One Man's Junk....

.... is another man's treasure.

Well my local community shop certainly proves that to be true. Each year they are able to give away in excess of £10,ooo to local charities and organisations.

When I decorated my children's bedrooms several years ago, one wanted a sea theme and the other wanted a jungle theme. The community shop was just the place to make these themes come alive. I found cushions, soft toys, stick-on insects, a fish mobile, and all sorts.

My children have grown up, and the rooms have been decorated, and now look tastefully teenage. So, today, I'm taking all these things back there to the community shop, in the hope that another child will be able to have their dream jungle theme, or seascape all for the sake of a few pounds which might end up funding their Guide Camp or the next bit of park that needs a revamp.

Soap Opera

If you stay in a hotel / motel kind of thing, where they have those little guest soaps, do you take with you the one that you have used?

If not, why ever not? I just wrap it back up and pop it in my wash bag. Otherwise, it is just going to get thrown away. Seems such a waste!

Composting Teabags

My hubby told me, the other day, that green guru Lucy Siegle reported an alarming find that 'tea bags (the stalwarts of compost bins and wormeries) are only 70-80% compostable thanks to the polypropylene webbing on today's bags. '

My first thought was Oh shit! That's probably going to mean that 70-80% of people stop composting their tea bags. Not a good thing.

I checked out her article and her links online and dug around a little further. I found various articles suggesting you should tear open the tea bags and just compost the tea, I found several mentions that people had stopped composting their tea and equally I read that various organisations such as WRAP that are supposed to know about these things say we should carry on composting our tea bags.

My plan is to firstly use up the tea bags I have AND I will certainly be composting them, and secondly to look into what tea bags don't use plastic in their bags.

Probably the words I read that most annoyed me were these:

"Teadirect’s Whitney Kakos said: “Most consumers don't notice (the polypropylene) and probably don't care.” (reported in Beverage daily.com)

I do understand that this plastic is there for a purpose as it is to do with the heat sealing of the teabags. I do understand that people don't want to have bits floating in their tea, but I do think that there are likely some perfectly viable biodegradable options.

Manufacturers do have to respond to market pressures and it is up to consumers to speak up and speak out about what they do and don't care about.

I want my teabags to be 100% biodegradable. Do you?

Take a look at this link for a new lease of life for an old (tea) bag:)

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5243911_uses-tea-bags.html

So many bags?

I am tidying out a messy cupboard today and wondering how I have so many plastic bags. It was a long time ago - several years - that I joined the growing number of people who choose to use reusable carrier bags everywhere for whatever kind of shopping they do.

In the last 6 months (because I can't remember much past that) I have accepted one new carrier bag with a big sigh as I couldn't be bothered to repeat myself having told the lady serving me that I DIDN'T NEED a bag, thank you.

So, I really don't understand how I have a cupboard that seems to be full of them. How do they all get here? Do they breed?

I have heard people say that they continue to go shopping without taking their own reusable shopping bags because they find plastic bags so useful for other things. If I am out shopping with them this is the point at which I usually try to thrust one of my spare plastic bags into their unsuspecting arms. As I pull out bag after bag from my bulging cupboard I find I just have to say that IT IS A VERY LAME EXCUSE.

I am pretty confident based on today's haul that anyone would be able safely STOP using 'single use' carrier bags now and they will still have a lifetime's supply of plastic bags. If not, they can always have some of mine!

Secret Santa

Looking for ideas for your secret santa this year? A few years ago someone bought me one of those wind-up torches. It is fantastic! Finding a torch in my house used to be a nightmare. I don't need a torch very frequently and so when I did need one it would invariably have flat batteries. I have found my wind-up torch to be a great Christmas present. It is in its third year now and still going strong.

I'm sure they are widely available on the High Street, but here's a link to one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Proteam-EN1217-Energy-Saving-Dynamo/dp/B0015V57Z6/ref=pd_sim_lp_2. They cost just less than a fiver.

Done that already and need another idea? What about an eco-stapler? That's another thing that's really annoying. Do you ever remember when you are out and about what size staples your stapler takes? I never do, so I frequently run out. An eco stapler clips up to three pages together with a cut and fold action. Again they cost less than £5 from here: http://www.myecostore.co.uk/magic-stapleless-stapler-p-413.html but probably available on the High Street. I like these woven juice carton purses - £5 , the Elephant Dung Notecubes -£7.95 and the colouring pencils made from recycled newspaper from 'myecostore'.

Oxfam is a great place for eco-gifts for your secret santa. Take a look when you are passing or have a look at their stocking fillers page online: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/ethicalcollection/giftguide/stocking_fillers.html

Making money from green living

I came across this great post today on saving and even making money from green living.

There are many ways that you can save money, just by spending a little, but this blog is all about the small things that cost nothing but collectively could make a big difference. On BBC Radio 5 in the UK today, this very thing was being discussed and it was suggested that governments are likely to put more effort into the bigger picture when they can see how people are making an effort with the small stuff.

Christmas Shopping

I don't even like to think about Christmas shopping until December. But December is here whether I'm ready or not.

This year I want to make a more conscious effort to ensure that the presents I give don't contribute to the ever increasing landfill problem, so I've been having a good look at the packaging of everything I buy.

Yesterday, I raided the cupboard under the stairs and retrieved all the Christmas gift bags from last year ( or the year before, or the year before that maybe!). I found 15 bags. I have now bought two rolls of wrapping paper from Oxfam, made of 100% recycled paper and which can, of course, be recycled after use.

I've bought a few bottles of wine. I know that won't go to waste and most people that I know these days recycle their glass. Every ton of recycled glass used saves 1.2 tons of raw material.

I also bought some big tins of Quality Street. It tells you on the box that the outer coloured wrapper can be composted, the inner aluminium recycles just like a drinks can and of course the tin can be used again and again until it gets so battered it too needs to be recycled.

Books will certainly be featuring in my Christmas purchases - no packaging and they can be passed on to friends or charity shops when people have finished with them. If you feel bad about writers missing out on royalties when you pass on books to friends, have a look to see if they have websites where you can donate the equivalent sum of money they would have received in royalties if the book had been bought new.

Toys are always the things I'm most wary of, packaging wise and so I've decided to try and get the shopping done this week so I'm not making last minute decisions that tend to stop me from even considering what packaging surrounds the gift. Hopefully that way, too, I won't be responsible for frustrated children and parents spending hours trying to find their way into the toys through the hundred completely useless layers of plastic and cardboard wired and glued together, supposedly to make something look better than it is.

Happy shopping and Merry Christmas!