Americans dont know where plastic comes from

Heres and interesting post on an interesting survery

http://gracefulflavor.net/2007/04/30/70-of-americans-dont-know-plastic-comes-from-oil/#comment-47920

I bet a lot of Brits dont either

deodorant crystals

Human sweat does not actually smell bad – its the bacteria that gather to feed off waste particles in the sweat that cause the stink. Leave them for long enough and phew!! One way to combat this is of course to spray on the old anti-perspirants. Which comes in a massive amount of packaging – much of it plastic.

Not only do they come with a massive amount of packaging, anti-perspirants contain aluminium salts (they may be listed as aluminium chlorohydrate or aluminium zirconium). These are small enough to lodge in the pores of the skin where physically block the sweat glands. This prevents the sweat from flowing out.

No sweat means no bacteria. Its an effective solution but well its just not right is it? Blocking the sweat glands is preventing them from flushing the body of waste products. Not only that, aluminium salts get absorbed into the body. Some scientists believe there are links between aluminium, altziemers and breast cancer. Other scientists deny it but whatever the boffins say, I don’t like the idea of my pores being deliberately clogged; or my waste products not being purged; or having bits of aluminium floating round my organs. 

Deoderants mask the smell with perfumes. They too come with massive amounts of packaging.  

However there is an old and natural remedy for this old and natural problem – ammonium alum. This is a naturally occurring mineral salt with antiseptic properties. It inhibits the bacteria growth that causes odour. Alum molecules are far too big to be absorbed by the skin so they just sit there doing the job.

You can buy alum in a spray, as a push up stick or in lump crystal form. The first two involve nasty plastic packaging and lots of it. Better, environmentally speaking, to buy it in lump form. Pit Rok sell a single 80 gram crystal in a small cardboard box. Minimal packaging, completely natural, and fragrance free. 

 For Pit Rok stockists in your town go to http://www.pitrok.co.uk/stockists.asp. and type in the name of. They do not differentiate between the products. In my experiance the health food shops are morelikely to sell the crystal form. If you want to buy on line go to http://www.amazon.co.uk and search for deodorant crystal.

Liquid Cleaners

TOILET CLEANER

LAUNDRY LIQUID,
FABRIC SOFTENER,
MULTISURFACE CLEANER,

The above ECOVER products are all available as refills. Simply take your empty bottle to the Green Shop in the Alternative Technology Centre at Hebble End Mill -
telephone number 01422 842121.

So though the bottle is indeed plastic it can be reused many many times.

If you are not local then Ecover have a postcode search on their site to find the nearest refill point:
http://www.uk-marketingdatabase.com/ecover/ECOVER.search.show_parms

Squeezy

Do you remember back in the old days when a squeezy bottle full of cold water and your enemies, the vile Roberts brothers, about to walk past your cunningly concealed ambush, was the height of fun. Obviously arming your troops was of paramount importance and demand for weapons was high. These days of course, the availability of high powered water pistols and the fact that I am actually an adult, has meant I no longer need to stockpile empty, washing-up liquid bottles.

                                         

In fact, as they are of course plastic, they need to be eradicated from my life.

I did try to use soap flakes to wash up. Though I was assured this was possible, I did not find it a pleasant experience. I also tried using soap flakes to make washing up liquid – again not a success.

Then I found that I can get my ECOVER washing up liquid bottle refilled with more of the environmentaly sound good stuff at Half Moon Health Foods 6 Half Moon Street , Huddersfield

So though the bottle is indeed plastic it can be reused many many times.

I now have three bottles on the go – that allows for forgetting to take the empty into town not once not twice but for weeks at a time. But I can proudly say I have thrown away no washing up bottles since.

If you are not local then Ecover have a postcode search on their site to find the nearest refill point:

DHA

As taken from the aromantics website – they are the guys I buy my DHA from

A Self-Tanning Agent, DHA is a natural substance derived from the bioconversion of glycerol extracted from Palm or Rapeseed Oil. DHA is also present in the human body. As a consequence, the risk of an allergic response is very low. The result of using DHA is a natural looking brown or golden hue to the skin, without exposure to the sun. The induced tan provides photo-protection against UVA radiation. To use, dissolve in a little cold water and then add while the product is under 40°C. Add 5-8% to Self-Tanning Preparations and 0.5%-3% to Sun Screens. The raw material needs to be kept dry, away from light and in the fridge. NB pH needs to be under 5.5. Test your product with Litmus Paper and either add Lactic acid, Citric acid or Ascorbic acid to reduce the pH, if necessary.

Visit the Aromantic Skin Care Library on our website for more information about DHA. There is a link to the library on our home page.