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Friday, June 01, 2007 - (see all news for this day)
treading more lightly than ever - 09:17 PM
(filed under 'green living')
i had a conversation with melanie the other day which made me realise how much more lightly i'm treading on the earth lately.
it started when i was pregnant with smiley & i began to think more about what i was putting into my body intentionally & what was going in unintentionally through what i was using around the home. i started using enjo's microfibre products to clean using only water. these days, the only chemicals i use with any regularity is sunlight soap for my hands & to rinse my enjo cloths & laundry detergent for my clothes.
i used to use tissues & paper towel quite regularly, but since i've been in my own place back in brisbane (it's been about six months), i think we've used only two boxes of tissues & i've stopped buying paper towel completely. instead, we use large handkerchiefs & a set of terry towelling cloths which i bought from ikea.
i use almost no plastic products at all.
in the fridge & pantry, instead of cling wrap, i have a number of pyrex glass storage containers with air tight lids.
i don't use plastic liners in my bin. i use four sheets of paper from the free local newspaper to line the bottom of the bin & anything sticky, wet or biodegradable i wrap in half a sheet or two of the newspaper.
for shopping, i have a set of really strong (& very funky) envirosax shopping bags which fold down small enough to carry around in my bag so i never forget to bring them & never need to use plastic bags at the shopping centre. since i don't use plastic liners in my bin, i don't even need to collect them to reuse there.
on our bodies i use no soap, only my enjo body cloth. when i have my period i use a menstrual cup, washable cloth pads or specially lined undies. on our teeth i use a natural toothpaste with no soapy stuff or fluoride.
about the only disposable product we use regularly is toilet paper. that's one that can't really be avoided unless i was to adopt the arabic way of toiletting & that's not really possible without a toilet sprayer fitted beside the toilet, anyway.
Coralie, you are an inspiration. Be sure to change out your regular light bulbs when you can to those doodily energy saver light bulbs. If enough people do this, the savings in fossil fuel is big time, BIG. Energy saver light bulbs are cleaner, better for the planet (they generate no pollution)& reduce dependancy on fossil fuel which is an exhaustable, problematical, dirty and ultimately undependable energy source. They do cost a little more upfront but you will save money yourself on the back end. This is the single, most effective thing anyone can do to help this planet right now. Upfront, you do pay a little more but you will save money yourself long range.
Saturday Bliss,
Margo
why no fluoride? just because it's not in the paste you use, or by choice?
and if by choice, why not?
It's not easy being green...
The garage/carriage house of my home had no electricity when I moved in.
It took an afternoon, but fabricated a number of brackets for the lights, install the wiring, a switch, a set of car batteries, and a solar panel.
I have lights now, granted I can not run any power tools.
It is nice to whittle away in the evening on a some wood, listening to Led Zepplin on the radio.
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I wrote about it too now. Go do the quiz