The War against plastic waste

caroc

I had some thoughts today re wrapping gifts as I was going to do a 'lucky dip' style gift for a childs present. Fill a cardboard box with shredded paper and put the gifts therein. However I didn't want to use sellotape and create that mixed recyclable thing where you try to pull it all off the paper.
A quick check on you tube and wow, you can fold paper round gifts, origami style, crease and tuck the ends in and bingo, your gift is wrapped. I think I'll try this on Xmas gifts too.
Also you can make paper bags out of almost any kind of paper, simply and quickly, no sellotape or glue involved.

DigForVictory

I'm wrestling with the seasonal stuff as well, but since my husband found 6 500ml flip top bottles, this year will be the Year of the Ginger cordial! You know something is Meant when you have the bottles, the ginger, the caster sugar (a bit solid, but it dissolved) the lemons & even the citric acid.

A hopefully winning mix of seasonal joy, sound MSE principles & even decluttering as I can only have bought that many if I intended to gift them... Having tried out the waterbath bit, as I'd like to think what I brew today will still be safe & pleasant at & after Christmas.

Plus as I rounded up All the ginger in the house, I must go on & plant the little sprouting nodules, and see if I can coax them into surviving winter.

ailz95

I have the nappy problem, but with incontinence pants for my m-i-l. I do wonder how long they will take to break down - she has 1 or 2 a day. We've tried using pads, but they're not secure enough.

Several years ago I bought a lot of plastic containers to use for homemade 'ready' meals as I try not to buy ones with additives in. I think I paid £10 for 100 with lids. These are still going strong. We also accept peoples' offerings of plastic takeaway boxes - as long as they're not black or dark brown as these can't be recycled. I make my own dishwasher powder - Soda crystals, sodium perconabate and grapefruit/lemon essential oil - my own laundry soap - boil 15 soap nuts in a litre of water for 15 minutes - pour into small pots, store in the freezer. The soap nuts can also be stored in the freezer and can be used up to 3 times - then used for washing hands. I bought some washable bamboo 'paper' towels, but I'm not sure they were such a good idea - DH forgets and bins them. I have lots of cloths that we use instead of ones to throw away. The Sodium perconabate is the Oxy-action in shout etc. Just don't clean your silver in it as it goes tarnished.

We have 2 cats who are getting used to tins of food - breaking them in gently lol - and we've found that the best cat litter - which goes on the compost heap - is also the cheapest from a pet shop, clumps nicely:rotfl:. One of the cats uses hers all the time, the other one only if the ground is frozen or overnight.

Sorry this has been so long. :eek:

jwil

ailz95 wrote: »

I have the nappy problem, but with incontinence pants for my m-i-l. I do wonder how long they will take to break down - she has 1 or 2 a day. We've tried using pads, but they're not secure enough.

You can buy washable incontinence pants - similar to period pants. They might be an option - https://www.ageukincontinence.co.uk/incontinence-shop/incontinence-by-gender/womens-incontinence-products/washable-pants-for-women.html

ailz95

I'm still reading previous posts. I'm on page 15 so please bear with me while I continue the talk on shampoo/conditioners. I used to have greasy dandruff prone hair - very fine & going thin on top - apparently typical female pattern baldness.

2 years ago I stopped using any shampoo etc., my hair is so much better. As I live in a hard water area now I need to do something to get rid of the residue of the hard water so once a month or so I use bicarbonate of soda on my hair - not my scalp. Occasionally I use vinegar when I rinse. I've no dandruff and only need to wash it once a week - whereas I used to have to wash it every day. My hair is below my shoulders, so not just really short. It takes a month or so to get 'product' out of your hair.

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

I had a minor discovery the other week. I found out that the milkman sells oatmilk in glass bottles. I made an order consisting of juice (which I normally get in plastic) oatmilk (which came in tetrapak which our local council doesn't recycle) and yogurt (which I got in small glass jars but it was expensive). The juice is lovely (much better than the other stuff), the yogurt is delicious but I have yet to try the oatmilk. If it is as good as the other stuff I have tried I will be using the milkman in future. I also noticed that even though the oatmilk is a little more expensive, the yogurt and juice is not so it all adds up to about the same amount as I spent before. A little bit less rubbish to get rid of and hopefully helping the local economy a bit more.

Glad

Sea_Shell wrote: »

The season of conspicuous "pointless plastic" is almost upon us.

How many families actually make conscious decisions NOT to buy products with excessive packaging during the festive season?

Decorations, presents, foodstuffs etc etc etc...

I'm making a massive effort to buy plastic free gifts for Xmas, also to only buy presents that are wanted and useful

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

I finally managed to get to a zero waste shop in Romsey last week and I thought it was brilliant. It has everything you could possibly need and I will definitely be going again. I was pleasantly surprised with the pricing as well. I didn't buy a lot but the few bits I did buy seemed to be pretty comparable with other shops. I can now make my own muesli up without having loads of plastic bags to get rid of from buying the dried fruit and nuts separately. Here is a link to the store in case you are interested - https://lemonandjinja.com/.

ailz95

I've been reading round the internet about zero waste/plastic waste. None of them say - first USE the plastic that you have for as long as you can - talking to one or two people about it they've sad that they never thought of that and just got rid of all their plastic.

What's you views?

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

I've always reused what I can for as long as I can and then replace it with non-plastic if possible.