saves money, the planet, and personally, I just feel much happier wearing one, than anything else that I've ever used for the past how ever many years.
Part of the reason I like it, is that you get to understand your body and flow so much better, and it works equally fine on light and heavy flow days. I think part of the beauty is that it just holds everything there for you, rather than the other products where you're reliant on how quickly they can absorb everything, and therefore not leak.
A few birthdays ago, when I first started on my journey of making things rather than buying (where possible), some friends brought me a book with lots of patterns. One was to make homemade sanitary towels, and they joked that if I ever got to the stage of making them, I'd gone too far. But ironically a few years on, I probably won't need to ever make them.
So I'd really recommend giving a Mooncup a go, and not being shy about chatting to others about it. I chatted with a friend who's used them before, after a few days of starting with mine, and got some invaluable tips and confidence boost around technique and faith in the product. Go on....give it a go.
Have you ever tried lush products they do a shampoo (variety of hair types) and conditioner that are in a bar like soap so are packaging free and they sell a tin the right shape to put it in they also sell tooth tabs which are their version of toothpaste and they come in a little cardboard box!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't, but will check out. After lots of comments on FB after this post, I'm also going to just try washing my hair with water...will see how that goes!
DeleteIt doesn't address the plastic issue, but Waitrose in Marmion Road sells various organic meats. http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/inspiration/about_waitrose/the_waitrose_way/waitrose_organic.html.html#.U1Tql1VdXTo
ReplyDeleteYes, we previously got meat from there and from Riverford, however, it's all mightily packaged, and Waitrose don't sell any of it at the counter, so we don't have the option of getting it in our own containers. Tempted to unpackage it at the checkout, but first trying to source more local organic less packaged stuff (may have another lead in Chichester after this post), and I'm also continuing to try and convince Buckwells to explore organic. Am also going to email the manager at southsea waitrose to ask if they'd consider some organic stuff on the meat counter.
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