We are two adults who like our food and refuse plastic products whenever and wherever we can. We source biodegradable, compostable alternatives and blog them – check out our A-Z plastic free index to see what they are.
Each month we write up our successes and failures and we post up our latest collection of dirty pictures up on our facebook and flickr sites.
We are currently backpacking plastic-free overland.For more, try about us
Its is so easy to make your own creams and lotion that once you start you will never look back. The advantages are huge not least of which are you get to control what goes on your skin, be way more eco friendly and you save a whole load of cash. You can make almost anything the cosmetic companies sell but without the palm oil, dodgy chemicals (have you read what goes into this stuff?)and weird colours. Though you can have all those too if you want.
Start by making a base creams, moisturiser or lotion – more info here.
Then you can add active ingredients to make specialist creams.
Suntan Lotion
- add Microfine Titanium Dioxide OR Zinc Oxide to make a suntan lotion
Self Tan
- Add DHA to make a fake bake that really works – find out what DHA is right here
Magic, age defying, cellulite busting potions
Most of the special stuff you find in cosmetic products can be bought on line. Scour the internet for all the gubbins, the AHAs, enzymes and crushed pearls that are supposed to grant instant beauty and add them too. I can’t promise results, but it’s fun experimenting.
PLASTIC ALERT
Some of the above will come plastic packaged. As I get huge amounts cream out of one small bag of ingredients so I consider it a worthwhile compromise. It still represents a huge decrease in plastic consumption.
Suppliers
I love aromantics and buy most of my stuff from them but there are loads of good guys out there.
Related articles
- Making Basic Creams and Lotions (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)
As I am sure you know, cream, body lotions and the like, are basically water and oil mixed together in varying quantities.
As water and fat do not naturally mix you need to use an emulsifier. Read this article on emulsifiers – it makes it all clear
The cream making process is simple – mix the oils and emulsifier and heat to a certain temperature. Heat the water to a certain temperature. Mix the two together. Ta da.
For rather better instructions, and a great place to buy ingredients, visit the website www.aromantic.co.uk.
If it is your first time creaming up, I can recommend the cream starter kit from aromantics.. It has everything you need tho there are some plastic elements read this for more info.
I can now make all kinds of potions from light lotions to heavy repair creams.
Here are some things I have found out about making cream
If I leave out the preservative my skin is less likely to react badly to the cream, (I have very sensitive skin). I was prepared for problems of the mouldy cream but so far that hasn’t happened.
We are having so much trouble with straws, we keep saying no straw, drinks keep coming with straws. Next time I come away I am going to bring my own reusable straw and insist drink purveyers use that.
I will choose one of the following
or glass straws
to cornstarch disposable /compostable straws.
That’ll teach ‘em.
Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category
Thai sleeper trains are lovely – nice and clean with cute little beds with night lights and curtains. I could live on Thai trains if it wasn’t for the buffet cars. Or rather the food served in the buffet cars. Come morning, all they had to offer us was an overpriced set breakfast that included juice which we foolishly thought it might come in a glass. No, the juice came in a plastic bottle. As we had paid for it, Village Boy simply couldn’t give his back. He drank his while I remained virtuous and returned mine. Yes, I know, just call me smug.
The tea came in paper cups (plastic lined), so we made the waiter make ours in our Phwaar Putin cup
He didn’t like doing it but we insisted. For (?) revenge he sneaked in a plastic stirrer but we flipped it right back at him. He didn’t like that either! The butter of course came in plastic containers so we refused that. Village Boy didn’t mind doing that as he is watching his figure.
You may well be thinking, as plastic consumerism goes, Thai trains do not sound too bad. Wait up. As we ate our unpleasant and overpriced food, we saw the staff setting out breakfasts on trays. Breakfasts for people too lazy to walk to the buffet car. Once done they wrapped the trays in Clingfilm. I don’t mean they had a kitchen roll of the stuff and stretched a piece over the top. No, they had a industrial machine set up on a table that swathed and sealed the breakfasts trays in several wraps of plastic wrap. For why? Maybe to stop the plates from sliding off or perhaps because they just love plastic in Thailand.
Whatever!
But, if you want to travel plastic free on Thai trains do not have the set breakfast, bring your own cup and get your fat ass down to the buffet car. If you want to eat well on Thai trains, bring your own food.
You can find more plastic free train tips here
Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category
Karen of the rubbish diet is helping others slim down their bins. If you are a rubbish fatty, why not join in……
- Image via Wikipedia
Monday, 23 January 2012
Monday Meeting: The Rubbish Diet Challenge wk 1
Welcome to Week 1 of The Rubbish Diet Challenge, 2012.
