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.

I will choose one of the following

reusable stainless steel

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

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

Transiberian  Train

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)

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

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

Want to find more travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

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

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

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

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