After the feast

My blog has been sadly neglected of late, due mostly for the need to meet the deadline for my latest university assignment. But that done, I have no excuse for not getting down to the other neglected task of late... the housework. Uhh!

Task number one was to take two bulging bags of too small clothes (not mine – I haven't had time to eat Easter Eggs) to my local community shop. Task two, to take another two bulging bags – this time Tetrapaks – to the Tetrapak collection point in the car park near the centre of town.

Task three is to tackle the pile of packaging produced from this year's Easter Eggs. Before Easter I was pleasantly surprised to read about the efforts some companies are making to reduce packaging. But after the feast I find that this is by no means universal. I noticed that Nestlé's Smarties egg (211g) proudly announces the 'Same size egg, 25% Less packaging, No plastic' which gets my vote, but then why couldn't they do the same for their After Eight egg?

I popped a Cadbury 'Creme Egg' 197g on my kitchen scales to find it weighs in at 264g. Of the 264 grams, 24 grams is the moulded plastic insert, 40 grams is the cardboard box. I'm guessing that makes 3 grams of foil. When it is all packed up, you can barely see what you are actually buying – the Easter egg inside. I estimate that of the 26 cms in height of the cardboard box at least 6 cms of that is just air.

But really, the worst thing about the abundance of packaging was, for me, summed up when I asked my children why their Easter egg chocolate hangs around for so long.

    "It's not that nice. It tastes of plastic."

I'm sure quality control is of high importance to chocolate manufacturers, and taste must surely be top of the list. But do they ever bother to taste their products after they've been in their packaging for a few weeks? I guess not.

Put your drains on a diet

I went to meet a friend at a café today. She asked me why I always took my napkin with me. Well...

Some time last Autumn I remember reading about the millions of pounds water companies are spending clearing sewers blocked by fat, oil and grease from cooking. In the article it suggested wiping grease and fat from pans before washing them. So, thinking that I'd rather have those millions redeployed for flood defences, river de-silting, ditch clearance and general improvements to the infrastructure I decided to do my bit to make sure I wasn't adding to the fat problem.

It is good for the compost to add paper products regularly, so after spooning out any hard fat to put out for the birds, I would wipe round the pan with kitchen roll. I also started saving paper napkins that we sometimes use - rather than throwing them in the compost, I put them into a basket at the side of the compost and so I generally had one available when I needed to wipe the grease off something. This saved on kitchen roll, but we don't use napkins very often at home.

When out and about I started to take napkins home with me if they were barely used – or even there just to look pretty! What's going to happen to it when they clear your cup / plate away? It will probably be thrown in a bin. So I think it is good to make your napkin work a little harder.

Okay I will admit to a few blushing moments when going to retrieve something from my handbag and finding the last lot of napkins still in there!

Beat the Credit Crunch

Are you trying to cut food bills? These credit crunch tips will help you cut down on food waste as well as helping you to save money.

• Plan meals before you shop and only buy what you need, not forgetting to plan for when you might use leftovers, eat out or with friends.
  
• Take shopping bags with you. Some supermarkets are starting to charge for bags, others give you loyalty card points for re-using your own bags.
  
• Don't forget to take bags you can use for fruit and vegetables. Loose fruit and vegetables are often cheaper and you can buy the quantity you really need.
  
• Use up leftovers.
  
• Put out peelings, apple cores, bread crumbs, bacon rind, and fat for the birds.
  
• Make your own compost from kitchen and garden waste.
  
• Grow your own herbs.
  
• Go shopping with a friend and share those buy one get one free offers.
  

Fairtrade Fortnight 2009

 

The Fairtrade Foundation has announced Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, launched on London's South Bank on 22 February.

The theme this year is "Make it Happen – Choose Fairtrade".

 

Ethical Superstore have put together an A-Z of all things Fairtrade: See it here.

 

Lucy Siegle asks whether buying fair trade is a waste of money. It is always tempting to ask what difference do my actions actually make in the grand scheme of things? Last week Nicky Campbell was asking if we are all too grumpy to be green.

It is a worry that people are going to use the 'credit crunch' as an excuse to give up on any attempt to be green. I have already heard many people talk about recycling being stockpiled because prices have dropped. Some are talking about that being reason in itself to just bin their rubbish rather than recycling. I disagree.

Fair-trade products are often more expensive than other products, but I plan to keep buying. In my view there shouldn't be unfair trade, but there is. Maybe, my actions make very little difference in the global scheme of things, but I plan to keep trying.

 

 

Eco Valentines

The Energy Saving Trust have some great ideas for going green this Valentine's Day. And once again, these ideas show that going green is often a way to beat the Credit Crunch.

Water

Water is something that in many parts of the world is seen as the most precious commodity. Yet in the UK, often we take it for granted. Be honest, how many times have you poured away water that you've taken out with you on a trip or taken up to bed with you and not drunk?

A while ago it occurred to me that I could be using this water rather than pouring it down the sink.

I found an old plastic watering can – the kind that was used for watering houseplants – and I keep this on the windowsill by the sink. So now when I take bottles of water out school bags and sports bags or glasses of water from around the house I tip the water into the watering can rather than down the sink.

I use this water to rinse the sink and to rinse out glass bottles and other packaging for the recycling. Best of all, when the watering can is full I use this as my cue to water my houseplants. They are looking a lot healthier since I introduced this new system, which probably goes to show just how much water we used to waste.

A Hole New Font

A friend sent me this link today. http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

This got me thinking about printing in general.

I try to print as little as possible – to save paper and ink, but I hadn't really thought about my printer settings. I often print things for proof reading in best quality, whereas I could use draft.

 

Testing out the ecofont!