Do pull up a chair and settle yourselves in. My name’s Karen. I’m a blogger, housewife and self-confessed waste geek and over the next eight weeks, I am going to take you through a programme of talking about utter rubbish.
The aim of the challenge is simple: to slim your bin over the next 7 weeks before attempting a zero waste week. But we won’t worry about that now. I don’t want to give you the collywobbles.
And of course the reason for the challenge is to cut the amount of valuable resources that currently end up in landfill or indeed incinerators, as a result of a lack of recycling facilities, insufficient knowledge or insufficient incentives. We all lead busy lives, so I hope this challenge will provide a short break with opportunities to make long-lasting changes.
The Rubbish Diet will take you through this process gradually. The focus will be our Monday Meetings, highlighting mini-challenges each week. These challenges will hopefully get your brain whizzing, thinking about new ways in which you can keep your rubbish down. There will be links to useful resources too.
You will also be encouraged to ‘weigh-in’ just like any other slimming club, where you can measure your progress over the coming weeks and see that weight coming off. How you record it is up to you. You can either get on the scales, count your bags or just take photos.
So, are you up for the Challenge?
It would be great if you are.
To find out more go to http://www.therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/
You can meet other plastic refuseniks here and ifyou want your anti plastic project, waste busting, dumpster diving project featured in the Plastic Free Who’s Who do this now – we would love to have you xx
Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish? – find plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index
Related articles
- Britain’s Landfills Could Be Full in 8 Years (greenbiz.com)
- Kho Phanang, Thailand (plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com)
Just think – there are some children who will never know a plastic free beach…sad.
More images of PLASTIC POLLUTION can be found over at Facebook Planet Trash and Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish
Inspired to give up plastic? Check out my range plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index
Street food in Thailand is good and cheap but sadly now involves a lot of plastic. These days it is mostly served in polystyrene (Styrofoam), clam shells.
We don’t want to give up street food but don’t want to add to kind of the rubbish created – this huge bagfull was created in just one night, in just one part of the street market.
Our solution is tiffin boxes. They come in all sizes are just great for taking you rice and numerous curries to work with you or, in our case, carrying home a tasty lunch from the market.
We got ours in China and they are an essential part of our plastic free travel kit. If you want to buy in England (and elsewhere), they can be found in all good Asian Shops and numerous green shops on line.
Try this review
and this checklist for choosing the lunchbox best suited to your needs
Heres the rest of our plastic free travel kit
| Camping Cutlery |
| chop sticks. |
| Cream – hand face body etc |
| cup reusable tin / camping |
| reusable bags |
| self tan |
| steri pen |
| sun block lotion |
| sun tan lotion |
| thongs |
| tooth powder home made |
| toothbrushes wooden |
Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category
And what a year it was! We took plastic is rubish out on the road and are currently plastic free backpacking…NO STRAWS PLEASE!!!! and sourced all these plastic-free products.
Good news? Yes…but it means I now have to update the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index. Time for coffee I think.
Love to all plastic-free buddies and good luck boycotting in the year ahead xpam
Each month we report on what we have done … and where we have failed.
Yaaayyyyy plastic free
This month I wrote about giving up on plastic CDs. I copied my entire collection of music onto USB drives and in future I will only download music from the internet. Given my technological incompetence I have my fears, but while I might be without music, I wont have any more plastic music CDs.
We got these cunning folding chop sticks – no more disposables for us.
Boooo plastic used
In the bin this month is all this trash
More monthly round ups can be found here
The Big Picture.
Images of PLASTIC POLLUTION in Laos can be found over at Facebook Planet Trash and Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish
Inspired to give up plastic? Check out my range plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index
Finally got my ass in gear and joined You Tube. I have not actually made any movies (that will be a long time coming), but I am busy collecting those I like. Enjoy the fantastic Bag Monster V Green Elvis
Visit my You Tube Channel right here.
You can meet old skool plastic refuseniks here
If you want your anti plastic project, waste busting, dumpster diving project featured in the Plastic Free Who’s Who do this now – we would love to have you xx
Want to cut down on more of your plastic rubbish? – find plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index
So in 2007 we began to boycott stupid and unnecessary plastic products and source biodegradable alternatives.
Click the image for plastic we cant give up …
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or check out the flickr group
More Photos or pictures of plastic pollution on google
YOU TUBE
TWITTER
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